Entered CNET Catalog: 09/15/2004
SKU: E38911
Manufacturer: Adobe Systems
Manufacturer description
Adobe Photoshop Elements offers unique features designed specifically for amateur photographers, hobbyists, and business users who want an easy-to-use, yet powerful digital imaging solution. State-of-the-art image-editing tools free you to explore your creativity while mastering the elements of digital imaging. Flexible image-capture options let you work with photos taken with digital or traditional cameras, and versatile delivery features enable you to prepare images for print, e-mail, or posting on the Web.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 05/24/2005
With version 3.0, Adobe Photoshop Elements has finally developed a personality of its own. No longer simply a stripped-down version of Photoshop, this $99 hobbyist-targeted image-editing package looks, feels, and behaves more like competitors from Microsoft, Ulead, and Jasc. Though folks looking for a cheap version of Photoshop will likely be disappointed, overall Adobe does a better job of addressing the needs of consumer digital photographers with this version than the last. Unless you gravitated toward previous versions of Elements for its low-budget resemblance to Photoshop, version 3.0 is definitely worth an upgrade. And if you're still searching for a hobbyist-friendly imaging program, it's definitely worth a look.
First, there's a lot more hand-holding. For instance, the program now has three different interfaces for retouching images: an Auto Fix window, which provides a handful of automatic tools; a Quick Fix editor that offers a full set of retouching options but with friendlier tool implementations; and Standard Editor, which provides a more Photoshop-like interface for all the tools. Version 2.0's Recipes have evolved into the more common How To, and there are a lot more automated, template-based projects.
The program also encompasses a wider set of capabilities than before, from its much-improved Organizer to its ability to burn discs and back up photos. On the acquisition and organization front, version 3.0 supports raw files, using an import module very similar to Photoshop CS2's; camera phones; and offline storage, such as CDs and DVDs.
While Adobe does a credible job of cramming all these new tools within the interface, it has a tendency to be too controlling; there are a lot more places where you have to commit changes or can't use a particular view. Furthermore, Adobe has reduced color management to three options--None, Limited (uses sRGB), and Full (uses AdobeRGB)--but there's no place to set your display color space, so images don't consistently show up accurately. And some of its automatic operations don't produce good results, although its red-eye removal works particularly well.
Unfortunately, Elements can be a memory and CPU hog. For instance, on our primary test system, a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM, it sometimes took 40 seconds before the splash screen even appeared. Though Elements handles raw files, anything exceeding 10MB slowed a fast P4 with 1GB of RAM to a mild crawl, and background thumbnail creation in Organizer brought the interface to knees. Inexplicably, however, with both of the same systems, the program worked smoothly and relatively quickly on some days.
As always, Adobe's support is exemplary. Its Web site contains tutorials, troubleshooting tips, support announcements, a searchable knowledge base, and even a place to submit feature requests. Adobe itself hosts forums, where you can get help from other users, as well as some pricey paid-support options: $39 per single incident or annual subscriptions that start at $159 for a single user or a single product. A host of third-party books and a sprinkling of Web sites should keep you from needing to resort to paid support, however.
User opinions
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User Rating: 
9/10
Photoshop Features in EZ 2 Use Package
Pros: Supports Raw, Organization Tags R Great
Cons: Needs more templates
I've organized over 10,000 pictures with Photoshop Elements and it is truly a lifesave when you have a lot of pictures. The picture organizer is just fabulous and they use tags and subtags. For example you could have a Family tag and subtags like Mom, Dad. You could also have a Friends tag with subtags like Mary, Joe and Bob. Pictures tagged with the subtags would automatically be tagged with the main tag, so Bob would also be part of Friends if you did a search that way.
There is so much that you can DO to your pictures that it would be a crime to try to summarize it all here. I advise you to get to the Adobe website and look there. In addition to fixing up your pics, you can create projects like Calendars, Photo Emails, Cards, Web Pages, etc. I just wish they had more templates (I hear that PSE4 answers the bell on this one.)
The other cool thing about Elements is that they support the RAW camera files. Now I get even better pictures from Canon Digital Rebel.
User Rating: 9/10
Does everything I need it to do.
Pros: Definitely intuitive
Cons: Image import could be better
I recently sold a house myself. I made digital images of the house, imported them into Elements, created a slide-show with titles and background music, then burned that to a CD. I simply put this in the DVD player and played it when prospects came through the house. THey loved the idea.
I have used for this same technique for vacation pics, etc.
Great program!
User Rating: 
5/10
many of the features found in CS at a fraction of the cost
Pros: price and image editing features
Cons: interface and horribly slow speed
Elements 3 is basically two main programs, your image browser and the image editor. After waiting several minutes for the browser to load, if you want to edit and share one of your photographs, you need to load the image editor. Hit control-I, then go and get a cup of coffee while you wait for it to start.
Every few years, a program comes along that demands a hardware upgrade. This is it, but for the added features that you get, it just isn't worth it. Nice tools, like the bandaid and red-eye fix are not worth the price you pay with the slow speed. I expected much more from Adobe.
User Rating: 
4/10
Very slow to load and takes time to understand the interface.
Pros: rich features and photoshop reputation
Cons: slow in everything
User Rating: 
3/10
Too Hard to Use/Cluttered and Confusing
Pros: Has a great feature checklist
Cons: Too bad those features are not intuitively deployed
It is not designed for the casual user and gives the impression of a team that wanted to "bolt on" competitve features without concern for how the user wants to work.
It also aggressively overtakes the download of my photos, when quite frankly, Microsoft's XP built-in software is a better, easier to use solution for uploading and organizing photos. These two compete for the photos when I plug my camera in making me happy that I never installed the upload software from my camera.
This product is clunky, Picassa is more elegant in design but doesn't have enough editing features.
User Rating: 
8/10
A great suite of basic tools
Pros: Easy to learn & use, very powerful
Cons: More than many need, somewhat slow
I had been using Paint Shop Pro, based on CNET recommendation, and found it took a good deal of time to learn. It was also missing tools I wanted such as panorama stitching and photo filing.
I got this software because my wife and I are preparing to teach this on a volunteer basis. Both of us have found it easy to learn and very effective. We are amazed at the level of photo improvement and manipulation available in a reasonably priced piece of software and have been able to learn and do more in a few weeks than we did in over a year of using PSP. This statement should make it clear that I am not a pro, or even semi-pro photographer or artist. But as a serious photo hobbyist, I find this to be a great set of tools.
It is indeed a memory hog, but what do you expect from powerful digital image processing software? I'm running it without pain on a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop with 512M of memory, and a homebuilt desktop with an AMD 1600 and 512M of memory. They aren't powerhouses but they work fine.
Watch out for some of the vendors suggested in the CNET list for this software. The cheapest few are offering OEM disks/downloads without licenses and one seller has a few buyer comments stating they got pirated software. Stay with a name vendor for a few dollars more.
User Rating: 
2/10
Save Your Money
Pros: Absolutely None
Cons: Not user friendly - complicated
I purchased this software as a replacement for an older version of Adobe PhotoDeluxe, which Adobe no longer supports. I have had this new software program for almost a month now, and absolutely hate it.
According to the Adobe website, Elements was developed to keep Adobe competative in the marketplace.
Well, I found this software very confusing and complicated to use. What used to take one or two mouse clicks with my PhotoDeluxe, now takes four or five clicks. The various "tools" buttons do not have "drop-down" discriptions, making figuring out their functions difficult.
I gave this software the low rating simply based of it's ease of use. If I had known it would be this difficult to use and understand, I would have saved my money.
User Rating: 9/10
Super Easy and powerful!
Pros: Quick, easy organization of photos and video clips. Excellent creation options. One click to backup your files to a CD/DVD. Super easy to import pictures from your camera/memory card. Stable.
Cons: Runs a little slow on older machines. (like under 2.3ghz) I have a Pentium 4, 3.2ghz machine and it runs amazingly FAST!
User Rating: 
1/10
Avoid this disaster at all costs...
Pros: Gives you lots of free time to get your laundry done!
Cons: Sorry, I can't count that high...
Recently, I decided to upgrade to the so called "new and improved" edition.
Oddly enough... instead of better, faster, easier... I found something that can only be described as a very angry software designer's version of the ultimate "revenge" wet dream.
Amazingly poorly designed; and, most likely, deliberately so... how else would one explain such a phenomenon?
However, since I've never actually been able to get it to "fully" run on my computer I can only base that statement on what I was able to see before this "enhanced" application crashed my system.
Time, and time, and time, and time, and time again; all the while hanging it endlessly, of course.
I'm still trying to recover.
Someone at Adobe obviously had issues when they were putting this little beauty together and Adobe doesn't seem to care enough to get it corrected.
More's the pity.
Obviously, this is not a company to which I'll be giving any more of my money; and in my opinion, neither should you...
User Rating: 4/10
Must be the slowest program ever
Pros: Great features, nice look
Cons: So slow it is simply unbearable
So, very nice, high quality functionality, clean interface, nicely thought out ways to organize your pictures.
But unfortunately it doesn't matter - because it is the slowest program i have ever tried, and therefore useless for everyday casual use. And therefore I cannot give it any more than a 4.
User Rating: 5/10
Slow and can learn from Picasa on how to handle files
Pros: Exceptional set of features
Cons: Slow and does not really "watches folders"
Very easy tagging makes finding your photos a breeze! The calendar also helps.
The editor is surprisingly "complete".
In short - it would be everything I need....
But:
After install I told it what folder to "watch" - My Pictures.
I expected to see my pictures pop up in the organizer... but nothing happened. I had to import them manually. AND IT TAKES VERRY LONG!!! Try the same thing with Picasa: All my 4500+ photos appear in the program quickly!
Adobe has an "offline" pictures features for which I've been longing! It can take your pictures and burn them on a DVD, but keeps the thumbnails for you to see. When you want to open such a picture it asks for the proper disk to be inserted.
I suppose this is the feature that kills the file handling.
READ THIS:
If you change your mind on where you wanted to store some photos on your hdd and move them in a different folder... disaster!! Not only Photoshop does not automatically finds them, but it invites you "reconnect" the files in a window that lists only the names of the missing files AK: P5294091.JPG.
Good luck reconnecting 300 files - one by one!!!! Again on Picasa move your files whenever you want. It will find them without asking you anything.
Don't get me wrong! Picasa is not better then PS. But PS sucks at these tasks.
AND IT IS THE SLOWEST SOFTWARE I'VE EVER SEEN. How I wish it work! I would pay 150 for it! But it just does not!
User Rating: 8/10
Great program for the not so confident
Pros: Has similar features to CS but not as complex. With a little effort you can achieve outcomes that you normally would have to use CS for. File browser feature is much improved over Elements 2.
Cons: Can be slow if you do not have enough memory.
User Rating: 9/10
Everything I need for my photos.
Pros: Great organizer, photoshop class editing, easy publishing.
Cons: Slow, need more search options.
If you already have photoshop CS, it fits right in.
If it had a better red-eye remover, more search options and a faster interface, I would have givent it a 10.
I got this program mainly for organizing my photos after the number grew up to ~1500 photos, and now I use it for EVERYTHING. I don't use any other software anymore. I love the integration with photoshop.
User Rating: 4/10
its slow, just like using the "proper" version 3 years ago!!
Pros: its fairly nice to use once you're familiar with it, it does a lot
Cons: The "help" - is not very helpful at all - they need to revisit this and do extensive user testing with the target market! Not as intuitive as it ought to be at this stage in its life - buy a book!
At least you can buy into the "industry standard", but you might shop around and find something easier to use!
User Rating: 9/10
All the bells & whistles
Pros: Lots of do dads
Cons: Could make some of the do dads easier to figure out how to use
User Rating: 9/10
Elements Offers Superior Control for Digital Photo Editing
Pros: Combined Editing and Organizing, Raw editing, Tags for Classification and Collections
Cons: Slow if Processor isn't of the moment, Can definitely take some learning if no prior experience
That said, learning the ins and outs of Elements 3 (without any prior experience) so that you're happy and confident that you can edit an image to your liking may take a little time, practice and a good book or website (of which there are many). I am a big believer in any book by Scott Kelby for Elements 3. He is amazing and his books have improved my skill more than I can even say. When you get this program, swing by the book section and get one of his books. They are an absolute MUST. There is also an Elements newletter that is terrific and will definitely keep one's repetoire of tricks and techniques on the cutting edge. Wanna know how to change a person's hair color? Wanna know how to add a fast and easy border or frame to your fave photo? Wanna do a little digital botox on your mother-in-law? It's all yours.
The Elements Organizer is a great feature unbefore seen in this program. At first, I was hesitant to use it, but I've found recently that I use the album as my starting point. Having the Editor and Organizer (Album) as separate entities can be, at first, somewhat irritating, but if you launch them both at the outset and use the Organizer as your browser and launcher, it all works out pretty well in the end. Also, the Organizer seems a little quicker and easier to print from than doing it from the Editor. The quality doesn't to be there totally, but nothing you'd readily notice and easy for giving pictures to friends. It also lets you make nifty little cards and calendars.
I'm a big fan of this program and I'm a professional photographer. It suits my needs well and for someone who spends less time and energy than I do, it would perhaps even offer more than one needs. The key, I think, is that to really enjoy it for what it's worth, you have to get to know the program. Play around with old pictures and experiment. There are many printed and web-oriented resources to help with techniques that one may need. Plus, if you know anyone who is a wiz at its big brother CE, you can ask for some help and tips as they use many of the same shortcut commands and functions.
Personally, I LOVE this program and I adore all the people who offer their advice on how to improve all my bad, out of focus shots (from college and before) on the various websites out there and through books and newsletters. You can't go wrong with Photoshop as it lends itself to a wider community, out there, that will help you along as you get to be a master at making everyone look gorgeous in your photos... or just put all your photos in some cohesive order. Go out... buy it. Get some books. Practice and have fun.
User Rating: 9/10
Best bang for the buck
Pros: Very powerful and userfriendly
Cons: Somewhat slow start up
