The Monthly is Cathy Zielske's answer to the project 365 photo documenting craze that has gotten a lot of popularity in the last few years. Cathy (like me) can't commit to a daily regimen of taking photos.  I thought after my Daily December 2008 that I was ready for the Project 365 so I tried it back at the beginning of 2009 and it lapsed after a few weeks.  Trying to remember to take a photo daily, especially in the Winter when you can't go out (or don't want to), is really hard work and I admire anyone that can actually do it.

The Monthly is Cathy's solution to documenting the real moments of your life without the pressure of taking photos daily or on any schedule. In fact, the system she's devised allows you to take as many or as few photos as you want during the month. Basically it's a set of templates from designer digitals that includes a title page, a monthly title page (12 variations), a journaling page, a journaling and photo page, and several other collage templates for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Back to 2009, these photos are still largely un-scrapbooked and held prisoner inside my computer. So I thought it would be a good idea to test drive her system using the photos I took in 2009.  So here goes.

Title page

Monthly opener

Journaling page

Like most of my projects, we'll see how long I can keep doing this :) but I'm feeling better about those photos already knowing that I can simply "slap" them onto a page and call it done.

As a recap you might want to read this article on how I set up my Category Drawers digitally in Photoshop Elements.  Now while Elements lets you set up sub-categories and keywords at different levels, it turns out that when you write them to the files, that they are not hierarchical at all. (And of course, if you don't write them to the files, you won't have any at all).

This means that when you read them in Bridge, they are all jumbled up because they are sorted alphabetically by keyword, and the categories are actually ignored.  To some people this is OK, but in the Library of Memories this is not helpful.

Bridge can support Hierarchical keywording which is just what you need for the LOM system.  To check it is switched on, select Edit, Preferences, Keywords.  I suggest that you uncheck the "automatically apply parent keywords", and check the other two boxes (Write and Read hierarchical keywords).

So I had to look for a way to bring those hierarchies over from Elements to Bridge.  So this is what I did.

1. First you need to open Elements Organizer and make sure that your categories/keywords are all cleaned up, no duplicates etc.  You cannot have 2 tags the same even if they are in different categories.  To fix this, rename the tag to incorporate it's parent category so that the duplicates are now unique.

2. Use the Edit, Write Keyword Tag and Properties Info to file function to ensure that all the keywords are written in the metadata of your files.  You will need to do a Ctrl+A to select All before chosing to do this.  This process can take a really really long time in Elements so be prepared to walk away from the computer for an hour or two.

3. Next open a spreadsheet program (Excel, Works, whatever).  Starting with the top of your LOM categories (in my case People) open up your categories and sub-categories in the Organizer so you can see them all.  Back in the spreadsheet, start typing in each category/tag vertically in column A.  I had around 200 entries by the time I was done.  Phew!

4. Save your spreadsheet if you haven't already!

5. In your spreadsheet program, select File, Save As, and choose a text document (.txt) format with tab delimitation.  In Works this looks like Text & Tabs.

6. Now open Bridge CS4.  You are probably on the default "Essentials" view.  Select the "Metadata" view.  You should have a Keywords pane on the right side of the screen.

7. If there are any keywords displaying in the Keywords pane, right click on them to remove them from the keywords list. You can select multiple keywords if necessary.  It is best to start from scratch to avoid confusion.

8. In the keywords pane, on the right top corner is a drop down menu icon.  Click on it and select Import.  Navigate your way to the .txt file you saved earlier.  And select it, click Ok and import it into Bridge.  You will eventually see your keywords show up in a list.  This list appears alphabetically and is jumbled because there is no hierarchy, all tags are at the top level.

9. Using "drag & drop" mouse technique, go about recreating the same structure you had in Photoshop Elements.  Simply drag the sub-categories onto the top level categories, and the keywords onto their parent categories.

Now when I go to a photo, I can see the keywords with their correct hierarchy, a la Library of Memories.

One of the great features of the new Photoshop Elements 7 is the ability to set an album to backup/synchronize automatically. While it is disappointing that you can't do this for a smartalbum, just a regular album, it is a great feature to have these photos backup automatically online so you don't have to worry about computer failure.


There have been a number of people reporting that their backup/synchronization is getting stuck saying the files are "pending" backup/synchronization and isn't actually backing up their photos. This seems to only be a problem with existing photos in an album rather than new photos or a new album.

To check that your are photos backing up/synchronizing:

1. Click on the green arrows in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

2. Select "View files pending backup/synchronization". If you see files in there, they are problem stuck (unless you just added them to an album that is going to be backed up).

To force backup/synchronization:

1. Create a new tag called "pending".

2. Click on the green arrows in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

3. Select "View files pending backup/synchronization". Click any photo now displayed then Ctrl-A (select All in Windows).

4. Drag the new "pending" tag onto the selected photos.

5. Right click on the tag in the Keyword Tags and select Delete tag. If may explain that the tag is going to be removed from all the files and ask for confirmation. Say "yes" if it does.

6. You should now see your files start to backup. You can either wait to see if the "View files pending backup/synchronization" files reduce to 0, or select "View backed up/synchronized files" or go online to your photoshop.com account to see which files are now backed up.

I've been getting a few "Library of Memories" questions from people wanting to do a digital version of this system originally developed by Stacy Julian and published in the book "Photo Freedom". I have been responding to their comments by leaving my own comments on those posts. You can read all my Digital Library of Memories posts here.

However, I haven't documented my workflow so here it is:

I use Photoshop Elements 7 for scrapbooking and organizing my digital photos (including those I've scanned) but not for organizing my digital scrapbook supplies (I use ACDSee Pro 2).


My workflow is to find photos in Elements using my LOM Digital Storage Binders (smart albums) or my LOM Category Drawers (tags) and then select "Full Edit" which open them into the Elements Editor photo bin.

I then go into ACDSee Pro 2 and use my categories to find the supplies I need, then select "Edit" (I have configured my default editor to be Elements Editor). This opens the supplies into the Elements Editor photo bin.

So now all my photos and supplies are sitting in the photo bin under the editor work area where I can see them all at the same time. I create a new document in the editor work area and drag my photos and supplies into the new document.

This workflow is efficient with only two programs open (Elements and ACDSee Pro).

Note: I have heard that there can be problems with using Elements to manage your scrapbooking supplies because of the huge quantity of supplies and the fact that Elements will generate a thumbnail for everything in its catalog (basically the system would grind to a halt). That is why I've opted to use ACDSee Pro to manage the supplies.

I'm really excited today to see that Adobe has announced the new version of Photoshop Elements 7 which will be released at the end of September.  While it doesn't have a ton of new features, it includes:

Photoshop Elements 7
- an Actions player (available on the Guided Edit tab)
- a blur filter designed to smooth skin
- a scenecleaner function to element unwanted elements from your photo
- a text search in the organizer
- a brightness control for the grey interface (to make it easier to see)
- a smart brush tool which allows you to select an area, apply a mask and adjustment layer, all in one step

and with the Photoshop.com membership version ($40 more)
- new integration with Photoshop.com (previously Photoshop Express) an online editing and sharing site

You can read more or pre-order an upgrade copy (with free shipping to Canada) at the Photoshop Elements for Windows web site.

Disclaimer: these instructions aren't for the faint of heart. While these instructions have been thoroughly tested by a 3rd party, please make a backup before trying any of this. I am not responsible for any computer related issues resulting from your implementation of these instructions.

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To create a new drop down menu item in Photoshop Elements Show Effects (for example Atomic Cupcake) you will need to create a new .xml file for each action (.atn) file that you have (to locate your .atn files see this post). With the current set of Atomic Cupcake actions you would need 111 .xml files!
7. Once you have created all the .xml files, you need to rename the Mediadatabase.db3 to MediadatabaseOLD.db3 it is located at

XP Users - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Locale\en-US or your own locale


*Edited* - 09/30/2008 - To do this in PSE 7.0 with Vista you will need to rename the name.xml file to be name.metadata.xml and put them in the same directory at the .atn and .png files (i.e. In Vista your Photo Effects folder is located at C:\Program Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\Photo Creations\Photo Effects). Note: No rebuild of the mediabase database is necessary.

I've used Adobe Camera Raw with Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS3 but have never been able to figure out how to open a .jpg file into ACR using Photoshop Elements 6. Of course, if you actually have RAW files they will open into ACR automatically but what happens if you want to use the same set of controls or even the same development settings, right you need to open in ACR.

Here are the instructions for opening a .jpg file into ACR using Elements 6:

1. Open Elements Editor.

2. Select File, Open As and browse to the image you want to open.

3. Select Camera Raw (not Photoshop Raw) from the File Type menu and click OK. It will now open into ACR.

4. After editing the image, you can save it as a .DMG file, and in the future it will open in ACR by default.

Yesterday I posted about Atomic Cupcakes special birthday deal, where you can download all their actions for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Most Photoshop users know how to install actions in Photoshop but installing them in Photoshop Elements is much more of a mystery and changes with each version that Adobe releases.Here are instructions for installing them in PSE6 (edited: PSE7) under Vista/XP:

1. For each action there are two files (an .atn and a .psd).
2. You'll need to resave the .psd into .png format.
3. Copy the the .png and the .atn files into your Photo Effects folder making sure the names are identical.
4. In Vista your Photo Effects folder is located at C:\Program Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0 or 7.0\Photo Creations\Photo Effects.
5. In XP your Photo Effects folder is located at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\6.0\Photo Creations\photo effects
6. Open Photoshop Elements 6.0 or 7.0 Editor.
7. In the Effects pane, select the Photo Effects icon.
8. Make sure the drop down menu has Show All selected.
9. You should now see icons to the actions (each with the Atomic Cupcake logo on it). If you can't see all the icons then switch between the different effects icons until they are all loaded (it took several refreshes on my computer to get them all to show).

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Edited:

If you can't see the Program Data folder, you need to check that your hidden folders are showing(the Program Data is a hidden folder and won't display unless you expressly set it that way). Note: there is a Program Files folder that isn't hidden, but you want the Program Data folder.

In Vista, open Windows Explorer, Organize, Folder and Search options, View Tab, ensure that the Show hidden files and folders button is switched on.

You will need to restart Windows Explorer for the changes to take.

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And, if anyone knows how to create a submenu/filter for the Photo Effects drop down (for example, to say Atomic Cupcake) I'd love to know how to do this in PSE6. Email me!

*Edited 07/17/2008* I have now been given a link to instructions on how to do this but am going to post them on my blog. The long and short of it is that you need a .xml file for every action you want to appear in the drop down, so for the Atomic Cupcake collection you are looking at creating over 100 .xml files!

*Edited 09/30/2008* Vista instructions work with PSE 7.0.

At the top are my smart album "binders" which are divided into quarters and only containt the 2 star or higher rated images. I have also chosen to put my completely digital pages into their own album.

Underneath, I have my keyword tags "categories drawers" which enable me to find any photo (everything is tagged). You can use the Find, Find Untagged Items function to make sure all photos have been tagged at least once.

The imported keyword tags represent new photos that have been tagged in another application and where the given tag does not match an existing one in Elements. This doesn't happen very often but I check to make sure there are no photos in there every once in a while.

The printed/scrapped tag is given to an image once it has been printed for paper scrapping or scrapped digitally. This tag is so that I can avoid re-scrapping the same photo as it alerts me to that fact, although I can choose to scrap it again if I want to.

I've noticed a few misunderstandings on the LOMGroup at Yahoo Groups concerning Photoshop Elements which I've addressed there but want to address here too.

First is the myth that keywording/tagging in Elements 5/6 cannot be transferred to other applications. Wrong! Keywording/tagging is very easily transferred although Elements does not do it automatically (neither do some other popular programs such as ACDSee).

To write your keywords/tag info:
1. Select File menu.
2. Select Write Keyword and Tag Info to Photos.

Photos in jpg, tiff, psd format will then be written to with the new information in the IPTC keywords field which can be read by any other IPTC compatible program (Bridge, Lightroom, ACDSee, Elements, etc).

Second, if you have an older version of Photoshop which didn't ship with an organization tool called Bridge, there are some cheap/free solutions for you to keyword/tag your photos.

Free
Windows Vista Photo Gallery allows you to keyword your photos.
Mac users can use iPhoto.

Cheap
ACDSee Photo Manager is $50 and allows you to tag and sort your photos.
Photoshop Elements (around $99) also allows tagging (as well as editing).

There probably other solutions, but these are the ones I am familiar with and can be used easily/quickly.

One of Stacy's optional extra's are Cold Storage Photo Boxes. She removes photos that have remained unscrapped for years into boxes for long term storage without bogging down her storage binders or her category drawers.

In a digital world I comtemplated the necessity of doing this when I could simply filter out the less worthy photos by rating them lower or sorting by date. However, I figured if you had 1000s of photos that fell into this category you might want to archive them off of your hard drive to save space. So here is my plan for doing this.

In Photoshop Elements 6 there is an option to archive photos to CD. Simply select the photos you want to archive then use this feature. The photos are moved to the CD/DVD and removed from the hard drive. Elements keeps a thumbnail of the image and marks this image with a flag that indicates you need to retrieve the CD to edit/print the full size image.

When doing this I will archive one year at a time and create a CD/DVD label that has the year but also opens to show a bulleted list of events/themes of whatever is on the disc.


Photo Credit: Taken from "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker" - Wendy Smedley & Abbey Garvey

The advantage to doing this in Elements is simply to keep the thumbnails and still be able to search for a file. Bridge and Lightroom both give you the ability to export files and you can simply copy them to the CD/DVD. Lightroom will continue to reference the original location in its catalog and display thumbnails. However, if you try to use a photo it will tell you that the photo is missing from the referenced location and prompt you for a new location at which point you can tell it to look on the CD/DVD you used.

Stacy's 3rd essential item are her Library Albums, this is where her completed layouts are stored. Stacy's LOM albums are divided into the four categories: People, Us, Places, Things.

Once my layouts are created in Photoshop Elements then I print them usually at Costco in the 18x12 size. The neat thing about this size is that you can print 1 12x12 and then 3 4x6 photos on the remaining 6x12 strip. I insert these 12x12 layouts into my albums.

My albums aren't quite organized like Stacy's yet. I have albums for each child (Us) but need to add albums for both C and me. I have not separated out People We Love, Places or Things although I do have a Family album as well as a Marina's stuff album. My next step is to do this separation.

To do this I am going to purchase sticky colored flags from Staples and use a different color for each of the 4 themes. I will then go through my albums flagging the various layouts and pulling them out of their albums and into new ones. This will be a time consuming process so my next blog entry will skip to the next step (gasp!).