Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Creating a Photo Book, Part 2

Hi, everyone--Mike Brown, back with you once again with Part 2 of creating a photo book in Adobe Photoshop Elements 11!0000

In Part 1, we talked about how to get all of the images that you want to use for a photo book into a specific album, so that you can drag them around and arrange them in the general order that you want to have in the photo book, so that you save time.0008

Then, we went under the Create menu in the Organizer and dropped down to Photo Book, and we opened up the box that showed us our choice of themes and the sizing, and we created a basic photo book.0026

That is where we took it to, and stopped at the end of Part 1.0045

In Part 2 here, we're going to talk about adding, adjusting, and modifying images to your existent template; customizing the appearance of the photo book by modifying the page layouts, adding frames and graphics to make it your book, and then saving and printing.0049

Let's go ahead and take a look at one, here.0066

This is one that I had previously set up with more images in it, and we're going to play with that.0069

Here we have the basic layout; we're not happy with it--it's just what it is; we'll change that as we go.0078

We'll deal with it--leave the frames and the background and the type for the moment.0085

We'll just get the pictures the way we want them.0089

All right, there are all the 20 pages; you will notice I didn't have them all; if you want to fill up in a blank page, we'll go to the Photo Bin, and these are all selected items that I have, and if they're not in that particular group of selected images, you can also go to any other of the albums that are in here, and draw from that to add images.0092

But, right now, let's just take a couple of images here; let's drag and drop, and I have a photo that it adds.0118

Then, I'm going to put three more photos over here: here comes one--it doesn't matter the format; we'll show you in a minute what happens here; here is two, and here is three.0128

So, the images are in--now what do you do, when the images are in?0142

I'll show you--it's very simple: what you want to do is highlight the image by clicking on it; Control on a Mac/right-click on a PC, Fit Frame to Photo, and now it's quite large, so let's zoom it up and get that corner.0146

Size it down and move it into position; we still have to size it down further; it's maintaining its proportions; remember, we could rotate it if we choose, by the corners, but in this case...actually, I think I'll leave it a little off-kilter; that is kind of cool.0165

We have it the way we want it; now we just click Accept, and now it's sized with a new picture.0184

Now, we go over to this side, and let's start with this one right here; again, highlight it once; we'll do the Move tool--Control on a Mac/right-click on a PC, Fit Frame to Photo, and we come up with this.0190

We're going to resize it down just a little bit; I kind of like the tilt, but maybe a little more rotation right there; move it up into the corner; Accept.0205

That is the second picture; pretty easy, huh?0216

Click the third one; Control on a Mac/right-click on a PC, Fit Frame to Photo, make it smaller, right about there; make it a little bit smaller on that (oops, I didn't want to make it distorted, so we'll click away, click back, and get the corner).0219

Come up properly; there we go; all right, that is fine--this one is now a little bit too large; take that; rotate it a little bit; bring it down over here.0248

Put that in the middle...I'm just kind of designing this as I go; take this one in the back; Control on a Mac/right-click, Fit Frame to Photo; now it's a big one.0261

We'll zoom that down and bring it down where we want; rotate it around; make it smaller yet; put it over here; that works.0272

This one is too large.0286

Bring it down; rotate it even a little bit more; we're getting them--this just takes time, to play with it.0293

Rotate this a little bit.0301

Bring it down; now, one thing I would like to do is: this image (first, we want to move it over just a little bit)--I would like to have it on the top of all the other ones, so Control, click, Bring to Front--notice that it now resides on top.0307

We're going to take this one and move it in a little behind and up, like that; Control, Fit Frame--we realize that that is off.0327

Drop it down a little bit, and bring it to the front--so now it's on top.0339

Now, I have these three staggered the way I want them, and we're ready to go.0347

That is how you play with your images.0351

One click on the image allows you to size it, rotate it, and move it.0353

If we go back to the cover, let me show you something else; on this one, we're OK; title page--go to that.0359

We can not only resize the image--one click, resize that and move it and accept--if we double-click the image, you get this Zoom that allows you to zoom the image itself within the frame, so you can crop and change the dynamic.0367

Then, click and drag that; notice how much more dynamic that is.0389

We will accept that; OK, so that is how you play--one click to move around and resize the combination; double-click to work on the photo separately.0393

Now, we're going to go to the Type tool; this is our standard one right here.0405

I would like to change the color and font, so we'll highlight the Type tool, click on the type layer, and click and drag to highlight it.0412

The first thing I'm going to do is change the type to white, and then I'm going to go back, now that I have it that way, click and drag here, and I'm going to change it to Optima, the text that I particularly like.0420

There is Optima, and I'm going to make that oblique, and make it a little smaller--let's make it 25 points--and that looks pretty good.0438

Let's make it bold oblique, and click OK, and move it right over to the left side here.0450

I think the image needs to be moved just a little bit, maybe right to the edge; I didn't do a great job of positioning these layers.0460

OK, that is good; so that shows you how you move your images and how you work with your type.0469

Now, to replace an image, like I said, it's very simple: open the Photo Bin, find a different image that you might want to put in, and (let's see where one is...right here) just drag it up and move it on top.0477

Again, Control on a Mac/right-click on a PC to fit the frame to the photo, to make sure you have it.0498

We can make it a little bit larger; Accept; move this one down a little bit; make it just a little bit larger and overlap the two of them.0506

Take this image here, Control, click, Bring to Front, and there--we have replaced photos and readjusted our arrangement.0518

Now, that takes care of how you move the photos around--pretty simple stuff.0530

Now, we also have the layouts that you can actually replace a single page; let's go to another page that we haven't dealt with, here.0534

Here we go...this one.0548

To start with, we have an extra image in here--two images out of there; so I'm going to click and delete that, and that will remove it.0552

Then, I can move this one over and that one down; but I would like to change the layout of that, so here we have choices of layouts for different things: total layout of a page, one photo, three photos, and two photos.0561

Let's go with horizontal, side-by-side.0575

Click, drag, drop; and now it has rearranged that to give us that particular look.0581

So now, we can highlight a photo; Control, click; Fit Frame to Photo; move the photo down if we don't like exactly that layout; make it a little smaller.0590

You can change the layouts, and then you can do more modifications.0601

Fit Frame to Photo--I always want to do that; and move it up and over; move this one a little bit down; this one needs to be just a little smaller.0607

You can set it up with a 2-photo layout; then, you can modify it--so, you can change the page layouts.0617

Now, this one would be changed out, too; but let's go back to our pages and go to one that we liked.0624

Here we go with the action shots.0632

All right, so now, I want to change--we have moved the photos around, changed the layouts of the photos, and sized them up; we're good.0634

Now, we want to change this background and these frames--we don't like that.0643

We're going to go to the Graphics button: this is the basic Graphics that came with this particular template.0647

We're going to go to the Advanced mode, and that is going to open up all of the available graphics that we have to work on this particular image.0656

There is the Layers; I want to go to the Graphics.0666

Come on; here we go--look at this; now here is just backgrounds, and let's start with backgrounds.0671

I'm going to scroll down; I want to show you something, though, right now: notice, this background is just the background, with no little corner blue triangle.0678

If the corner shows, you need to be connected to the Internet.0687

If I wanted to change out for this background, for example, I'll click and drag it over; and what it's doing is: it's going to the Internet to find that asset and download it.0691

When it downloads it, it will replace it to a tabletop checkerboard; that is not what I really wanted, but that is what the blue triangle indicates.0704

Let's go down to a more apropos background for this particular book.0713

We'll just click and drag, and it's going to turn it into a nice, gray gradient.0722

We have all the backgrounds; and now, let's go to frames.0729

We're going to scroll through the remainder of the backgrounds; again, you just click one--let's go to another page.0732

Let's go back to our pages, and let's go over to this page here of the...it's changing the colors on the background in the other page.0739

We're up to this page now; let's go back to our graphics, and let's go find something that might be appropriate for pool players.0751

Let's see what we can find.0764

Just something a little different; oh, I kind of like that--that old plate; that looks kind of cool; click and drag that one in.0771

It's bringing that one down from the Internet, as well.0779

So, you can have different pages with different backgrounds.0782

Oh, I like that a lot; wow, that is very, very cool.0786

Now, we have our background; so let's go scrolling down past the backgrounds, into frames.0789

I'll do a couple of frames here.0795

Here is one for a 35 millimeter; I don't like that one; here is a 4x5--as you go over--4x5 transparency: click, drag, drop on the image--and it will change that frame into something that looks like film.0799

We'll just go ahead and do that to all three of these; and see how easy that was to change the background and change out the actual frame.0815

But maybe, we could find a frame that would be cooler; let's go with just this black edge--a simple, clean black edge.0826

It's not wide enough, so we'll go with this one; that is a little better.0837

We'll put the black edge over here; see how easy that is, to change those all out?0846

Let's go back to the pages, and go back to this particular page right here.0850

Let's go find some frames!0857

We're almost done with this thing; you get the idea--you can go play around.0860

Let's see what we have here.0863

This is a download asset; it looks nice--take that; take that; and now you can see that what we have done for this particular thing is put a little drop shadow and a black edge against a nice silver-plate background.0866

We'll go back to our pages, and now, when you finish up your book, let's just change the title page, and make that one look a lot better.0885

We're going to go back to the graphics, go down to...let's find that silver background; I kind of like that (I know I'm taking a little more time here, but you get the idea of what we're up to; where did it go?--there it is); bring this background in.0894

We'll go and change it; for the cover one, we'll do this and put a little wider frame on it.0916

There you have it--and now, we're going to have to go back to our type; let's go back to the basic mode; go back to our Type tool; highlight this; and we're going to change it to black; click OK; and there you have it.0926

Now, the last thing we're going to do is: we're going to save it out as--I'm going to do Modification 2, in the project format; this is the format that any of the outside vendors will print.0949

We'll save it, and it's saving all of the pages; it will take a moment; and then, all we have to do is get this thing printed.0964

You can either print it yourself--which I don't necessarily recommend, especially with something as complex as this one...0975

As soon as this finishes saving, which it should do just in a moment here--there are a lot of assets--it's done, so there you have it.0983

We have gone and (let's finish this up) added, adjusted, and modified the images.0995

You can do the image; you can rotate and size; you can take the individual image and zoom it up and down by double-clicking; customize the appearance by changing and modifying the page layouts, either using a new page layout that you drag in, or doing it yourself; adding frames and graphics and backgrounds; and saving and printing your photo book--a really cool thing.1001

I know this lesson ran a little long, but I wanted to make sure you understand how to do this.1024

It's fairly simple once you practice it--just adjusting images, getting them in, and creating yourself a really, really nice piece of art that people will really take a look at and be very, very impressed--all through Adobe Photoshop Elements 11!1029