Adobe recently announced the twelfth version of it's popular consumer level photo editing software... Photoshop Elements 12.
Here at Digital Scrapbooking HQ, Photoshop Elements (PSE) is the tool of choice and retails for around $100 or so depending on where you are in the world.
After the major interface changes in PSE 11, Photoshop Elements 12 has built on the new look and the three editing modes
Quick, Guided and Expert have incremental improvements.
The best new features in Photoshop Elements 12
I've been able to work with PSE12 for the past few months and I personally keep returning to:
- Quick Edit Mode: Instagram Style Filters - to give you a quick way to dress up your photos.
- Guided Edit Mode: Restore Old Photo - which guides you through a series of edits in a logical manner and helps you clean up images.
- Expert Edit Mode: Content Aware Move - which allows you to move objects in your photos closer to each other (or further away for that matter.
- Organizer: Improved Places management - you can now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhPRDPpgkfw
I think that digital scrapbookers will also love:
- Guided Edit Mode: Out of bounds to give you a creative effects by having part of your photo pop out of the frame
- Expert Edit Mode: Pet eye - the red eye tool has an upgrade to fix those 'evil' yellow or green pet eyes.
- Expert Edit Mode: Camera distortion correction - which helps you correct the effect of 'bent' buildings or stretched faces at the edges of your photo.
- Organizer: Integrated storage and sharing of photos on the Revel platform.
I have to give it to the Adobe team, this version is one of the most stable I've worked with. My upgrade from the PSE11 catalog was flawless, and as long as you have a free Adobe ID, installation was quick and easy.
Adobe is clearly looking in get more users online with Adobe ID and Revel integration in this new version.
The big question: Should I upgrade?
If you have Photoshop Elements 9 or older, you will want to jump on this upgrade!
The improvements to Photoshop Elements since version 9 include:
- layer masks features
- Quick and Guided edit modes
- quick access and installation of actions and styles
- maps and places in Organizer
- improved Organizer performance
If you have PSE 10 or 11 I would say this update is 'nice to have' rather than a must upgrade.
However, if you are keen to organize your photos without the fuss - I would recommend this update to you.
You can purchase here.
Not ready to commit quite yet? You can always download the trial here.
Will you take the plunge?
geezee says
Thank you for this review and explanation. With having 11, I am glad you included what’s in it for me.
Melanie S. says
As a Mac user upgrading to PSE 12 was 100% worth it as the program now runs natively in 64-bit! Organizer is now running 2X-3X faster than it was in PSE 10. No lag time at all even with 35,000 items tagged in my catalog. I read a guest post of yours on The Daily Digi awhile back and your enthusiasm and data know how got me to revisit Organizer for management of my digital scrapbooking supplies. I had been using Picasa and wasn’t satisfied. ACDSee for Mac also didn’t fit the bill. It definitely took an investment of time to get my data tagged as I wanted it, but now that I’m in maintenance mode, with the PSE 12 running 64-bit at top speed and with awesome funtionality offered by Organizer in searching both metadata and visually similarities for both color and object, I’m golden! Thank you, Melissa!
Melissa Shanhun says
Melanie I’m so glad to hear it! I can’t wait for native 64bit for Windows! 🙂