If you have thousands of photos in a catalog, it can be difficult to put your finger on just the one that you're looking for, so the Organizer offers a variety of search features, which I'll cover in this chapter. Among those are the three visual search commands that you can access from the side of the Search menu: Visual Similarity Search, Object Search, and Duplicate Photo Search. These seem to work almost magically to find photos with similar colors, shapes, and objects. In this movie, we'll look at the first of these methods, Visual Similarity Search, which I think is one of the most amazing features in Elements 10.
I've switched the Display menu over to the Thumbnail view, because Visual Similarity Search and Object Search can't be limited to searching in just one folder. However, you can limit those searches to one album or to photos that are tagged with particular keywords. But I'm searching now through this entire catalog of a few hundred photos. If you're working with the exercise files, make sure that the Sort menu at the top of the Thumbnail view is set to Date (Newest First), so that this thumbnail of orange-and-green beach umbrellas is near the top of the Media Browser.
I'd like to find some photos that resemble this one, so I'm going to click on this photo, and then I'll go up to the arrow to the right of the Search field and I'll choose Visual Similarity Search. That rearranges the photo thumbnails in the Media Browser according to their perceived similarity to the photo that I selected, with the photos that Elements thinks are most similar at the top of the Media Browser. And on each of the photos a percentage of perceived similarity is reported. This isn't bad for a first try. Several of these photos are beach scenes, but it's not perfect.
Here are some horses in a field, and here's a shot up in the mountains, and so on. So what I can do is try to fine-tune the results of this search. There are two ways to do that. One is to use the Color and Shape slider that appeared up here. And if your Color and Shape slider isn't showing, you can toggle it on by clicking this icon here. Dragging this slider to the left tells Elements to favor similarity of color over shape. Let's see how it does with these photos. That actually did bring in more photos of the beach toward the top of the Media Browser.
On the other hand, dragging this slider to the right would tell Elements to put more weight on shape over color. There is no one solution for every photo; it just depends on your photographs. So I'm going to drag this more over toward color. The other way to refine a Visual Similarity Search is to add more photos to the search query. You can add up to three more photos. To do that, I'm going to scroll down until I see another photo that I think is representative of the kind of photos I was looking for.
I'm going to take one of these blue umbrella photos and I'll click on it and drag it up to the plus symbol up here in the Find bar, and I'll release. Now the two thumbnails in the Find bar mean that Elements is taking both into account in this Visual Similarity Search. You can see that that did change the thumbnails that are showing at the top of the Media Browser. And these really are the ones that I was after, all these umbrellas at the beach. I'm going to close the Color- Shape toggle by clicking this icon. Before I'm done, I'll take a look at the Options menu here.
From here, I could save this search as a smart album, and that's not a bad idea so that I can get back to it quickly and so that it will automatically update as I add new photos to this catalog that are similar to these. But I'm not going to do that for now. I'm all done with my search. I found the photos that I want, and I'd like to go back to see all the photos in my Media Browser. The way to do that from any search is to click the Show All button, right here in the Find bar. So I'll click that and I'm back where I started. If I scroll down, I can see all the thumbnails in this catalog, here in my Media Browser.
I think this Visual Similarity Search feature is not only fun to use, it will also save you lots of time. Now it does work better on some photos than on others, so don't be disappointed if it doesn't give you a great result every time.
Author
Released
3/12/2012- Importing photos from a camera, computer, or iPhoto library
- Adding keyword tags and ratings to photos
- Automatically tagging people
- Organizing photos into albums
- Renaming and moving photos
- Correcting common photo problems automatically
- Retouching photos of friends and family
- Adjusting lighting and color
- Working with layers and layer masks
- Converting photos to black-and-white
- Cropping and straightening photos
- Adding text to photos
- Working with raw photos
- Making a slideshow
- Ordering prints
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Related Courses
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Introduction
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Welcome54s
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Getting around Elements6m 9s
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Using the exercise files4m 44s
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1. Bringing Photos into the Organizer
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Touring the Organizer5m 35s
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2. Viewing Photos in the Organizer
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Working in Thumbnail view4m 10s
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Viewing photo information3m 36s
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3. Organizing Photos in the Organizer
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Organizing keyword tags4m 25s
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Automatically tagging people8m 21s
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Creating smart albums5m 52s
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4. Finding Photos with the Organizer
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Finding duplicate photos4m 50s
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Searching by text5m 59s
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Exploring the Find menu4m 27s
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5. Managing Photos with the Organizer
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Deleting photos4m 30s
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Renaming photos2m 24s
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Moving photos3m 58s
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Reconnecting missing files4m 37s
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Changing photo dates4m 29s
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Backing up2m 43s
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6. Getting Started with Editing
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7. Working in Guided Edit
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8. Working in Quick Edit
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Correcting color4m 20s
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Sharpening images3m 10s
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Saving in Quick Edit3m 52s
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9. Working in Full Edit
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Customizing panels5m 10s
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Undoing your work6m 22s
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Zooming and navigating4m 41s
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Creating a file from scratch2m 57s
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10. Working with Layers
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Understanding layers7m 3s
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Tips for working with layers4m 25s
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Understanding layer masks6m 55s
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11. Working with Selections
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Understanding selections6m 49s
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Using manual selection tools4m 42s
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Modifying selections4m 20s
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Refining selections4m 50s
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Saving selections2m 8s
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12. Touching Up Photos
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13. Correcting Photos
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Adjusting part of a photo6m 16s
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Removing a color cast2m 11s
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Reducing noise3m 53s
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Sharpening images6m 43s
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Processing multiple photos8m 19s
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14. Changing Photo Size and Composition
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Cropping photos5m 35s
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Straightening photos2m 35s
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Adding canvas around photos2m 43s
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15. Building Photo Composites
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16. Adding and Formatting Text
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Creating text6m 22s
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Editing text3m 49s
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Creating text around a shape3m 51s
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17. Adding Special Effects
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Applying filters5m 24s
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Adding effects2m 6s
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Adding layer styles7m 38s
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Making shapes5m 17s
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Using the Cookie Cutter tool2m 18s
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18. Working in Camera Raw
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Understanding Camera Raw3m 35s
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The Camera Raw interface5m 16s
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Cropping and straightening2m 13s
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Reducing Noise2m 24s
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Sharpening6m 46s
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Outputting from Camera Raw4m 43s
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19. Making Photo Creations
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Creating a photo book6m 50s
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Completing the photo book10m 5s
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Creating a photo calendar8m 19s
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20. Sharing Your Photos
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Printing photos8m 30s
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21. Extending Elements with Online Services
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Signing up for an Adobe ID2m 20s
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Conclusion
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Goodbye40s
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Video: Finding photos that are visually similar to each other