Photoshop Elements 5

Adobe Photoshop Elements is the standard photo editing software for consumers and many professionals. The latest edition offers many new features, but are those features worth upgrading from previous versions of the program?

First, there is no upgrade version but since the program can easily be found online for under $70, it won't hurt too bad if you do want to upgrade.

Photoshop Elements has been a solid program since its introduction. Previous consumer photo editing programs only allowed you to make alterations in steps, any fine tuning was out of the question. Elements changed all of that by offering so many professional level tools that many professionals made the switch.

In previous reviews I have explained that Photoshop Elements 2 was worth upgrading from the first edition, but since then, the following editions were not really worth the upgrade.

Personally, I think that Elements 5 is only a minor upgrade from all previous versions, but there are some features that others may find important.

The most insignificant change to Elements 5 is the pretty interface. The tools are in color and the shiny gray polished look is designed to compliment Windows Vista.

The other upgrades pretty much fall into two categories, photo editing and creative/art.

Photo Editing

Curves - Curves are a very advanced feature that, until now, were only offered in a few professional digital photography programs. Typically curves are difficult to understand even for a photographer, but Elements has simplified the feature greatly.

Curves allow you to make fine adjustments to the variations between colors and values. You can use curves to minimize the blowouts that you may get in a brightly lit photo.

Convert to Black and White - There are a variety of ways to convert a photo from color to black and white. In fact, the right way to convert a photo to black and white is always sure to start an arguement among Photoshop users. Elements 5 helps you through this by providing options. You can choose which method you want to use and Elements will do it for you.

Creative/Artistic

Scrapbooking and projects - While Photoshop Elements hasn't changed much as a photo editor, there have been about a dozen changes to Elements creative projects options. Elements 5 provides a whole new set of tools for creating scrapbooks and albums. These features are very basic, but with a little imagination and time learning the program, scrapbookers will be very happy with Elements .

Order prints - Many of the features that Elements 5 has added are in direct competition with Google's Picasa. Whether it's ordering prints or organizing your photos, Picasa is still much easier and more robust. 

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