Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Organizer, Part 2: Sorting, Rating & Refining Images

Hi, everybody--Michael Brown with you again; welcome back to Educator.com's Adobe Photoshop Elements course!0000

In the last lesson, we took our first look at Organizer, and I showed you how to import images into Organizer from your camera, memory card, or files and folders existing on your computer.0007

When they come in--this is the Organizer--they come in as folders of images, alphabetically; if you want to see them in the computer hierarchy, go over from My Folders, click this icon, and there are your folders in the computer.0019

Each little folder icon with a landscape designation is where the images are.0035

We go back; they're in alphabetical order.0040

When you click All Media in the media window, you see every single image that is inside of the Organizer.0043

If you click an individual folder, you see only what is in the folder.0055

You can sort by the import batch, and I like that, because, if we just go right to the All Media, this is the latest import, and if we scroll down quickly through this group, you will see that below that is the next import, and so on, in the order of the newest one on the top.0062

I just like that; you can also do newest and oldest images.0081

That is the folders.0085

Albums are collections of images from different places--in this case, different folders; so this Red Flowers folder has images; these pink ones on top came from this folder down here, and the red ones on the bottom came from this folder here.0088

I'm going to show you how we did that: if you remember, we took this folder, selected a group of images, went up to the albums, clicked the plus button for a new album, and...I'm going to undo that...it deselected...select all of the images first, which is the way we did it; get the new album; and immediately, the selected images appeared inside a new album to title, tell where it goes, and click OK.0110

That is how we got that folder.0143

Then, we went to the second folder of flowers; selected another group of images; and, to add them to an existing album from a different place, highlight them, click and drag, and drop; and now you have images in one spot in an album, from two different folders.0145

You can add more from other folders; this is a way to refine your images.0168

We're getting them down to the best images.0171

In this lesson, the first thing we're going to look at is a little more on albums and folders--two more ways to add images to an album.0175

Let's go ahead and do that.0183

I want to first take this existing folder, and I'm going to make an album out of a group of images: let's just take...we'll do this a different way; we're looking at the images...I would like to take just these last four images, right here.0185

But, what I'm going to do instead of highlighting them first is, I'm going to go ahead and open up the new album.0203

Notice, there is nothing there; so, I can drag and drop the images that I want to the Media Bin here.0209

I'll highlight, the same way we did before, and now, I drag and drop with the plus sign, and they're in.0216

And let's say I want to put in another image or two...how about these two images up here.0223

I'll highlight, Command (or Control on a PC), click, and I'll drag those two in, as well.0231

That got the images in in a different way; rather than selecting them first, we made the album up first; and now, what we're going to do is call this L.A. Architecture.0237

We're going to put it in the Urban Photos category; we have the images, title, category; we click OK, and there are all of the images, and there is our new album with a group of images.0253

We made this one by starting the album first and dragging the images in after.0268

The other time, we did selection first, and they automatically went in; so, two ways to do that.0274

One more way that I'm going to show you: we're going to import some new images by going to Import, then Camera or Card Reader, or File, Get Photos and Videos from Camera, and here comes the photo downloader.0280

We're going to full-screen it, and remember, they are all checked at the beginning, assuming you are going to download everything--I'm going to uncheck them by hitting the Uncheck All button, and I'm going to download a select group of images.0297

So, what I'm going to do...the thumbnails open up...first of all, I'm going to choose a location for these images, and we're going to create a new folder on the Desktop called Downtown Images new.0313

Images plural...make the 'n' small...create it; there it is; we'll choose that, and there it is.0334

That is where the images themselves, the originals, will reside; no subfolder; no rename; and under Advanced Options, I'm going to do something different--remember, after copying, do not delete the originals; you have the options, but make sure you have everything right first.0345

We're going to, instead, import into an existing album at the same time as we bring them into the computer--two different places.0362

Go to Settings; we're going to pick the L.A. Architecture album and click OK, and now I'm going to select the images I want.0372

I'm going to start with this one; I like this wide-angle look; I'm going to go down to here, and I'm going to go back up and pick two other ones.0378

Command on a Mac, Control on a PC, because they are not connected; click, and click again; now we have all of our images selected; we want to make sure that we check the boxes for the selected images, not the unselected.0391

Pick a select image; there it is; they're all ready to go; we go in an album; we go in a folder; we have the checks and the selected; everything is set; Get Media.0405

It's downloading fifteen images; remember, the progress bar here is for the original images coming into the new folder.0417

Then, you will see a secondary progress bar, where it creates the thumbnails for Organizer, and there it goes, and now we have a new folder called Downtown Images new.0423

There it is, and there are the images that we just brought in.0442

But, I want you to go back and look at this--the L.A. Architecture album.0445

Lo and behold, they are also in there; so we brought them in as a new folder of images, and immediately it, with the import, put them into the album.0450

That is a second way to add images to an album.0468

So, now we have talked about albums again; now, let's talk about deleting images from albums, folders, and the Organizer.0472

Let's go back--and here I have the same situation; this is the album, and this is the new folder.0482

I really don't want these two images or this one; I wanted this group; so we have them here, two and three, and we have them in the folder.0491

The folder is the originals; the album is thumbnails.0504

If I just delete them individually--not the album itself--it will remove them from both the album and the folder.0509

Let's start with these two: Click, Command (on a Mac)/Control (on a PC), click, then Control (on a Mac)/right-click (on a PC); you get this "Delete selected items from catalog; do not take them from the hard disk"; click OK, and notice, they are gone from the album, and they are gone from the new images.0521

Gone from the album; gone from the new images.0549

Now, let's say that we decided that we don't like this album at all; we want to keep the original images, but we're going to remove the album now.0553

Control on a Mac, right-click on a PC; delete; "Are you sure you want to delete this album?"--the album and its title--the whole setup; media that is part of the album will not be deleted.0564

We'll click OK; the album is gone, but in Downtown Images, they are still there; in Downtown Buildings, they are still there; that is because these are the originals--that is the actual folder connected to the original images.0580

We could also delete this folder; and what I'll do is Control (on a Mac)/right-click (on a PC); delete the folder.0597

All the files from the folder will be deleted from the Organizer catalog; we have the option to delete them from the hard disk--we don't want to do that; we click OK, and now we have taken the folder away.0607

I've shown you here how to delete individual images from an album, which will also take them away from the folder; take an album away, which leaves the folder; and take a folder out--simply Control (on a Mac)/right-click (on a PC) on the images, or the album, or the folder, and delete it.0619

OK, that is how you delete images and albums and folders from the Organizer.0642

Now, let's get down to sorting and refining and getting the best images, all right?--all right, let's do it.0647

Back to Organizer: let's go into the Japanese Garden folder, and I'm going to scroll down to a group of images that I found a little earlier that I wanted to search in.0654

We're going to talk--actually, let me back up--we're also going to talk about finding your best images by comparing, and that is the way you look at one on the right side and one on the left side of the screen: "This is better than this; I like this one; get rid of that; replace it; I like this one better; get rid of that" until you get the best image--very easy--adding and changing star ratings and filtering to the bottom to get the best.0673

All right; notice, in these thumbnails (let's zoom up a little bit so you can see them better), there are little grayed-out stars; if I roll my cursor over, it lights them up; I can rate an image by simply clicking on any one from 1 to 5 stars.0701

If I click that, it's 4 stars, so now it's rated--1 being the worst, 5 being the best; if I want to change it, I'll click 2 stars; it goes down; 5 stars--it goes up.0721

To get rid of it, click once, click a second time, and it's gone.0731

That is how you put the star ratings in, and that is how you separate them; this is a 3-star, average image, right here; if I scroll up a little further, there is a 4-star image.0735

And, now that you have all of the stars in here, the way you would edit them to get the best is--up here at the right-hand side, on the top of the Media Browser window, it says "Ratings"; this is not how you add a rating--this is how you edit and sort them.0746

Notice, it says a little symbol here; >=, rating =, or rating <=. Let's say I would like to look at all of the images in this folder that are 4 stars or better; it's at greater than or equal to, so if I click the 4 stars, it's going to show what?--4 stars and 5 stars.0766

I click, and look, the only thing you see are 4 stars; there is a 5-star right there; I think there may be another one...there is another 5-star, right here; those were the two absolute best images.0790

4-stars are the next best images; if we wanted to look at 3 stars and up, we'll click on the 3-star, and now you see 3 stars, 4 stars, and the 5-stars.0806

If we just want to see the 5-stars, we click 5 stars, and there are our two best.0819

That is how you edit them; and you can choose >= , <= , or = ; if we want to just see--we'll put it at equal--the 4-stars only, there are all of the 4-stars; if we want to see the 5-stars only, there are the two of them.0824

That is how the final selection is made; we're just going to go ahead, down to 0, and we're going to go back to that group of images.0840

We want to edit those down; now, I have a 4-star rating already here; I'm going to remove it by clicking on the number 1 star twice.0850

We're going to take this group of images, and we're going to select them: select the first one, shift, click, and we have the whole group.0858

Now, what I'm going to do is, we're going to edit these side-by-side, two at a time, to work our way down to the best image of this group, by going to the View menu and Fullscreen.0868

Here we have our Fullscreen viewpoint: these two snap-out panels, if you just stay away and let the cursor rest, it will go back in; come out; same thing--it will go back in.0881

Let's talk about those briefly: the first one--here is how you can rate these images right here in this window--there are no stars right there; have an image up and click, and it will rate.0895

You don't want to use these edits; these are fixed edits that are just whatever it's going to do.0909

I don't like to do that; we're selecting our image to work on in Elements Editor, so we're just going to leave that; we're only rating here.0915

In this one, adding to albums and keyword tags--we'll leave that alone, as well.0924

Let's go to the Control bar down here: this is for doing, also, slideshows--you can add, if you want to make a slideshow, different themes; you can pick the Settings button and add music; you can play audio captions; durations, different ways to present the slideshow; and then you can play it.0929

But we're here to get the best images, so we're going to go to the View, and what we're going to do is click, and you have two options: side-by-side or top and bottom.0954

We're going to pick side-by-side; so, we get the first two images side-by-side.0965

If you click the zoom, up it comes; double-click, down it goes.0974

What we're going to do--you notice that the first image is surrounded by a blue box; that means it's the active image, and you are comparing it against this image over on the right.0977

But, if we move forward to the next image, it will change out the one in the blue box.0991

If we decide that we like this image better than the one on the right, we will highlight this one, which is already highlighted; we'll pull out the little menu; and we're going to rate this a little above average; we'll call it a 4-star.0997

We wait, and that will go back and close that window.1017

Now, we've rated this a 4-star; it doesn't show up right here, but we've rated it a 4-star.1020

I like it better than this image, because this tree shows better, I have a little more dynamic in the foreground, it's good-looking overall, I have a little more on the right side...just generally, a little bit better.1025

We're going to keep this one as a 4-star, and I want to change out this side.1037

So, I'm going to click over here, and now I have the blue box on the right.1043

We'll keep this image and go forward by clicking the right arrow.1047

There is the next image; we're comparing it against this one.1052

I still like the one on the left a little bit better: the trees are better; I like the exposure, the richness, here; so I'm not happy with this one; let's go ahead and look at the next one.1055

This one is still the best.1067

Now, we replace it there, and this is a little overpowering in the foreground and diminishes the background, so this one is still the best.1069

Moving on, now we have this image: I like this one a lot, because we see a little more over here, it's not as blacked-out, we have the island in there now, and we've taken a little of this foreground distraction away; so I like this one even a little bit better.1078

So, what I'm going to do--the box is over here--I'm going to pull this out; I'm going to rate this one 4 stars, and what I'm going to do is move the box back over to the other side, and this one, remember, we rated 4 stars: and there it is--you can see it.1096

We're going to drop that to a 3-star; this one is now the 4-star one.1114

All right, so now we're going to keep moving down the list.1121

Go to the right, and we compare these two: too blocked-up over here; took the island out; I like the foreground, but I can pull this down in the computer; this one is still the best.1124

Moving on...still the best--I really like seeing the island over there--better composition.1135

Wow--that one is really nice!1143

That is equal to this one; I like the drama here.1146

So, what we're going to do is go ahead and rate that one a 4-star, as well--we're not sure which of these is better.1151

But, we will still keep this one as the primary and move forward.1157

That one there--no, that is a better composition; this one here--too much foreground; this one here--still too much foreground, but it's not bad; no, I don't like that side; and the final one--not.1163

So, what we have done is found two 4-star images, and out of this entire group of nine images, we've selected three of them.1177

We're going to exit and look back at what we did.1186

We have our images that we were looking at; there is the 3-star and two 4-stars.1195

What I'm going to do now is just go ahead...I could rate by ratings, but that is going to work in a whole, complete folder, so very quickly, let's make an album of these images.1205

Click, shift, click; and let's go ahead and make an album.1220

We'll call it Japanese Garden Flower Foreground Images.1227

It doesn't matter what we call it; we're going to put it under the landscapes; we'll click OK; there it is.1238

Now, we hit this album, and there we have it; there are all of those images, and now we can go for 4-star or better, and those are the only two, and we can zoom those two up side-by-side, and very quickly, looking back and forth here, I like the image on the right better, because it's just a little bit here, and it has good balance.1244

We're going to change the rating to 5-star, move it up to 5-star, and there: we have edited down from the Japanese Garden to the Japanese Garden Foreground ones, and our best image at 5 stars, and that is how you get your best image.1268

Highlight that image, click back to the Editor, and it opens up first, because it's raw, in Camera Raw; we'll just go ahead and open it.1288

There, we very quickly edited through those images and came up with our best image to work on.1299

We have now gone over sorting and refining the images by finding the best by comparison, side-by-side, using Fullscreen and 2-up views, adding and changing star ratings, and filtering images down to the very best.1307

That winds up this lesson; we will have another lesson with a few more features in Organizer when you come back next.1323