Elemental Plugin
The Elemental plugin integrates Photoshop Elements (PSE) with Lightroom, enabling external editing of images using a workflow similar to Lightroom’s native integration with Photoshop. It allows images to be PhotoMerged, Opened as Layers or Smart Objects, and more in the Photoshop Elements Editor directly from Lightroom.
Elemental adds 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 not normally accessible in PSE). It even adds some new options for good measure, namely Remove Lens Distortion and the ability to directly Open in PSE. It does this without invoking the Camera Raw dialog as this merely reflects the edits already performed within Lightroom’s Develop module.
Elemental is compatible with Photoshop Elements version 6 onwards when using Lightroom 2, Photoshop Elements version 8 onwards when using Lightroom 3, and Photoshop Elements version 10 onwards when using Lightroom 4.
Payment and Updates
The trial version operates on up to 2 images at a time. Donating to the plugin via the Photographer’s Toolbox will give you a registration code that will remove this restriction. All future updates are free.
[…] new Elemental plugin resolves these issues. It adds 5 new menu items to the File –> Plug-in Extras and […]
[…] 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
@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.
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.
@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?
@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.
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?
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.
[…] Elemental kun je Lightroom koppelen aan Photoshop Elements (6 of […]
I have Lightroom 2.6 and Photoshop Elements 8. My computer is a Mac version 10.6.3
Today I downloaded the Elemental Plugin.
I would be grateful if you could advise the best method to install this plug-in?
Thank you
regards
Sue
@Sue, The installation instructions are at the bottom of this page. Basically save the plugin where you want to permanently keep it, unzip the file, then use File -> Plug-In Manager‘s Add button (bottom left corner of the dialog) to install if from that location.
Matt –
Are you anticipating that your plug-in will wotk the LR3 beta and Elements 8?
@Tom, Last time I checked it worked with both but please let me know if you find any issues (I’m not anticipating any). The plugin hasn’t been updated yet to take advantage of any version specific features though.
Has there been any issues with the plug-in and Max OSX version 10.6.3
My computer has gone haywire 2 days after installing the plug-in – not sure whether Elemental is the culprit as yet.
Message i received a error message on my mac
that some software is incompatible with mac -and am trying to sus out which software. Elemental is the only receive download.
thanks
Sue
@Sue, I haven’t received any reports like that previously, and think it would be rather difficult for Elemental to be the culprit. That plugin doesn’t contain anything operating system specific and I can’t see how a “software is incompatible with mac” message could be generated by Lightroom or OSX regarding the plugin. Its likely to be something else on the system. Sorry I can’t give you any more advice than that right now. Don’t have access to a Mac myself so wouldn’t really know where to start debugging the problem.
Hi Matt, excited to have just found your plugin! Maybe I’m not understanding how the plugin should work, but it does not seem to work quite properly.
I’m running Mac OSX 10.6.3, 20091224.5 of the Elemental plugin, PSE 6 and LR 2.7.
I select a heavily developed image in LR, and use “Open in Photoshop Elements”. The image does indeed open in Elements, but it is the original image, not the developed one I see in LR. I have made sure I saved the metadata, and verified that I have an XMP file of the same base name in the same dir as my RAW.
I’m hoping to get this working; I have a hankering to buy you a beer!
@Paul, My first reaction was to make sure you had saved the metadata for the file but you’d thought of that already. What file type are you using? If its DNG RAW then the .xmp files probably aren’t being used so this could still be a problem.
Next question is have you upgraded the Camera Raw plugin used by Elements? PSE 6 is getting a little long in the tooth and I’m pretty sure its original Camera Raw version didn’t support LR2’s develop settings. I’d suggest upgrading to Camera Raw 5.6 (instructions here) and try again.
Please let me know how it goes.
i’m a mac 10.6, PSE 8 user. i need some help downloading your photomerge panorama fix for PSE8. i’ve downloaded your ELR file, but i’m not sure where to put it…applications/inside PSE8???
Copy the zip file where you want the plugin to permanently reside, then unzip the file. where and how?
any help appreciated.
@Lynne, Elemental is a plugin for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It helps users in that program open photos for editing in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Instructions for installing it are included on this page but the highlights are you can unzip the file to any permanent location on your hard drive, open Lightroom’s File -> Plug-In Manager menu item, and use the Add button to install the plugin from the location you unzipped it to. When unzipping make sure you enable the “use folders” or similar option because the unzipping process creates the correctly named directory necessary for installation to succeed.
Hope that helps.
I have Lightroom 3 and Elements 6 on an imac. I tried to use the Merge feature and when it got to elements it said Error 8000: Cannot open the file because the open options are incorrect. What can I do to resolve this problem. Thank you
@Mike, Have you ever upgraded your version of Adobe Camera Raw? It is likely you are using an older version and this could be the cause of this issue. Please go to the Adobe Camera Raw Download Page for Macintosh and download a Camera Raw update and follow the instructions at the bottom of the download page for installing for Photoshop Elements 6. Camera Raw 5.5 is the last version that provides instructions for installing with PSE 6 so later versions may work, but there are no guarantees.
To the best of my knowledge you need at least Camera Raw 5.7 to successfully render all of the latest develop settings available in Lightroom 3 but this is not documented as being supported by PSE 6. If you are up for it I’d suggest downloading both Camera Raw 5.5 and 5.7, trying 5.7 and if that doesn’t work falling back to 5.5.
Please let me know if you still have any issues after shutting down PSE, upgrading Camera Raw using Adobe’s instructions and then trying again.
Hi Matt,
I’ve just started trying this plugin and I’m just trying to confirm I’m using it correctly. When I select several images and send them to Elements it opens the files correctly and then launches the panorama box but then I need to manually click “add open files” to stitch the correct ones. Then when I click save I need to navigate to where my original images came from so I can save the result back into LR and reimport the image (finding the folder is the hard bit). Is this the expected behaviour? (I’m fine if it is, just making sure there’s nothing wrong with my config)
Thanks for a great plugin… right now I’m trying to decide if it will meet my needs before I buy Elements (I’m using the trial).
Cheers,
James
@James, That is expected behaviour at the moment. The reimporting awkwardness is something I definitely want to fix but will require some work to make it robust.
The Adobe trials are really handy for that. I hope it meets your needs because you could probably buy a decent lens for your camera with the money you’d save relatively to CS5.
Followed the directions to install in the readme file, and LR3 refuses to find the “lrplugin” directory and fails with an “An error occurred while attempting to load this plug-in”. What error? How do I correct it? What do I do? Wonderful! So what do I do now?
I guess I continue to avoid Adobe Lightroom yet again. It never works for me. Never any support, never works as advertised.
@Gordon, I’m sorry that the instructions did not work for you.
What operating system are you running Lightroom on? When you unzipped the file did you use the “maintain folder structure” option (or similar – naming of the option varies across unzip programs)? On Windows the correctly unzipped Elemental.lrplugin directory should contain an images sub-directory. On Mac the unzipped plugin should be identified as a known file type associated with Lightroom.
Also be aware that many file managers (Explorer and Finder) have a level of built in support so zip so it is possible it looks like the file is unzipped when it actually hasn’t been. In that case the Plug-in Manager’s add button would be unable to locate the .lrplugin folder because it is still only in the zip. Please unzip the downloaded file then try again.
I’m assuming that error displayed in the Plug-in Manager at the time you tried to install the plugin. Was an Elemental section created in the Plug-in Manager? i.e. was Elemental added to the list of plugins on the left hand side of the Plug-in Manager dialog? If so, clicking on that name will show you a page that includes diagnostic messages (and an offer to save them to disk) that will be help us work out what went wrong. It is also worth looking for the plugin log file as it might have some useful information in it if it made it that far through the install process. The file is called Elemental.log and on Windows it is in your My Documents folder (XP) or Libraries\Documents (Vista or Win 7), and on Mac it is in the users Documents folder. If you can find this extra log information we can talk via email re how to fix this.
Even if you believe you have done all this correctly it is worth unzipping the file again (preferably into the same location), and restarting Lightroom (especially if using a Mac) then trying the process to add the plugin to Lightroom again. It often seems to help and it can’t really hurt.
[…] aid with the transition all my plugins will have a slight naming update. Elemental has become TPG Elemental. Snapshotter has become TPG Snapshotter. And so forth. […]
I am trialing LR 3.3 with PSE 9 and was disappointed about the (lack of) integration until I discovered this plugin. It works great, but when i create a pano in PSE and save it it does not show up in LR unless i force an import or sync.
— i’m SAVEing in PSE (not using SAVE AS)
— i have the PSE editor settings to “on first save, save over current file” which is what i’m told you need to have set.
what am i doing wrong?
@Eric, You aren’t doing anything wrong. I’ve mentioned this in the FAQ over at Photographer’s Toolbox and need to update the page here, but currently the folder synchronisation is a necessary step.
I’m investigating ways to remove this requirement and all those I’ve identified so far involve a fair amount of work and will require care to ensure they are robust. When creating a panorama and other composite files you are not actually working on the original files so it isn’t as simple as saving over the top of an existing file and refreshing the thumbnail. Same issue arises if you are working with any form of RAW or DNG file.
The next Elemental release will put in place some of the foundations for this feature. If you leave the automatic update feature enabled you will receive this and future updates as soon as they are available.
Thanks — it’s good to know that I’m not as stupid as my wife says I am.
Frankly, i’m impressed that you’ve been able to create this plug-in at all. Very cool.
what is the advantage of using the “open in PSE” plug in command versus the “edit in” command? is it that you bypass the RAW editor and don’t create an intermediate PSD?
@Eric, Correct – the main advantage is to avoid the creation of an intermediate file when PSE can cope just fine with the source file you already had. Saves time, disk space, etc.
In addition the other menu items (panorama, etc) allow you to skip a few steps when creating new outputs from your source files in Lightroom. I’m currently working on adding greater PSE version awareness so some of the newer features (e.g. exposure photomerge) will have their own menu item if you have a compatible version of PSE.
thanks. I continue to be impressed by this. I am planning to move to Lightroom from PSE (the PSE editor is fine, but the organizer is weak) and if I do i will certainly be using this. I will also make a contribution to your efforts.
frankly, i’m amazed that your integration with PSE is better than what Adobe provides. Go figure.
Matt — i have a question that i think i should know the answer to but i don’t.
i have a .NEF file in LR 3.2. I use your plugin to “open in photoshop elements.” I edit in in PSE and SAVE it as a JPEG (same file name as the .NEF file, but this one is a JPEG).
i go back to LR and synch the folder, and LR doesn’t see the new file. but it’s there — the OS can see it.
if i “SAVE AS” in PSE with a new file name it works. Do i have to do that?
@Eric, while I haven’t heard anyone report that issue before, it sounds like you are running afoul of the “Treat JPEG Files Next To Raw Files As Separate Photos” setting. In Lightroom’s Preferences (Edit > Preferences menu item on Windows, Lightroom > Preferences on Mac) the General preferences tab will have this setting unchecked by default. It is normally used to stop having two images appearing in the library when you are shooting RAW+JPEG and importing the files from your camera. My guess is this is unchecked and because the file name is the same (except for the extension) it is treating the file as a sidecar file or automatically stacking the two files. If you don’t take photos in RAW+JPEG mode then try selecting this setting and trying again. Regardless of whether you change this setting, using a different file name should make the image appear in the catalog.
Matt — you’re good! that did it!
Matt,
As i experiment with this, it seems that Develop changes made to JPEGs don’t show up in PSE Editor when using the Elemental plug in — is that correct? the only way I can see them is to use the “edit in” command to render the PSD, or to go to PSE editor and use “Open as RAW.”
if that’s true, it’s unfortunate, because i’d love to use LR for the majority of my editing (exposure, white balance, etc) but only jump to PSE for unique pixel-based situations. So the workflow would be edit in LR and then jump to PSE to finish. can that work?
@Eric, The plugin is designed to reflect the develop changes for JPEGs when opening in PSE. The only time where this should not happen is when you do not save (Ctrl + S on Windows) the changes before opening a file in PSE, or the Camera Raw version is not at the correct version to support your Lightroom version. Given you are using Lightroom 3.x your version of PSE needs to be using Camera Raw 5.7 or greater. PSE 9 complies out of the box, PSE 8 can if you manually upgrade it, and PSE 7 and earlier are not compatible unfortunately. If this does not describe your situation then let me know and we’ll talk offline to debug this problem.
@Matt,
thanks. i’m using PSE9 and ACR 6.1 with LR 3.3.
here’s what i’m doing:
— make changes to JPEG in LR
— save meta data (cntrl S)
— using plug in to open in PSE
— i don’t see any changes (it does not invoke ACR)
i do see the changes if i go to PSE editor and manually open the file using “open as RAW”
@Eric, I’ll need to look into that. I would have expected that to work. Not displaying ACR is intentional, but ignoring the develop settings is not.
thanks, Matt. let me know if i can do anything on this end to help.
Matt,
something baffles me. when i go to PSE to create a pano i save the file and give it a name. when i come back to LR and synch, it says the file is untitled. ??
@Matt — more on the question i just asked. What is the proper way to use “merge to panorama?” when i invoke that and create a pano and close it, PSE prompts me for a file name. I provide one. I go back to LR and synchronize, and it finds the file and shows me the file name. But when the import completes, LR says the file is untitled.
???
@Eric, When you say untitled, I assume you are referring to metadata (title, captions, keywords, etc) not being transfered to the panorama? If so this is the way the merge to panorama feature works. It creates a new document and merges the others into it but doesn’t automatically bring metadata with it.
Later today I’ll see if there is a simple way to transfer that metadata. Alternatively you might be able to use John Beardsworth’s Syncomatic plugin ( http://www.beardsworth.co.uk/lightroom/syncomatic/ ) to do this for you.
I’ll add a feature request to the list to copy across metadata. I find this behaviour less than desirable as well.
@Matt,
i actually mean the name of the file. Sometimes when it appears in the grid view after import it says it is untitled.
I would like to also preserve the meta data, too, though — i i didn’t realize it didn’t do that.
what is the proper way to leave PSE after creating the pano? Save as? Just exit and let PSE ask for your file name?
@Matt — ???
@Eric, If you have saved the file in PSE then synchronised the folder to load the file into Lightroom then the filename should not appear as “untitled” in Lightroom. Plugins have no control over that so if this is appearing it could be a product bug.
The easiest way to move the metadata to the resultant pano would be in the Library module to select one of the original files, then the pano, then click the Sync Metadata button (bottom right of the screen). This lets you select which metadata you wish to move to the resultant image.
The way you leave PSE should not impact the processing by Elemental. Either of those approaches should work fine.
Matt- This is great! I think it is the answer to what I have been looking for…
Maybe you could help me? What I want accomplish is:
1) I do all my major editing in lightroom 2 on my MAC- I love it.
2) BUT I want to use Photoshop Elements 8 to do some extras (presets ect.)
3) When I export from Lightroom sRGB JPEG and edit in Photoshop Elements and save I must not do it correctly because my prints come out looking dark, bland and yucky with a blue or green hue.
I have Zero problems when I export and print directly from Lightroom (I use either a cord camera printer preset or standard sRGB) BUT when I start playing around in photoshop then save as a JPEG with sRGB they print all yucky. What am I doing wrong? What size should I save at? Could you give me directions?
I notice that when I look at the JPEGs I save out of Photoshop Elements 8 in my view finder on my Mac they look all blurry. I know there is a problem I just can’t figure it out- I have read countless forums and I’m thinking your pluggin might be the answer. The part in FAQ about syncing my library folder- would that solve this problem?
I’m thinking if there is a way I can do all my major work in lightroom, open photoshop and keep the changes I made in photoshop so they appear in lightroom and then only export as sRGB from lightroom this would fix my problem. Could you explain to me how to do that?
@Emily, Glad you are finding this useful.
First of all I’m not a colour management guru but I can recommend a resource that might help. Eric Chan recently wrote an article on getting better prints. I trust him – he is one of the engineers working on the Camera Raw plugin (and its shared code with Lightroom) and he knows what he is talking about.
There are a number of issues at play here. Lightroom and Photoshop Elements do colour management in different ways so the profile used to export the photo or a corrupted monitor profile could be at play here. Victoria Bampton (aka Lightroom Queen) has a sample from her Lightroom Missing FAQ book that addresses this issue. While it describes interaction with Photoshop the Photoshop Elements Editor has similar (though simplified) controls so the recommendations are still relevant. Please have a look at it and see if it helps with this problem.
If you currently export from Lightroom as a JPEG, and then edit the file in PSE, you have two opportunities to lose image quality in your photos. If you use TPG Elemental to open the file in PSE then that should cut out at least one of those opportunities. Its worth trying at least. You may also need to think about where you apply sharpening, noise correction, etc to ensure you aren’t applying it to early in the process and then editing the results to create a less than optimal output. The synching with folder step is only required to get the PSE edited file back into Lightroom. It doesn’t impact image quality in any way.
Victoria’s article will explain how to setup the colour profiles for Photoshop (similar to what you require, though its more complicated than PSE). If you setup PSE’s colour management, use TPG Elemental to open the file in PSE, then sync the folder back to Lightroom (as per the FAQ) then you should be able to export from Lightroom as sRGB and hopefully that will resolve your issue.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH- This has been a headache for a long time!
Problem:
Just downloaded the editor and installed fine, BUT…
When I click “open in photoshop elements” it just opens up Elements, not actually the photo. What am I doing wrong here ?
(Lightroom 3.4 and elements 9)
@Michael, sorry to hear you are having problems. How exactly are you executing the open in photoshop elements item? It is possible you might be bypassing the plugin’s functionality.
@Matt: I go file>plug-in extras>open in elements (in this case Panorama).
If I go Photo>edit in… There´s no problem, and it opens all the selected photos in elements. Reinstall maybe ?
@Michael, I think the most likely cause is if you manually selected where elements was installed you might not have picked the exe ending in editor.exe . There are two likely programs in the directory and one can take you via the welcome screen (which you might have chosen to disable) and it tends to lose the images passed to it on the way through. This is likely to be a configuration issue so I doubt a reinstall would help.
[…] tekst, doorgedreven retoucheren, …). Er is een leuke en goedkope plugin voor Lightroom, Elemental genaamd, die de integratie tussen LR en Elements nog verbetert… __________________ Lightroom […]
…hm, but files which i send to elements 8 via this plugin is still convert to 8 bit depth? maybe it will worth to buy perfect layer and you will can work in 16 bit depth…
@Marcin, try downloading the latest version of the plugin (released yesterday). It defaults to a bit depth of 16 when opening images, except for those PSE features (e.g. panorama) that don’t support it. The default setting is configurable for those that prefer to work at a lower bit depth.
For those using an older version of the plugin, or those who have disabled the auto-update feature, a new version of TPG-Elemental was released on the weekend. This is the first version to explicitly support the Mac App Store variant of the PSE Editor.
[…] Viveza (kleurcontrole), Dfine (ruisreductie) en Silver Efex Pro (zwart-wit conversies).Met Elemental kun je Lightroom koppelen aan Photoshop Elements (6 of hoger).Als je een External Editor plug-in […]
I tried this with Lightroom 4 Beta and got the error message “attempt to perform arithmetic on field minsbeforeclean (a nil value)” when selecting Merge to Panoramas or any of the other plugin options.
I’m running Lightroom 4 Beta and Photoshop Elements 10 on Windows 7 64-bit. Is this something that should work, or do I need to wait for the plugin to be ported to Lightroom 4?
@Steve, Thanks for reporting this issue! I had tested with LR4 but must have skipped the “new user” test so missed this bug. I published version 1.10 of the plugin last night and hopefully it should resolve this. Please let me know if you go.
@Matt, Version 1.1 has fixed the problem. Thanks for the really speedy response.
@Matt, I’m getting an error when trying to edit in Elements 10. When I set this up last week it was working fine and don’t believe anything changed, so kind of stumped. When I go to File->Plug-In Extras->Edit in Photoshop Elements (actually all options give this) I get a message saying “Failed to open images in Photoshop Elements.” with the details “performCommandDesc could not perform command ag.library.file.writeSelectedXMPSidecars (Command was disabled).”
My catalog settings under Metadata are all checked except for the EXIF option, but again I haven’t changed these since it was working.
Any ideas?
@Matthew, Sorry to hear you have encountered an issue with the plugin. Haven’t heard any reports of this before. Can you please confirm what version of Lightroom and platform you are using? And it sound like you have the “automatically write to XMP” option set for this catalog. Correct? If so this might be a case of two Lightroom tasks trying to write the XMP at the same time.
Matt, I hear that when LR4 went final, some plugins, and the launching of PSE10, no longer worked. I bought elements/premier 10 and will purchase LR4 soon … what is the status of Elemental plugin compatibility with these – with the final LR4? I did purchase your plugin last night, assuming you would update it. But I am not going to install Elements, LR4, or your plugin until I clean up a few things in my photo folders – and you say it is good to go. Thanks.
@Jonathan, Elemental works with LR4 and PSE 10. In fact I’ve just recently had reports indicating that it works when many other methods for opening in external editors don’t. The caveat is that LR4’s PV2012 isn’t supported by PSE10 yet so a new photo imported into LR4, edited using PV2012 and opened in PSE10 will look different between the two programs. We will need to wait for a Camera Raw update for PSE10 before the PSE10 and LR4 will be 100% compatible. Photos using the older process version should work fine though.
Then it would seem I had better stick to my Corel AfterShot, though maybe experiment with the LR3 trial that came in the PSE10 box. Adobe might not make the Camera Raw for PSE10 match the version for LR4 – it would stop people from going the “cheap” route with PSE using your plugin. I will never be able to afford the full PhotoShop. So I’ll hold off on an LR4 purchase until I see you indicate that the PV2012 is now in PSE10. Am I misunderstanding? Adobe has no financial incentive in updating the PSE part, and every financial incentive to “forcing” the full PhotoShop. Corel AfterShot is nice too.
@Jonathan, I fully expect Adobe to release LR4 compatible versions of Camera Raw that work in PSE. While your suggestion is one business model Adobe could take they have shown no indication they would take that “lock in” path. After all we are now at PSE 10 and Camera Raw support has been consistently released since the early days.
At this stage (early March 2012) no LR4 compatible Camera Raw version has been released for PS or PSE. We just need to be a little more patient. Whether you hold off on the purchase or not is your call, but the reasoning described here for waiting doesn’t seem to stack up.
Thanks Matt, you make a good case!
Bought LR3 for $116 on Amazon after their chat person said I would be eligible for free LR4 upgrade! (I took a screenshot of that). Looking forward to using LR4 with my PSE10 – courtesy of your plugin. Thanks Matt!
I’m using LR4 with PSE9 and I just tried to do a photomerge of four RAW files…it says PSE9 is incompatible. Bummer. I love the elemental plug in. Is there any kind of work around? will it work if i convert the RAW files to JPEGS?
@Eric, It is a bit unfortunate but Camera Raw support for PSE9 doesn’t cater for Lightroom 4’s new process version. PSE10 doesn’t yet but I expect that to be resolved as soon as the next Camera Raw version is released.
If you export the images to JPEG this should work but you will need to skip the compatibility check (checkbox in the option panel). The problem is the PV2012 develop settings can’t be processed by PSE without the new Camera Raw. Exporting bakes those into the file so this is no longer a problem.
This issue is impacting a lot of people. I’ll see if I can do something to avoid this manual step.
[…] TPG-Elemental Lightroom plugin users: you need this update to take full advantage of the plugin when using these product versions. […]
LightRoom updates automatically update their Camera Raw to 7.1 – does this mean that PS Elements is no longer compatible if and until they update the Camera Raw for PSE?
@Jonathan, Camera Raw 6.7 should be the minimum necessary to maintain full compatibility with Lightroom 4.x. So PSE 10 should remain compatible with the latest Lightroom 4 releases as it already has Camera Raw 6.7 available.
I had the Elemental plug-in for LR3. When I did a trial of LR4 I thought I was still able to use the merge to panorama function to PSE9. I’ve since upgraded my PC (and bought LR4) and no longer have the plug-in so just wanted to confirm that this will still work in the software versions I have before I buy it again.
Nb: when I merge to panorama I don’t usually do any adjustment to the individual photo’s until after they’re merged – presumably this means I shouldn’t be affected by raw 6.7 not supported by PSE9? Thanks
@Nathan, Unfortunately PSE 9’s lack of support for CR 6.7 will likely cause you a problem. If you use the latest LR development controls (aka PV2012) then you need CR 6.7 for PSE to be able to reflect those edits. If you only use the older LR development controls (aka PV2010) you will be fine and can ignore the compatibility check performed by Elemental.
Also you don’t have to re-donate to continue using Elemental. The plugin itself can be downloaded here. If you have lost your registration code you can use the help link on that same page to look up your registration code if you remember the email address you used when donating.
Great, thanks Matt. It should work fine for me as I will first merge the photo’s and then do all development with the merged image, including using the new 2012 process.
Hi again,
I’ve reinstalled the Elemental plugin into LR4. It seems to work fine except that when it opens PSE 9, I get a message saying that PSE 9 is already installed on 2 computers (it is, but only 2 in total) and that I need to enter a valid serial number or uninstall it from one of them.
I don’t have this problem if I open PSE 9 directly, only when Lightroom tries to communicate with it (including where I have already opened PSE 9).
Thanks
@Nath, [Edit – didn’t see your followup comment] Thanks for confirming that Adobe helped you resolve this issue via resetting the activation count. Very odd problem, and unsure how an unrelated javascript could trigger it to check the license status anyway. Glad it is sorted out now.
Hi
I have resolved my problem with activation of PSE 9. Not sure what caused it but Adobe reset the activation count to fix it. You can delete my last question (from Nath).
Cheers
Hi,
Is there any plan to make Elemental compatibel with PSE 11?
Regards,
Eike
@Eike, It actually can work with PSE 11 right now but it doesn’t make it obvious. You need to manually locate the editor and might also need to use the skip compatibility check option.
Hoping to have an update out this weekend to resolve these issues. I’m installing PSE right now to double check the Camera Raw version included in the release.
@Eike (and any other PSE 11 users), TPG Elemental v1.11 onwards include explicit support for PSE 11. It was released a couple of weeks ago so hopefully the self-update mechanism will have prompted any existing users to update by now.
@Matt,
i’m using PSE9 with LR4 and noticed that when i use Elemental to go directly to PSE my changes in LR are not applied; you basically explained this in comment you made back on April 9th that I need to export them from LR first — is that still the case? Do i need to upgrade to PSE 10 or 11 to make this seamless?
@Eric, Yes, that is still the case if you are using PSE 9.
If you upgrade to PSE 10 and install Camera Raw 6.7 this will make it seamless again, but if you can upgrade to PSE 11 it would be even better. PSE 11 will be able to install Camera Raw updates for a while yet (e.g. currently the latest Camera Raw version it supports is 7.2) but PSE 10 won’t support any Camera Raw version after 6.7.
@Matt, thanks for your reply. I’m confused by your last sentence; is it possible there was a typo in it?
@Eric, no, there wasn’t a typo. But I’ve reworded it anyway to reduce the opportunities for confusion. Hopefully the revised version is clearer for you.
@Matt, i installed PSE 11 and registered it as the editor for the plugin.
i selected 5 .NEF files and indicated to merge them to a pano, as i have done with previous versions of PSE. PSE11 started up, the add dialog box appeared, the files appeared in the dialog, and then I got an error saying “Documents must be saved before they can be merged”. what does that mean?
@Matt, i don’t mean to be a pest, but wondering if you saw my last post. I bought PSE11 entirely so it would work seamlessly with your plugin and i’m trying to figure out why that isn’t happening.
@Eric, thanks for emailing me that screenshot. That helped me identify the problem.
It turns out that if PSE 11’s Editor is in Quick mode before you start a “Merge to Panorama” or “Open as Layers” it won’t work. I’ll update the plugin to help explain this to users and help it gracefully cope with these situations. Please make sure your PSE 11 Editor is in Expert mode before attempting “Merge to Panorama” or “Open as Layers” and it will work fine.
@Eric, I haven’t seen this before. I’ll have to see if I can reproduce the issue here then work out a way around it.
Matt,
that fixed it! thanks for figuring it out. I didn’t even check what mode it was in because these days i pretty much only use PSE via your plug in.
thanks!
@Eric, Thanks for confirming that worked for you. It is an easy enough thing to miss and I wasn’t aware of the issue until you sent through that screenshot. I’m trying to enhance the plugin now so it will detect the situation and help users work around it.
In installing the Elemental plugin I get a message to say Elements 10 and LR5 are incompatible. Please load a different version of PEL.
I didn’t see any restrictions such as this in the plugin description.
@Colin, Apologies. I had forgotten to update that compatibility line on the Elemental documentation page. I will fix that.
When using Lightroom 5 you need to be using PSE 11 or 12 for the Elemental plugin to be able to operate effectively. Adobe doesn’t tend to update the Camera Raw plugin for PSE after the next version of PSE gets released. This means that the version of PSE available when a new Lightroom major version gets released is the minimum version required by Elemental.