Pros: Photomerge, Recompose, Organizer and Sync are big improvements.
Cons: Not different enough from V.70 for some users to justify upgrading to 8.0
The Bottom Line: Version 6.0 users should strongly consider 8.0 for the many new features. For Version 7.0 users, Recompose, Photomerge might justify the upgrade.
knitsnbytes's Full Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Full Version for PC (BH...
Introduction
The first question anyone asks me when I review software is "Is this version different enough from the previous one to justify an upgrade?" That's a great question and I will address whether Photoshop Elements Version 8.0 is worth upgrading from either Version 7.0, which is resembles, or Version 6.0, which is rather different. So, let's get started.
About Photoshop Elements
The Photoshop Elements is made up of two important parts: an editor and a file organizer. There is companion software, Photoshop Premiere Elements (a bit confusing, that name, note the PREMIERE) That is the video editor/manager, so if you do videos, the combined package is what you want. If you just do digital still photography or digital art, Photoshop Elements alone will do just fine.
Minimum PC Requirements Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
1.6GHz or faster processor 1GB RAM (more is better) 2GB available hard disk space Microsoft DirectX 9 Color monitor with 16-bit color video card Internet Access for online storage, tutorials and help
Look and Feel
One immediate, small but great change from Version 7.0 is that when the software is initially booted up, the Welcome Screen has been simplified. The Version 7.0 Welcome screen has tabs at the top right to choose tasks (organize, create, edit) but the Version 8.0 has larger, simpler buttons on the left side of the Welcome Screen.
The Welcome Screen used to just be a nuisance to me, and I was anxious to load up the Editor to get working, but now the Welcome Screen is very important. The new organization features of both 7.0 and 8.0 include disk management of images as well as an optional online space at Photoshop.com, so I find I use the Welcome Screen a lot, and in fact, I go up to the Welcome Screen from the Editor or Organizer to navigate my various tasks. So making the Welcome Screen simpler to look at is a very important, if small change from Version 7.0 and I really appreciated it. If you use this software a great deal, this might be an important reason to upgrade.
A big change from Version 6.0 is the workspace, which is now dark gray in color. If you hate this new, adjustable workspace, you can revert to the 6.0 style using the Preferences.
Changes to the Interface
In addition to the change to the Welcome Screen, there are changes to the interface where you access your tools.
Some of the changes in 8.0 have to do with organization. If you open multiple files at a single session, normally you'd have to go to the file list and pick which ones you want. Now you open multiple files and use tabs to switch between them. There is a handy keyboard shortcut Command-~ (tilde) that pages through the open files.
Smart Tags ( photo quality --good, bad, over, underexposed, face, etc ,event tags) are another new feature If you do a lot of image work and don't want your main hard drive cluttered with images, or if you want to back up your images onto an external drive, this is very handy. It also is a way to retrieve your work in an efficient manner, so using the Smart Tags in batches will make it easier to keep track of your body of work.
Online Organizer Photshop.com
The big change from 6.0 to 7.0 and 8.0 is the Organizer and the online storage feature at Photoshop.com
You get 2GB free storage online at Adobe Photoshop's site, so if you sign up (as is suggested in the Welcome Screen), you can have an offsite, online backup. If 2GB is not enough storage for you, you can pay for Plus membership.
Plus Membership starts at around twenty bucks (at this time) and you can go from 20mb (about 4 hours of video storage) to 40, 100, 250 or 500GB of storage, with prices rising accordingly. There are other perks such as advanced tutorials, and some bonus art and video effects, but the main reason for upgrading from free is to obtain much more online storage.
The Organizer was introduced in Version 7.0 and now is very much integral to the function of Version 8.0 The Organizer grabs your images and can synchronize them with an online storage at Photoshop.com. This storage can be private or public (like Flickr ) and the software comes with 2.0MB of storage. Upgrades to available storage (starting at 20MB for around twenty bucks) give you not only more storage but access to themes and goodies to extend the features of the standard package of software. I did not use the online organizer in Version 7.0 but as I get more and more images on my PC, I find that the online storage is a great idea and that I appreciate the Organizer. I used to use Picasa, but this is so much better to have the Organizer integrated into the software. I tried the Sync function and it works well. I had to fiddle a bit with it--I didn't want ALL my images uploaded (I have too many for the space alloted to me.) I also moved photos from Photobucket to the online Photoshop.com. You can move your Flickr and other online image galleries with a tool included. You can also sync with your I-Phone and other camera phones. I was able to retrieve some photos no longer on my hard drive, move them to Photoshop from my gallery on Photobucket, and then download them to my PC to make a new slide show. So I found the Organizer and online feature very useful. It was pretty clear to me that the 20MB of storage that you can upgrade to as a "Plus" member is something well worth considering. More on that later.
Editing
In version 7.0, Adobe introduced a new-and-improved Photomerge. I like to make composite photos as well as panorama and other interesting landscape creations and group photos. The earlier version in 6.0 was not very clever; most of the time it could not figure out on its own what I wanted to merge. The Version 7.0 and now 8.0 version of Photomerge is vastly improved and is one of my favorite features.
Version 8.0 improves Photomerge even more by adding a very interesting exposure merge: you can combine several shots to create the "perfect" digital exposure. Take one shot with flash and one without when you are taking your photos. Then use Photomerge to combine them to get the perfect lighting situation. FOR THIS FEATURE ALONE...if you do a lot of photography, I'd upgrade to Version 8.0.
Two new editing tools, Recompose and Smart Brush tools give you the ability to fix photos with a lot less messing around. You can reformat a photograph that has a lot of blank areas, and recompose it, moving some figures closer together without distortion. This is very handy for action shots and group photos. Templates, Fun Stuff
There are templates to make cards, calendars, frames and other artwork. There are more available if you are a Plus Member. I found that I didn't use the frames and other goodies but I do use the Slide Show editing templates, and more are available to Plus members of Photoshop.com. If you add in how fast you can fill up 2MB of storage, and if you do slideshows, it becomes clear that the twenty bucks a year is a very tempting option. I was pretty sure I didn't need anything but the basic membership (free) but when I did my first slideshow, I was thinking how much fun more themes could be. They make creating slideshows a breeze.
Filters, Artistic Manipulations
The biggest change to filters is a new smart brush for photographs. The art filters seem to be about the same as Version 6.0 and even earlier versions.
Speed:
A lot faster than version 6.0 to load, despite the Organizer. About the same as Version7.0
Help Files, Manuals
Help is available as online content, but the box of software includes a pamphlet on Getting Started. In addtion to the online content for help, there is a "Tips and Tricks" hyperlink in the Welcome Screen that directs you online to a web page with tutorials. Tutorials have a rating on the right (one to five stars.) When you click on a particular tutorial, you will see the author, a way to favorite it for future reference, and on the right, you can add your own rating of it. You can upload your own tutorials, so there is now a community of active users in addition to the usual FAQ and Adobe-supplied material.
Summary:
Version 8.0 has a few great new improvements over Version 7.0. It is not completely different than 7.0. The major addition of the Recompose, PhotoMerge Exposure are useful enough to make it a reason to upgrade from V.70 if you do a lot of image manipulation and digital photography.
Version 8.0 is quite different from Version 6.0 so if you have not upgraded yet, I think it would be well worth it to get the improved organizer and the improved tools as well as the ability to archive photos online as a sort of backup.
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