A little mask demo

[potwnc]

Here's something that I first did in 5.5 with a lot of effort that is made so much easier with masks. Even then, in 5.6 I still had to work around a limitation of how masks are currently implemented - I had to drag the first keyframe of the photo to the left of the timeframe = 0 point before I could size it correctly to fill the frame.

This is a 1MB zip file that extracts to a .mp4 file that plays for 9 seconds. As we zoom into a map of Westcentral Asia to the part that is the Tibetan Plateau a mask reveals a photo that I took from a plane flying over the real Tibetan Plateau. The mask zooms in time with the map zoom and at the same time fades to reveal the photo under the mask.

I think this is a good example of how masks can be used.

www.peoplesoftheworld.org/demos/maskdemo.zip

Ray

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Here's something that I first did in 5.5 with a lot of effort that is made so much easier with masks. Even then, in 5.6 I still had to work around a limitation of how masks are currently implemented - I had to drag the first keyframe of the photo to the left of the timeframe = 0 point before I could size it correctly to fill the frame.

This is a 1MB zip file that extracts to a .mp4 file that plays for 9 seconds. As we zoom into a map of Westcentral Asia to the part that is the Tibetan Plateau a mask reveals a photo that I took from a plane flying over the real Tibetan Plateau. The mask zooms in time with the map zoom and at the same time fades to reveal the photo under the mask.

I think this is a good example of how masks can be used.

www.peoplesoftheworld.org/demos/maskdemo.zip.

Ray

Hi Ray

Pasted the link in my browser but it said "navigate from our web site" & I couldn't get any further???

Yachtsman1

[davegee]

Eric,

Leave out the "dot" after zip?

.... and paste in exactly as given.

DaveG

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

Leave out the "dot" after zip?

.... and paste in exactly as given.

DaveG

Hi Dave

Thanks for that, done it, got the teeshirt

Regards Eric

PS. Don't suppose you know how to batch process colour to mono in elements 5, at the moment I can only resize, adjust contrast & sharpen.

[fh1805]

Hi Eric,

Elements doesn't allow you to do what you want because it doesn't support automated actions; other than those provided via File...Process Multiple Files.

You could try IrfanView (a piece of freeware). This does appear to allow batch conversion to grayscale: but I've never tried this feature.

I use IrfanView to do batch resizing - because it allows me to do landscape and portrait orientations in a single pass. I also use it to do batch renaming. I was put on to it by Lin Evans here on this forum.

regards,

Peter

[davegee]

Like Peter said.

It might be the right time to upgrade to Elements 7 - You could benefit a lot from it.

Actions are a central part of the way I work. Pressing one key, for instance, can change Mode from 16 bit to 8 bit, flatten an image and convert from RGB to sRGB instantly.

DaveG

[fh1805]

Dave,

Are you stating that Elements 7 includes a full implementation of "Actions"?

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Chaps

Thanks for the suggestions, Peter just tried to download ifranview & got a nasty little red beast on the first suggested site, have you got a link to where you got your copy. Dave I'm afraid elements 7 is outside my photography budget at present.

Regards Eric

[fh1805]

Eric,

If by "nasty little red beast" you mean the icon in the attachment below then you found IrfanView. When I downloaded IrfanView, many months ago now, all I did was Googled to find the website. Cannot remember what it was called now.

regards,

Peter

[davegee]

Hi Peter,

Not "full", and I had to open it up to find out just how much support there was.

I use CS3 on a day-to-day basis and saw something about actions in Elements 7 thinking that it was "full" implementation.

It seems that it has an Action Player and around 15 ready made actions.

It also will play Photoshop Actions (.atn) which can be loaded into Elements 7 (restrictions apply). There are literally hundreds of actions available on the web for download and there are people who will create actions for you as indeed anyone with a full version of Photoshop could.

So, Eric, don't buy Elements 7 - it might be a big leap forward in some respects but for actions - no.

Reading the fine print is always a good thing!!

[Ken Cox]

dave

the red beast is his road kill icon -- he has others that you can select

next see support group

http://en.irfanview-forum.de/vb/index.php

when you download the program ALSO GET THE PLUGINS

pay attention to screens when you do install

http://www.irfanview.net/

there are also add ons that make your life easier when doing things with the probram

search for baxbex irfanview plugin

http://www.baxbex.com/

ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

If by "nasty little red beast" you mean the icon in the attachment below then you found IrfanView. When I downloaded IrfanView, many months ago now, all I did was Googled to find the website. Cannot remember what it was called now.

regards,

Peter

Hi Peter

Thought the red beast was my spybot warning

Anyway, I've downloaded it and tried the batch conversion to greyscale, I'm afraid they are still cast blue. So unless someone has another "free" idea, it will be convert 197 slides manually

Regards Eric

[davegee]

Eric,

If you open one of the converted images up in Elements and look at its MODE - what does it say?

Is it converting to greyscale or desaturating (badly).

DaveG

[Ken Cox]

Hi Peter

Thought the red beast was my spybot warning

Anyway, I've downloaded it and tried the batch conversion to greyscale, I'm afraid they are still cast blue. So unless someone has another "free" idea, it will be convert 197 slides manually

Regards Eric

ERIC

YOU MIGHT TRY

http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs/index.php?3.0

FOR BULK RESIZE and do minor adjustments

i resise al my picts with this , with a setting recommended by Igor

LANCZOS3

i find it a nicer gui

but have not figgered out to do grayscale with it

SMALL FOOTPRINT AS WELL

ken

[wideangle]

Eric

Go to www.faststone.org, and have a look at their two freeware offerings for picture manipulation, and also resizing - both very good.

Regards,

wideangle

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Eric,

If you open one of the converted images up in Elements and look at its MODE - what does it say?

Is it converting to greyscale or desaturating (badly).

DaveG

Hi Dave

In Mode it says RGB Colour???

Regards Eric

[davegee]

So, rather than convert to greyscale it has DESATURATED and not done a very good job.

DaveG

[Guest Yachtsman1]

So, rather than convert to greyscale it has DESATURATED and not done a very good job.

DaveG

Hi Dave

Just before I went to bed, I took one of the original images with the blue cast and ran it through Ifranview with Greyscale highlighted, it removed the blue cast. So either I am using the ifranview batch process incorrectly, (most probable) or it can't handle that process in batch. I've re-converted 95% of the slides to mono using elements5 now, so to obtain consistancy I will finish the remainder. Thanks for everybodies help. Obviously there is some mileage in experimentation.

Finally I must apologise to Brian for hijacking his thread. Can we call this particular subject closed. Maybe the forum needs a section for general photography problems as there was a lot of interest? .

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1