Getting started: Get photos from files and folders

You can use this tutorial with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements versions 7 and 8.

Learn how to get photos from a hard disk into an indexed catalog. You'll also learn how to navigate the Folder Location view, to see photos organized by folder location.

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Requirements

To complete this tutorial, install the following software and files:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later

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Getting photos from files and folders

One of the first things to do in Adobe® Photoshop® Elements is to use the Organizer to index your photos in a catalog.

This tutorial shows how to index photos that are stored in folders on your hard drive or that are on an external hard disk.

Bringing photos into the Organizer

When you bring photos into the Organizer, Photoshop Elements is not actually moving those files from their current location. Instead, it tracks those files, taking note of where they are located, making a small thumbnail copy of each image, and tracking other information about them. This information is indexed in the Photoshop Elements catalog.

When you bring photos into Photoshop Elements, you can select one or more individual files, or you can select an entire folder. If your photos are organized further into subfolders, you can tell Photoshop Elements to index those files too.

1. Start Photoshop Elements 7 and open the Organizer workspace.
2. Choose File & Get Photos And Videos & From Files And Folders.
3. In the Files And Folders dialog box, locate the folder that contains your photos.
4. Select the folder that contains the photos you want to bring into Photoshop Elements.
5. To include photos stored in subfolders, select Get Photos From Subfolders.
6. Click Get Photos.

   A message reminds you that to see every photo in the catalog, click Show All.

7. Click OK to dismiss the message.

   Photoshop Elements adds a thumbnail for each photo in the Photo Browser pane on the left, as shown in Figure 1. Each thumbnail includes the date on which the photo was taken. Photoshop Elements arranges the photos by date, with the newest files at the top.

   

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   Figure 1: The Photo Browser in the Organizer workspace

Viewing files in a folder-based system

Even when your photos are stored in a directory of folders and subfolders, they appear in the Photoshop Elements Photo Browser as one large collection of photos. There are several ways to sort the photos, including creating related albums.

Another way to quickly view related photos is to sort the images based on their original folder structure.

1. Click Display at the top of the window. Notice that Thumbnail View is the default view.
2. Select Folder Location. The Photo Browser is now divided into sections, as shown in Figure 2.

   Each section represents the folder that contains the photos. The bar at the top of each section shows the path to the folder or location where the photos are stored.

   A new pane is added to the left of the Photo Browser. It shows the hierarchy of folders on your hard drive. You can expand the width of this pane by dragging the border between this column and the Photo Browser.

   

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   Figure 2: Folder Location view in the Organizer Workspace

3. Expand the folder list on the left to locate the folder containing the photos you just added to the browser.
4. Select a file stored in one of the subfolders.

   The Photo Browser jumps to the location of the photo you select, as shown in Figure 3.

   

   Figure 3: Folder Location view expanded in the left pane

5. Click each folder or subfolder to view those photos in the Photo Browser.

   When you are looking for a photo in a specific location, use the Folder Location view to locate the photo and display it in the Photo Browser. However, most of the time you work in Thumbnail view, with the Folder Location view turned off.

Where to go from here

If you enjoyed this tutorial, check out these other resources to help get you started using Photoshop Elements.

• Photoshop Elements Essentials for Windows tutorials on lynda.com
• Photoshop Elements shows on Adobe TV
• Photoshop Elements Help and Support
• Getting photos from a digital camera
• Touring the Organizer interface
• Viewing photos

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