Now that digital photography has almost completely superseded film, people are finding that they can be much more creative with their pictures utilizing the many software tools available for working with digital images. Perhaps the most popular program for those who are even halfway serious about digital photography is Photoshop Elements. This is a less intimidating and less powerful version of Photoshop--- the gold standard of digital image editing. Photoshop Elements has proved so popular that a few enterprising software companies have devoted resources to making it even more productive. One of the most respected of these is onOne Software, Inc., best known for its highly-respected line of professional photography software. Mike Wong, one of the executives at onOne Software, called to tell me that onOne has just introduced Essentials 2.1 for Photoshop Elements users.

Essentials 2.1 is a new and improved version of onOne Software’s original plug-in for Photoshop Elements, and this new release borrows even more technology from onOne Software’s professional line-up of products, all of which have been fine-tuned specifically for Photoshop Elements.

“Make it Better! Cut it Out! Enlarge it! and Frame it! These are the four important tools incorporated in Essentials 2.1 that allow photographers to quickly and easily correct color, replace backgrounds, enlarge, and add the finishing touch of a realistic frame to their digital images without having to spend hours in front of their computer,” Mike said. “And with this new release of Essentials comes an entirely new version of the popular Enlarge it! tool. Now it is even easier and faster for users to crop and resize their images to make excellent poster-sized prints with no visual loss of detail or sharpness.”

onOne's Essentials 2.1 provides users of Photoshop Elements with four important solutions to solve common digital imaging problems. With Essentials 2.1 users can easily correct the color of their photos using technology from onOne’s PhotoTune, cut out and separate foreground and background objects using Mask Pro, add unique borders and edges around their photos using technology from PhotoFrame, and increase the size and resolution of their photos to get larger prints by using technology from Genuine Fractals, the industry standard for resizing digital photos.

Essentials 2.1 is available for both Mac and Windows and it's available online as a free upgrade for all current users of Essentials 1 or 2. For new users, this very productive set of tools is available at better photography retailers including Best Buy later this month, and the price is a very reasonable $59.95. For more information check: www.onOnesoftware.com.

John Lentz