Photoshop Elements 12: The Missing Manual

Chapter 2. Importing, Managing, and Saving Photos

Now that you’ve had a look around Elements, it’s time to start learning how to get photos into the program and how to keep track of where they’re stored. As a digital photographer, you don’t have to deal with 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 photos from cameras, memory card readers, and scanners. You’ll also find out how to import individual frames from videos, create new files from scratch, and open files already on your computer. Then you’ll be ready for a quick tour of the Organizer, where you can sort and find pictures once they’re in Elements. Finally, you’ll learn about saving and backing up your precious files.

Importing from Cameras

Elements gives you lots of different ways to get photos from camera to computer, but if you use the Organizer, the simplest way is using Adobe’s Photo Downloader. Later in this section, you’ll learn about other ways to import photos.

Note

Take a moment to carefully read the instructions from your camera’s manufacturer. If those directions conflict with anything you read here, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

The Photo Downloader

What happens when you plug a camera or memory card reader into your computer depends on your operating system. If you have Windows ...