Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 [OLD VERSION]

Elements' interface is less complex then Photoshop, packaging oft-used quick correction tools in easy-to-access locations. The program gears itself toward the novice user looking to learn more about digital image modification and enhancement. You can also enter keywords into a search field and Elements will offer up related walkthroughs and instructions.

Elements can input images from a variety of sources, including scanners and digital cameras. It's more powerful than the average program bundled with any of these devices, so you can make it your default image editor for either or both. Stills can also be snagged from a variety of video formats, including QuickTime, MPEG, AVI, and Windows Media. Before opening images, you can browse through their thumbnails, which include a preview of the image as well as its size and type.

Inputted images can be enhanced, distorted, corrected, or combined into panoramas through the PhotoMerge stitching tool. The new Selection Brush lets users simply paint over an item they would like to cut or copy. While it still takes a steady hand to select non-straight edges, it's easier than using the standard selection tools such as the rectangular marquee or the lasso. Elements works well as a file manager as well, its new batch processing feature allowing users to make changes to several images at once.

Output options are also expansive, including attaching photos to e-mail messages, printing images, or saving them in a smaller Web format and then uploading them to the Internet. Beyond these typical tools, Elements users can create image slideshows in PDF format that can be viewed on PDAs as well as other PCs.

While there are other image editing programs that sell for the same price, Photoshop Elements brings to the table much of the power of its bigger sibling while making it accessible for the average user. --J. Curtis

Amazon.co.uk Review
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 sits between the low-end PhotoDeluxe and the professional Photoshop 7.0, and is ideal for anyone with a serious interest in digital imaging. It offers particularly good handholding features for beginners.

With Photoshop Elements, Adobe takes the most widely used parts of Photoshop and tweaks the interface to make these features easier to use. The program is designed mainly for retouching digital photographs, but has a number of natural media brushes, too, so you can create your own images from scratch.

The key features of Elements revolve around the amount of assistance offered and the friendly interface. While there are many more tools available than in, say, PhotoDeluxe, the comprehensive Help system and the Recipe Palette work together to provide an easy entrance into common tasks. These include retouching images, preparing them as Web graphics, and sending pictures as e-mail attachments.

New additions to this version start as soon as you choose to open a graphic file. The file browser now shows thumbnails of all readable files and provides details of their types and sizes. To open the file, simply double-click a thumbnail.

The Palette Well is a box, set into the Shortcuts bar, that contains five separate, tabbed palettes, for options such as filters and layers. Click on any tab and the palette detaches to float over the work area; click again and it re-docks in the well.

Photoshop Elements now provides an image stitching tool called Photomerge, and a method for grabbing single frames from common video types, such as MPEG, AVI, WMV, and QuickTime. Improved features for creating Web images include the ability to create Web galleries of your photos and automated adjustments, which can be used to make photos suitable for Web transmission and display.

Photoshop Elements 2.0 is ideal for the enthusiastic amateur or base-level professional graphic artist who needs to work quickly and easily with photographic images. --Simon Williams

Amazon.com Product Description
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 offers the perfect combination of power and simplicity, letting you do more with your photos. Be creative and easily share your photos as prints, by e-mail, or on the Web. Quickly correct red eye and exposure, automatically straighten and crop, or stitch multiple photos into seamless panoramas.

Innovative Help features get you up to speed quickly. Hints provide illustrations and tips on how to use each editing tool. Smart Messages offer links from confusing terms in error messages to clear explanations in the glossary. Any time you have a question, simply type a word in the Help Search field to receive the information you need.

Inspirational Recipes describe how to apply special effects and perform a variety of editing techniques. Add frames, edges, and amazingly realistic paintbrush effects. Create Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) slide shows to share with anyone on almost any device. Whether you use a digital camera or a scanner, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 makes digital imaging a breeze.

1. Auto Levels -- With one click, colors pop and become more vibrant. Skin tones are optimized. The color cast from indoor or fluorescent lighting is eliminated. To do this manually would be much more time consuming (and definitely hit-or-miss).

2. Auto Contrast -- Also with one click, the light/dark contrast (and tonal range) of a photo is optimized giving the image much more richness.

3. Sharpen -- This takes a few clicks, but this command will make digital photos somewhat sharper. (This also happens automatically when one uses "Auto Contrast.") Sharpening digital photos, especially at longer focal lengths (or when using lower megapixel cameras), is always welcome.

4. Fill Flash -- This command is absolutely amazing. When used, it will brighten all surfaces (in shadow) facings towards the camera (even in the background). If faces are too dark, this will lighten them. If details are lost in the shadows, this will restore them. Brighter areas are unaffected. This command almost eliminates the need for outdoor fill flash or reflectors, and results in much more natural (and more softly lit) portraits. If you take a lot of people pictures, (or if you like to shoot with natural light), this tool is indispensable.

5. Sunset Light -- This digital filter will give a photo taken during bright sunlight the warm glow of an evening image. The sky and all reflected surfaces will look warmer (and more romantic). This is a great way to add drama to scenics (turning cliches into works of art) -- especially if hanging around 'til dusk isn't an option.

6. Perspective Adjustment -- Using a wide angle lens and looking upwards will make buildings appear (on film) as though they are leaning backwards. This tool remedies this. I've found that I won't enlarge photos with leaning buildings -- but I will once they are upright again. Fixing a photo on the computer is also much more convenient than carrying a special shift perspective lens or lugging around a heavy view camera.

7. Color Cast Correction -- This is a really cool tool. For photos where the color is seriously off due to indoor incandescent or fluorescent lighting (beyond what can be remedied by the Auto Levels feature above), this tool fixes it with just one click. Simply put the cursor on an area you know to be black or gray -- and Photoshop Elements will adjust all of the colors (in the entire photo) accordingly. It works fantastically. If you're not satisfied, just keep clicking around other portions of the black or gray area until you get the overall color balance that you're seeking.

For my own use, I've found that I won't print a photo -- until I run it through Photoshop Elements first! I'll usually apply tips #1-3 to every photo. (This takes but mere seconds.) I'll use the Fill Flash feature when faces are too dark (or when the contrast between light and dark is too high.) Lastly, I'll use tools #5-7 only when the situation requires it.

Photoshop Elements also has a convenient "step backwards" function which will delete the effects of the last command (in case you like the previous image better).

(I learned to use most of the above tools, incidentally, by reading Photoshop Elements Solutions by Mikkel Aaland -- which makes the software as easy to use as the folks at Adobe intended. I highly recommend it.)

Other photo editing programs provide a lot of special effects or photo album-type backgrounds. I just want my photos to be better! Adobe Photoshop Elements is perfect for my needs.


Simply the BEST for serious image editing   February 10, 2003
242 out of 250 found this review helpful

I bought Microsoft Digital Image Pro 7 as an upgrade from Picture It. Was disappointed that it did not handle large image files and had primitive selection tools. Returned it for a refund. I evaluated trial versions of PhotoImact, Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop Elements2. I picked Elements2 because it is a superb, user-friendly image-editing program.

For me, the three key considerations are 1) Powerful image editing tools, 2) Ease of use, and 3) The learning curve.

POWERFUL IMAGE EDITING TOOLS?
Elements2 has multiple tools and techniques to accomplish any image-editing task.

Cropping, rotating and changing perspective is easy. Changing perspective is useful to "straighten out" vertical lines of buildings when the picture is shot with a wide-angle lens. If the horizon in the picture is slightly off, don't worry. There's a technique (window-info command) to measure the angle of the horizon to a fraction of a degree to determine how much to rotate the picture to make the horizon "perfectly level".

The "red eye" correction tool is elegantly simple and yet very precise.

Lighting can be adjusted with levels, contrast, brightness and layers commands. Fill flash and studio lighting (filter-render-lighting effects command) can be added to the photo to correct for poor scene lighting when the picture was taken.

Color correction and adjustment couldn't be faster or easier; it's all done with a few mouse clicks. One mouse click can eliminate a color cast. The "color variations" command lets you change colors of midtones, highlights, and shadows and adjust saturation and brightness while viewing thumbnail previews of the potential adjustments. And there's a slick "replace color" command to change part or all of the image.

At some point in image editing, you want to adjust part of the image, not the entire image. Selection tools make this possible. Elements2 has the best selection tools I've seen. All of the selection tools work together making it fast and easy to select a part of the image with "surgical precision". Most competitive programs either make you work to make selections or they lack precision. Elements2 takes the work out of the selection process.

I believe selection tools and layers are the key to serious image editing. Elements2 has the best selection tools and an excellent set of tools to work with layers. It's simply the best software for serious image editing. Professionals will probably opt for the more sophisticated Adobe Photoshop software, but Elements2 is everything I need.

Most competitive image editing software does not provide color management tools. But Elements2 includes Adobe Gamma software to adjust your monitor so that your printer can faithfully produce the colors you see on the screen. You have to e-mail Hewlett Packard to learn how to set your printer configuration. Once you've done that, Elements2 gives you several choices in the "print preview" command to fine tune color management of printed output.

EASE OF USE?
Adobe's software engineers did their homework. They have tamed power by making almost every image editing task possible by a few mouse clicks. The "quick fix" command is elegantly simple and yet it provides a wide range of adjustments to photos. Once you have used a command it is easy to remember. The user interface is simple.

THE LEARNING CURVE?
How long does it take for a novice to learn the program? I viewed the tutorials from the Elements2 welcome screen and reviewed the manual. The tutorials were too simplistic. They taught just one thing to a novice who needs a perspective for this software. The Elements2 manual is "dry" reading, like a dictionary. The manual is not really a tutorial, it's more of a reference assuming you already know the basics of how to use the program.

What's the novice to do??? A good way to learn new software is a book. I read "Photoshop Elements2 - Zero To Hero". It is written in a narrative, easy to read form with lots of examples. Within a few hours with the book, I became comfortable with Elements2 and found that I could use the new software easily.

If I had not bought a book, I probably would have complained that this software is hard to use. In my opinion, novices can't figure out how to use Elements2 if they limit learning to what Adobe supplies with the software.

Do yourself a favor; buy a book written in a narrative format. Spend a few hours with the book. You'll gain a perspective for the program and how to use it. Once you have that, you can use the Element2 manual as a reference to learn about some specific aspect of the program. Also, you can use the recipes and hints that Adobe includes in Elements2.

BOTTOM LINE
Photoshop Elements2 = SIMPLY THE BEST FOR SERIOUS IMAGE EDITING.


misleading rebate offer   September 21, 2002
Charles Locher (Richmond, CA United States)
171 out of 191 found this review helpful

Product is probably fine, however, a $30 manufacturer
rebate offer applies only to those upgrading.
The cloest Adobe or Amazon comes to acknowledging this
is "rebate information on box", thus you have to purchase
the product, receive it, then find out if you qualify.
Amazon blatenly advertises $30 man. rebate as if there
were no special conditions.


Does the job for a lot less!   January 29, 2004
S. Gould (Woodmere, NY United States)
89 out of 90 found this review helpful

I had used a friend's Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and was contemplating the purchase of the newer 7.0 when I spotted an ad for this version for amateurs. At one sixth the price it was sure worth a try. All I can say is that I got more than my money's worth. This simpler version has everything the non professional would want and more.

It is easy to install and uses less computer space than its big brother.

Helps to easily import photos from cameras, CDs or scanners.

It has all the simple fix-its you might need- such as auto enhancers, red eye reduction,ability to crop, straighten, focus, fade,blur, change the background, layer, create panaramas etc.

Easily compresses photos and attaches photos to emails or helps create web galleries using templates and even animations for your web site.

Creates dozens of special effects.

Prints multiple photos on one page to save photo paper.

My only complaint might be that there is too much that you can do and it gets daunting at times. It is however far simpler and user friendly than the professional versions.


Wonderful Software!   November 25, 2002
83 out of 89 found this review helpful

I received Photoshop Elements 2.0 a few days ago and was a bit intimidated. I also purchased Mikkel Aaland's book, Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, The Art of Digital Photography. I don't recommend buying the software without this book. I read the book first and it made the software much easier to use. I have had a digital camera for a little over a year, and just upgraded to a better camera. For the extra money I spent, I wasn't seeing dazzling improvements in my photos. My salesperson recommended that I buy this program in the hopes of improving my pictures. The software did just that! No more blurry faces, no more pale faces. The shrubbery in the background looked "good" before using the software, but after, it popped off the photo paper! What an incredible difference!

If you've been using the software that came with your digital camera or scanner, toss it in the trash and buy Photoshop Elements 2.0. It is well worth the money you will spend! My results were amazing!