Photoshop Elements 11
Publisher: Adobe
Platforms:PC & Mac
Description: Photo Editing
MSRP: $99.99 New, $79.99 Upgrade
Expected Release: Available Now
Official Website: Click Here
Samples: Click Here
Demo: Click Here
Special Discount: Click Here
Review Issue: Issue #85 (03/13)
Review By: Don Vanzant
Final Score: 9.5
Adobe Photoshop Elements has been the leader since 2001 in providing photo editing power to the average consumer for a moderate cost. This eleventh edition keeps pace with Adobe’s expanding reputation by giving the consumer – and even the “prosumer” – a very intuitive and affordable option to the more advanced and expensive Photoshop CS6.
Photoshop Elements 11(PSE11) adds some new features to the previous release and improves the work space and flow with a cleaner look and a more user-friendly environment.
The new face on PSE 11 is much more pleasant with larger app-like icons which are logically arranged.
Ease of Use
Adobe spins PSE11 as being more “intuitive,” a goal which it generally fulfills. First, there is a new look as the old dark backdrop is replaced with a pleasant grey, larger type, and app-like tool icons. The interface is much simpler. There are three options at the top: Quick, Guided, and Expert.
- The Quick mode is just what it says. Not many things to do here, just click and get what they give you, like fixing overexposure, weird colors, or trying to make an out-of-focus picture be in focus. (Lots of luck there!) The tool options on the left in the tool bin are few: red-eye fix, crop, whiten teeth, heal an area (which doesn’t work as well as the one in the Photoshop pro line), add some text, or a basic selection tool.
- The Guided mode gives twenty-six options on the right-side of the window arranged into three categories. The different options are easy to follow and the different steps in each Guided program are easy to understand and execute. Guided mode offers step by step guided edits for sophisticated visual effects.
- The Expert mode is much like previous versions, implementing filters, styles, and effects – all different adjustments that require some knowledge and experience.
No matter which of the three options you choose, the top menu has all the tools available all the time. Unlike Photoshop CS6, since there are fewer options, the icons are large enough to see and the top menus are not so long that you get lost looking for something. Ease of use is by far the strongest suit of Photoshop Elements 11.
Options
There are three new options that I find most impressive in PSE11.
The first is Guided Edits. Instead of a magical “instant fix” in the Quick path where there are few choices, or an overwhelming list of options in Expert, the new Guided Edits path lets the creative side of the user flow as you do things like add depth of field or a high key effect to a photo. In the Guided area, you are led step-by-step through each phase of adjustment, using your eye and goal for the project. What you get is rather impressive, even if you are an amateur photographer using a point and shoot camera.
One of the choices in the Guided Edits is the Depth of Field as shown on the left. Total time for the process in the Guided Edits was less than one minute, while the Expert method, shown on the right took five minutes.
Other guided edits include a Tilt-Shift Guide, which walks you through creating the ultra shallow depth of field one finds in a toy camera or tilt shift lens, and a High Key effect – both of which are difficult to accomplish on your own unless you are rather skilled in Photoshop. In PSE11, they can be accomplished with much less effort in the Guided Edits section.
The High Key effect on the left is accomplished in a few steps in the Guided Edits. Low Key effect also is included in PSE11. The Comic filter on the right is new in the Expert mode, but still easily accomplished.
The second new feature set is the addition an array of new filters, effects, and styles in the Expert mode. Don’t let the word Expert intimidate you. The filters are easy to use and adjustable. They have added filters that will turn a photo into a Comic, a Graphic Novel, and a Pen & Ink drawing. They do an remarkable job in a short amount of time. While these new filters may have a limited use, they are easily accomplished job with the adjustable filters. You can use a one click method, or pull down the Filter Gallery option that lets you fine tune your effect.
The third new function that I like is Actions, which is a listing of preset functions that often are used, such as preset borders, size, merge layers, etc. A long included option in the professional Photoshop offerings, the Action box can be accessed quickly and saves time by putting repetitive actions in an open window. You can customize your action box, even importing more complicated steps to your personal action box. The more you use PSE11 and create Actions that fit your work, the faster you become. While Elements 11 does not have the choices of Photoshop, you can import your styles and effects from other sources and increase the power of Elements 11 in a similar way to the way you would Photoshop CS6.
There are some options in PSE11 of which I am less fond. I find the Organizer application to be clumsy. When you first open the program you must choose which way you want to go, to the Photo Editor or to Organizer.
The opening screen for PSE 11 gives you the choice of going to the Organizer program or to the Editor.
They each will run independently, but the idea is to run them both and switch back and forth (very much like the kid brother of Bridge, but with the invasiveness of early versions of Lightroom . This version allows you to categorize your photos by event, person, and location. The location (or map) feature is new to this version, and dealing with the maps is rather slow and does not fit any need I have. In PSE8 they rolled out the face recognition function, supposedly making it possible for the program to scan through your files and identify a person after you had named them once. Unfortunately, after three releases, it still doesn’t work very well—at least not on the pictures I used. To make matters worse, the Organizer side eats up a lot of CPU and ram while it is looking for faces. Finally, switching between the Editor and the Organizer just is not fast, which further separates it from the much more capable and less intrusive Bridge.
Performance
Although the Photoshop Elements 11 is a consumer oriented program, it does require moderate muscle. I ran it on an older laptop running a 1.8 Mhz. with 2GB of ram on XP. It used 70% of my limited ram, making it almost impossible to do much else. That is just with the Photo Editor running. On some of the more complicated filters, it took as long as thirty seconds for the task to be completed. Again, that is due more to the CPU than the program. When I ran it on a newer i5 Windows 7 it sailed, but bogged down when it came to running some of the filters. Changing millions of pixels at once is never a fast process.
Value
How can you go wrong with Adobe? With Photoshop Elements 11 you get layered pixel editing with great support. $100 compared to $700 for the full Photoshop makes this a great value. The question for most of us who are not professional photographers is “What difference does the Elements tag make?” Chances are we won’t be missing anything.
Final Comments
I would like to see them cut the organization side out of this to make it run faster and cleaner and reduce the price by twenty dollars, but the primary market is the novice who wants to improve and print some photos. That it does well, but it also does so much more. Those of us who use this in a professional setting or even a semi-professional way can benefit from Adobe’s overkill. What you get are really many of the features of Photoshop at 15% of the cost. (And for folks just getting started in film making you can get this paired with Premiere Elements for a grand total of $150, which is 10% of the $1500 price tag you’d be looking at for Photoshop CS6 and Premiere Pro CS6.)
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Breakdown
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Ease of Use
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9.5 |
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Depth of Options
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9.5 |
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Performance
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9.0 |
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Value vs. Cost
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10 |
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Overall Score |
9.5 |
Don Vanzant
Don Vanzant is a public speaker and multimedia presenter in Central Kentucky. When not farming, rebuilding new video rigs, and writing for MicroFilmmaker Magazine, he pastors the Gathering Christian Fellowship in Lexington, KY.