The Adobe Elements 10 Organizer interface |
Adobe Elements 10 is now available for Mac and PC. With this tenth release comes a bevy of new features for hobbyist photographers and digi-scrappers to enjoy. Having used and reviewed the Elements software since version six, I have an easy time telling whether a new version provides significant improvements over its successor or not. During the Elements 10 preview that Adobe presented, there were some definite “wow” moments. With loads of new features to explore, I’ll allow you, the user, to experiment and find which ones are best for you. Following are some of my top features.
Easy type on paths
Typing on paths is super-simple in Elements 10. |
Calling this “type on path” does not do justice to what you can do with text in Elements 10. Drawing any shape or path can quickly be typed on by simply using the new text tool options available. You can draw a custom shape, selection, or path. Any of these can then be “committed” onto your document and immediately typed on. Didn’t get it right the first time? No problem. Simply use the appropriate tool again and adjust the points to just what you want.
Visual search
Adobe has answered a request that many people have been asking for to be able to easily locate images that contain more than just people. The solutions are called“object search” and “visual similarity search.” The names aren’t necessarily exciting, but the power behind them is. Object search can be used to find anything included in images such as animals or visual landmarks like houses or monuments. Once you select the object to be found, Adobe will rapidly search your library and bring up best matches for the item selected.
Setting up to do an "object search" |
The object search results |
Visual similarity search results |
Visual similarity search can be used to locate images with similar colors or shapes. A slider appears that you can adjust towards either color or shape depending on the subject matter. For example, if you’re looking for sunset images to use for a background on a family Christmas letter, move the slider towards color to find those rich golden hues in other images.
Special effects
As usual, Adobe has added a few new special effects to their guided edits in the Elements editor. Picture Stack makes a popular effect easy by turning one image into a 4,8, or 12 image collage. The pictures are given borders and canted and rotated to create a three-dimensional“stack” of photos.
Along the lines of the Lomo effect introduced in Elements 9,the Orton effect is now easy to apply. Michael Orton is known for his distinct style of photography involving three things: overexposure, soft focus, and camera motion. The Orton effect quickly allows you to apply these filters to your image and tweak the results.
Bugs
As with any new release, there are some problems to contend with. I’ve had one issue with images imported from my DSLR not showing up in the Organizer library. I had a screen-sharing session withAdobe reps in California and India where I replicated the issue for them. They were not aware of this issue, but are saying that it stems from the fact that my startup disk partition is different from the partition that I installed Elements on.
The other issue caused the Organizer to create out-of-date folders for images taken on the same day. The second issue is already acknowledged by Adobe, and a fix is in the works. With time, hopefully Adobe will squash the bugs.
Version 10 of Photoshop Elements provides some very compelling reasons for users to upgrade or buy in for the first time. If you’re using the software that came with your camera to edit and organizer your images, do yourself and favor and invest in this product. The new features introduced are helpful especially for those looking to add a little more spice or distinction to their images. As always, Elements provides easy paths for users to make their images look better than ever.
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