[Morris O.]

The volume that many wedding videographers agreed on was an average of -12db. I like an average of -9db as long as no peaks are clipped. Using -12db (softer side) or -9db (louder side) seems to be comprable to volume levels of commercial CDs and DVD movies. Some commercial CDs are notorious for over driving levels to the point of clipping. That doesn’t make it right but that does dictate the volume level that users have their entertainment equipment set to.

[Morris O.]

Hi Mark,

Your post is over a month old with no responses. Are you still here?

[Morris O.]

Thanks for your confirmation John,

Morris

[Morris O.]

I don’t have any slide files to test with but I put a black border on a 300dpi scanned photo. Then used Photoshop Elements 4.0’s “IMAGE > DIVIDE SCANNED PHOTOS” and it cropped off the black perfectly. This worked with a black border around the photo or with black borders on the right side and bottom only. The Divide function works with white or black backgrounds, on one or multiple photos. If you have multiple slides in one image, it should straighten and crop all for you as long at there is sufficient border around each slide. Kicker is that there are no automate commands in PSE4.0 so you would have to do it manually but it sure beats straightening and cropping by hand.

You can download a fully functional demo copy from the Adobe web site. If you try it, do let us know if it works for slides.

Morris

[Morris O.]

Thanks Richard & Dell,

My price range is below $500 but below $300 would be better.

Thanks,
Morris

[Morris O.]

>> It may be that the original fonts have been replaced with a default system font and thus you can edit as normal (they willjuist look different than the original).

When I edit the fonts they look exactly the same as they always used to.

>> Did you get the files from someone else or move them to a new system?

No, I created the entire Encore project myself, including the menu, on the same PC.

———-

I can’t figure why the error popup started to happen but I was able to correct the problem. The error popup always occurred when opening the menu in Encore or by going to Photoshop from Encore. The error message popup did not give an option to correct the error.

I closed Encore and Photoshp and navigated to the project’s folder > sources > menus. I saw two identical looking menus. Could open one with Photoshop with no problem. Opening the 2nd menu gave the error popup but this time it gave the option to “update” for vector output. After clicking update, the menu opened. All is well again when accessing the menu from Encore or Photoshop. One of those mysterious errors.

Thanks,
Morris

[Morris O.]

>> IS the “magic” selection tool in elements, not the same as the magic wand in CS2 ? << The magic selection tool in PSE4 that I'm thinking of is one that allows the user to place red dots (or lines) all over the object to be extracted and blue dots (or lines) all over the background and then the extraction automatically takes place when the user clicks OK (or FINISH, I forget the exact name). By having many dots, PSE4 has a better idea of exactly what to extract. It works surprisingly well and then the extraction can be fine tuned if nececessary. Does CS2 have a similar function?

[Morris O.]

>> What I think that means is that when Adobe develops a feature for Elements, it may not make it into the full version of Photoshop until the next release, or vice versa. For example, Elements 4 has a new “magic” selection tool that CS2 does not.<< Exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks much! Morris

[Morris O.]

>> CS and CS2 are proffesional level software, there is nothing you can think of that this software can’t do (that is as far as Graphic Manupilation and Creating is concerned). << Thanks for the reply Derrick. But your qualification of "(that is as far as Graphic Manupilation and Creating is concerned)" has me concerned. I use Photoshop 7 and before CS or CS2 came out it was considered professional software. Yet it did not have the redeye removal function that the consumer PhotoDeluxe software had. I'm wondering if the similar is true about CS/CS2 versus Photoshop Elements 4.0, especially the PSE4 functions that I listed in my original post. Thank you much for your response, Morris

[Morris O.]

>> What’s the best and fastest way to save all edited wedding videos so that they can be edited again in the future if needed? Should I just save on DVD, mini-DV tape, or save master file (Premiere Pro)? I’ve been burned by losing info on my hard drive and external hard drives (don’t buy Maxtor drives!)

To backup projects in progress, the “fastest” way to backup would be to save all captures (video and audio) and project files to another hard drive on an IDE or SATA port. With the large capacity drives available today, this is not hard to do.

As far as archiving goes, I would not worry about saving everything (captures, project files, etc.) since it is extremely rare that a wedding video client requests a re-edit years later. So if you’re looking for better archival quality, suggest archiving the finished video to mini-DV, full size DV or Digital-8 tape as they all provide the exact same quality. Save your camera tapes, mini-discs and other field captures for a few years to use for any re-edits if necessary. But again, I’m sure you will find that wedding clients rarely ask for re-edits.

Morris