Mighty powerful program at a minimal price
Written: Apr 22 '05 (Updated Sep 06 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Many features of Photoshop at a fraction of its price
Cons: Cumbersome, no good manual, takes time to learn
The Bottom Line: Depending on your experience with a computer, this can be challenging but rewarding program to use. Worth it if you have the time to invest in it.
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| alanbweaver's Full Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Full Version for PC (... |
Photoshop Elements 3.0 offers the best value for the money as well as the most power for a photo imaging program. Overall, it is intuitive and easy to follow, but can be a bit too complex for the photo editing novice.
The Pros
The price is excellent, can be purchased for easily less than $100. I’ve seen it at WalMart for about $80. You can also get it online through various sources for a bit less, have also seen it on eBay where the bidding started at $25. Another source to purchase it if you are a legitimate student is at Campustech.com for approximately $60 (plus shipping).
Features – this program is a fraction of what PhotoShop actually is but is much easier on the checkbook. Although I do have the CS version of PhotoShop, I have learned a bit about Elements as I teach a basic course to people who don’t have a huge checking account to get the program. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of Photoshop, but these are the features that it does incorporate that are very useful:
Retouch/auto color – the features are less than what PS has, but it handles the basic needs. You can set for autocontrast, autocolor which is great.
Layers – this is what PS is so good at and you can do the same in this program.
Dodge/Burn – you can make a section of a photo lighter or darker
Copying/Pasting – you can incorporate elements from other photos into other images.
Other features such as the healing brush, magic lasso, etc. are available in this program. I may not be familiar with everything in this program but I’m learning it.
OPENING THE PROGRAM
When you start the program, you get a welcome screen that allows you to different tasks (holding the mouse over each icon gives an explanation of each type of project):
Product Overview (which shows you what the program does)
View and Organize Photos – personally I find this method to be cumbersome, awkward and a pain. If you are doing creations, you need to have them already set up in folders (the standard My Pictures folder is insufficient). You can tag photos to find them. This section is NOT intuitive and more than a bit aggravating. To do any project such as a calendar, they have to be in this section. I have found this function to be frustrating. There are a lot of features allowing for captions, comments, ability to rename the file, etc. It really is a lot of TOO MUCH INFORMATION which can hours to the task of organizing photos. If you thought it was bad putting them in a photo album, it is a lot more work on the computer, not a simpler task.
Quickly Fix Photos
Edit & Enhance Photos
Make Photo Creation
Start from Scratch
Tutorials – self teaching section to walk you through whatever task you want to solve.
CONS
I wouldn’t call this program difficult to learn, but it is huge/cumbersome and you have to be willing to spend more than a few minutes to learn its many features. A reference book would be good to have to help you work with it. There are many books readily available at larger bookstores or possibly your library. The book that comes with the program is primitive and basic.
Templates are there for a few features such as greeting cards, calendars, etc. You can create fancy borders, and special documents that some may find adorable/cute. Personally, I’d rather just get a 4” x 6” image from a person that I can put in my photo album rather than try to put it in the closet.
PDF writer. When you create some projects such as a calendar, it turns them into a PDF file which is a slow process on your computer. Results may not be up to par when doing the calendar.
COMPUTER SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
If you are getting this program (which I do recommend), make sure that you have a newer computer. These are my recommendations:
Windows XP (home or professional)
512 minimum RAM
CD or DVD burner to save images. Yes, you can put them on the hard drive. However, it is good to back t hem up on a CD in case you have a system crash. In addition, high resolution graphics can be memory hogs, and an 80 gig hard drive can fill up very quickly.
more about their features
PhotoShop Elements 3.0 is a very stripped down version of PhotoShop that is nonetheless quite powerful and can suit almost all your needs. Plus the price is great, I’ve seen it as low as $59 in some stores. You can even do better by purchasing off of eBay where I’ve seen it for as low as $35!
This program allows you to do more than crop and adjust colors.
The picture toolbar is the most important part of the program as it allows you manipulate the image in many different ways. Holding the mouse over the icon provides a “tool tip” or description of the function.
Below is a list detailing practically of these functions. Some icons have more than one function, by clicking in the image (i.e. marquee tool), you may get several options.
1. Move tool. This allows layers to be moved around and positioned in the image.
2. Hand tool. This allows you to move the image around the gray work area.
3. Rectangular/Elliptical Marquee tool. This allows you to create rectangular or circular shapes. To draw a perfect square or circle, hold down the SHIFT key while creating the shape. (diagram lower left which shows choices.)
4. Magic Wand tool. Selects areas of continuous colors. Not as magical as you think. I’ve seen it go off on a tangent or not highlight what I wanted it to do.
5. Text tool. Creates text boxes either vertically or horizontally (there are four choices)
6. Cookie Cutter tool. Allows you to cut cute little shapes for greeting cards. I found this one kind of guilty.
7. Spot healing brush. This is a wonderful feature to allow you to repair old damaged photos or to remove a facial blemish.
8. Pencil. You can draw lines to annotate or enhance an image.
9. Brush/Color replacement tool. The brush lets you paint over the area you want to select.
10. Gradient. This allows you to put in a colored background that goes from light to dark in different directions. See example below right.
11. Blur/Sharpen/Smudge tool. This allows you to not only do some artistic effects but to actually improve the quality of a photo. You cannot sharpen a poor shot.
12. Zoom tool. Allows you to enlarge or shrink the image. This makes it easier to retouch an image.
13. Eyedropper tool. By using this feature, you can match colors perfectly.
14. Lasso/Magnetic/ Polygonal tool. Allows you
15. Selection brush tool.
16. Crop tool. Allows you to change the size of the image.
17. Red eye removal tool. Just what it sounds like.
18. Clone/Pattern stamp tool. Clone allows image to be duplicated. For example, if there is an unwanted “for sale” sign on a lawn, cloning parts of the lawn will hide the sign.
19. Eraser tool. You can erase a part of an image, the background, or “magically” remove a section from a photo.
20. Paint bucket tool. Allows an area to be filled in with the specific color that is indicated in the upper left color swatch at the bottom of the tool box.
21. Custom Shape tool. Allows you to create many different shapes. The shape will be the color indicated in the swatch.
22. Sponge/Dodge/Burn: The Sponge tool changes the color saturation or vividness of an area. In Grayscale mode, the tool increases or decreases contrast. Dodge lightens. Burn darkens. However, if an image is too dark or too light, the tool will not work. It needs information to darken or lighten.
Other nice features in the program is that helpful is actually helpful. It assists you in doing something that you don’t know.
There is a photo organizer in there which allows you to put them into folders and categories. Personally, I find it confusing. I’m quite knowledgeable in windows and don’t need to go into their folders to do tasks.
There are other features to create post cards, calendars, etc. It is a powerful program that will allow you to do almost anything, from a brochure to touching up your vacation pictures. It does not have all the automated tools and features of PhotoShop (for example, you have to work with their stock drop shadows, inner glows, etc.). However, you can do some batch processing to automatically adjust color. It puts it all in a new folder if you want to.
This program is highly recommended. I also suggest that you get a book or two (better yet, take a continuing ed class) to learn this terrific program.
You will want to experiment and have fun with this program. It is not difficult, but very complex. For example, you can do GIF animations which you can put on a website. They are not difficult to do. I followed the steps in a book by
Adobe, “Classroom in a Book”, isbn #0321270800. It retails for $35….I plan to write a review on that eventually. It’s not the greatest book in the world, but it comes with a CD of files to practice with.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
If you are putting this on your computer, it is suggested that you have a newer model. Windows XP is recommended. They recommend 256 RAM but I’d suggest that you have 1,000 so that it can process the images faster. I upgraded my pc a few weeks ago and have noticed how much more responsive the program is. I can now open up 30 pictures and more at a time and the machine doesn’t get constipated!
BOTTOM LINE
Despite my aggravation with the organizer feature, the program itself works great with photo editing, retouching, etc. That part is a breeze. However, make sure you can devote more than an hour a week to the program or you’ll never master it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
alanbweaver
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Location: Northeast
Reviews written: 474
Trusted by: 22 members
About Me:
teach computer applications, design websites, provide training in digital photography/photoshop, cycling, photography
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