How do I expand a folder of layers in Photoshop Elements?

In Photoshop Elements, how do I expand a layer group to see the layers inside? I mean "Register form" or "login form" in the following screenshot:

Answer

Well, upon some investigating, it appears that this is an intentional limitation of Photoshop Elements. As of PE10, there is still no support for layer groups. So you'll need someone with Photoshop to remove all layer groups before saving, as PE won't allow you to edit individual layers inside a layer group.

Luckily though, someone has made, for PE7, a set of actions that allow you to work around this missing feature. This should work for the latest versions of Photoshop Elements.

Unfortunately, this is the nature of crippleware. I'm not a big fan of this sort of sales tactic. I much prefer adding extra features to premium versions rather than stripping basic features to free/cheaper versions.

Maybe if there's enough customer outrage, Adobe will relent and add this basic feature to PE11. Something like this did happen with Aptana Studio Community Edition—SFTP support was removed in a later version, and even the community-supplied SFTP plugin was removed from the update repository. However, this understandably upset a lot of community members since it basically forced community edition users to use FTP, which is incredibly insecure and a very outdated practice at this point, so eventually Aptana relented and re-added SFTP support by default (a decision I applaud them for).

How to create a gradually transparent mask in photoshop from a black->grays->white image

There have been some posts regarding what I describe in the title, but none seem to understand what the aim is. So I'll try to described it further here:

I want to take an image, which has in it black, various increasingly light grays, all the way to white, in a complex arrangement (essentially a grayscale image). With that image, I want to re-define it so that the black is transparent and white is opaque, with the grays between representing partially transparent, with the ones closest to white the least transparent. I think you have the idea by now.

I then want to use that to be a mask that sits on top of another layer. So, for example, that mask on top of a solid colour of red would then look like the same original image, but instead of the black, with grays and white, it would look red where black was, then increasingly lighter reds until where white was in the original remains white here, with very light pinks near it, representing the very light grays.

Sounds like it should be really straightforward, and the sort of thing Photoshop is designed for, but no explanation of it so far has laid out in clear, simple steps, how to do this.

Please help?

Answer

What you need is a layer mask. They already work like you described - black being transparent, white being opaque and everything in between of gradual levels of opacity.

If your image is already a grayscale (as you said), all you need to do is to copy it and apply as a layer mask to any other layer.

One of the easiest way of doing it is to simply click ctr+a then ctr+c with only your grayscale image visible. That should copy it to the clipboard.

Then add a layer mask to the layer you want to mask: Layer ->Layer Mask -> from transparency.

You should see the mask in your layers window now as an additional thumbnail to the right. Simply alt+click on that thumbnail. Now you are in the Mask edit mode, paste (ctrl+v) your mask from clipboard and make any adjustments if needed. Than click on the layer main thumbnail to see affects.

technical writing - How can I express this more clearly or concisely?

I'm documenting a block of computer code and would like to make it clear and concise. I'm describing a function that populates a field on a user input screen. Here's my best shot but it still seems confusing because the 'in the', 'on the', 'for a' seem like a lot of prepositions for one sentence.

This function returns the WINGNUT_SELLER_CODE that appears in the 'Vendor' field  
on the 'THREADED_NUTS' screen for a given NUT_ID. 

Questions:
[1] How can I rewrite this to make it easier to understand?
[2] What about 'that appears' vs. 'which appears' when should I use 'that' and 'which' ?

Answer

Maybe break it into two sentences?

When you send this function a NUT_ID, it returns a WINGNUT_SELLER_CODE. This code is from the'THREADED_NUTS' screen in the 'Vendor' field.

I almost always use "that". (Every copy editor I've ever encountered seems determined to eradicate all uses of "which".

vector - How is it possible to use raster images on billboards at such large sizes?

I am learning graphic design. I know Illustrator is for vectors and Photoshop is raster images. When it is enlarged in Photoshop you can see the individual pixels and raster results. So Illustrator is widely used in Billboards nowadays. But a question comes to my mind.

I always see some edited image or photo used in the billboard. I don't understand how they can make these large images since when I make it so big it looks pixelated and rasterized in photoshop.

How is this possible?

style - In what situation do you put a full-stop after an ellipsis?

In some style guides, I see this mention of putting a full-stop after an ellipsis when you are stopping the paused sentence and going onto another new sentence, but when reading several very well-known novels, I have just seen either the ellipsis alone or ellipis followed by a SPACE between two sentences so am confused as to whether I should be putting the extra full-stop in and when.

E.g. "I was ashamed...and afraid." Normal pause, so just ellipsis.

But how about:

"I was ashamed...You couldn't understand."

Is the above ok or should it be:

"I was ashamed... You couldn't understand." SPACE AFTER ELLIPSIS.

How about:

"I am not sure if I will every be able to forgive him­...."

If this is the end of the character's thought, are we supposed to add the extra full-stop?

If not, when do we use it and do authors really use it? I rarely see it.

Thanks so much to anyone who has an idea!

As an aside, I see some authors use small letters after the ellipsis even when they are starting a new clause or sentence, rather than capitals to start a new sentence.

E.g. "I was ashamed...you couldn't understand."

Is the above also acceptable?

Convert .JPG to Vector

Is there a way to convert a .JPG image in to vector format? I'm using Illustrator and I've tried that "Image Trace" but the result doesn't look any where close to my original. Plus, I cannot select individual letters of a word like I can in an .AI or .EPS file.

Deep bid ask orders

Why do I often see some very deep limit buys and limit sells in a limit book? For instance the bid-ask may be \$39.00-39.01 but I see some bids at \$20 or even \$10 and some ask at \$60 or even \$500. What's the point of doing so? To capture some potential long-tail events?

Answer

I can think of 3 reasons:

1) Queue position

2) To be on the other side when an alogrithm has a disastrous error, which happens quite often on singular stocks and doesn't get reported (but someone will get fined) . I've seen cases where the price will drop over 99% almost instantaneously. For this to occur a backfiring algo will clear out the entire bid schedule, but keep issuing market orders, and a smart automated market making algo will take the other side for 1 cent.

3) To capture errors by manual traders. For example if they enter an extra zero on their limit order.

For (1) to be true, the orders must be relatively near to the insides. For example an order 8 levels above the insides is likely to be for (1) and (1) only. An order many hundreds of levels away is not due to (1) but due to other factors.

All else held equal, the probability that (2) is the reason is up to the exchange in question. Some exchanges will reverse the trades when an algo breaks down making such orders futile, others won't.

On some exchanges, (3) is not even possible since the exchange matching engine will guarantee that you receive the best possible price for your trade.