Feature: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 moves onto its own identity
Motivation: The training wheels for Photoshop takes on a new consumer role

Photoshop Elements is in a delicate position - it must perform well but without taking away sales from its professional sibling, Photoshop. This has been a precarious balancing act, and Photoshop Elements has been moving slowly but surely away from being the training wheels program for full Photoshop and onto its own identity. Version 5 marks another major step in that direction.

The biggest change is that Photoshop Elements clearly caters to the consumer and new photo finisher while retaining a number of sophisticated photo editing tools. This is immediately obvious when one looks at the basic Photoshop Elements interface when you start to edit an image:

In this screen shot we see how Photoshop Elements has provided its own Quick Fix tab (see upper left corner of screenshot) as an alternative to the more complex Full Edit tab. Quick Fix allows users to make a series of color, lighting and other quick fixes to an image all in one place This approach caters to the novice or partime photo editor who wants to do simple and convenient edits with simplified controls. The whole layout of the dialog emphasizes automated ease of use which is missing in the senior Photoshop; hence the move to Elements own niche

We see this ease of use with the convenience of before and after views of the changes. However, before and after is not the only viewing mode. The View pulldown offers users Before Only and After Only choices. Notice also how everything has been simplified:
1- there are only five tools in the toolbar on the leftside of the screen
2 - the control palettes on the right have been reduced to a fixed set of choices
3 - the choices are basic: SmartFix, Color, Lighting and Sharpening
4 - the fixes supply an Auto button or sliders - simple adjustments
However, even in Quick Fix mode, Photoshop Elements retains some Full Edit Features. Selecting a tool brings up its properties bar at the top of the screen. All of Photoshop Elements' menus are still available, and the Photo Bin is still active along the bottom strip.

Quick Fix clearly caters to the novice and/or "quick fix" junkie (this reviewer on deadline doom) - with all the major fixes in one place and easily rendered. However, when choosing the Full Edit tab, Photoshop Elements starts to trek into Photoshop's territory. The trip has been perilous as Adobe has tried a variety of feature sets in order to balance the needs of the consumer photo editors with that of the professional photofinishers.

Inevitably two things happen - one, some top end features are just kept for Photoshop only (Actions, Layer Comps, Panorama with PhotoMerge, and Scripting are just a few). Two, some features new to Photoshop Elements get passed down over time. But in the passing down, the features get either simplified or their operation made more explicit. Two perfect examples are the toolbars and the Color Adjustment features.

Toolbars Comparison

	Photoshop Elements Tools	Photoshop CS3 Tools
	Move Pointer	Move Pointer
	Magnifier	Magnifier
	Hand Tool	Hand Tool
	Eye Dropper	Eye Dropper, Color Sampler, Ruler
	Rect and Circle Masking	Rect, Circle, H.Line, V.line Masking
	Magnetic, Freehand, Polygon Masking	Same 3 Tools
	Magic Selection, Magic Wand Tool	Quick Selection, Magic Wand Tools
	4 Type Tools plus Style option	Same 4 Type Tools no Style option
	Crop Tool	Crop Tool
	Cookie Cutter Tool	-
	Straighten Tool	-
	Red Eye ,Spot Healing, Healing Tools	Same Tools plus Patch Tool
	Clone, Clone Pattern Tool	Same 2 Tools
	Eraser, Background Eraser, Magic Eraser	Same 3 Tools
	Brush, Pencil, Impression, Color Repl	3 of 4 Tools - no Impressionist
	Color, Gradient Fill Tools	Same 2 Tools
	7 Vector Shape Tools	8 Vector Shape Tools + more Options
	Blur, Sharpen, Smudge Tools	Same 3 Tools
	Sponge, Dodge, Burn Tools	Same 3 Tools
	Color Foreground, Background Chips	Same 2 Chips

On the surface it appears as if Photoshop Elements has more tools than Photoshop CS3. But what we have not counted are 2 Image Slicer tools, 2 History Brushes, 5 Vector Pen tools, Text and Audio Note tools plus 2 toggles: Quick Mask Mode and 4 Full Screen mode settings available to CS3 users. In addition, the Vector Shape and Pen tools have more options in CS3 than their Photoshop Elements counterparts.

So in tools Photoshop reserves some operations to itself and passes along many others. There are a few, like brushes and vector drawing tools, which are notably less powerful in Photoshop Elements. This is particularly notable is the difference between layers and palettes. Photoshop Brushes have available huge set of changeable properties and presets in the Brush palette unavailable to Photoshop Elements users. Likewise Layer Comps and at least a dozen other layer types and setting available in Photoshop are not available to Photoshop Elements. Likewise if we did a thorough review of the menu commands we would find more Automation, Scripting, Printing and Color controls exclusively available to Photoshop users - and at roughy 4 times the price one would expect so.

So then the question becomes do Photoshop Elements users have an effective set of tools ? And the answer is easy definitely yes. For example, with the Tools comparison it is apparent that Photoshop Elements provides a set of tools that 2-4 years ago would have been top of the line in Photoshop itself. But even more important in recent versions Photoshop Elements has started to provide unique extensions and dialogs that make accessing some of the more sophisticated Photoshop tools and features more accessible to all users.

Some Problems

Photoshop Elements is not without problems. They are three. First, count the number of masking tools available to users - 10 including the new Magic Extractor dialog which is a clone of Corel Knockout Vertus Fluid Mask programs. The problem is that the tools overlap in functionality and the way they work is often frustratingly just off the mark. In addition, Photoshop Elements inherits the feathering problem that Photoshop has - when masking with a feather right to the border of an image, the feather applies to the inside of the border - where as users should have the choice to have the feather not apply along the border. The result is 2-4 extra masking steps with the feather turned off at the border.

The second problem is a bit more serious. Adobe Photoshop has joined a number of other firms in creating media Organizers that are very belligerent about being first to capture your images from your camera or pluggable storage media. So every time I plug in a new device 4-5 popups rush to retrieve my images including Photoshop Elements. I still have not figured the net gain to these organizers scramble.

Long Feature Set

Photoshop Elements really has a broad features set for making simple edits fast. the Quick Fix tab uncovers useful lighting and color fixes that Ifound to be remarkably robust. I had expected to have to make a lot of tweaks or simply forgo the suggested fixes. Not so except in the case of the sharpness corrections where one had to tweak the settings. Likewise, the Auto Smart Fix can be a real time saver in catalog or bulk load shots where close is more than good enough.

Then the set of Create options for Calendars, books, and various framed cards can be the delight of the family or the office. In just a few minutes users can add a fun and functional look to an image. And Photoshop Elements does not desert users who want to then print the results with step by step directions available.

Summary

So PhotoShop Elements has a its own identity. First at $100 and many stores it is the place to go to get a the full range of photo editing features from cropping thru color corrections to sophisticated collages and layered images. Second, while doing these operations you often have a choice - do it quick and trustworthy with Quick Fix or take complete control with Full Edit. Third, know that the Full Edit's general tools, properties and menu commands used in Photoshop Elements will stand you in good stead when and if you decide to move up to full Photoshop CSx. The price is right, the speed is good and the ever growing set of consumer features has made Photoshop Elements its own distinctive value for many photo-finishers.