Brand Newbie - best tutorial to start with?

jaymay22

Member Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia. Joined: Aug 27, 2009 07:18 Messages: 143 Offline

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Oct 30, 2014 23:21

Hi there, I've enjoyed PowerD11 for a couple of years, converting my dad's old 1960s Std 8 film into video and editing it with PD. Now I've just bought the PD13 Ultimate package, which included PhotoDirector 5 as a bonus. Yippee!

I really wanted PhotoDirector, as I like to add slide shows of relevant 1960s photos to end of home movies, and would love to tweak and edit them.

Having NEVER used anything like this before (never used photoshop....most I ever used was Microsoft's PhotoGallery edit page), this is quite new to me. I've looked around the page and looks great, a lot is quite intuitive, but some things I just can't work out. (for example....how to 'put back' a photo that you've been working on, but want to do a different one now....seems stupid, but I just can't work it out.

I need a beginner's tutorial for PhotoDirector - preferably PhD5 but if they're all similar any will do.
I've looked on Cyberlink, but not quite 'beginner enough'. I need something that explains the workspace, and basic tools first THEN get into the unique tools.

Can you suggest a link, or someone's youtubes, or....???
With many thanks.
Jenny Jenny

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Oct 30, 2014 23:51

Hello jaymay22,

Welcome to the PhotoDirector forum

Yes - many of the CyberLink tutorials cover particular aspects of photo editing. You sound like you need a quick start guide.

Probably the most basic one I can think of is this - http://youtu.be/jkZdtejCocU - even though it has a PhD6 badge on it you'll see that the screen captures apply to PhD4 (and all versions)

Just as a simple hint, I've found that if you have your photos organised in folders on your PC it's a good idea to import folders (so they retain your filing method from Windows). Of course, you may want to go about it differently.

PIX PIX YouTube channel

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Oct 30, 2014 23:56

Ooops, I forgot your question...

how to 'put back' a photo that you've been working on, but want to do a different one now....seems stupid, but I just can't work it out.

Do you mean, how do you undo the editing you've done or just move onto another photo?

It's important to understand that PhD is non-destructive. It doesn't actually make changes to your original photos. When you export, PhD makes a new version of the photo with your adjustments.

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jaymay22

Member Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia. Joined: Aug 27, 2009 07:18 Messages: 143 Offline

Nov 01, 2014 20:14

Actually, I meant both. In most other photo editors there's an X off, to go to the next photo, OR (more what I meant) stop the edit and just go back to a 'normal' , like 'finish'. Maybe in this software you don't 'finish'> you just click on the next photo, then when you're done you go back to the library??

Also, I'm a bit confused about the making a duplicate thing. Does that mean every time there's an edit, there's another copy of the same photo? With the old one as well as all it's incarnations? Jenny

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Nov 01, 2014 21:16

Hello again Jenny,

Under the Adjustment tab, you can "stop" an edit in a few ways:
1. Just select a different photo (click on it)
2. Click on the Library tab
or (if you want to undo all the changes you've made)
3. Right click on the photo > select Reset

PhD doesn't make any copies or versions of a photo while you're editing. What it does is retain your editing information. The only time your adjustments become an actual photo (i.e. it takes up space on your PC) is when you Export.

In the screenshot, 1. shows a photo being edited (with before & after comparison) & 2. shows a different photo selected. PhD retains the data about all adjustments made to the first photo while you work on the next one. BUT - they don't become photos till you export. PhD stores this information even when you close then re-open (self-saving, if you like)

The Help File explains "Virtual Photos" better than I could:

Creating Virtual Photos

Before you begin making adjustments to your photos, you can duplicate them by creating virtual copies. To do this, right click on a photo in the photo browser panel and select Create Virtual Photo.

Virtual photos are not physical photos on your hard drive until you export them. This allows you to make a different set of adjustments on the same photo, simultaneously, and then export the different resulting photos together.

You seem to be making good headway

PIX


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jaymay22

Member Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia. Joined: Aug 27, 2009 07:18 Messages: 143 Offline

Nov 20, 2014 03:21

oh!!! I had no idea about most of that information. Thankyou so much, the export button was not something I imagined made the firm copy of my edited photo.
Thankyou, you've made things a lot easier.
The visuals are great too.
Jenny Jenny