Photoshop Plugins are available on ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate and ACDSee Photo Studio Professional.

How to Use Photoshop Plugins

Now that we’ve got the hang of which modes do what, it’s time to take a closer look at how you can find your files when you need them. Yes, we are talking 

You will observe, above the File List pane, there’s an area called the Quick Search bar. You can use this simple bar to search for files in a variety of ways. The results will appear in the File List pane.

Enter any word or number into the Quick Search bar, and ACDSee will search for matches in the following database fields:

And it will also search in these IPTC fields:

From the Organize or Properties pane, select metadata and drag it into the Quick Search box.

Yes. For example, search for images with a red color label by dragging the Red label from the Labels section of the Organize pane.

Find images rated 3 by dragging the 3 to the Quick Search bar from the Ratings section of the Organize pane.

To narrow down your search using multiple metadata terms, you can drag more than one into the Quick Search bar. If you enter two of the same type, like two categories, for instance, ACDSee will perform an “OR” search. This means that it will search for Category A or Category B.

However, if you add another different type of metadata term—let’s say a rating of 4—it will perform an “AND” search with that addition. This means ACDSee will be searching for photos assigned to Category A or Category B and Rating 4.

However, if you wanted to make an “OR” search out of that last divergent metadata, you could do so by holding down 

 while dragging it. In this example, you would hold down 

 while dragging the 4: Category A or Category B or Rating 4.

So “AND”, “OR”, or “NOT” can make your searching a lot more specific. Yes, I haven’t explained “NOT” yet. I’m getting there. Let’s look at it more in depth:

Use “AND” to search for all items containing both the search term before and after the “AND”. Search results that only contain one of the two won’t show up. So, if you search for “eggs and toast”, an item with only “eggs” won’t be returned in your results. Pro tip: Spaces between words will also be treated as though you put “AND” between them. And no, you don’t need to type it in caps. I just feel like yelling some words.

Use “OR” to search for all items containing one or the other of the two search elements. When you search for two search terms of the same type, (e.g. “Rating”:”4″, “Rating”:”5″), “OR” will automatically be added between them, since an image cannot be two ratings at once. All of this applies regardless as to whether you are dragging metadata or entering text or numbers.

 while adding two different types of search terms to the Quick Search bar, “OR” will be added, (e.g. “Rating”:”4″ OR “category”:”Friends”). So “bacon or sausages” would return bacon or sausages, but not bacon_sausages.

Use “NOT” to exclude words from your search. So, “pancakes not waffles” would return pancakes only.

You can use * as a wildcard in your search queries. For example, if you search for “ac*e”, ACDSee will match “ace”, “acdsee”, “sacred”, etc.

 in the Special Items section of the Organize pane.

And now to really confuse you. When you use quotation marks, the search operators become literal values. So if you entered “champagne and oj”, the search is going to return items that literally had both words and the “and” in “champagne and oj”.

Let’s familiarize you with the options in the Search menu. At the left of the Quick Search box, you will see a small drop-down arrow next to the search icon. In the menu, the first items will be your five most recent searches.

You can expedite your future explorations by saving searches. With the search criteria you will want to reuse, click the 

Choose a name for your search that you’ll remember, and press 

Now the search will be available on the Search menu under 

You can fine-tune your searches using a few more settings. For instance, from the Search menu, you can choose 

, which will display the matching text based precisely on which letters you capitalized versus left lower case. You can opt to only return exactly that which matches what you enter in the Quick Search field. Choose 

To simply search computer-wide, you can use the Spotlight Search. Ordinarily ACDSee searches using the database. However, you can switch to search your whole hard drive by choosing 

 in the Search menu. On the other hand, you can search within the selected folder only. This is whatever folder you’re messing around in within the File List pane. That is also under the Search menu.

I hope that makes finding your images a little easier. Happy searching!

Finding Your Images

You can easily get rid of flaws with the Smart Erase tool. You erase unwanted objects by brushing them with the Smart Erase Brush enabled, releasing your cursor, and then watching as the object is removed for you. You can also make a selection, and then apply Smart Erase to achieve your goals.

I have recently returned from vacation, and with me, I brought home a few thousand photos. Many of these showcase some realities that I don’t need to remember. I’m talking trash, power lines, graffiti, advertisements, stuff like that. But I have no fear! I can remove unwanted objects from my images by selecting or brushing them and using the Smart Erase function.

Smart Erase will analyze the image and predict how to best fill in the brushed or selected area with the most likely, natural background.

Before I go crazy, it’s worth mentioning that you can only remove an area covering 25% or less of your image. Smart Erase is designed for touch ups, rather than a complete overall of half an image.

I begin by selecting the image I want to manipulate in the File List pane in Manage mode. Then enter Edit mode.

Once in Edit mode, there are two ways I can approach removing objects from my image: brushing or selecting.

To erase using the Smart Erase Brush tool, I just press the 

 button at the top toolbar, or press CTRL + E.

I can change the size of the brush’s nib width by moving the slider at the top of the image panel, or by using my mouse wheel.

Then I brush the object. As soon as I release the mouse button, bam! Smart erasing is applied.

Generally, I get the best results when I brush outside of the limits of the object I’m trying to erase. For instance, with this powerline, I don’t painstakingly brush only the line. I used a larger brush and ham-handedly go over it. This will help ACDSee to analyze what background Smart Erase needs to blend into.

On the other hand, obviously, it erases best when the background is solid, simple, free of patterns, without a lot of color variation. So, if I try to brush something where the surrounding area is more complicated, with greater variation, it may require some clever handling. Therefore, I use some discretion as to how ham-handed I should be. The only way to figure this out is through experimenting. So, as I just exhibited, some things just need a quick once over. While others can be more complicated.

If the object is not entirely gone or doesn’t look quite right, I keep brushing over the area and releasing the mouse button until I get the results I’m looking for.

However, sometimes it can surprise you. For instance, did you know this pic used to have another lady in it?

To erase an object using a Selection tool, I need to choose how to make my selection. Some work better for this case than others.

I recommend the Freehand Lasso, which involves simply dragging a line around the object, and then when I let go of the mouse button, it auto-completes.

In other words, the end of the line connects to the start. This helps with making a really loose selection so that ACDSee has more background information to work with.

Then I repeat as many times as is necessary to get the results I want. This may involve changing the selected area. To make another section, I choose 

. And then select anew. I find that often making a smaller selection the second time around can lead to more variance in the fill, which results in a natural look. Here it is again after a couple smaller selections, followed by the Smart Erase command. Would you know there was once a big stick there if you hadn’t seen it yourself?

Ta da! Smart Erase wins the vacation photo struggle!

How to Remove Objects from Your Photos

! Watch their tutorial on editing a RAW image in 

. Want to try Gemstone out for yourself? Download the 

How To Edit/Fix Backlit Photos in Gemstone

Our new Gemstone Photo Editor 12 Beta offers a multi-document interface. We are excited to now be offering this feature in our beta version. Switch back-and-forth from projects easily, open multiple documents and easily work on two monitors with split view.

Want to try the free Gemstone beta for yourself? Download your free copy 

ACDSee Gemstone Photo Editor 12: Multi-Document Interface

In this video, we’ll look at how to use the color wheel in ACDSee’s Edit Mode.

Want to try it for yourself? Get a free trial of 