Adobe Announces Photoshop Elements 9
Great news from Adobe for the underwater photographer who doesn’t want to fork out big bucks for the full blown CS5 – the release of Elements 9 has been announced.
Photoshop Elements 9 uses powerful technology to make even the most complex results achievable for anyone. The Adobe Elements series is the number one selling photo editing software in the world today.
The exciting new features for Elements 9 include an updated spot healing brush. The Content Aware Fill feature, embedded in the Spot Healing Brush analyses what’s in the image and quickly de-clutters or repairs photos with a swipe of a brush, magically filling in the background. The same content intelligence synthesizes missing pixel information to create a stunning panorama from multiple photos without leaving any gaps or blank spaces.
What this means to Underwater photographers is that they are now able to remove unsightly backscatter , wayward fins/divers etc with a click of the mouse and reveal the photo as it was intended to be taken . They can also stitch together a series of color rich reef scenes into one panorama. The possibilities created with Elements 9 are quite impressive given its price point.
Adobe has also catered for the Mac market with both versions (Windows and Mac) having that new Spot healing brush, and the “organizer”. The feature helps users quickly organize, find and display photo and video clips from one convenient location. The Auto-Analyser takes the work out of finding the best shots by automatically searching a user’s collection of photos and assigning a tag based on quality, such as lighting, focus or contrast. People Recognition also automatically creates People tags, so you can find your favorite people fast and it becomes more intelligent over time as it learns to associate specific faces with names. This could be great for underwater photographers who like/need to catalogue their photos for future reference /resale.
Also included in the new Elements 9 is a feature called “Image Intelligence”. After users make their photos look better than ever, they have various sharing options, including posting photos directly to Facebook or creating one-of-a-kind interactive Online Albums with animated templates. In addition, users can share their memories with personalized photo creations like scrapbook pages, photo books, calendars and cards that can easily be printed from home or via online print service providers. The flexible photo creation workspace allows users complete control over how they design their photo books, by automatically placing photos within a template or providing access to any Photoshop Elements editing feature from directly within the layout mode.
Additionally included is the “Photo- merge Style Match” It turns drab photos dramatic by analyzing characteristics of any photo, such as contrast or colour tone, and automatically applies those qualities to another photo, allowing users to easily replicate any photo style. Several new Guided Edit options walk users step-by-step through the process of achieving cool editing effects such as Out of Bounds, making an element of a photo appear to leap off the page in 3D, creating pop art masterpieces, or retouching made easy via the perfect portraits feature. Additionally, users now have access to Layer Masks for compositing richly layered photos.
Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging, Adobe states in his press release. “The Photoshop brand has been creating groundbreaking imaging magic for 20 years, and Photoshop Elements has been making that magic accessible to mere mortals for nearly a decade. The Content Aware Fill technology introduced with Photoshop CS5 is one of our most exciting innovations ever, so we’re thrilled to be able to make it accessible to photo and video enthusiasts in this latest Elements release.”
Photoshop Elements 9 Windows and Mac users have the option to purchase Plus, which offers 20GB of storage for automatic online backup and sharing (up to 15,000 photos or four hours of DVD-quality video), as well as ongoing deliveries of new tutorials, artwork and interactive online templates sent directly to the desktop software. A benefit to all Photoshop Elements users is virtually anywhere access to photos and videos online or via select mobile devices at Photoshop.com.
Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 for Windows and Mac is available now at www.adobe.com, and will also be available soon at retail outlets for $99.99. Users can purchase Plus from within the product for US$49.99/year.
Information about other language versions, as well as pricing, upgrade and support policies for other countries is available at www.adobe.com/go/photoshopelements. For free training videos on Photoshop Elements, visit Adobe TV at http://tv.adobe.com.
