Adobe - Photoshop Elements 2022 - Windows [Digital]

Looks as good as it performs! Touch screen is Amazing..(doesn’t quite move as well as mouse… my fingers can get to the perfect spot), but the ALL IN ONE cpu is worth every penny.

Love this product. Running for elected office the videos show me how to make professional sings and posters to get the message out to voters. Well worth the money.

Basic headline: Solid program, as usual. Until getting this update, I had not used P. E. for eight to ten years. That said, I find that the program is in many ways much the same as it has always been, but with some improvements to make it more user friendly. That said, the program definitely still has a bit of a learning curving. The trade-off is that learning how to use it and manipulate the options available gives users a high level of control over their images, and there is a lot you can do with this program. When you first open it, it also gives you lots of things to try and will launch the appropriate workspace for you. Of course, some of those things to try are only available if you add on to the program, or some will open a web page that explains how to do the task outlined, but not a guided tour as in other parts of the program. Over all, there is a lot of value in Elements. There may be too many choices. I’ll break this down in a bit more detail below. But, the bottom line is: if you’ve used elements before, you’ll know how to use this program. If you’ve never used elements, there are some good ways that it introduces you and guides you through features. However, the program is still complex enough that it takes a bit of effort to learn what features to engage for a given task if you’re trying to edit in a custom format. As well, it seems to me that the interface—which hasn’t really changed over the years—is starting to feel a little clunky. Some of the drawing and painting apps that I use are more intuitive and less frustrating, even though they are free or relatively inexpensive. That said, they cannot do what P.E. can do in terms of enhancing photos, adding elements, merging images, and layering complexity. The basics: --Three modes of engagement allow the user to decide how much control/how much help they will get when using the program. In “Quick” mode, the very basic editing tools are enabled, but many things are not. You cannot add layers in this mode, for example. This mode allows cropping, selection, basic edits and enhancements (color, contrast, etc.) and adjustments (lighting, contrast). There are auto adjustment options, or sliders to do your own custom adjustments for given categories. This works if to just fix the contrast or color in a photo, for example, or maybe select a piece of a photo to copy, fix red-eye, etc. --In “Guided” mode, P.E. gives the user choices of what kinds of edits to make, and then takes the user through the steps to do these targeted tasks. This includes things like photo merges, color adjustments, vignettes makings, object removal, replacing background, removing objects, etc. These generally work pretty well and can provide desired effects. There’s even a meme maker (though it’s a little limited) and a lot of these effects seem geared toward creating social media images. There are also some cool effects here (like creating multi-color collages, background blurs, tilt-shift effects, landscape clean-ups, texts and border options, extending photo elements beyond borders, etc) that are easy to do and fairly successful when following the directions. Some of these effects seem a little cheesy—but many of them could be quite helpful for producing print-worthy photos and online content. Unfortunately, the built-in "share" function in this program only links to flickr and twitter. I'm a little surprised by this, but I don't especially care. Others might find this annoying. --In “Expert” mode, P.E. turns the reigns over to the user and unlocks all the features of the program compared to the quick mode. One needs to engage “Expert” to manipulate multiple layers, for example, and get the full suite of editing and drawing tools. This is where the user has the most control over the work, but also where the controls are the most fussy. If one has a clear set of editing goals, it makes sense to engage the “Expert” mode. If the goal is more exploratory, in the “This is a neat photo. What can I do with it?” then the guided mode might be the better place to start. Does this program work? Yes. Does it work as it should? Yes, for the most part. It’s still really a bit touchy in the “Expert” mode, but the “Quick” mode doesn’t feel like it can always get the job done. It’s good that there are these different modes, too, because using the “Guided” features can also help one learn or re-learn the fancier features, as long as the user pays attention. It’s nice to have more control over editing photos, whether in a very cursory way or in a more exacting way, before—say—loading them into a program to print them or put them on a coffee mug. The interfaces for photo makers usually allow some editing capacity, but they are truly limited. This really lets the maker see the qualities of the photos and work on them. Using Elements can definitely help enhance and maximize your photos’ artistic qualities. It can produce some fun and interesting new artistic creations, and it can just be fun to mess around. It’s also a bit alarming that photo editing can be pretty easy; this is how a lot of stuff gets faked. While it’s often pretty obvious, I was also impressed that even pretty quickly, some inventions (say, inserting a person into a group they were not in) could be accomplished fairly believably. This is both impressive and a little disturbing. I will admit while using some of the creative parts of the program to also wondering if I should be able to easily swap out the background of one photo and seamlessly replace it with a background provided to me from a photo program. Yet, the basic intention is still there: this program can help enhance a photo that has some less than ideal lighting or contrast, etc. Starting with good basic material, though, is still going to make for the best results. Elements still feels a little user-unfriendly, and the interface just seems…still kind of ten (or more?) years ago. People who have been using this program for years, I think, will not be surprised by what they see for the most part. New users have to learn the language of Photoshop a bit, but I think this program makes that easier than it has been at points in the past. Full disclosure: I don’t know when they added the different levels to the program. I don’t recall being able to use these features in the past, but as I noted above, it’s been a long time since I used the real, branded Photoshop Elements. That said, some of the “create” options available still feel pretty basic. While I can create a calendar in photoshop…the templates available really do not seem “new,” or especially inspiring. With some ingenuity, I’m sure this could be accomplished. But printing it would be so expensive that it hardly seems like a useful application of time. This is the sort of thing that I’d think would be more efficiently and professionally accomplished through an internet printing service. I'll say as well: I find it extremely difficult to use this program on a laptop with a touchpad. While I’m sure any graphic artist would find such a comment obvious, the average user might not think about the fact that this program is easier to use when you have a larger monitor and a mouse. I found that I liked best working through a tablet and electronic pen, which I could use to interface with my computer. Using the pen made it easier to select areas of the photo and use drawing tools. I’m not sure if using this program with a tablet-enabled laptop would work easily or not. I think it probably would be far more preferable than the touchpad. I should also note, I was primarily working on photos taken with a digital camera, not with a phone. This is not to say that phone pictures are low-quality, just that I was working with images saved on my computer. I dislike using the cloud, and I don’t have a good sense of how easy it is to interface Elements with cloud storage, for example. I also dislike how Adobe has shifted so much operation to the cloud. While I think everything stays on home base--unless you say otherwise--with Elements, the program wants you to have an Adobe account in the very least.

I have plenty of experience with both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I mention both because please don’t confuse the two, they’re two different programs for different audiences. Photoshop is great for professionals who want full control of every aspect of photo editing, while Photoshop Elements is a simpler version where many things are done automatically or by using templates and presets. The other thing that’s nice about Elements is that it comes with many generic, but very useful graphics and backgrounds. These come in handy when making social media posts or newsletters, and that’s really who Elements is meant for: The influencers, the Instagrammers, the Facebookers and the Twitterers. It’s very easy to make a graphic with an image, add some text and perhaps a background. There are automatic tools to improve the image, to remove objects in the image or remove the background, color correction etc., it’s all in there and easy to use. I previously owned the 2020 version of Elements so I’m already familiar with practically every feature. I noticed that they’ve added new painting presets to make your image look like it was painted by various artists or in different styles. This seems to work decently, although many of the presets were pushy on adding red strokes. There is a setting to maintain the original colors that removes the red strokes luckily. Although Elements lacks features that the full Photoshop has, it’s a great program for quick edits of photos and adding text and graphics. The other benefit is that it lacks the monthly subscription fee, which can be a lot for many people. Just Photoshop is more than $30 a month right now, so it’s a good deal for people that are just getting into photo editing and want something with more advanced features than the free alternatives like Paint. Photoshop Elements will get you professional results at an affordable price, and in many cases, it’s easier and less frustrating to get satisfying results. If the automatic tools don’t do the job, you might prefer the full control you get with the full Photoshop software, but for beginners, Elements is a much easier program to learn and master. So far, I’ve found the 2022 version to be a little buggier than previous versions, but I’m sure this will be fixed soon in future updates. I experienced issues like not being able to change font size and not being able to download certain graphics because of “unknown error.” Minor stuff, the photos look great! Photoshop Elements is the next step for anyone who wants to start learning Photoshop today without getting stuck watching YouTube tutorials all afternoon, so if that sounds like you, you’ve come to the right place.

It is another fall which means we get a new version of Photoshop Elements. The changes in Photoshop Elements 2022 are more evolutionary than revolutionary, but the bug fixes along with a few new features make this the best Photoshop Elements, yet. For less than $100, Photoshop Elements provides a wide assortment of tools. The new guided edits and artistic effects make it easy for a novice to create impressive photos. Whether you’re new to Elements and photo editing or you’re looking to upgrade your older version of Photoshop Elements. Elements 2022 is well worth your time. The interface for elements hasn’t changed much over the last few years. But launching the application will quickly reveal some new guided edits. Some of them worked better than others. Extend Background was hit or miss for me. If the edges of your photo were relatively simple, the edit worked well. If the entire photo was detailed and busy, it didn’t work quite as well. Perfect Pet worked a bit better for me. The edit guides you through stamp clone and selection tools to remove unwanted objects and clean up the image. In addition, Adobe added a warp feature. It works really well. Warp makes it very easy to blend one image into a shape on another image. (Think about the glasses in the cover of the film “Almost Famous”) However, the feature that I think is most impressive and will get the most use is the artistic effects that you can easily apply and adjust with a slider. As you can see in my attached photos, I had some fun with the artistic effects. There are roughly 30 artistic effects and you can apply them to the entire picture, the subject, or the background. Rounding out the features that I felt were most useful, creating moving pictures that you could then use with social media or with digital photo frames that support mp4 playback. Most of these features are implemented well into the guided edits, but you still have quick and expert workspace to give you whatever level control you desire of your editing. A bit of practice in quick mode, and you’ll be manipulating layers in expert mode in no time. I’ve been using Elements for a few years now. In my opinion, you can do a lot with it and most photographers will benefit from the tools it provides. The changes to Elements 2022 don’t feel too drastic, but you can always count on each new edition of Elements to be better than the year before and 2022 is the best Photoshop Elements has ever been. I recommend it to anyone wanting to tweak their photos or turn their photos into works of art.

Pros: 1. One time fee rather than pricier annual subscription of Adobe Photography plan. 2. Plethora of options and tools available. 3. Option to choose between Quick, Guided and Expert to help people with different skill levels and experience. a. Quick is for people who want to make quick and simple edit to their pictures/work that are fairly simple to use. b. Guided is for beginners allowing us to choose between various tools that are step by step, simple to use and makes the pictures more creative and artistic and also about how to add motion to stills using the new Animated Overlay Guided Edit. c. Expert allows expert users to play around with more expanded selection of advanced tools. Effects section has a new collection of AI powered filters that makes the art stand apart wherein we can apply different brush strokes and styles. 4. Adobe Sensei AI enables us to give the images a more creative makeover without requiring years of experience using full version of Photoshop. 5. Moving overlays - The animated overlays add particle based-effects like floating dandelion or butterflies to static subjects. 6. Content aware fill option helps in creating extra edge to produce landscape version of the photo more seamlessly. Cons: 1. Interface still looks outdated. Especially some of the edit features and the windows displayed inside reminds us of the photoshop or any other picture editing softwares that were available in the early 2000s. It would be nice if Adobe considers to completely revamp the entire look and feel to make it more attractive, easy to use and simple for novice users.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 is a very versatile photo editor that is easy to use. It is designed with 3 levels of user input. The quick edit the guided which has illustrations of each effect as examples of what it does and the Expert which has precision edits done by the user requiring some skill to get good at using it but will give you the most detailed edits when you get to that level. You can do background overlays adjust the lighting to remove objects from a picture like a photo bomber and so much more. Basically, the features seem almost unlimited and will most likely be limited only by how much time you spend learning how to use everything the software has to offer. It is a good alternative to professional photoshop for a one-time payment at a reasonable price and being Digital means you can re-download it when you get a new computer and not have to buy it again. If you are looking for a good photo editor at a reasonable cost for your computer to make fun edits or enhance your photos in many ways then this would be a good edition to your software to make enhanced photos and even mp4’s out of your photos to share and create memories for yourself and your family. Adobe keeps improving Photoshop Elements and the effort to simplify it so more people can use it does not go unnoticed. I think a lot of people will appreciate the quick and guided solutions yet still have the option to learn more and eventually master the expert editing tool. I would not hesitate to recommend it especially since it is not a monthly subscription but a one-time reasonable payment.

There has been a quantum leap in technology since my first foray with Adobe Photoshop 4 LE that came with a photo scanner in 1996, and then the standalone Photoshop Elements 1 for Mac in early 1999. Fast forward to today in late 2022 and I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements Mac 2022. Can I get a big WOW? Why this and not the full Adobe Photoshop? Elements is for amateurs (like ME). Photoshop is for serious pros (unlike ME) and costs a bundle, while this does not. By no means is Photoshop Elements (PSE) a minimal program. Sophisticated and robust in its features, I submit that it is much more than mere mortals need or will generally use in day-to-day operations with their photos. And it includes creative options on its start page with suggestions for a variety of projects, including: • Create not-so-still photos with Moving Overlays • Tag family and friends • See video effects in real time • Add a speed effect to your photos • Create with your photos • Try out new music tracks • Get inspired on Instagram • Add animated matte overlays • Create a collage of effects • Make precise selections in video • Get help with cropping • Create modern duotones • Bring in your photos and videos • Inspire and quote graphics • Organize by places • Import HEIF and HEVC files • Organize by events • Brighten a photo • Replace a photo sky with video • Quickly fix common problems • Replace backgrounds in seconds • Perfect your landscape photos • AND SO MUCH MORE! **WHAT’S IN THE BOX** Nothing! There is no box. This is high tech – digital download. Pretty cool, eh? **THE SETUP** Download and install. Create a personal Adobe account if none exists. Enter the serial number provided after the paid download OR take your time and run it in trial mode for up to 30 days, then enter the serial number. From then on, whenever Adobe issues updates, the software will prompt for the user to do the update. Once the feeling of being overwhelmed has passed, if it passes, dig in and try and try and try the capabilities. Most of all, enjoy and have fun! Be creative. Take advantage of the growing variety of tutorials available. In the Elements Organizer module, for example, there is a link to Video Tutorials. As this app is new, more will surely become available. Another option is to search online for “photoshop elements 2022 online tutorials (mac or windows)”. Give yourself lots and lots of time over days and weeks to explore the app. Remember the adage, “baby steps.” Your patience will be amply rewarded! **PUT IT TO THE TEST** Launch the app. On the opening page, select one of the three elements - Organizer, Photo Editor or Video Editor. I strongly suggest Organizer. Here is where you will be presented with the option to see thumbnails of photos from available sources, including the Pictures app and Drop Box, as well as from a camera or card reader. Once imported, use the apps built-in Photo Sensei AI (Artificial Intelligence) to recognize and group faces for naming or excluding. From then on, if you are looking for, say, Aunt Margaret, she can easily be found in all the catalogued photos and then those photos may be used in any and all projects. This is powerful stuff, indeed! This is but one example of an almost endless display of the power of Photoshop Elements 2022. Space prohibits an in-depth review and detail or even mention of just how impressive the app is. Use the automated options that employ PSE 2022’s intelligence that turns photos into art. Use the Warp and pleasantly, artistically contort photos into any shape. There are 60 Guided Edits to explore. Organize all your photos and look for the gems under the pull-down menus in the screenshots I’ve included. Take it to the next level by transforming photos into wall art, keepsakes, personalized gifts and so much more. Under the Create tab, there is even an option for inspirational Quote Graphics as shown in my screenshots. There is seemingly no end! **CONCLUSION** Sure, Apple provides an excellent Photos app, but without the chops of this program even for this genuine Mac-head. For now, and for those who, as I, use the new M1-powered Macs, Photoshop Elements 2022 is not built natively for us. We need to rely on Apple’s conversion software called Rosetta 2. For all Mac users on Intel-based Macs, you’re good to go now. When Adobe provides the native app to Mac users on Apple Silicon Macs, this will be a blazing fast and super capable app, and I can’t wait. It’s no slouch now under Rosetta 2. For the price, I know of no other creative application with the feature set and fun quotient offered by Photoshop Elements 2020. Master it over time and take advantage of unimaginable creativity. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.