By Brian Griffin

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a user friendly addition to the Adobe product lineup. This everyman's photo editing program acts as a simplified version of the more professional Photoshop. Simplified features make the photo editing process intuitive and easy, with many of the same features as Photoshop, but fewer user controlled options.

Originally released in 2001, Elements is Adobe's third attempt at an easily accessible photo editing program. This followed the overly simple PhotoDelux, and more cumbersome Photoshop LE. The idea of this program is to keep the learning curve to a minimum while maximizing useful features.

At it's core, users have the ability to edit and organize photos within the program for publishing and web distribution. The standards of home photo editing programs are there, including red eye reduction, skin tone improvement, and color and contrast correction. Additional special effects allow users to transform photos into drawings, black-and-white or sepia. The layers function has given users remarkable control to sequentially edit photos or create drawings from scratch.

The basics of Elements include red eye reduction, skin tone improvement, layer manipulation and correction of color, contrast and lens distortion. Special effects are also there to convert photos to drawings, black-and-white, sepia and more.

A feature missing in this program, is the ability to export files in CMYK color mode. This file type used for commercial printing has a truer printing result than the alternative RGB. Elements outputs an RGB file that is the standard used by home printers and some versions can create PDFs.

Photoshop is the standard amongst professional photo editors. It is also expensive, challenging to learn, and offers many features that the novice will seldom use. While not as complex as Photoshop, there are enough features in Elements that the common user will be lacking no tools. Photoshop Elements has become an cost effective and powerful alternative to advanced platforms, and one worth checking out.

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