Since deciding to take my
photography into an entirely digital form several years ago, I have ever since
been bound to the complex world of Adobe Photoshop. Years were spent learning
how to get the most out of the program and even now I feel that I have barely
scratched the surface.
For any professional
photographer, Photoshop is one of the key tools of the trade. But for the
consumer, there are plenty of options out there that provide complex image
manipulation at an affordable price. Take the freeware Gimp for example; it provides a very
formidable set of tools capable of doing just about anything to an image that
the average amateur photographer would want. However it is not a particularly
easy program to master, nor does it carry the quality user interface that you
find in Photoshop.
From the outset,
Photoshop Elements set the standard in consumer-level image manipulation
software, borrowing from its powerful creative suite brothers and simplifying
to a level that anyone could understand. But it wasn't without its flaws;
understanding the program still required a decent level of photographic and
computing knowledge.
Photoshop Elements 9
draws heavily on the complex technology found in Adobe Photoshop CS5, in
particular its clever content-aware fill function. It also tidies up just about
everything else within the program, simplifies it to a level that anyone can
understand and runs it smoothly on both Windows and Mac. What this results in
is a package that feels powerful yet never confuses you. Almost every slider or
effect is listed with examples and everything is easy to undo and change.
Better still are Adobe's
'fun edits'; these guide you step-by-step through how to create various digital
photo effects. These act as a nice introduction to the basics of the program
while still providing you with results that you will be pleased with. This is
the first time that Photoshop Elements has truly felt 'beginner ready'. This
leads to the first real problem that anyone will come to face with Photoshop
Elements; eventually you will run out of things to do with it. Everyone who
practises photography improves and eventually the day will come when the
purchase of the expensive Photoshop CS5 will become inevitable. But the jump in
price is so vast that it is difficult to justify even for the extremely
enthusiastic amateur.
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