by George Kopp
Do you want to do more with your photos than iPhoto can do? Perhaps make some edits to the photo itself or a portion of the photo? Do I have a deal for you . . .
iPhoto gives you the ability to make some terrific modifications to your photos. If you need to adjust the color or saturation of a photo, it gives you great tools to be able to deal with these kinds of corrections. But, what if you need to make a change to the image itself? Perhaps you need to fix the color of only a portion of the image. To do this you need additional tools.
The industry standard for such work is Photoshop which gives a professional photographer the ability make nearly any change to an image that could be dreamed of. But Adobe Photoshop is an expensive program at over $700 and has a steep learning curve.
Fortunately, Adobe recognizes that the photo enthusiast cannot spend this much money to do minor edits to their photos. Adobe also sells a product called Photoshop Elements. Elements provides much of the ability to make modifications to photos that an amateur photographer might need. In addition, they also provide additional tools that make typical modifications you might want to make even easier. As good as iPhoto is, there are times it is just not quite enough, and Elements gives you those extra tools you need to save that all important shot.
Some of the great features in Elements include:
- Cookie cutter tool
- Smart brush tool
- Photomerge modes, like Group Shot, Scene Cleaner, Faces, and Style Match
- Guided Edits and Quick Fix mode
- Automatically divide scanned photos when using a scanner
- Photo creation templates for photo books, greeting cards, calendars, and more
- Easy online sharing options for Facebook, Flickr, etc.
Adobe sells Photoshop Elements for $99 in a box, or for $79 from the Apple App Store. But, during the holiday season, you might be able to pick up a copy of Photoshop Elements 10 for as little as $49 on sale.
If you are looking for the next tool to put into your photo-fixing bag of tricks, Elements might just be the one for you. At the lower cost, it is a great way to begin looking at serious photo editing and provide the easy-to-use tools to get those fixes right the first time.
If there was enough interest, appleJAC might be able to offer a class this Winter or early Spring in using Photoshop Elements. If you have such interest, be sure to let one of our officers know.
To find out more about Photoshop Elements 10, check out the features from Adobe’s web site at this link: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/features.html.
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