Customer Ratings & Reviews

I had Photoshop Elements 14 and this was a good upgrade. Like the open eyes feature, although it could done with some work on older versions. Was going to the CC photoshop andLightroom, but I needed something I could already work with.

Pros: Easily accessible filters and special effects Easy to follow wizards for quick easy editing of photos Expert mode with many common photo editing features Support for Touch, tablet, and active stylus Works with my Surface Pro 4 in all modes No Subscription! Cons: Steep learning curve when using Expert mode Cut-Out tool does get confused easily Often need to go into Expert mode to adjust Cut-Out tool’s selection Save changes can be confusing I do some photo editing of my family and event photos. Most of my photo editing needs focus on the arts and crafts that I make and post to various sites. For the last three years I have used Photoshop like competitor products. My biggest paint points are the Cut-Out tools when changing backgrounds, special effects, applying filters, or converting my photo into wallpaper for block text. This year, instead of paying for my annual, marginally improved upgrade, I chose to give Photoshop Elements a try. My needs are simple. I take the photo, sharpen the photo, adjust the color, and maybe apply a few special effects when needed. I was not expecting much from Elements and thought the wizards were marketing fluff. I was mostly wrong. Attached to this review is a picture from my last Disney vacation as an example of something that would take me hours to figure out in another product. I was able to do the same work within five minutes with Elements. What I did was load the photo into the “Quick” view. Selected the view drop down to Before & After. And then walked through the preset special effects. I found the effect I want and then went straight into the “Guided” tab. From there I applied text to my photo, pressed a button, and my image magically became wall paper for the block text! You have no idea how excited this made me. The great part is that I can get fancy or as simple as I want to make it. If there is an effect or a touch up that the wizards can’t do for me, then “Expert” mode is available. The features are a subset of what you will find in Photoshop CS but they are probably the most commonly used features. The icons are large and easy to handle. Each feature does have a subset of adjustments to reduce or amplify an effect. These features are where the learning curve steepens considerably and an opportunity for Adobe to leverage hover help bubbles. Unfortunately, they do not. You will be forced to head out to YouTube and look for helpful videos on how to use each feature’s settings. The good news is that Adobe does supply information about their features online. Click on the question mark in the section that pops up at the bottom of the screen and you will be taken to a web page with more information. So, read or watch a video from some kind stranger. I also love the fact that this product works without issue on my Surface Pro 4. It is slower on the surface than my full featured desktop. The speed has more to do with the portability and convenience over raw performance that most of these ultra-portable devices fall into. The good news is that the MS Pen works without flaw. And Adobe fully supports finger gestures. I cannot tell you how much of an advantage an active stylus is over a mouse pointer. When I need precision, the Surface is my go-to platform. When I need raw speed, then I’ll leverage my desktop. I do have a few gripes that I hope Adobe addresses in upcoming updates. First, if you hover your mouse pointer or active stylus over an object eventually a name will pop-up. This is helpful if you don’t know what an icon represents. The problem I ran into is that the pop-up is usually blocked by my active stylus. It would be nice if I can indicate to the program that I would like the pop-up boxes to appear over my pen tip and not under it. My next gripe is the selection tools. I tried to use the background replacement wizard with an actual person in the shot and found that it was only partially successful. For whatever reason, any colors in a photo that are close will throw the tool off and give you some strange selection. I also found that multi-layered objects such as a box with a pattern on it will also through off the selection tool. This may be where I need to spend more time learning about the selection tool. My point is if you really want to swap out backgrounds then you will need to put some time into the tool and even the wizard before you will get the effects you want. Finally, I noticed that when I edit a photo, I’m only editing a safe copy of the photo. Meaning, the original is preserved. What I find difficult, and I hope Adobe addresses this, is how do I accept the changes to the photo. A few times, I have made the mistake of saving my photo only to find out that I did not save anything at all. I was forced to do a Save As and then create a whole new file. I would like to see some mechanism that tells me what will save my changes, how it will save them, and where it saves them. I have only had this product for about a week. It’s going to take a month of dedicated use before I can dig through all the cool features. My list of pros and cons are superficial at best. My chief take-away is Adobe put together a consumer-friendly package with many common tools and effects front loaded for the weekend photo editor. There are many advanced features back loaded for those who want to take their photo editing skills to that next level. So far, this has changed the way I work and what I expect to see in a consumer-friendly photo editing program.

Photoshop Elements 2018 I’ve provided two of the several example photos I created my first afternoon using Photoshop Elements 2018. A photo taken at the Fort Worth Stockyards was turned into a puzzle. A photo taken in Boston Harbor was turned into Photo Text. I could have gotten fancier, but I wasn’t in the mood to read directions. Yeah, it’s that easy. And, no, I’m very much an amateur, althoughI have used previous version Elements 15 a number of times. This is a simple review because Photoshop Elements is a simple decision. Whether you view photography as a hobby or just a serious interest, you really ought to own a copy of Photoshop (CC subscription usually for professionals or Elements for everyone else). If you own an older (than version 2015) Elements, this Elements 18 is a revelation in photo editing. It brings Photoshops well known capabilities down to where us regular folks can easily accomplish professional effects. It’s a minor upgrade from “15”, but still worth if for me. I love playing with my pictures. Are you ready for a comprehensive photo management program? It’s here. Elements recognizes faces, places, and can organize your photos by various criteria. This program takes the frustration out of managing thousands of pictures. Are you looking for an photo emergency room dedicated to recovering and correcting picture problems? Elements can manage your scanner to digitize your photo albums. (Did you know almost every printer/copier is also a photo scanner?) It will help you bring back old family photos from the dead. Those faded skies and bleached or stained pictures are quickly restored. Are you an artist looking for a way to turn your pictures into stunning displays? Being “photoshopped” has entered the language because of its unique capability to modify photos. This is, of course, the primary reason why people buy Photoshop elements. It has amazing editing features. And you can choose “Guided” mode or “Quick” mode or “Expert” mode. There are video workshops built into the program. No college workshop is required to generate really special photographs long after you’re home from the game or the vacation. But workshops often appear in local schools because the program has so many features to explore. Whether you’re recovering long faded photos scanned into your computer or generating puzzles from your pics, or fixing poorly staged group photos or generating special effects, or aging modern pictures or creating artistic renderings, this program has no limits. This program is loaded with photo manipulation tools . . . and sufficient help, step-by-step guidance, and content relevant hints to make you smile during the entire creative process. This is an easy program with which to succeed. Highly recommended.

Adobe Photoshop elements 2018 came with Windows and Mac installation CDs. The installation went smoothly in Windows 10 and took only 10 mins. Adobe offer two ways to install Adobe Photoshop elements 18 • DVDs included in this box • Electronic software download - see below A software download is available for users who don't have DVD drive in computer. Please visit https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/photoshop-elements-downloads.html for instructions to download and install your software. During the installation, you need to provide the Abode ID and keys to register. Adobe Photoshop Elements home screen shows three options Photo Editor, Organizer and Video Editor. I have imported the entire photos collection which has more than 25000+ photos. It took a while (15 mins) to import entire photo collection. I am really impressed with editing features on this software. I was able to edit photos and videos very easily adding light, color, balance, sharpen and exposure. I have listed down the new features in Adobe Photoshop elements & premiere elements 15 • Turn frowns upside down - Transform frowns into smiles, adjust squinting eyes and make other quick tweaks, so everyone in your photos looks their best. • ENHANCED Guided Edits for help along the way - Photoshop Elements offers 45 Guided Edits that step you through to fantastic results. • Picture incredible text - Get step-by-step help turning a photo into cool visual text and then adding an embossed look and drop shadows to really make it pop. Great for collages, scrapbook pages, cards, signs, and more. • Create a collage of effects - Get artistic by adding multiple effects to a single photo. Photoshop Elements walks you through it and gives you templates and themes to choose from. • Pump up the action - Add a motion blur behind your subject to create a dramatic speed-pan action shot. • Photo painting - Paint an effect over your subject and then add textures and color themes to create a unique work of art — perfect for sharing on social media or as a printed keepsake. • Truly custom frames - Create your own frames to complement favorite photos, add polish to your scrapbook pages, or share with others. This Guided Edit makes it a breeze. • Touch your way to great pics - The Organizer and Quick Edit mode are now touch-friendly, so you can tap to do all your finding, sorting, and quick photo enhancements. • Find photos faster with Smart Tags - Photoshop Elements suggests tags for your photos based on subjects like sunsets, birthdays, dogs, cats and more. • Share with friends and family any way you like - via print, slideshows, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and Twitter I would highly recommend this software who wants to enhance their home photos and videos to next level.

I loved the features in Photoshop Elements 15 - it was a nice step between full-on Photoshop which is overkill for home use and Photos in macOS. But Adobe was still shipping Elements 15 even last year, so it was about time that we got an update. The update is well worth it for all the cool features they added in Elements 2018. One thing that I appreciate about using Adobe products is that the general look and feel of the interface is consistent. If you know how to use one Adobe product, you can usually pick up a new one without too much of a learning curve. They really nailed that part of a user experience. I was happy to see that Elements 2018 had a familiar interface to Elements 15. They really added some cool image adjustment features in the Guided mode. You can add an overlay effect, watercolor effect and double exposure to adjust the images. We found a really cool picture of my daughters that we used the watercolor effect on. They've also added the ability to replace a background in the Guided mode in Elements 2018 as well. One of the oddest features that we actually tried to use and got a lot of laughs out of was the Closed Eye Fix. This wasn't something that was part of Elements 15. Needless to say, it's real only use is for fixing images taken in the same place and light where someone closed their eyes. We tried some random ones and the results were at turns freaky and comical. If you haven't taken the plunge into the Elements line, you really should check out Elements 18. I liked Elements 15 and I was really happy with the upgrade in 2018.

It's almost hard to know what to say about Photoshop. The program has been the standard for photo editing for ages now, and while each version of the program has come with minor upgrades and improvements the overall workflow has remained fairly consistent for several generations now. The most important thing to keep in mind about Elements is that while it's got much of the same features as the full version, it's aimed much more at home users than it is design professionals. Many of the more advanced tools are omitted, for instance, as is the integration with other creative suite programs. You're hardly going to notice this for typical photo editing. In fact you might even find it to be an advantage, as in their place you have an abundance of automated functions to manage and edit your photo library. The spot healing brush, which can be used to quickly remove blemishes and damage to an image, is a surprising standout in this regard. Others, such as the perspective correction tool, are a bit more underwhelming, but still fun to work with. The other big part of the package is the photo organizer. It's a very capable system, with automatic facial recognition, event and location sorting, and full integration with elements. But I can't really say that it does that much that you can't get with other programs these days, so it's more of a "nice to have" rather than a key selling point. Overall, this is probably about as full featured a package as you can get for managing and touching up your own photo library.

I'm a user of the full Adobe Photoshop and I have seen how daunting that can be for the average users. It's honestly daunting for me on occasion and that's where Photoshop Elements comes in. Adobe realizes that most users do not require all the features of the full edition of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements also makes all its features so approachable. I could probably teach my mom and dad to use Photoshop Elements which is saying something. Let's pretend I didn't say that but it's true! If you take pictures with your phone, a basic camera or even an expensive DSLR camera you will likely need to edit them. Adobe Photoshop Elements provides you with all the tools you'll need as well as guided tours to help you learn how to use them. Whether you use a Windows PC or a Mac, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 will give you professional looking results without the time needed to learn a professional tool. The guided tours are divided into the Basics, Color, Black & White, Fun Edits, Special Edits and Photomerge. You'll have a lot of fun editing your photos and your friends and family will likely enjoy seeing what you create.

Adobe is always my choice when it comes for photo edit and manipulation. I like the new update added to organizer where picture can be organized and found easily on pc. Fast and easy and have full freedom of editing picture.

There is a bit of a learning curve to using this program but if you take time to read tutorials you will be amazed at how easily you an do photo editing. Once you get the hang of it you will be amazed at what you can do. I took a photo of a bride and groom standing in a nondescript background and was able to change the background to a romantic sunrise. What fun!

So I'm not a professional when it comes to photography and yet, I'm able to make my pictures look professional with Elements! I'm obsessed with Photoshop Elements! I had no idea how to use it to begin with, I would get easily frustrated because of all the features, commands, and buttons you can use. On the contrary, that's actually really good because it shows the wide variety of options this program has to offer. I'm still learning how to use this program as I'm going, and it's been fun! It's crazy how far you can zoom into the picture to fix any tiny little mistakes or hide certain things in the background. I can't wait to get to the point where I can edit photos as fast as I can text haha I would definitely recommend this to everyone!

Good photo editing software with many editing options to artistically transform your shots. Organizer is a little on the cumbersome side but I’m getting used to it’s method to save and organize my uploaded photos.

There is a lot of features on this program. A little difficult to use until learning how to use it. Does a great job editing photos. If you are a professional you may want to use a more inclusive program

This new version rocks! Great features, easy to use and understand. Enhanced capabilities. It was worth the upgrade. I am happy about my purchase!

I downloaded the free trial from Adode's website to make sure it would run on my older iMac, but when it came time to buy it, I chose Best Buy because I wanted the physical disc, also chose Best Buy so I could get rewards points. As for the software, it has a new and updated look and is fun and easy to use. I probably won't use all the features, but it makes a good addition to Apple's Photos program.

Great program. Works well. Makes my pictures better. Easy to learn and use.

This program is easy to use right from the start. The guided edits are easy to jump right into and make great edits. The full edits are a learn as you go but fun to try and see what you can do. The organization program was more useful than I thought it would be and has become my new tool for organization of all of my photos.

I had Photoshop Elements on my old Windows computer and really missed it when I switched to a Mac. While I can do certain things in Photos on my Mac, I have lots of wrinkles these days that I'd rather not have my friends notice when I share a photo of myself! With Elements, I can make them disappear! I'm not an expert, but this program makes it easy for an amateur like me to manipulate photos.

Fairly easy to use program, works great, Fair price for what you get

I needed a new programs so I updated. Has no new features I couldn’t live without. Solid program with more features than you will ever use.

I have been using Elements for years. I get tired of having to pay for an update nearly each year. I sell photographs I have edited with Elements.