- Bundles photo organizing, editing, and sharing into a complete package.
- Balances ease of use and flexibility. It's beginner friendly but not oversimplified.
- Based on 18 years of Photoshop development by Adobe, the leader in digital imaging software.
- Photoshop.com integration provides backup and anywhere access to your photo collection.
- One of the most flexible and easy to use photo editors for its price range.
- Organizer performance was absolutely atrocious on my personal catalog, making it unusable.
- Ads for Plus membership and Premiere Elements throughout the program can be annoying.
- Windows AutoPlay integration does not work under 64-bit Windows.
- New version 7/8 features provide little upgrade incentive for users of version 6.
- People recognition is poorly implemented--feels labor-intensive and not at all fun.
- Photoshop Elements has everything most people need to organize, edit and share digital photos.
- The Organizer and Editor are divided into activity-based tabs where you can Organize, Fix, Create, and Share photos.
- Organizer lets you organize your photos with keyword tags, then search and share them in Creations.
- Creations include slide shows, video CDs, cards, email, calendars, online albums, and photo layouts.
- Quick Fix lets you crop, fix red eye, adjust lighting & color, and sharpen with a before/after view.
- Standard editing tools for correcting and enhancing photos, drawing, painting, selecting, and adding text.
- Support for multiple layers, layer styles, and adjustment layers provides editing flexibility.
- New: Smart Tags, people recognition, synchronize multiple computers, adjustment previews, Photomerge Exposure, Recompose.
- Enhanced: Organizing video clips, full screen review mode, keyword tagging (text mode and cloud view).
- Printing options: Contact Sheets, Picture Package, labels, single prints, and online services.
Up to (and including) version 6, I recommended Photoshop Elements highly, but version 7 didn't offer many reasons to upgrade, and version 8 has a lot of problems with the Organizer. It's a shame, because the new features showed a lot of promise on paper. Unfortunately, in practice, many of the new features are poorly implemented, and the Organizer performance, for me, was simply ghastly. Even after a clean install of Windows and a fresh catalog, I was constantly staring at the "wait" cursor and "updating" popups.
I had high hopes for the people recognition feature, but it was a disappointment, especially after I saw how much better it could be done in competing software. The new text-based keyword tagging requires you to constantly switch back and forth between mouse and keyboard, which defeats the purpose. The Recompose feature, as in Photoshop CS4, can give mixed results.
But it's not all bad, particularly the Editor portion of Photoshop Elements 8. Adjustment previews in quick fix mode make it easier to make correction visually instead of having to fiddle with sliders and numeric adjustments. Photomerge Exposure does a great job of combining bracketed exposures, or photos taken with and without flash, to create an overall well-exposed photo in difficult shooting conditions--provided you plan ahead when taking the shots.
In the Organizer, the new full screen mode is much improved with quick fix, tagging, and rating tools in a handy pop-out panel. Support for video clips is improved, and the automatic analysis is very useful in helping you quickly organize your photos.
Sadly, my former expectations of excellence from Adobe have been shattered with this release, and I will be seeking an alternate photo organizer for my personal needs. If you're mainly interested in Photoshop Elements 8 as an editor, it's still one of the best in its price range. If you plan to use the Organizer to manage a large photo collection, I strongly suggest you take advantage of the 30-day trial before purchasing Photoshop Elements 8.
What's New in Photoshop Elements 8
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
