Here is the latest addition to the Adobe family, Elements 11. It seems like Adobe has taken a hard look at what other companies like Google and Apple have been offering and are adding their own twist with their expertise in digital imaging. Version 11 brings many great professional editing features down to its entry level photo software.
Adobe has also included a new photo organizer that allows you to easily organize by individual people or by location. Adobe has also included three editing modes that allow you to pick a quick, guided or expert based on your expertise and skill set.
Besides editing organizing is a big deal with the new version of Elements. They are allowing you to search for photos anyways you want off of any kind of metadata either it be names, date, location, tags, or even similar photos based on the same photo characteristics of a specific image.
Editing and the interface for it has gotten easier regardless of which of the three modes you choose. Along with a simpler interface it is also now easier to fix common flaws with photos. with Elements 11 you also can edit to achieve a more realistic skin tone or the run through a series of automatic fixes and choose the best. You can also remove unwanted items from a photo like distortion or red eye to an actual item in a photo that is just too distracting. The selection brush has been vastly updated to work with fine edges like hair to easily separate subjects from background.
There are also some big kid editing tools new to Elements like the ability to crop or change a portrait photo to a landscape without skewing the image or causing distortion. Some of these “basic” features still blow my mind… I am actually a huge Adobe hater and seeing the photo merge feature above where in a few clicks the application swapped heads between pictures makes me rethink my stance. These are the sorts of things that when people say “oh but Peter you will fix that in Photoshop right?” I just shake my head and go yah yah but inside I’m thinking “I have no idea how to do that!”. I have no skills with Adobe and Im not willing to put in the time to learn but when they make it that easy maybe I will reconsider the next time a brides mom asks me to take off a few pounds or wrinkles, rant over.
Adobe has also added the ability to create photo books, cards and calendars etc with this version. Seeing the demonstration makes me think of Apple’s iPhoto immediately but what do I know I’m a fanboy. They are really touting an all in one solution with Elements 11 and when the next person asks me where do I start and what software should I use? Im going to point them to Adobe’s site to check out a trial.
The software is available now and will retail for $79. Adobes Elements 11 page can be found here and a run down of all the new features can be found here, go read and click your heart out.
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