Wednesday, February 10, 2016

PE 14/14.1: AutoAnalyzer Options Preference Now In Editor Preferences

INTRODUCTION

Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements are standalone programs, each coming with an Elements Organizer. When they are the same version and both are on the same computer, they share the same Elements Organizer. 

AutoAnalyzer has long been a feature of the Elements Organizer that comes with Photoshop Elements Premiere Elements. Its role has been to analyze media, rate them, and, based on that analysis, assign tags (Smart Tags) to those media to enable the user to distinguish the media one from the other based on quality - essentially for "search and retrieval" purposes. Certain features in  Premiere Elements Editor can use the information in these tags to target fix areas  in the source file. For example Smart Fix, Smart Trim*,  Instant Movie. Enabling and disabling AutoAnalyzer and its options feature has been done in the Elements Organizer preferences. See HERE.

ISSUE

Now, in Elements Organizer 14/14.1 and Premiere Elements 14/14.1, the situation
  • AutoAnalzyer Smart Tags are not longer available** in Elements Organizer 14/14.1 where previously the user could obtain and see the AutoAnalyzer assigned Smart Tags names in the Image Tags area. Impression is that user is now is left to create user's own Image Tags and Keywords Tag for the "search and retrieval" purposes
  • The manual "Run AutoAnalyzer" command can still be applied to an import in Premiere Elements 14/14.1 Editor Expert workspace's Project Assets. 
  • Whether or not Photoshop Elements 14/14.1 is installed along with Premiere Elements 14/14.1, Elements Organizer 14/14.1 does have a Smart Fix option under its Photo Fix Options...but only for photos
"The Elements Organizer 14/14.1 Smart Fix auto analyzes photos and corrects problems commonly caused due to poor exposure, contrast, color balance, and color saturation.....Smart Fix creates copies of the selected photos, makes the required adjustments in the copies, and saves the copies to the version sets of the photos on which they are based".
  • The AutoAnalyzer options (which appear to be Smart Tags) are reported by Adobe to be moved from Elements Organizer 14/14.1 preferences where they have been in prior versions to Premiere Elements Editor 14/14.1 preferences.
Figure 1. Premiere Elements 14/14.1 Expert Workspace Edit Menu/Preferences/AutoAnalyzer And AutoAnalyzer Options (Smart Tags)
  • No dedicated place is seen in Premiere Elements 14/14.1 Editor Expert workspace Project Assets as to what Smart Tags have been assigned automatically to the clip by the AutoAnalyzer.

SOLUTION

Some idea of what the clip faults are that Smart Fix and Smart Trim are fixing using the AutoAnalyzer options (Smart Tags) might be inferred....

When Smart Fix Involved
  • look under the Adjust Tab and Applied Effects to search for added panels for Applied Effects Palette and Adjusts Palette used after the Smart Fix is applied
  • right click the Timeline clip's title, and look for choices other than those seen for default Volume and Opacity
When Smart Trim Involved
  • hover mouse course over striped area of the Timeline clip to bring up flashing pop up which names a clip fault

COMMENTARY***

We do not know why the AutoAnalyzer options were moved to Premiere Elements preferences rather than remain in Element Organizer preferences. We can only speculate that their survival there was due to the Editor's dependency on them for features such as Smart Fix, Smart Trim, and Instant Movie.

Evaluating the reliability of the Premiere Elements 14/14.1 AutoAnalyzer options and tagging is still a work in progress, especially when the same clip gives "Smartfix did not find problems in this clip." in 14/14.1 and yet a multitude of Smart Tags in 12/12.1.

The Adobe 14/14.1 documentation's emphasis in the Elements Organizer 14/14.1 seems to be more for search and retrieval People, Places, and Events than Media.

Since Adobe has opted to place the AutoAnalyzer options in the Premiere Elements 14/14.1 preferences rather than in the Elements Organizer 14/14.1 common to both Photoshop Elements 14/14.1 and Premiere Elements 14/14.1,  do we then assume that the AutoAnalyzer options  no longer apply to Photoshop Elements 14/14.1 with its Elements Organizer 14/14.1?

Still looking for clarification...how does one shut down the AutoAnalyzer activity if all one has is Photoshop Elements 14/14.1 with its Elements Organizer 14/14.1? Is the only way then, the Barbara Brundage way, creating a space in the file name for the ElementsAutoAnalyzer.exe - from ElementsAutoAnalyzer.exe to ElementsAuto Analyzer.exe?

Hopefully Adobe documentation will clarify these features moving forward.

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*Smart Fix and Smart Trim video tutorial by Jan Ozer is pointed to since it is an excellent demonstration of the principles in spite of the fact that it is demonstrated using Premiere Elements 8. In Premiere Elements 14/14.1 Editor, see Tools Menu/Smart Trim and Adjust Tab/Adjustments Palette/Smart Fix Panel expanded.
**AutoAnalyzer Smart Tags are also not available in 13/13.1 as well as 14/14.1 Elements Organizer.
***Study done with Premiere Elements 14/14.1, 13/13.1, 12/12.1, and 11 on Windows 7 64 bit and confirmed on Windows 10 64 bit.

ATR