March 2006
Newest PhotoShop Elements Review
by Guy Ball
There’s no question. Adobe PhotoShop is the industry standard for graphics professionals. But at $600 a pop, it’s a bit pricey for technical writers who only on occasion need to use the software to edit or fine-tune a photo, or who use only a limited subset of the features. I’ve always enjoyed PhotoShop’s clear menu and tool bar functions, so when I’ve tried other photo programs, I’ve always found myself coming back (often to an earlier version that I purchased long ago). I don’t pretend to know all the advanced PhotoShop features—don’t need to.
So spending that kind of money for my limited usage was never cost-effective. Fortunately, Adobe has taken the most useful features for low-to medium-level users and packaged them together as PhotoShop Elements. In the past, this program was delivered free with other Adobe products, like Premiere, and offered only a few PhotoShop features. The latest version of this software offers virtually every feature technical writers would need and more. And priced at under $100, you can’t beat the value. PhotoShop Elements 3 and the most recently released version 4 offer all the standard editing tools you would expect in any photo program. You can crop and save to other formats. You have the ability to easily change the XML and Epic Editor: Promise and Reality, continued quality level if file size is an issue. You have a full range of options with tonal changes—simple adjustments like Lighting/Levels and the more complex requiring a practiced eye like Shadows/Highlights or Adjust Hue/ Saturation. Need to get rid of a person? That’s easy. Just use your Clone/Rubber Stamp tool to cover them with copies of the wall next to them. Presto. What person? (I also like to use this tool to slim people down or remove unwanted blemishes.)
With the Resize function, you can easily change an image to a specific pixel size to post on the Web. Want to burn in a specific light area of a photo or dodge a dark area? The tools are right up front on the toolbar. Have a slightly out-of-focus shot that you need to use? Try the sharpening tools. Want to set up several layers of text, multiple photos, and different backgrounds? Elements offers this as well. Got red-eye in that photo of your boss that you must include for a newsletter? Click a button and she no longer looks like an alien.
With recent versions of Elements, Adobe folded in the Photo Album software they had been selling separately. This is a great product that allows you to easily organize your photos. You can automatically catalog every image on your hard drive, which helps you find missing photos that you know reside on your hard drive somewhere. By adding tags (keywords) to your photos, you can search and find certain images at the click of a button—regardless of where they are on your computer. I’m currently using it to track the hundreds of photos of a complex machine I’ve taken at different times so I can pull out a smaller, more focused selection when I need them. Another feature I like a lot is the automatic downloading of my digital photos into the Elements photo organizer. I just hook up the camera through the USB cable and my computer downloads all of the images into a new directory named with today’s date. All the images are automatically included in their organizer, ready for me to tag. Then I'm asked if I want to delete them from my memory card. Saves me time and effort—and I love it. (I know my camera can do this, but I love having it built into my photo editor.) Other features of the program you may find useful include burning a dynamic slide show to CD or DVD and automatically creating a photo album that you can print. You can apply text effects and add frames around your pictures, too. You can also build panoramic photos with the Photomerge function. I was very happy with PhotoShop Elements 3 and I am basing my review on that version. Adobe has just released a new version—4. My employer purchased it and I’m trying to determine if it’s worth upgrading at home. It has a few new features but nothing I can’t live without. Meanwhile, several reviews on amazon.com are critical of version 4 and recommend staying with 3. While I don’t think the new version would be a negative to buy, it may just be that if you have 3, you might want to stay with it for now. I’ll know more in a few weeks....
So if you’re looking for power and great photo-editing features in a very inexpensive package—and something that stays in the Adobe and PhotoShop families, give PhotoShop Elements a try. You won’t be sorry.
This article was originally published in the December 2005 issue of STC Orange County’s newsletter: TechniScribe, and is reprinted with permission.
Guy Ball has written on a variety of technology and multimedia topics for the TechniScribe and Intercom. He works for EADS-North America Defense as a senior technical writer. His latest book, Images of America: Santa Ana, will be published in summer 2006. He can be reached at guyball@pacbell.net.