Photoshop Elements 3: The Missing Manual

Chapter 2. Importing and Managing Your Photos

Now that you've had a look around Elements, it's time to start learning how to get photos into the program, and also how to keep track of where these photos are stored. As a digital photographer, you may no longer be facing shoeboxes stuffed with prints, but you've still got to face the menace of photos piling up on your hard drive. Fortunately, Elements gives you some great tools for organizing your collection and quickly finding individual pictures.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to import your photos from cameras, digital card readers, and scanners. You'll also find out how to import individual frames from videos, how to open files that are already on your computer, and how to create a new file from scratch. After that, you'll learn how to organize and find your pictures once they're in Elements, either by using the Organizer (Windows), or the Editor's File Browser (Mac and Windows).

Importing from Cameras

Elements gives you lots of different ways to get photos into your computer, but if you're using Windows, the simplest tool is the Adobe Photo Downloader. If you don't like the Downloader or if you're using a Mac, later in this section you'll learn about other ways to import your photos.

Note

Regardless of your operating system, first carefully read the instructions from your camera manufacturer. These directions should always take precedence over anything you read here that might seem to suggest doing something differently.

The Photo ...