Vikki Dawson June 1, 2001

Adobe Photoshop Elements is an awesome tool for editing digital photographs and for creating stunning effects for print and the web.

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The main Photoshop Elements interface looks almost like any other software interface. You will notice the tabs on the tool bar that allow you to quickly and easily choose effects, filters and more. I found this to be quite handy even though you still have access through the menu items also.

You have a tool palette and can work with layers in Photoshop Elements. There is a cool dialog on the right just above the layers palette called Hints. When you mouse over a tool or other item a quick hint comes up in this palette describing the tool and giving little hints. It really takes the curve out of the learning curve.

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From the Variations dialog you can control shadows, mid-tones, highlights and saturation with a live preview as you make changes.

Below are some of the Filters, Effects and Recipes that are included in Photoshop Elements.

Below you can see that layers can have layer styles applied to them. These styles produce really cool effects for your images.

From the Layer Styles tab you can alter the general styles by creating them with Inner Glows, Outer Glows, Bevels and more.

Another cool thing that Photoshop Elements does is merge images. You use the "Photomerge" option from the File menu. Pick the photos you want to merge and Photoshop Elements will load those images in another interface. You can arrange them then, set blend mode and more. In the help there is a terrific example with automobiles where they have five or so images combined. I tried it with some scenery and was very pleased with the outcome.

Not only are there ready made brushes and patterns but you can create your own and add them.

Adjust and correct colors, contrast, brightness, variations and levels of your photos and images.

Work with layers!

Check out all the Filters!

With all of the menus above you are not limited to editing photos. I found it quite easy to create some really cool textures and images starting from scratch. Add effects to your photos and images using the built in brushes and tools. This is a really awesome application.

Some Features

• Capture and Correct images and photos

• Fix your photos

• Tone adjustment

• Color correction

• Merge your photos and images

• Edit your photos and images on layers

• Add terrific effects to your photos and images

• File browser to find the images you want

• Hints dialog to help you get going fast

• Recipes for learning how to do things

• Shapes and Symbols libraries

• Many effects

• Over 90 filters

• Create and edit gif animations

• Create web galleries of your images

• Optimize your files

• Adjustment and Fill layers for even more creativity and capability

• Much, much more.....

You know I started this review like any other I've done. I ran into a small problem. I couldn't quit playing with Photoshop Elements. Every time I thought I'd outdone myself, Photoshop Elements had another little toy for me to play with or inspired another idea for me to work on. Photoshop Elements is absolutely a terrific tool to have and the price is more than reasonable for what this application allows you to create.

Run on over to Adobe and pick up Photoshop Elements. As well as being a tool to enhance your productivity and creativity, it is terrific entertainment. A very enjoyable application to be working in.

Copyright 2001, Vikki Dawson, All Rights Reserved