I’m not sure that I fully understand your question. But with Photoshop Elements it will be necessary for you to open each individual photograph and either drag it onto your main document or else use standard Windows copy and paste commands to copy each picture and paste it into your main document. If this doesn’t address your problem, I apologize.
Bill, I’m confused by your question. Are you saying you’re trying to take two photos and combine them into one? Can you open individual photos? If so, you’re OK. I can explain to you how to combine them, although I can’t address the parts of your question about Browse and image names, etc. That’s where I’m getting lost! Sorry.
Open the first image through File>Open. You’ll have to use XP to navigate through folders on your hard drive until you find it. When you do just open it up. Now let it sit on your desktop.
Go to File>Open and locate the next image you want.
Once you have both of them open on your desktop, check the image resolution through Image>Resize>Image Size and make sure they’re both the same. If they aren’t, whichever one you move will resize itself to match the resolution of the other and you’ll get a bizarre result.
Decide which image you want to move another image INTO.
Choose the Move tool and click on the image you want to move. Drag and drop the second image on top of the first one.
Does this help?
Hello Beth and Jim: Sorry my description is so fuzzy. I’m supposed to know how to write clearly. I want to use a series of photos as successive layers and then, after removing parts of each photo, superimpose all of them and make a single photo which will have parts of all ten or twelve of the series. I am positive I could do this with Photo Shop 7 but after I open the first photo in elements it becomes the background layer in the layers palette. I then make a new layer off of the palette and try to import a photo into it. The drive with the other photos comes up but there are no photos listed on the drive so I can’t import. This is the same drive that I got the original photo from and it has the rest of the series on it. I have tried the file/place and file/ import commands that are in my user guide but none of them work.
On page 91 of the manual is an illustration showing different photographs on each of three layers. That is what I am trying to do. I prefer to make the entire picture a layer and then remove what I don’t want from the layer.
Hope this makes sense to you folks.
If you can tell me how to do this I would be most grateful. Maybe there is some way I can make the part of the photo I want a selection in a different page and then put that on a layer.
Bill
Bill,
If you are trying this on a networked computer what I say may not apply.
As Beth said, go to File>Open and navigate to the image you want. Check that the box is setup to display "All Formats" for file type. With that file highlighted, click on Open. Now the image is open on your work area and you have one layer, named Background, in the Layers Palette. This is well and good. The original layer is always named Background. Since not all editing functions are available to a "Background" layer, simply double click on the Background layer and it will offer to rename it Layer 0. OK that. You have one layer in the palette. Check in Image Size to see what the resolution is.
I think your notion to make a new layer and "import a photo into it" is where you are going astray. If you would like to place a different entire image on a layer above Layer 0, don’t make a new layer. Go to File>Open, the folder you last used will be shown, navigate to your second image and open it. It is displayed on your workarea and covers up the first image. Its Layers Palette shows it possesses one layer called Background. Double click it to rename to Layer 0. Check to see what the resolution is of Image 2. It must be the same res. as Image 1 or else will change size when you drop it there. Change the res. if needed. Hold the Ctrl key and hit the minus sign a couple of times to reduce the display size of Image 2 so you can see part of Image 1 underneath. With Image 2 being active and its Palette showing, click in the Palette on the layer, drag it over an exposed piece of Image 1 and drop it there.
Your palette now shows two layers. Image 1 on the bottom, Image 2 on the second layer above it. Close Image 2 as you are finished with it. If you want to bring in more images, just repeat the steps above and each new image will create a layer for itself in the palette of the composite you are building. Remember to always match resolutions. Only the last image you added to the stack will be visible on the workarea because it is covering up the ones below, but they are there, you can see them in the palette.
If you want to have only parts of successive images added to your original instead of the whole image, just use a selection tool and copy and paste that section onto its own layer. So, say in Image 2 you only wanted a piece of it…you’d select it, copy/paste it to new layer within its layers palette to become Layer 1. Click/drag Layer 1 and drop it on Image 1 on your workarea. Close, save without changes Image 2. Image 1 would have Layer 0 and Layer 1 which is that part of your second image you selected.
Make sure you are always working on copies. It is best to always use the .psd format while editing so you preserve layers and quality. You could also choose to move in an entire image for each layer of your composite and mask each one to hide the parts you won’t have visible. This would accomplish the same thing as adding a selection to a new layer. Advantage=more flexibility to change amount visible in composite. Disadvantage=increased file size.
I think this should work out for you. If it doesn’t, try deleting your preference file, it must be corrupt. Hold alt/ctrl/shift keys down, launch program, answer yes and let it load.
Nancy
If I understand you correctly, I may have experienced the same problem.
If you can’t "see" the picture files in the IMPORT /or OPEN dialog box, your source folder/file(s) may be flagged as "HIDDEN" in Windows.
Open Windows Explorer.
If you’re not seeing the proper folder in the dialog box, navigate to the folder in question. Right-Click on the folder, and choose PROPERTIES. If "HIDDEN" is checked under "Attributes," un-check it. This will make the folder visible to the Elements Dialog Box.
Now try to open the additional files from within Elements. If you still can’t see the individual files, you need to go thru the same un-hiding steps on the files themselves. You can shift-click to select a bunch at once, then right-click to select PROPERTIES.
Hope this helps. Hope I didn’t misunderstand the question.
Marsh
I have version 2.0, that’s the first thing. I’m trying to import a photo and rename its layer. Also trying to add layers to the palette…..I’m thinking that maybe this version is VERY limited. Could someone confirm or provide help.
Jay Arraich has a wonderful site with plenty of information on layers. Here’s a link to that section. The ability to work with Layers is as powerful in Elements as it is in full Photoshop, so it’s just a matter of learning how to manage them.
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http://arraich.com/elements/pse_wwhy1.htm>
