Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Photoshop Elements 1.0

I bought Paint Shop Pro 5 two years or so ago, to work with scanned images. I found that a totally frustrating experience - I could never bring the scanned images up to par with my own quality expectations. Then last August I bought a digital camera with 2.1 megapixels - and started having some real fun. It came with MGI Photosuite - and Adobe Photoshop LE Business Edition (not the full version of LE). Between these 3 programs I was having a heck of a time viewing, fixing, and printing my photos. I was beginning to think that I had gotten into another time-wasting situation, and was looking for a way to do what I wanted to do with my photos, faster.

I read the ZDNet review of Elements, that lodged in my brain. Then, on a whim, I bought Elements at Best Buy. (Yaaah, so I paid full price!). I got it home, installed it... opened one of my infamous scans - clicked "sharpen" - and Viola! It met my quality expectations that easily! (Yes, I had done the same thing with PSP5, but it looked like hell...)

I deleted MGI photosuite and the Ps LE Business Edition, but I'm keeping PSP for now. It loads much faster (can't say if that's true of Version 7..), and I can resize and compress photos to email folks much quicker, since I'm more used to that program.

BUT... Elements is definitely the winner here. Perhaps because I have some image editing experience, I find the manual perfectly understandable, and there is new (to me) info in there that is clearing up some stuff for posting to the web (like the whole pixel/resolution/size situation.

I'd say that Elements is ideal for editing photos and preparing stuff for the web - I'm looking forward to figuring out if it's more versatile than PSP for making graphics. The target audience for Elements is the new digital photographer, so if that's you, grab it!

Oh, fwiw I'm using Elements on 2 different machines - a Pentium II 400 desktop with 96 megs of ram, Win Me, and a Sony Vaio laptop, Pentium III 500 with 64 megs. It tends to choke and produce "artifacts" on the screen with the laptop - must buy more RAM - but is fast and fine on the desktop (not to mention that stuff is easier to see on the monitor). I can't imagine using it on a slower machine, or one with less ram. Just my opinion.

I'm already looking forward to Ver 2!

I bought this software last week, and I love it! It is easy to use, and has good support both online and via the help menu on the software. It is a slimmed down version of Adobe Photoshop 6, and all you need for the basic layperson. It has a lot of extra features too that are fun to experiment with. You can remove the background on any photo and merge with another pic. Plus you can easily remove red-eye. Also you can print in any size you want. Definetely worth the money!

I have been using another Photoshop version (LE or Limited Edition) for about a year now and am generally very happy with it. While it is not as powerful as many professional graphics programs, it is enough for my limited use and ability. However, I've heard good things about Elements and Amazon's price (including a big rebate) was so great I decided it was time to buy it.

I ordered it and while waiting for it to arrive, decided to look into the new features and learn the basics of how it works. I went to the Adobe web site and found a 30-day trial version I could download. I installed the trial version and took a look and was surprised to basically find LE with a better interface. While it has some improvements over LE, there are not many and it was mostly just simplified editing tools. After a day of exploring and testing, I returned to Amazon and cancelled my order (sorry Amazon!)

If you don't have either of these programs and you are an amateur or novice graphics person looking for a basic graphic/photo editing program, I would definitely go with Elements -- it has everything LE has plus more. I've tried a number of other programs and Photoshop is my overwhelming favorite. For that reason it gets five stars. But my only note of caution is just for those looking to upgrade from LE. I would suggest you download the trail version first and see if it is really worth the investment. For me it wasn't, but it probably depends on what features are important to you.

And actually, even if you have not used LE, you may want to go to Adobe's web site and try it out first anyway. I appreciate when software makers do this so we can take it for a test drive. It suggests to me that Adobe is confident in their product and they believe that after trying it you will like it and want to buy it.

Opening up Photoshop Elements for the first time and viewing the desktop could be intimidating for the novice, but it is definitely worth the effort of spending a little time on the tutorials, manual, and self-exploration. This application puts other graphics editing products like Microsoft's PhotoDraw to shame, especially for the price. As an example, one feature called "Variations" shows a "what-if" scenario for color correction without having to make and undo changes to your photo until you get the effect you want. Instead, a window opens that shows a thumbnail of the photo in its current state and displays around it thumbnails that show how it would look with more red, more yellow, more blue, etc. Without leaving that window you can also view how different levels of color saturation will affect your photo. Other editing is also quite easy. One of my photos had an ashtray in the foreground on a distressed glass table. By using the clone stamp with a spatter brush, I was able to completely eliminate the ashtray and preserve the mottled look of the table, including highlights. It is absolutely impossible to tell the ashtray was ever there. This maneuver took all of about 30 seconds. I recommend Photoshop Elements for all levels of users who care enough about their photos to do more than just simple cropping. After using Elements for a few days, I deleted PhotoDraw from my system altogether.

Usage-wise, it deserves 5 stars, but Adobe gets docked a point for marketing this as an entry-level program. It is Photoshop stripped of expensive features, not Photoshop simplified for novice users.

This is a program targeted at a mid-level graphics enthusiast. If you've only used programs like PhotoDeluxe in the past, expect a huge change. Comparing the two is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. PhotoDeluxe is designed for quick, easy editing of photos with lots of automation and "smart" tools. Photoshop Elements is designed for creating graphics, and there aren't a whole lot of automated functions. You *will* need to fiddle with settings.

A lot of tools and options are hidden in flyout tabs, or in keyboard controls (alt/shift/ctrl are quite necessary to do certain things). Not particularly intuitive, but it doesn't clutter up your screen space and it only takes a few clicks or keystrokes to change tools or settings. It's a good feature if you work on a lot of large images or don't like to interrupt your creative process by dealing with menus and dialog boxes.

I'd highly recommend this program for people who are interested in learning how to create good computer/web graphics and don't mind putting some time in. The help files aren't the greatest, but there's a wealth of tutorials on the Internet for those who are more ambitious. You'll also get more use out of the help files if you take the time to note the specific names and terms of the various tools and functions (mouse over the tools to see the titles). There's a nice window whose sole purpose is to explain a bit about the tool you have selected.

The transition from Paint Shop Pro was pretty straightforward. Most times I would have both programs open and copy images back and forth to get the best of both worlds. There is no layer masking in Photoshop Elements, which can be annoying. However, the painting and selection tools are a bit better in Photoshop Elements, and the "Save for Web" option will give you better output with less effort.

If you're considering this because you can't afford Photoshop, I'd say go for it. You get a lot of bang for your buck, and it'll ease the transition to from lower-end graphics applications. However, don't give up saving for the real thing!

In a nutshell -

Serious hobbyists or aspiring professionals should look into buying this program.

Casual users looking mainly for an easy photo solution should shop around for a while longer. You probably won't use most of the features Photoshop Elements has to offer.