Grant's Tools and PSE 6?

[JackF]

Anyone installed Grant's Tools in PSE6?

Any Problems?

What is the correct Directory path for Win XP?

Thanks,

[JackF]

Really?

No one cares to have a layer mask function in PSE6?

Maybe its just a stupid question.

I'll try it on my own I guess.

[swalkr]

I wish I had PSE6 so I could answer your question. I'm surprised someone didn't just jump in on this. The only thing I can think of, is only a handful of people here have PSE6 right now (or so it seems after reading the forums), so give it some time. Surely Grant will answer your question.

[Michel B]

Originally Posted by swalkr

I wish I had PSE6 so I could answer your question. I'm surprised someone didn't just jump in on this. The only thing I can think of, is only a handful of people here have PSE6 right now (or so it seems after reading the forums), so give it some time. Surely Grant will answer your question.

I think the reason why you did not get an answer is that those who have upgraded to PSE6 are still waiting for easier ways to use actions and effects in PSE6. There has been a few threads already to show the path where to install actions, and it differs if you are using Windows or Vista. I have first installed Graffi's first beta action set, which includes layer masks. Watch for his blog for new glamour actions, no doubt he is now solving the main difficulty, which is to organize actions in different folders. This is much more difficult than with PSE5. You can install them, but they are lost in the 'show all' menu. By the way, layers masks by Grant's, Graffi's or Richard Lynch do work in PSE6.

[raindog]

I've been reading the PSE6 instruction manual online. There must be something I don't understand regarding what you're talking about in terms of layer masks, because the instruction manual sure seems to indicate that PSE6 has layers and corresponding selection tools that accomplish the function of masks.

They let you select an area of an image, then make changes to only the selected area of the image.

[Rusty]

Hi raindog,

Elements has always had the ability to apply adjustments/effects to a selection; this is not new with PSE6 (which I do not have). This, however, is not the same thing as masking an adjustment.

You can, for example, select part of an image and, while that selection is active, apply a levels correction. Do not use a levels adjustment layer, use the Menu (Enhance > Lighting > etc). Whatever you do will only affect the active selection.

The disadvantage is that this is not something you can subsequently edit as you could had a mask been used. If you use an adjustment layer you get a built in mask.

If you want to make some other kind of adjustment, something not available with adjustment layer options, there are other ways to mask it and have something available for future tweaking.

Rusty

[raindog]

Hey thanks for providing that explanation Rusty. I think I'm mostly following what you're saying. In other words, once you've made an adjustment using elements built in layer mask, it's done and you can't go back and readjust without reselecting the approximate adjusted area again, correct?

If it seems to complicated to explain, don't worry about it. I may be getting elements 6 soon. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

[Juergen D]

To follow up on Rusty's remarks, here is a "hijacked" Levels mask. There are no adjustments in the Levels layer. The upper layer is set to Screen and grouped with the Levels Adjustment layer. Now, after clicking on the mask thumbnail and painting black on the image in the workspace, part of the upper layer is masked. And this mask can be edited.

This was always possible to do and, I'm sure, it can be done in PSE6.

Juergen

[Rusty]

Raindog, you are not quite there yet
Juergen posted while I was preparing these examples; let's add to that

Here I simply made a selection, and while the selection was active (marching ants), used the menu to apply a levels adjustment. As you see, the adjustment only affected the selected area. If you do this, you are totally out of luck as far as editing anything:


Here, I keyed Ctrl-J after making my selection; that put the selected rectangle on a new layer. Then I applied the levels adjustment. You can apply new adjustments to this layer in the future or you could delete the layer and start over:


Now, here's the best way to do it, and this is the same thing Juergen did. After making the selection, click the black/white circle to make an adjustment layer, select "levels", make your adjustment. You can see that the layer mask thumbnail is black everywhere except the selected rectangle.


You have full ability to edit this. You can paint with black or white to revise the mask. You can click the adjustment thumbnail and change your levels settings.

The first two are examples of applying adjustments to a selection. The third is an example of using your selection to create a mask.

Rusty

[raindog]

Hey! Thanks Rusty and Juergen. This helps to shed light on the situation. Not actually having the software to work with makes it hard to know exactly, but it looks like this works well. What you've described offers more capability than I learned, or really had need of using up until recently in my old copy of PhotoPaint 7. I'm saving this page and the screenshots to my personal tutorial folder.