mrstucci Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 Hi! I am still learning this whole digital scrapbooking thing and love it so far! I bought the SS Tool Styles-Embed 1801 and haven't figured out how to use it. I am using PSE4 on a Mac. Everytime I use it, what I want to look embedded, turns black. There is a trick somewhere, somehow that I need to learn. Thanks for the help, as always. Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Ann Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 Judy- I have the embed 1801 styles and I noticed that the second and third styles sometimes turn the object dark, but the other ones don't. I think it may vary on different objects you use it on. You might try all of them out on a brad or eyelet of some sort to get an idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April Showers Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 I think you my be able to click on the style and alter it a bit to change the color after you have applied it-- like you change the color of a drop shadow. I'd need to go try it. Guess that would only work in Photoshop, not PSE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artsy22 Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 There are several options included in the embed style. Try them all out and see which works best for your embellishment and the background your embellishment is on. Unfortunately in Photoshop Elements you are not able to tweak styles, so what you see is what you get. But with all the different options in the Embed style, hopefully there is one that works just right for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shari PV Mom Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I've noticed when I'm using that style (on PSE4) that some of them work better than others depending on the element I'm using it on. Sometimes none of them work at all. I guess that's what we have to live with if we don't upgrade to PSCS2(3). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 I am not ready to give up on yet but I don't think I have gotten it to look good yet........ There are 6 options and I have tried them all. I wonder if I were to chose the color with the eyedropper of the item before I try to 'embed' it, then embed it and then apply the color from the eyedropper if that would work.......... hmmmm.......... Oh well. Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crush4dolphins Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I keep having the same thing happen and I end up not using them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Ann Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Judy, Have you tried it on more than one embellishment? I tried it on several this afternoon, and it does a variety of different things to the different embellishments. Maybe you could make a practice page with several staples, brads, and other thingies and see what each of the embed styles does. I did that with the bevels and it helped me a lot. Now I just open my practice page and see which one I want. Just a suggestion. Hope it helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artsy22 Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Hey ladies. I'm going to play around with these styles in PSE4 and get back to you. They do have different effects on different embellishments, some work better on darker embellishments or darker backgrounds, some work better on lighter. Let me play with them some and I'll post back some extended help. Thanks for your patience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artsy22 Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I went into Photoshop Elements 4.0 and played around with these. Here's some screenshots. The first screenshots shows an eyelet with all 6 of the styles. You can see the different effect it has if the embellishment is on a dark or a light background. Some of the effects look much more pronounced on a light background then if they're on a dark background. Also, you can see how the embellishment does take on different colors depending on the degree of embed and shadow that overlays on the embellishment. The second screenshot shows style choice 2 and choice 3 - these are the styles that "turn your embellishment black" as you've been talking about. However, if your embellishment is a darker color, or already black, you're going to need this extra deep "embed" in order for it to show up at all. For dark embellishments on dark backgrounds choice 2 and 3 can be very helpful. On a light background number 2 looks too deep, but number 3 is useable. Compare this to the white stiching on the light background. You can see that the stitching is a different grayish color now and number 2 looks pretty bad. On number 3 the stitch certainly has taken on a different color tone, but it just appears that their are shadows casting on white stich from being embedded into paper. When I use embed I tend to use 2 and 3 on darker metal type embellishments, like staples, screws, dark brads or eyelets on really dark backgrounds under my embellishments. I also have found I like #3 with stitching. My favorite of the embed style is 5. I use it the most. Most times I'll find myself trying all 6 to see which one works the best. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised with one of the choices I didn't think would work. And yes, on occasion I've found that the embed doesn't look quite right with any of the preset choices, and I have to do a little tweaking in PS. But honestly this is rare for me. I've included the marketing graphic for the product here so you can see the examples on the embellishments. Notice the 6 different screws and changes in colors and embed depth. Where I wasn't able to assure every embellishment on every background would look perfect, I was hoping to include options for a wide variety of darks and lights. I'm sorry if this has not proved helpful for you. I hope my screenshots help explain it some, and I do encourage you to try using the style on lots of different types of embellishments and backgrounds before giving up on them. Here are some layout examples as well where I've used SSTools - Styles: Embed 1801 Used Embed choice #5 on strip of vertical metal brads. Used Embed choice #5 on all three staples. (I did mention that choice #5 was my favorite, right?) Used Embed choice #3 on stitches. You can see they have a grayish cast to them. They were originally bright white. But it's that shadow effect that makes them look embedded here. Used #3 on the stitching and #5 on the screw and the word art embellishments "Father" and "Son" Used Embed #4 on Purple brads along the top, #5 on the diamonds along the top, and #1 on the purples brads inside the flowers. If I can be of anymore help, let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstucci Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 Thanks for those links! You have some terrific layouts by the way! Very nice. I will give embed another try when I get back from visiting my mom. Unfortunately I will be sans computer (I will be going into withdrawal when I shut down for the last time for 2 weeks......) and won't be able to experiement but I haven't given up yet. Not totally. Take care, thanks everyone, Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Neff Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I just wanted to add that you can adjust the settings in Photoshop Elements 5.0, in case any PSE5 users are interested. Once you have applied the style to a layer, look over in the layers pallet (sp?) and see the symbol that now appears to the right of the layer name. It's somewhat like a sunburst. Double click on that symbol, and you'll get a dialog box allowing you to make adjustments to the drop shadow, bevel, etc. Click and drag that dialog box to the side so that you can see your object on the screen. Then begin tweeking the numbers. Generally speaking, I tend to tweek the numbers about 10% at a time until I get the look I like. Here's a sample with an eyelet from Erica's "Love Always", using Mandy's embed style #4: And here's the same sample with the embed style tweeked in PSE5: HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artsy22 Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Thanks Susan. I didn't know that as I still have PSE 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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