Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Elements 2.0 [OLD VERSION]

I have all sorts of software for image manipulation that came with digital cameras. But I plunked down good money for Photoshop Elements V.1.0 and now I tried V.2 and I really, really love it.

The interface is relatively easy to use (with pulldown menus or tabs as you prefer.) The manipulation of layers is made easier by working with the layer tab and the preview feature is a real boon.

There are artsy filters to add chalk, oil brush dabs, charcoal, and other brush effects to make a photo look like a painting. And I found it easier to use Photoshop Elements to start a web design and port it over to Dreamweaver than to use Macromedia Fireworks.

I really like V.2 and with a rebate from the serial number of Version 1, it's not a bad deal. If you have other software included with your digital camera and you find them awkward, give this a try. It's good enough for all but the semi-pro and professional graphics designers and a real bargain.

After messing with about six different "lite" photo editing programs that came with various scanners and digicams I had bought, and downloading and being underwhelmed by a 30 day trial copy of Elements 1, I wasn't expecting much when 2.0 came out. But glowing reviews and Amazon's & Adobe's rebate deals made me decide to go ahead and get it. And I am amazed at how much functionality Adobe has stuffed into this program. Combining an excellent image browser, easy and effective one-step retouching, the best cropping tool I've found, and "save-for-web" file compression, at its price it would be a winner with just these alone. But it has so much more capability that gives users lots of room to grow in the sophistication of their image manipulation. In fact, if you don't need to do color separations, I can't see a need to get anything else.
(If only Adobe had chosen to include curves and the healing brush I'd give it six stars, but I guess you can't have everything.)

I have been using 1.0 for some time and I really like it. It's very easy to use once you get used to it. I've only had 2.0 for a couple of days but I can say that it has been greatly improved with new and improved features. Many of the existing features have been improved and new ones have been added. The new picture package is one of the features I really like. One of the things I didn't like about 1.0 was the inability to print more that one picturre on a sheet. Well that has been fixed. I have tried 6.0 nice but elements it meets my needs and at a much lower price.

I cut my teeth on Adobe Photoshop 3 back when I was working as a photojournalist, and later used Corel PhotoPaint 8 extensively. I was considering an upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop, but the high price tag made me wince. So, I read some reviews of Photoshop Elements 2.0, was impressed, bought and installed it, and in no time I was up and running.

This is the bottom line: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 is outstanding! I have an old 8x10 class photo from 1973 that has deteriorated to such a state that it now has a severe magenta cast over the entire image. I wanted to archive this image into electronic format before it got any worse, so I scanned it high res into Photoshop Elements, and a couple of mouse clicks later I was looking at the image in its bright, original colors. Once you tap into the power of this program, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

It's very easy to use, it's very powerful (especially its selection tools and layering ability), it produces excellent results, and doesn't require a library of volumes to understand how to make it work (like its big brother does). Although Adobe provides a decent and comprehensive user manual in the box, I highly recommend purchasing Visual Quickstart's Photoshop Elements 2 (by Craig Hoeschen and Christopher Dahl) along with the software. I have always been a fan of the Visual Quickstart Guides, and this book is no exception. It breaks everything down in digestable chunks so that in no time at all you will be working with layers and filters to create some very dramatic images.

The only thing I didn't really care for in Photoshop Elements is the image browser. P4 machines shouldn't have much of a problem, but it slowed down my Celeron 766mhz considerably. But the solution to that was easy: I simply don't use it. Instead I use File>Open to get my images, which also provides a thumbnail preview.

All in all, if you own a digital camera, scanner, or do any image-editing work, then definitely give this software a try.

After searching for YEARS for a good photo editing software program, I finally found this one and am quite happy. I've tried them all, including Ulead (not intuitive), Photoshop (way too complicated). This software does A LOT, and it's truly intuitive to figure out how to do things like crop, save optimized for web, and change colorization. I love the automatic fix feature- it suggests the best fix for 4 different common photo attributes and you can preview before accepting. ... it is a great deal. This is the lite photo-editing software that other developers should strive to match.