Photoshop Elements software offers many of the tools found in Photoshop.




In fact for most photo editing needs, it will do the job very nicely. Although it is not free software, it is priced around $99, which is far less than the Photoshop price of $699.00.

Here is a simple Photoshop Elements review.

This photo editing software offers three different editing levels. They are designated on tabs as Full Edit, Quick Fix, and Guided Editing.

Full Edit is the most advanced. Here you will find such tools as layers, filters and more advanced types of editing options…typically for those that are familiar with photo editing and like to explore or to use more sophisticated tools.

Quick Fix is where you will find your everyday editing tools, such as red eye reduction, sharpening, brightness, and saturation. A simple slider allows you to make adjustments, which makes it very easy to use.

Guided Editing in the Photoshop Elements software is good to use and helpful if you have not done much editing.

My favorite feature is resizing digital images. Elements let's you easily change both the image size and the file size. You can read about it at my Adobe Photoshop Elements tutorial.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 - Some of the New Features

Better Looking Portraits - Smart Brush will allow you to work on just certain areas of your digital photo. You can even whiten teeth with it. You can select to make the Smart Brush smaller or larger depending on what size area you are editing. The brush softness of hardness can also be changed. In addition some other features are making a person slimmer, spraying on a tan, evening skin tones, and softening skin surfaces.

Photomerge Scene Cleaner is another tool new to Elements 7. You can remove things completely from the picture, such as an object or even tourists in a scene.

Surface Blur is a good tool for working with faces. It will smooth and remove wrinkle or blemishes.

There is now also a control that allows you to adjust the interface brightness with a slider.

A text searching feature lets you put in a search term to locate your images. It works with tags, but you can also search with the image file name, photo date, camera model, or captions you have used.

Guided Edits has some new features. One is a levels adjustment. Now, information is provided as to how read the histogram and what it should look like for good tonal range. There is also a new Distortion tool, which helps you fix such problems as building distortion.

Creative Options - There are options such as adding photo frames, creating photo books, and calendars. You can also make collages and slideshows. Some of these features require you to use outside services that you must pay for, and some are available from the Photoshop Elements software itself.

Photoshop.com - Upon purchasing the software, you get a free basic membership to Photoshop.com. This works in a similar fashion as to how Picasa 3 and Picasa Web Albums work together. You can put your photos from your Photoshop Elements software online for sharing, and even synchronize the photos at the two locations (your computer and at Photoshop.com). Photoshop Elements 7 includes 2GB storage on Photoshop.com.

This is the Basic Membership. For 20GB of storage, the cost is $19.99 a year. For $39.99 a year you will get 40GB of storage. It costs $99.99 a year for 100GB. There is also a Plus membership with additional features and a different pricing structure for storage.

How does Photoshop Elements software compare to Photoshop? They compare favorably. By that I mean that for most users, Photoshop Elements provides all the tools you need for basic and advanced editing. That is good news, considering the price difference.

Photoshop is for those who need very complex editing tools. Don't buy it just for the name. It has a complicated interface with a steep learning curve. It is expensive. Upgrades cost more. It takes more system resources.

Recommendations

I would download the trial of both Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro (similarly priced as Adobe Photoshop Elements 7) to see if these work for you. If you are interested in synchronized web sharing between your photo software and online galleries, consider trying Picasa 3 and Picasa Web Albums, which are free for a certain amount of storage. You can visit my page on Picasa Photo Editing.