Step 2 on P35 (Adding a little style)

The star icon has been replaced by fx.

OK.  That's good to know.  Thanks.

Annette

Normally the reset would have been my first suggestion; it's the Elements equivalent of 'have you tried turning off and on again'! I know, however, there's an issue with large photos both in Photomerge: Panorama and Photomerge: Exposure that cause frequent crashes. I'm glad it's sorted your issue out and it's definitely something to try when things start going wrong.

Hi shutrbgd and David,

I thought that I had posted a message stating that I was having EXACTLY the same problem as sutrbgd, down to only being able to photomerge a max of 4 images. 

Even though that message does not appear to be here, I am happy to report the Mac solution in case others experience it.  (not sure about Windows, but maybe)

First, I am running a Mac OS 10.6.4 Snow Leopard and PSE 8.  The solution that worked for me is to delete the Preferences in PSE and let PSE restart and rebuild its preferences. 

How to delete PSE 8 Preferences on a Mac:
1. Close PSE
2. Press Command  and Option and Shift all together and hold them down. 
3. Restart PSE, continuing to hold down the three keys.
4.  A small window should appear asking if you want to delete the Elements settings file
5.  Release the keys and say yes

That's it, easy and it worked for me.  I must give credit where credit is due---to Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac by Barbara Brundage, another great book. 

Hope this helps someone else.

Annette

Thanks David

Glad you got it sorted. Please do ask questions, feedback of any kind is good.

Right i have sorted it out finally, Being a Virgin to this program i was using the gradient tool under fill or adjustment layer and not the gradient tool in the tools box lol. I will become better at this program. Thanks for your replys anyhow much appreciated. Im sure however that i will be a number one for posts on here though.

Take care

Daniel

So, to break it down:

You have an image open.
Add a new layer.
Use the Rectangular Marquee to draw out the narrow selection at the bottom of the image.

Select the Gradient tool.
Draw the gradient between the top and bottom of the selection so it looks like the image in step 2.
Deselect.

Switch back to the Rectangular Marquee
Hold shift and click and drag the new selection from the bottom left corner toward the top right so it fits the width of the rectangular rainbow.
Go to Filter > Distort > Polar Co-ordinates and continue the technique from there.

Right i have tried everything here and just cannot seem to get the image in section 3 of the circular rainbow appearing on my screen, i really do not know what i am doing wrong???

Would it read any better if it said "..click and drag within the boundaries of the the selection.."?