Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Review Discussion

By: Dustin Sklavos

Adobe markets their Elements software as stripped down versions of their professional-grade applications, which has its pros and cons. Is Photoshop Elements 8 the best of Photoshop proper, or just a crippled imitation of the real deal? We break it down in this review.

Read the full content of this Article: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Review

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I will need the edit guide so much. I'm glad this feature holds your hand.

Concise review, well done.

 

I purchased a copy the other day - unfortunately, the html help files were no longer included (they need to be accessed online at the adobe website). However, there is the option of dowloading it as a pdf.

I'm also disappointed that Adobe has enabled "tracking of information" by default (i.e. Photoshop Elements' Welcome screen sends "usage" information "anonymously" to Adobe to assist in its improvement), and the only way to disable it is via a registry edit outlined in the help (page 14 in the help pdf).

Other than that, I think it is a great consumer photo editing app at a reasonable price (even better value if you are a uni student ). Face recognition is a welcome addition too...

 

I just ordered a copy for $49:
http://store.purplus.net/adphel8.html

They also have version 7 for $27.

 

Great review!! Thanks for the read!

 

I used an evaluation copy of Elements 8 for a while. I had tentatively decided to buy it, but I've been hesitating. It isn't very customizable. For example, in Paint Shop Pro (which is nearly as good, in my opinion, though the reviewers never mention it) I can customize my toolbar with all the features that I use constantly. You can't do that in Elements. Adobe has always had a "do it our way" approach which I find incredibly annoying. The only reason I am considering Elements is that some of the editing tools work better than they do in PSP, such as the Lighten Shadows tool (which lightens a picture so well that you don't need to add contrast afterwards) and the Text tool (which creates sharper text than PSP). In certain respects, Elements works so illogically that I found myself editing photos in Elements and then opening them up in PSP to do the final steps. For example, the Crop tool is more customizable in PSP, and it is easier in PSP to save a photo to different directories in different formats. In Elements, I couldn't get it to default to the file type that I wanted, and that's pretty lame.

So for me, the tools in Elements generally work very well, but the interface is illogical and not customizable. I can get along with just PSP, but I couldn't get along with just Elements, and that says a lot.