Photoshop Elements 7
© Adobe, Used with permission.
I have been working with the Photoshop Elements 7 beta for a short time and can tell you about some of the new features.
One of the new features is integration with Photoshop.com, Adobe's new online service for photo and video sharing. The Basic level of service included with the software offers 5 GB 2 GB of storage for automated online backups and anywhere access to photos and video clips. An optional Plus upgrade increases the storage limit to 20 GB and also delivers a fresh supply of tutorials, seasonal artwork, themed templates and more. The Plus membership costs $50 annually.
I have not yet been able to test the online membership aspect of the upgrade, but will write more about it in my official review of Photoshop Elements 7, coming soon. I did get to work with many of the new features in the desktop software.
One enhancement that a lot of users will be glad to see is a customizable brightness control for the workspace since many did not like the dark interface which was introduced in Photoshop Elements 6. Unfortunately, for those who had trouble reading the reversed type in the dark workspace, this comes as a full version upgrade rather than a patch to version 6. But Photoshop Elements 7 also brings new tools and features which should make the upgrade worthwhile:
- A new PhotoMerge mode called Screen Cleaner allows users to scribble out unwanted elements in their photos when they have multiple shots of the same scene.
- Automated Actions allows users to apply various effects in one click. The actions included are Faded Ink, Lose Weight, Resize and Crop, Captions, and Shrink. There was not a lot of information about this in the beta version I used, but it appears that users will be able to create and add new actions.
- Several other new adjustments and effects in Guided edit mode, such as sketch effect and old fashioned photos.
- A new Touch Up palette in quick edit mode offers several quick fix tools - Red Eye Remover, Teeth Whitener, Make Dull Sky Blue, and High Contrast Black and White. These tools work in conjunction with the quick selection tool so that only specific areas of the photo are affected.
- In full edit mode, there is a new Smart Brush tool which allows you to apply a wide range of effects selectively, simply by brushing across your photo. There are 50 preset effects to choose from for adjusting color and tone, creating effects, and touching up details. All these effects are done non-destructively using adjustment layers and masks for total control.
- There is a new filter intended for portrait shots. The Surface Blur filter softens surfaces while keeping edges and details crisp to give a soft focus effect or glamor shot photo style.
- The Photo Downloader is now integrated with Windows AutoPlay, eliminating the system tray icon.
- A new search box in the organizer allows users to quickly find by keyword, name, date or other metadata, without scrolling through the tags list or choosing from menus in a dialog box.
Update 9/2/08: I've just been informed by Adobe that the free Basic Photoshop.com membership will offer 2 GB of storage, not 5 GB as originally stated.
Also see:
• Photoshop Elements 6 Review
• Photoshop Elements 6 New Features and Screen Shots
• Photoshop Elements User Resources
Automated actions could be useful if it could be set up to resize photos to a given width and then save for web with a set maximum file size, all at one instruction. I’m still using Elements 2.0 but sometimes wonder whether a newer version would be worthwhile. I don’t do much other than some contrast/brightening, resizing and saving for web though.
Marion: Have you seen my tutorial on resizing multiple photos with Elements? http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/ss/processmultiple.htm
I don’t remember if the process multiple files command existed as far back as Elements 2.0, but you might want to look into it.
I am glad to learn that PE7 has contrast control because I teach Photoshop and I found using the program with a data projector hopeless. I also found the brush palette in particular awful because you either had black splodges on charcol background or the stroke variant which isn’t as useful. I never bought PE6 for myself and am dreading the day Adobe decide to make CS4 black on black. It was reassuring to know that other people didn’t like the oh, so cool interface.
Rosemary Muntus, Suffolk UK
I have Corel PSP X2. Is there something in Elements that I’m missing in PSP?
ohdee: Not particularly.. they are both very capable photo editors and each has their individual strengths and weaknesses. If you want a better idea of the differences, you can read my reviews of each and/or download the trial versions.
Hi Sue. Thanks very much!
Having just recently upgraded from PSE5 to PSE6 I am hoping that Adobe will “do the right thing” and let those of us with new copies upgrade for less than $99!
Douglas: It has always been a $20 mail-in rebate for upgraders.
The main question that I haven’t seen answered anywhere is if Elements 7 will support 64-bit Vista which seems to be on every new Quad-core system.
What’s the point of having the additional processing power if resource hungry programs can’t use it?
Will: I am running the Elements 7 beta on 64-bit Windows Vista, but Elements 7 is not a 64-bit program. Lightroom 2 is, if you must have something that is native 64-bit.
Any change in the use of threading in Photoshop Elements so that:
* RAW previews in organizer mode
* exporting JPEGs from organizer mode
can make use of quad-core processors? having a quad-core for Premiere Elements is great — just wondering when Photoshop Elements will catch up in its use of multi-threading.
Thanks!
Sue, both programs run fine on 64bit Vista? I hear the latest version of Pinnacle runs on Vista 64, but if Premier 7 runs, I’ll probably upgrade and stay with that.
Bill: I see no reason why it wouldn’t run on Vista 64, though I personally did not install it. Here are the system requirements: http://www.adobe.com/products/psprelements/systemreqs/