Best Photo Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a full featured application with nearly all of the capabilities of Photoshop 6.0 - not really a 'light' version of Photoshop as Photoshop LE was. What has been left out are many of the features of more interest to graphic designers and layout artists than to photographers. At only $99, Photoshop Elements will make the power of Photoshop available to many who could not afford it in the past and will not clutter up their work environment with many features they are likely never to use. Unlike Photoshop 6.0 and it's predecessors, the interfaces to tools and effects in Photoshop Elements have been made much more visual. Rather than needing to memorize what each tool does, you now need only look at a Hints window which opens when you place the cursor on the tool on the toolbar and you will see both an image showing what the tool does and a short written description of its function as well. Similarly a dropdown window for filters has a visual example of what the filter does as well as its name. Effects has a similar dropdown window with examples of what each effect does. Swatches, History, Navigator and File Browse tabs also open windows explaining their functions and giving visual cues to how they work.

New tools are the Red Eye Brush for getting rid of red eyes in flash photos, Impressionist tool to give the look of impressionist paintings, and an amazing Fill Flash command which produces the effect of fill flash when none was used. www.adobe.com