Elemental Plugin
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Download the latest Elemental Lightroom Plugin version here (20091224.005) Released under the GNU GPL version 3 license. Installation instructions here. |
The Elemental plugin helps Photoshop Elements (PSE) version 6 onwards integrate with Lightroom in a similar fashion to Photoshop. It enables PhotoMerge, Open as Layers, Smart Objects, and more directly from Lightroom.
Elemental adds 5 new menu items to the File –> Plug-in Extras and Library –> Plug-In Extras menus, emulating the integration available to users of the full Photoshop product. This includes letting the user select photos and launch them directly into the Photomerge dialog, or open them as Smart Objects (a feature Adobe doesn’t advertise is available in PSE). It even adds some new options for good measure, namely Remove Lens Distortion and the ability to directly Open in PSE. And it does this all while avoiding the Camera Raw dialog which should be redundant given your Develop module edits in Lightroom. The only feature I couldn’t reproduce was Merge to HDR in Photoshop because PSE does not have a matching feature for the plugin to call.
Usage
When you open the File menu’s Plug-In Extras sub-menu, five new menu items will be available. All of these will allow you to open your RAW and DNG files in Photoshop Elements without rendering them as TIFF or PSD files first and will also bypass the Camera Raw dialog. Users will typically perform their non-destructive edits in Lightroom before invoking an external editor so rendering files and encouraging non-destructive edits directly in Camera Raw dialog somewhat defeats the workflow that Lightroom supports.
If you are a Windows user and follow the advice in Accelerate Access to Lightroom Plugin Extras you will be able to open this sub-menu using the Alt + F, then S key sequence and access these menu items using the described accelerator keys.
New File –> Plug-In Extras Menu Items
- Open in Photoshop Elements menu item will open all currently selected files individually in the PSE Editor. If you have enabled keyboard accelerators (see above) you can use the Alt + F, then S, then O key sequence to open the menu item.
- Open as Smart Object in Photoshop Elements menu item will open all currently selected files as separate smart objects in the PSE Editor. Please note this will be of limited use unless you are planning to work on these same photos on a system that has Photoshop installed later. While Smart Objects can be created in PSE they can’t be easily modified there. If you have enabled keyboard accelerators (see above) you can use the Alt + F, then S, then S key sequence to open the menu item.
- Merge to Panorama in Photoshop Elements menu item will open the PSE Editor’s New –> Photomerge Panorama dialog and load all currently selected files into it. You will have an opportunity to modify the panorama type and whether automatic blending is performed before the merging process begins. If you have enabled keyboard accelerators (see above) you can use the Alt + F, then S, then M key sequence to open the menu item.
- Open As Layers in Photoshop Elements menu item will open all currently selected files as layers within a single file in the PSE Editor. This can be useful if you want to perform some processing (e.g. resizing) of the photos before performing another operation such as merging to panorama. If you have enabled keyboard accelerators (see above) you can use the Alt + F, then S, then L key sequence to open the menu item.
- Remove Lens Distortion in Photoshop Elements menu item will open all currently selected files individually into the Camera Distortion filter within the PSE Editor. If you have enabled keyboard accelerators (see above) you can use the Alt + F, then S, then D key sequence to open the menu item.
General Plugin Operation
When you first try to use one of these menu options the plugin will attempt to locate your installation of Photoshop Elements. If you have installed a supported version of PSE in the default install location the plugin shouldn’t require any configuration. If it can’t find PSE then it will open a dialog asking you to locate the PSE editor before you continue. 
You can change this setting at any time by opening the Elemental entry in File –> Plug-In Manager dialog.
There are also a few other dialogs you may see during regular operation.
First is a reminder to save your files before opening in PSE. Saving your metadata (Ctrl + S, or Cmd + S) writes the Lightroom edits to the photo or XMP sidecar making them available to other applications. If you don’t save your files first PSE will show the initial, unedited image which is unlikely to be what you intended. Once you’ve gotten into the habit of saving before opening you can configure the warning to not show again.
Next is a warning that displays if one of the selected photos is a virtual copy. Virtual copies do not have a dedicated, matching image file so you can’t save the metadata to the file or sidecar and they can’t be opened in PSE. For virtual copies you will be given the option of opening the master file instead, or ignoring the virtual copies entirely. Once again the dialog can be set to not show again if you have a preferred option you will always use whenever virtual copies are selected.
The last dialog is one you will only see if you use the plugin for more than 3 weeks and it will only show once. Its a “buy me a beer” donation request. I’ve put a fair amount of work into this plugin (including learning a new programming language) to make Photoshop Elements do things its not supposed to be able to do, and to work not only on Windows but also the Mac platform. I’m hoping you will find my plugin useful enough that you would consider saying thanks in a liquid fashion. If you are extra keen you don’t even have to wait for the 3 week reminder. You can donate (and update the configuration) at any time by opening the Elemental entry in File –> Plug-In Manager dialog.
History
| Version | Change Log |
|---|---|
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20091224.005 |
The virtual copy warning dialog should no longer be displayed twice (Issue #6). |
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20090721.004 |
Issue #9: Removed "User Cancelled" errors appearing when Photoshop Elements refused to perform the requested action. |
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20090705.003 |
Initial public release |
29 Responses to “Elemental Plugin”
New Plugin Brings Lightroom and Photoshop Elements Together At Last | The Photo Geek - July 5th, 2009
[...] new Elemental plugin resolves these issues. It adds 5 new menu items to the File –> Plug-in Extras and [...]
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[...] when it is combined with Lightroom. To close this functionality gap I’ve created an Elemental plugin for Lightroom which provides Photoshop Elements users roughly the same level of integration [...]
Lækkert, burde være indbygget i LR.
Yours
Hi, this looks amazing – just what I’m looking for. Any chance it’ll work with 64bit lightroom? Also, any plans to update it for the features in Elements 8, like focus stacking and the “hdr” style exporter blend?
I meant exposure blend, sorry.
@Robb, One of the plugin users (Ian) has confirmed Elemental works just fine with LR 64 bit. [Updated: 8 November 2009]
I’ve just ordered my copy of PSE 8 and should have it mid next week. So I’ll be testing this version soon and will look to add more version specific features such as the ones you have mentioned here. If there are any others people think should be added then please let me know.
Hi, I have Elements 8 and Lightroom 2.5 and this plug-in doesn’t work. It gives an error bad argument #1 to ‘?’ (string expected, got nil). It never worked for me.
I am using a MAC with OS 10.6
I know there are issues with compatibility with 10.6 so it may be related to that.
@Preben, Thanks! I have actually submitted a feature request to the team to add this functionality into LR3 but haven’t spotted any indication of this in the LR3 beta yet.
@Roland, I’m sorry this didn’t work for you. I will be testing with PSE8 soon but didn’t really expect any errors. The issue you are describing seems to be before PSE8 could have interfered with the process anyway.
Did you keep the Elemental.log file it created? It should be in the Documents folder inside your home directory. If you have that please let me know and I’ll give you the email address to send it to so I can look into the problem.
Hi. Thanks for the note on LR 64bit, I’ll give it a go. How is the testing and dev going on PSE 8 features?
Hi Matt,
The log file states the same error, nothing more. Of course I can send it to you.
Thanks,
Roland
@Robb, my testing has shown the plugin works with PSE 8 (on Windows) without any changes. It isn’t inherently PSE 8 aware which is something I’ll update in the next release.
On the adding PSE 8 specific features front, my biggest issue is how I do this without annoying users of older versions of PSE. LR doesn’t provide a mechanism to dynamically add menu items. I have some ideas I’m investigating to work around this issue.
@Roland, Thanks. I’ve sent you an email so you know where to send the log.
Hi, I am using a MAC with OS 10.5.8, with Photoshop Elements 8 and Lightroom 2.5 and am having the same problem as that reported by Roland. Elemental plug-in doesn’t work. It gives the same error: “bad argument #1 to ‘?’ (string expected, got nil)”.
Thanks, Alain
@Alain, @Roland, I’ll try to get out the new build in the next day or two. I think I’ve located the problem you are encountering. To workaround the issue please: Go to the File menu, open the Plug-in Manager menu item, and click on Elemental in your list of plugins. If I’m right your PS Elements Editor field will be empty. Please click on the Choose button next to that field and find your PSE editor on your HDD. The default installation location on Mac OSX should be /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 8/Adobe Photoshop Elements.app
Hi, Same pb for me. The PSE Elements Editor field is empty but there is no Choose button next to it…?
MAC 10.6 LR 2.5
@Serge, I’ve just emailed you the release candidate for the next version which should fix this issue. Alain & Roland have already successfully tested it so I only need to tidy up a few more things before I can make it generally available. Hopefully will finish it tonight.
A new version of the plugin has been released and can be downloaded on this page. It should resolve all of the bugs commented on above. Robb’s feature request is still in the pipeline.
Matt, Thanks for this plug in. It is now working with my mac with snow leopard. I am using Lightroom 3 and Elements 8 and the plug in works great for editing in PSE. The problem I am having is that I can’t find the edited file in Lightroom 3 after I am done making the edits. Am I doing something wrong?
@Dan, Thanks for letting us know this is working for you.
You aren’t doing anything wrong. At this stage the plugin doesn’t automatically load the resultant file back into Lightroom for you. Instead you need to use the “Synchronize Folder” feature to load the file, if you are writing it to a folder that Lightroom already has in its catalog, or the “Import Photos” feature if this has been written to a new folder. I am planning to add this capability in the future. Just need to work out a safe way to find where it has been saved and when it is ready to be loaded.
Thanks; I am new to lightroom and was not aware of the synchronize folder option. This plug in works great! Thanks for making it!
Thanks man, this program was a life saver
The lightroom only allow editing of the Plugin-Extras menu? Does it not allow editig of the straight up context menu?
I tried to do the pano merge function and I get “Could not complete your request because Photoshop Elements was unable to find the JavaScript plug-in. – Adobe Photoshop elements”
Im using Elements 5.0
Solutions?
@Ben, Unfortunately the developer SDK provided with Lightroom 2 does not allow modifying the context menu. I’m not expecting Lightroom 3 to remove this limitation.
I haven’t tested the plugin with PSE 5 so I’m not sure which features will work with it. Is panorama the only function that didn’t work for you? If you could do some testing for me I could have a go at adding PSE 5 support.
Man I would love to do some testing for you
One thing you may need to know (i dont know why) is that when I run PSE5, i get this error (happens everytime) which is:
“Could not load default custom shapes because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop – Adobe Photoshop Elements” I don’t know if this is relevant but just thought I would mention it.
I tried all the options and I still get the same error. I haven’t got any plugins/presets installed in PSE5
If theres anything else you need e.g. a log or something, just ask.
@Ben, Thanks for helping out with the PSE 5 testing! Its unfortunate that version of Elements is missing a vital component (JavaScript support) so the plugin can’t be made to work with it. Versions 6, 7 and 8 are compatible though, and support Camera Raw plugin versions that work with Lightroom 2 and beyond, so it is worth considering upgrading Elements for more than just this plugin.
OK, while cleaning out my closet, I found 6.0. Kinda stange huh. Installed and running, all is great! Thanks matt! The plugin works! =D
@Ben, that is classic! Make sure you upgrade the Camera Raw plugin PSE uses to help get the best out of the LR/PSE integration.
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