Even the most experienced and able photographer knows that photos don't come out picture perfect every time. Even the absolute best photo can be enhanced through cropping and adjusting brightness and contrast. For years, I've relied on Adobe Photoshop Elements to improve my photos, including most of the photos that appear on this site.
The affordable, powerful and intuitive program covers features all the basic editing tools that you'd find in a low-cost editing suite, plus the bonus of a whole set of additional features. The ones I use most are: 1) The text tool, which allows me to add text in a wide variety of fonts, colors and special effects; 2) The Save For Web tool, which at a click let's me reset the size I want the photo to appear on my Web sites and saves it as a GIF file, which takes up less memory and, therefore, can be downloaded more quickly by viewers; 3) The Filters tool, which lets me transform a regular color photo into a black and white photo, a color sketch, a painting or dozens of other artistic renderings.
The Adobe Photoshop Elements interface is very intuitive and, when you don't understand a feature, the help menu is easy-to-access and peruse. A lot of the basic photo improvement tools that address common issues -- such as red-eye, skin color, color and contrast -- can be engaged automatically or manually.
The only issues I've ever had with Adobe Photoshop Elements have arisen when I was working on a graphic design artwork that involved a photo, text and drawings. The program sometimes requires you to simplify -- or save the artwork as a single unit at a point in the process -- which eliminates your ability to move around all the elements. I find this annoying but there's always a way to work around it, such as making sure that the initial elements you place in the design are the ones you're certain you won't want to move later. Otherwise, you have to start all over if you're not satisfied with the layout after it has been locked in place.
Ultimately, Adobe Photoshop Elements has served me well over the years, and I couldn't imagine switching to a different editing program. If you're looking for a workhorse program that delivers, this program is worth a look.
Adobe Photoshop Elements features very simple and intuitive menus positioned at the top and left hand side of the screen. The tools are positioned for easy access to speed up your work flow. The menus at the top of the page are dropdown menus with dozens of options to improve and artistically render your photos. The program is also great for basic graphic design.
Artistic rendering is also very easy and there are many options to change the appearance of a photo from converting it to black and white (above) to water color (below). Adobe Photoshop Elements will give you artistic control you didn't think possible. It's fantastic for editing, stylizing and saving photos for Web use.
