Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 remains a solid option for consumers, especially novices, who want an easy-to-use image-editing product that can grow with you as you learn. Other Thoughts: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 is a must for photographers, digital designers and for those looking for an excellent non-subscription based photo enhancing software. Now it may lack some of the professional / studio tools of Photoshop CC but it has a lot to love and admire.
A review copy of Photoshop Elements 6 was provided by Adobe. Testing was performed on a 3 GHz 4-core Mac Pro with 6 GB of RAM. I spent way too much time playing with images during the review. Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for the Mac sells for US$99, but for a limited time, the company is offering a $20 rebate on that price. There's no upgrade pricing for users of previous versions of the program.
Photoshop Elements is the basic alternative to Photoshop Creative Cloud (or CS) - but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have a lot of power.
It's now in its thirteenth iteration, and new features include an easier way to merge photos together, a new crop suggestion tool, extra effects and a way to create a combined Facebook profile and cover photo. More good news is that it's now fully compatible with High DPI Windows monitors and has Retina support for Mac.
Unlike Photoshop CC, Elements doesn't require a subscription. You can buy a licence outright and it comes bundled with the companion Elements Organizer app.
Elements 13 is available as a standalone product or as part of a package with Adobe's Premiere Elements video editing software. You can get hold of Elements cheaper if you already have an existing version of the software. Elements ships with the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw, so you will have support for most of the latest cameras' raw format files - as new versions of ACR are added, a free upgrade should become available.
Another new introduction is the eLive feature - this draws together tips, tutorials and other inspirational articles from around the web.
Elements Organizer
https://lensintensive582.weebly.com/blog/adobe-acrobat-for-mac-torrent. The organizer is split into different tabs, with the first being the eLive tab. From here you can browse the latest tutorials and tips.
You need to head to the Media tab to see your photographs. You can import photos from installed software (such as iPhoto on the Mac) or directly from a folder itself. Once you have all the photos imported, you can then sort them into albums. You can also sort by date, name or the batches in which you imported them. There seems to be no way to organise by file type, which is a little annoying if you only want to view your raw format, or only your JPEG files.
Adobe reader for mac shortcut switch tab. You can also place images on a map and sort this way. Click on the People tab and the Organizer will analyse your photos for people in your photograph and ask you to label them individually. You will then be able to sort your photographs depending on who's in them. Lastly, there's an Events tab.
From within the Organizer window you can create several things, such as a Photobook, DVD jacket and the new Facebook cover option.
Elements Editor
There are three different ways to use the main editor. For those just starting out, the Quick mode introduces you to simple tools for cropping, adjusting exposure and sharpening your images, for example.
At the bottom of the screen you'll see the 'Photo Bin', which displays images in a given album, or those that you have selected in the Organizer. You can choose to hide the Bin from view if you prefer more space in the editor.
You can click on one of the options on the right hand side, such as Exposure, and use the slider to move the exposure up and down. Beneath the slider, you'll see thumbnails which show how the image will look with different amounts of the setting applied.
Underneath these options you'll also see an 'fx' icon - here you'll find a number of different quick effects, such as Cross Process or Toy Camera. Each effect has a few different subsets too - a new feature which Adobe says is a result of customer feedback.
The new Crop Suggestion tool is found under the Basic tab. Simply click on the Crop icon on the bar on the left hand side and four suggestions will appear. Hover over each selection with your mouse to see what the software suggests - you can also take control of the crop yourself by dragging the corners of the box that appear on your image.
Another new tool - Refine Selection Brush - enables the fine tuning of a selection. First choose the Quick Selection in Quick Edits mode and make your selection. Then, if something has been missed, or the selection has been over-generous, click Refine Selection Brush and click inside the selection to expand it, or outside the selection to decrease it. It's a great tool for refining and is certainly much easier than starting from scratch.
Head into the Guided section for walkthroughs on how to achieve certain edits, such as Brightness and Contrast or Levels.
The third way you can use the software is in Expert mode. This displays an interface which is very similar to the full Photoshop software, and hasn't seen any major changes from the previous version of Elements. Here you'll be able to work with Layers and a number of advanced edits, such as Levels, Spot Healing Brush and Hue/Saturation.
To get started, select the two photos you want to merge from Organizer and open in the Editor. The software will guide you through the process from here, from placing the photo you want to merge on top of the other, to selecting the outline you want to include.
After the selection has been placed, a very clever Hide or Reveal tool enables you to refine the edge of your selection.
We liked
The Simple and Guided Edit modes in Photoshop Elements 13 are perfect for helping beginners get good results with very little technical knowledge, but at the same time they introduce key image-editing processes in a friendly, straightforward way.
The Organizer app is essentially an application in itself. As your photo library grows, you'll need a tool like this to keep your images properly organized.
The new E Live feature brings in new ideas and tips from the Internet and the Photomerge Compose tool proves easy to use. The Crop Suggestion tool could prove particularly useful for beginners.
We disliked
There doesn't seem to be any way to sort files by type in the Organizer, for example raw files versus JPEGs. And while you can run Photoshop Actions (automated sequences of commands), you can't create them. We also had trouble using the Facebook tools as nothing happended when the 'Create Facebook cover' option was selected.
Perhaps the biggest problem for enthusiasts is that the version of Adobe Camera Raw you get with Elements is much less sophisticated than the version supplied with Photoshop. You can carry out basic raw file conversions, but you can't apply curves, localised adjustments or lens correction profiles.
Verdict
Photoshop Elements has always been a very popular and very capable piece of editing software for those that don't want, or need, the full power of Photoshop CC. It also has the added benefit of being much cheaper (in the long run at least) compared with the cost of monthly or annual subscription to Creative Cloud.
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It's clear that Adobe is really thinking about how beginner users want to work with their images, with great Quick and Guided Edit modes to help those who are just getting started with image editing.
There's also the excellent Expert mode - which although not improved for Elements 13, continues to offer a lot of the same functionality as its more advanced sibling.
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As smartphone cameras advance, offering features that rival and sometimes exceed the point-and-shoots of old, hobbyist interest in photography has surged, not only for documenting friends and family, but for recording a critical world view—similar to classic street or landscape photography. When Apple posts billboards of scenes shot by amateurs and pros using their iPhone, it’s not hard to see where the inspiration comes from.
For those who want more visual tricks than Apple Photos offers (especially for composition and special effects) they turn to Adobe Photoshop Elements, an app designed for consumers who seek an easy way to achieve sophisticated special effects. Elements, now in its 15th iteration, is no Photoshop, but a good number of its advanced features are derived from the company’s flagship app and namesake.
Adobe is wise enough not to mess too much with the basic formula and general interface of this app, preferring to enhance and add to its features. With version 15, the updated Organizer companion rocks brand new search capabilities and batch processing, while a new crop of guided edits refresh the main editing package.
Adobe Elements 15 Organizer
The Adobe Elements Organizer, an analog to Photoshop’s Bridge, acts like a mini digital asset management system, keeping track of all photos and videos to make them accessible to the two main Elements apps, Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. Aside from import/export and organizational functions like ratings and tags, the Organizer features face recognition, geo-tagging, and built-in maps. The Organizer is also the place for basic fixes like rotation and auto-correction. In version 15, it does a lot more.
The Organizer now has more intelligent capabilities, like its new Smart Tags feature. From the search interface you can see exactly what tags the app has placed on your images. Google Photos, Flickr, and Apple Photos already use artificial intelligence to automatically determine content for tagging photos. Adobe says that deep learning algorithms were used to develop the Smart Tags feature, but that there is no on-going AI technology running in the Organizer.
You can use the app’s enhanced search functionality to quickly scroll by Smart Tags, People, Places, Date, Folders, Keywords, Albums, Ratings and Media Types, whose icons run down the left side of the window. You can choose from the icon or just type in search criteria in the box at the top of the window.
You can use the And or Or command to narrow down your search from thousands of images, video, audio, and projects to find the item you want. Note that each smart tag search builds on the previous one, so make sure the text box at the top reflects only your current search.
The Organizer’s new Instant Fix update now lets you batch correct photos imported into the app. Just group together your chosen shots, and the new interface offers a set of adjustable sliders to fix them all simultaneously for clarity, color, light, brand new special effects, and more.
Photoshop Elements Editor
Adobe’s famous Quick, Guided, and Expert editing modules lie at the heart of the Photoshop Elements Editor, making it the go-to app for amateurs seeking a more sophisticated but accessible alternative to Apple Photos. This new version debuts five new guided edits to perform complex tasks via step-by-step instructions. In this version, however some were better than others.
Picture textAdobe Photoshop Elements 2018 Mac
While it can be a fairly straightforward task to accomplish that beloved classical postcard effect of filling in lettering with a landscape or other images, you need the proper tools and know-how. Elements’ new Photo Text guided edit makes it drop dead simple to achieve. The feature lets you choose from the fonts within your system and even lets you add an embossed look and drop shadows for a pro finish.
Just choose the Type tool and start typing. You can select and cycle through all the selections to help you decide. After you choose your font, you can enlarge, fit, and apply some simple effects. Occasionally, this feature had glitchy performance; I’d choose a font and start typing without it registering any letters on the canvas. In that case, I cancelled and started over to achieve the advertised results.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 For Mac ReviewArt transformation
Creating art from photos is swiftly becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Photoshop Elements’ new Painterly module offers a nod to that by letting you add a canvas background or watercolor brush strokes to your photos. There are only five brush styles, but you can change their size and background color to alter the look. The module is aided by a minimal number of textures and effects.
I found this effect a little half-baked. It’s understandable that Adobe wants to keep the tool simple, but in the future, I’d like to see more enhancements with additional brush shapes and textures as well as better ways to blend them.
Multiple effects
Search in adobe for mac. The new Effects Collage guided edit allows you to construct an artistic presentation by carving up a single photo into several sectors, automatically adding a different special effect to each one. It’s an intriguing idea, but not every photo will lend itself to the limited number of effects combinations offered.
It would be nice if you could adjust the borders yourself, though there were quite a number of selections to choose from in each preset. It would be great choose which effects go where rather than just having to use the built-in template. But that’s a minor quibble with this cool feature, which dresses up mundane pictures in a pleasing way.
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I also noted that this feature caused the fans on my Mac to whir, and that the application of the effects was not instantaneous.
Camera, action
Say you don’t know how or were unable to catch a cool motion shot? Or maybe the scene should have had more action than it really did? The new Speed Pan guided edit adds a motion blur behind your subject to create a feeling of movement. Just select the subject and let the software do the rest.
Original frames
Photoshop Elements always shipped with many assets, including picture frames for scrapbookers and blog posters. Version 15 gives you Frame Creator, a new way to create your own custom frames instead of having to choose the app’s pre-made ones. The idea is to give users headroom to expand the capabilities of the software without having to use the built-in artwork. These new frames can be saved in the app’s frame format and used with any photo, plus you can share them with friends.
I found this to be one of the least intuitive guided edits. Despite the instructions accompanying each frame tool, the outcome was hard to visualize and involved too much experimentation for a reasonably quick result. It would have been easier had Adobe included some shapes in this module with ways to tweak the edges instead of depending on user sleight of hand.
Attitude adjustment
Photoshop Elements’ new Adjust Facial Features tech first originated in Photoshop Fix, and then migrated to Photoshop CC as the Face Aware Liquefy feature. Making faces look friendlier has come into vogue for everything from social media portraits to group shots and selfies. While I’m not a huge fan of enhancing people’s faces, some photos do benefit from that slight transformation of a neutral expression into a smile. But that’s not all you can do.
You may want to correct a squint that goes with that frown, or otherwise make slight cosmetic changes to lips, nose, and even the shape of the face. But don’t go crazy, because applying these effects can distort the natural looks of your subject.
While the defining blue circle does not move and you can’t resize it—and on at least one image I tried—it cut right in the middle of the face, enlarging the image helps to rectify that issue. Also it would be helpful if each eye could be adjusted separately, as squints (and faces) are not necessarily symmetrical.
Better filtering
Filters are a great way to try on new looks for special or not-so-hot photos, and an updated Filter Gallery not only lets you choose a cool filter but also fine-tune the details. You can easily try out each filter by clicking it, where it will apply directly onto the open photo, and then use individual controls to tweak. While the main filter was applied in real time, the advanced filter sometimes appeared in a small preview box that was harder to see.
Adobe Elements For MacBottom lineAdobe Elements For Mac Torrent
Adobe Photoshop Elements 15 is a mature product that gets new and enhanced features on a yearly basis while keeping an elaborate and engaging interface consistent and easy to use. If you are a photo enthusiast who seeks special effects goodness without the learning curve, Photoshop Elements is the ticket. While I found at least two of the new guided edits less than compelling, improvements to the Organizer were uniformly useful.
For the very most part, Photoshop Elements 15 performed well without lag time on most operations, but occasionally I encountered glitches or intermittent buggy behavior. Adobe says that it recommends Elements for macOS Sierra, and despite a crash here and there, the app functioned as expected.
You can purchase Photoshop Elements together with its video-editing companion, Premiere Elements, for $150 (Adobe online store link), or buy it alone for $100 (Adobe online store link). A free 30-day trial version is available. If you have version 14, and the new guided edits are not compelling for you, it would be an easy call to wait it out until next year to pay for an update. The upgrade policy is always the same: Any user with a previous version can upgrade for $80, or $120 for the bundle. If the new guided edits are something you will use frequently, or you have not upgraded for several iterations, you will be happy enough with the new version to lay down some cash.
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