Importing Images from
Cameras and Scanners
Digital cameras have revolutionized photog-
raphy and are one of the main forces driving
the need for products like Photoshop
Elements. Over the past several years, prices
have dropped, while quality (as measured by
higher resolution) has risen dramatically.
Typically, these cameras come with their
own software to help you browse and man-
age photos. You can download photos from
the camera to your hard disk and then open
them in Photoshop Elements, or you can
connect directly to the camera from within
Photoshop Elements and then download
images from there.
Photoshop Elements even lets you capture
frames from digital videos, with the Frame
From Video command. In order to capture
video frames, you’ll need to make sure your
video is in a format that can be recognized.
Supported Windows formats include .avi,
.mpg, and .mpeg, and Macintosh formats
include QuickTime and .mpeg.
Similar to digital cameras, scanners offer
another way to get images into Photoshop
Elements. They’re ideal for getting family
photos and other paper documents into the
computer. As long as you can fit it onto your
flatbed scanner, you can scan almost any-
thing: letters, buttons, fabric, leaves, or clip
art. You can also scan an image from within
Elements itself, as long as your scanner’s
appropriate plug-in is located inside the
Import/Export folder; this folder is inside
the Plug-ins folder, which is located within
the Photoshop Elements application folder
on your hard drive.
39
Creating and Managing Images
Importing Images from Cameras & Scanners
Compact Storage Cards
Almost all digital cameras ship with
some sort of compact storage card—it’s a
thin, plastic card that stores your cam-
era’s digital data. The most common
variety is the CompactFlash card; other
compact storage cards include Smart-
Media, Secure Digital Card (SD), and the
MultiMedia Card (MMC). Sony uses its
own proprietary storage format, called a
Memory Stick.
As you snap photos, your digital camera’s
compact storage card acts as a holding
space for all your images. When you delete
(or transfer and then delete) images from
your camera, that memory space is freed
up on your storage card, giving you more
room for additional photos.
Most digital cameras include a cable that
connects your camera to your computer
for easy photo transferring. An alternate
way to get photos into your computer is
via a storage card reader, which you con-
nect to your PC or Macintosh via a USB
cable. Once you’ve installed the card
reader software on your computer, just
insert your compact storage card into the
card reader to import your photos from
your camera to your computer with a
minimum of fuss.