Photoshop Elements 5 is a Treat
Tuesday October 31, 2006
Yes, Adobe pulled a few tricks that existing Photoshop Elements users might not like, but overall, I think Photoshop Elements 5 is a real treat. I've spent the last week working with Photoshop Elements 5 and now I have posted my updated summary review, along with an illustrated tour of new the features with screen shots and commentary.
• Photoshop Elements 5 for Windows Review
• Photoshop Elements 5 New Features Gallery
• A Comparison of Photoshop Elements 5 and Photoshop CS2
Comments
I AM STILL WAITING AFTER FOURTEEN WEEKS FOR MY REBATE FROM ADOBE FOR ELEMENTS 4.0. THEY HAVE NO LIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THEIR EMAILS ARE AUTOMATICALLY SENT BY COMPUTER/NOT HUMANS. THE SOFTWARE IS NOT EASY TO USE AND IS NOT GREAT.
I’m sorry you had trouble with your rebate. Usually rebates are handled by a separate processing company and you need to follow up with them. If you kept a copy of your rebate form, the contact info should be on there.
I think you might learn to like Elements if you take some time to learn it. If you’d like to try, there is a free online course on this site: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselementslessons/index.htm
Good luck.
What interests me is to have the means of making panoramas. Nowhere in the advertising is this mentioned in Photoshop. Perhaps I will need to buy seperate software. Paton
Peter: Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements include a PhotoMerge feature for assembling panoramas.
I am wondering if the feature to cut and paste a person from one photo and place in another photo is available on Elements or only on the professional versions. A friend has that capability but has the more expensive program. Can you tell me which Elements, if any, would have this feature?
Susan: Yes that feature is available in any version of Photoshop Elements, and pretty much any photo editor these days. Here are a couple of tutorials that can help you with that:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/ss/combinepics.htm
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/ss/cutoutbaby.htm
i have beenusing elements 3 for about 2 years and would like to be able yo buy an upgrade to 4 or 5 but at this point in time will not buy a full program ,and there is not an upgrade available as far as i know
Maurice: No, there’s no separate “upgrade version”–there never has been for Elements. But upgraders get a price break in the form of a mail-in rebate.
Thanks so much for all the help you’ve already provided here - it’s great! I have Elements 2 and a while back I was considering upgrading to 4. However, when I read the feedback about it on Amazon I was put off as so many complained that Adobe had removed the ‘browser’ feature, where all your pics could be viewed right at the start. Can you tell me if they have the browser (or an equivalent) in version 5 please? Thanks
Carolyn: Adobe removed the browser feature in the Editor because they expanded the Organizer’s capabilities to display all folders, including those that did not contain photos in its database. Some didn’t like this, either because they weren’t using Organizer as a photo database, or because the Organizer is slower.
But Elements works with drag & drop from any image viewer in Windows, so I don’t see it as a big loss. If you want something like the file browser, you can use a separate free viewer like XnView, FastStone, or any other one you like.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/imageviewfreewin/
It may be a great editor and a great organizer, but it is user unfriendly and you have to download each photo from the organizer to edit it and then save it and download the next one. There are no instructions, you drive yourself crazy and when you finally get technical help they tell you …it just doesn’t do it. So if you take 6 photos and only want to remove the red eye you have to take the photo from the organizer, edit it, save it, go back get the next photo, edit it, go back to the organizer…..over and over. Might be a good editor for professional photographers but I’m sending it back to Bruce Chizen President Adobe Systems, Inc. 345 Park Ave. San Jose, Ca 95110. Don’t waste your time or
your money.
Linne: I’m sorry you are struggling with it, but you can fix red eye on multiple photos automatically. Just select the photos, right click and choose Auto Red Eye fix. You can also select multiple photos and open them all in the Editor at one time so you don’t have to keep going back and forth.
Everyone has been talking about performance issues. I installed a new copy of Photoshop Elements 5 and the performance on Intel Core Duo laptop was as good as any application. In comparison Paintshop pro XI was very slow. Also the huge difference between the two was the text editing facility that I needed very much for my CD template production.
I am new to Photoshop and hence unconditioned about what features are unavailable from previous version. I guess at some stage, all of us have to accept any software for what it offers rather than continuing to compare it with earlier versions all the time.
Can I create animated gifs in Elements 5? And if I can (never used this type of software) can I easily load resized images from My Pictures directly into this program-one two three four five etc-punch the correct button and voila! I got my animated gif that I can then export somewhere else. Or am I dreaming?
John: Elements does do animated GIFs. For the specifics on how it works, I suggest you download the trial and take it for a spin, or post your question to the discussion forum: http://graphicssoft.about.com/mpboards.htm
Also, Photoshop Elements 6 is out now, so that is probably the version you’d want to get. http://graphicssoft.about.com/b/a/257996.htm
Thanks for replying so soon. Good idea about trying Elements first but…Adobe doesn’t offer a trial of either 5 or 6. I guess I’m just trying to figure out if I do buy either version is it some really difficult learning curve to do this one procedure? I’m trying to post an animated gif of some continuous shots I made on a recent trip. I suppose difficult for one person is easy for another. Probably would have been easier to have taken a video of the same event.
Adobe should have the new trial version up in a week or two. Version 6 just came out last week so that it why it’s not up yet. I have never done an animated GIF in Elements but I don’t think it is very complex. I know some of the members in the forum have done it–that’s why I suggested you post there. Elements also has a feature in the Organizer, where you can take multiple pictures and turn them into a movie file with just a few clicks. They call it a “flipbook” and I wrote a little about it here: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/ig/PSE5new/Style-Settings-More.htm