sabina said:
Thank you, Michael. I feel very hopeless right now with PSE 5 even though I
am learning amazing things. You are right about studying and studying. I am
taking and downloading tutorials for PSE 5 from Linda Sattgast (Digital
Scrapbooking with PSE 5) and even the thingy with layers will sink in -
eventually. The annyoing part is that I am so much more comfortable with
layers in Digital Image Standard 2006, but that's about it.
I was kind of hoping to cheat with PSE 5 and find an editing program as a
kind of 'stand-by' to help with panorama and paper crinkling and cloning
until I am more experienced with PSE 5. Cheating, I know.
One of the pioneers of computer graphics used to say that all
of computer graphics is derived from the ancient Chinese art
of Chi-Ting. ;-) So don't worry about finding unorthodox
ways of doing things that you need to do!
I began by thinking of layers as just a way to try things
out before "committing" them--then found out how handy the
"history" pallette was with its ability to "turn back the
clock" when I tried something and didn't like it--sort of
a generalized undo.
Now I use layers a lot because I can switch them on and off
and make them semi-transparent if I want just part of an
effect instead of the whole thing.
I often make a copy of a layer I want to work on, then play with it,
then erase the areas of it where I want the original, un-modified
picture to show through.
Earlier versions of Elements had panorama "stitching" built-in,
so I'd expect it to be available in PSE 5. I don't have PSE 5
myself, so I can't say exactly how to get to it...
Once you feel comfortable with PSE 5, you'll find that the things
you do regularly are easy, and the things you just "wish" you could
do are not much harder! ;-)
-michael
NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers!
Home page:
http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."