PSE 7 Test Drive Comments

[Simenon]

Well, I finally got around to taking a test drive with PSE 7. I find it about 95% congruent with my PSE 4 though some of the tools have a slightly different effect than what I am used to for various tool settings. So far there appear to be two adjustments I would have to make:

1) In the Tool palette those bins which contain more than a single brush or tool no longer display their contents in the Tool Options bar where I found it very handy to select the brush or tool I wanted.

2) I can't resize photos using the scroll wheel on my mouse as I do in PSE 4.

If there are no options to change those aspects of PSE 7, I guess I would have to begin learning a few more keystroke shortcuts.

BTW, I am running version 7 on an older WIN XP PC which is a little under-powered according to the Adobe System requirements but it seems to perform just fine and even a little spiffier than my PSE 4 which is installed a much more powerful PC.

~ Simenon

[Jeff Perry]

The scroll wheel zoom setting is under Edit>Preferences>General in PSE 6, did they do away with it? Shame on Adobe if they did.

Jeff

[Simenon]

Okey-dokey - there it is by gosh.

Thanks, Jeff.

~ Simenon

[Simenon]

Ok - next item noted: In PSE 4 I was able to scroll through the Blend modes using the scroll wheel on the mouse. Haven't found a way to do that in PSE 7. Is it possible?

~ Simenon

[johnrellis]

You can use the cursor keys. With the mouse, select Normal. Then use the up- and down-arrow keys to move through the blend modes.

[Sepiana]

Hi Simenon,

I use the alternative ways mentioned here (http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44032&highlight=blending+modes).

[Simenon]

Thanx John and Sepiana. Appreciate the input. If I do the upgrade it appears that some things will have to be accomplished via Alternative Plan B. :)

~ Simenon

[Sepiana]

Simenon, you're most welcome! I went from PSE4 to 7 and yes, things are not the same. Here's my first encounter with the "new ways."

http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41213

[Simenon]

Sepiana- again my thanks to you. I don't use the Project\Photo bin very much, I often just leave it closed, but at least I am now aware of how it functions just a bit differently than it does in PSE 4.

~ Simenon

[Simenon]

I continue to experiment with the 30 day trial of PSE 7. Much of my time has been spent with the Smart Brush and Scene Cleaner tools, both of which are quite impressive.

One thing I do notice is that photos edited in Elements 7 appear to stray much further from my edits than those which I have edited in my Elements 4 when they are viewed in an image program that is not color managed. For instance, when my Elements 7 edited photos are opened in Irfanview, they appear to be much darker and oversaturated, but the same edited photos opened in Paint Shop Pro are virtually identical to my Elements 7 version.

Has anyone using Elements 7 noticed a similar behavior?

~ Simenon

[johnrellis]

For instance, when my Elements 7 edited photos are opened in Irfanview, they appear to be much darker and oversaturated, but the same edited photos opened in Paint Shop Pro are virtually identical to my Elements 7 version.

This is most likely a calibration issue with your display -- Irfanview ignores any color profiles associated with the display, while PSE uses the profile. Does an unedited, well-exposed daylight photo look good in PSE Editor and PSP, but look darker in Irfanview? If so, then it’s likely you have a color profile associated with your display that is doing its job. If not, then it’s likely you have a bad color profile for the display, and you are editing the photo to correct for that. You can troubleshoot that latter case by temporarily removing the profile:

http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshopelements-6-7-faq.htm#_Colors_are_wrong (http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/photoshopelements-6-7-faq.htm#_Colors_are_wrong)

Note that some display manufacturers’ software install color profiles that are not valid and cause problems for many programs like PSE.

[Simenon]

Thank you John for your response. I am still trying to absorb all the info from your links. I have been trying to avoid the added expense of a hardware calibration device. Reports of their effectiveness over software calibration tools seem to vary pro and con. Up to now I have used a software freebie picked up somewhere or another called the Monitor Calibration Wizard, and it has been reasonably satisfactory in that my two LCD displays (different monitors on different PCs in different rooms) and photos viewed in programs lacking color management such as Irfanview have been reasonably consistent. It is only with the PSE 7 edits that I have begun to notice a significant difference. Since my other PC with Elements 4 is currently in the hospital, it is difficult to make PSE 4 vs PSE 7 edit comparisons at the moment. Perhaps I'll have to yet lay out for a hardware calibrator.

~ Simenon

[johnrellis]

Hmm, rather than a PSE 7 versus PSE 4 issue, I think most likely it’s related to the color profile associated with the displays and your use of a visual calibrator. Visual calibrators in general are well-known for producing inconsistent results, especially on LCDs (see below).

- Have you run PSE 4 on the same machine and display as PSE 7 and applied identical edits to a photo? It sounds like you’ve run PSE 4 on one machine (with one display and profile) and PSE 7 on the other (with a different display and profile). Your observed differences are consistent with the variability of visual calibrators.

- That PSE 7 and PSP show the colors of a photo identically strongly indicates there isn’t something going on with PSE 7 in particular.

- Does an unedited, well-exposed daylight photo look good in PSE 7 Editor and PSP?

- I don’t know of any experts who think that visual calibrators do as well as even entry-level hardware calibrators, but perhaps there are some. There are lots of posts here about success with entry-level calibrators like the Spyder2 Express, and very few (if any?) posts of people who were disappointed.

I suggest first determining if unedited well-exposed photos look good in the PSE 7 Editor and PSP, and if they don’t, discarding the display’s profile (or perhaps trying to recalibrate). If you really want consistent color between different displays and when printing, you’ll really benefit from a hardware calibrator. (A Spyder2 Express is $65 at Amazon.)

Here’s what Real World Color Management, Second Edition by Fraser, Murphy, and Bunting says:
If you’re at all serous about color management, we don’t recommend visual monitor calibration. The very same adaptability that makes our eyes incredibly useful organs for living on Plaent Earth makes them pretty useless as calibration devices – the goal of calibration is to return the device to a known, predicatable state, and while our eyeballs are very good a making comparisons, they’re lousy at determining absolutes. If your viewing environment is completely stable – essentially, a windowless cave – you may be able to get by with a visual calibrator, but in our opinion, you’d be penny-wise and pound-foolish to do so. … Visual calibrators are designed with CRTs in mind. If you try to use them with LCD monitors, all bets are off, but we can just about guarantee that you’ll be disappointed with the results!