At the heart of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 is the ability to edit
ordinary photographs in ways that make them works of art. This
application offers both new and enhanced capabilities to show off your
inner artist. Whether you're fixing flaws in new or old photos to take
advantage of the latest enhancement technologies or creating your own
images digitally, Photoshop Elements 10 likely has a tool that's perfect
for you.
A side effect of digital photography is that most people take far
more pictures than ever before. Since there's no need to worry about
running up a huge bill for film, numerous shots of the same thing are
commonplace. Photoshop Elements 10's upgraded organizing functionality
allows you to get rid of duplicates you don't want and to organize
related photos in the way that best suits your needs.
Finally, Photoshop Elements 10 provides easy ways for you to share
your creative genius. Whether you're creating impressive photobooks or
uploading your masterpieces to the internet, you'll find the task easier
and more versatile than ever before.
Ease of Use
At first blush, photo editing software can be intimidating. That's
true for Photoshop Elements 10 and any of the other products in the
category. Modern photo editing software has numerous capabilities that
can make you look like a photographic genius. The good news is that
there's no need learn everything at once. Any given operation is easy to
accomplish and can be mastered in a relatively short time with just a
bit of practice. You also don't have to worry about spoiling your
original photograph because Photoshop Elements 10 applies nondestructive
changes to your pictures so that, even if you do something dreadful,
you can undo the alterations, and the original file remains intact. The
key to becoming an expert is to master individual tasks one by one and
to allow your knowledge to build upon itself.
Among the most valuable features of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 are
the Guided Edits. They offer simple ways to start with a good photo and
make it great by following step-by-step, on-screen directions. Even with
the prescribed process, you always retain the ability to make custom
edits to your exacting standards based on other processes you learn
along the journey.
Importing
Photoshop Elements 10 imports photos directly into a separate
application known as Elements Organizer. It's a standalone media
management hub that houses video clips as well as still images. As such,
there can be some confusion because a particular functionality that
seems to be part of Photoshop Elements may actually reside in Elements
Organizer. In general, the two applications run seamlessly together.
Furthermore, since many digital cameras can record video as well as
still photography, Elements Organizer is ideally suited for both. The
catch is that opening a video clip automatically opens another Adobe
product, Premier Elements. If you don't happen to have that application
installed on your computer, you'll be asked to install it. Adobe offers a
30-day free trial of Premier Elements to give you the opportunity to
see if it's something you want to purchase.
You can import photos from your camera's memory card or from scans,
and they'll be separated according to your designated preferences. The
importer automatically separates them by date, and it can group related
photos can by subject matter such as people, pets, travel or objects
based on your customized settings.
Editing
Although Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 has a broad feature set, the
main reason you'll likely want to use the application is for photo
editing. Using PSE 10, you can accomplish any editing task, from fixing
defects in cherished heirlooms to showing off your creative side with
the newest image-manipulation techniques. The most common single edit
that people use is cropping an image to emphasize important subject and
eliminate superfluous content. This product features crop guides,
including the Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds, to help your edits look
even more aesthetically pleasing.
We particularly like the addition of Guided Edits to Photoshop
Elements 10. This is a set of three different editing techniques that
help create great photographic effects. These three functions are known
as the Orton effect, Picture Stack effect and Depth of Field effect.
The Orton effect was originally created using slide photography and
typically combines an in-focus image with an out-of-focus image for a
unique look. You can easily use Photoshop Elements 10 to accomplish this
by adjusting the blur, noise and brightness of your photograph to
create an artful, impressionistic image.
The Picture Stack effect allows you to create a collage feeling to a
photo. It divides pictures into eight components that you can then
manipulate to get just the look you want. Finally, the Depth of Field
effect allows you to add a professional touch to any snapshot by
blurring or sharpening specific portions of the image.
To make the most of your photographic projects, Photoshop Elements 10
features 30 new brush effects that you can apply to your pictures,
including snow, oil pastel and pencil sketch. You can also add text in
curving or flowing forms.
Sharing
These days, sharing is all about social media sites. Photoshop
Elements 10 lets you tag your photos using your Facebook Friends list
directly in the Elements Organizer prior to sharing them. The People
Recognition feature can automatically apply your Facebook information to
the photos in the organizer. You can also make scrapbook pages, photo
books or cards easily using built-in templates or express your
completely customized creativity.
Output Capabilities
You can save images in Photoshop Elements 10 in a vast array of
formats including GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, Photoshop EPS, Photoshop PDF,
PNG and TIFF. You can also use this application to create CD or DVD
labels and jackets and photo collages.
Organizing
Because digital photography lends itself to taking multiple shots of
the same thing, we often end up with huge photo libraries containing
many duplicate or very similar images. The Elements Organizer can now
recognize the duplicates and automatically organize or even delete them.
You can also use the Visual Search function to find similar photos or
photos of a specific person or object. The software also includes a
feature called Auto-Analyzer that applies smart tags to photos and video
clips when they're imported. You can then easily filter and sort the
images to find the highest-quality photos and clips.
Help & Support
Photoshop Elements 10 is compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP, and
with Mac OSX. Adobe offers several support options for Photoshop
Elements 10. Technical support via telephone is available Monday through
Friday from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Time. Your questions and concerns
may also be addressed by accessing the FAQ section on the Adobe website.
You can find further support in the product's user manual, online
tutorials and in online, user-moderated forums.
Summary
Photoshop Elements 10 offers a remarkable suite of
photo editing, organizing and sharing tools that is tough to beat. Its
automated functions allow photo hobbyists to produce
professional-looking results, yet it has enough customizable features to
be valuable to pros. Its basic functionality is easy to master, and you
can even learn its more-advanced features quickly with a little
practice. Organizing photos is more efficient than ever before, which
makes sharing your photos on the internet or mobile devices very easy.
This application is an all-around winner for anyone who's interested in
making the most of digital photography.