Photoshop Showcase will host photos, videos and flash galleries.
Adobe recently debuted updates to both its Adobe Photoshop Elements photo editing software and Premiere Elements video editing suite, which it billed as major upgrades to both products. The applications are consumer versions of the more comprehensive professional products offered by Adobe.
The company offers Adobe Photoshop CS2 for the professional photographer and Premiere Pro for the advanced and professional video-grapher. Individual products may be better at photo editing, organizing, or sharing, but few can beat Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 for the combination.
Elements 5.0 are for the amateur photographer who is looking for sophisticated editing tools as well as fun photo applications. The latest version includes themed and customizable layouts for albums and scrapbooks, as well as over 100 framing options.
Given the multitude of exciting new features Adobe has packed into version 5 – Adobe has completely overhauled Organizer's sharing tools, and the company made good use of its recent Macromedia acquisition by enabling you to create attractive and customizable Flash Web photo galleries with Elements 5.
The program's Organizer component allows you to create virtual "stacks" of similar photos so they do not take up unnecessary space in the browser window. Version 5 further refines this handy feature: Now the Organizer can analyze the time stamp and visual content of your photos to suggest image stacks automatically. You can also expand stacks to view their full contents right in the main browser, rather than in a discrete window. And there is a lot more.
The new, yet-to-be-launched online service by Adobe, called Photoshop Showcase is a new way for users to share images for free or for a subscription, and features a Flash-based photo gallery with virtual scrapbooks uploaded for sharing in a minimal amount of steps.
"The rise of portable media devices and the popularity of social networking Web sites means that photos and videos will be captured and shared more than ever this holiday season," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe.
“Combining stunning photography with high quality video footage allows customers to tell a story with impact.”
Additionally, Organizer's ability to plot photos on a calendar by when they were taken is nothing new or unique. But one of the new version's standout new features extends this logic to show you where you took your photos by plotting them on a Yahoo! map. In the likely event your images do not already include GPS metadata; you can either place photos directly into the map window using drag-and-drop, or right-click images to enter location information (down to street address). Your photos show up as red pushpins on the zoom-able map; click a pin to see the associated photos for that location.
The software also incorporates new photo layout tools to make creating photo-books more “personalized”, in the company’s words.
The Editor component also shows a host of strong improvements. The new Adjust Color Curves command narrows the gap between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements a little. Elements offers a simplified version of the Curves command (a tool for adjusting contrast and color), sacrificing a little control for a much friendlier interface. Similarly, Editor's effective new Adjust Sharpness and Correct Camera Distortion commands both scale down their Photoshop analogs. Another new feature gives you excellent tonal control for converting a color image to black and white.
Editor's new Artwork and Effects palette packs good news for scrap-bookers, with attractive and customizable Themes designed to frame and present your photos specifically for album pages, greeting cards, and the like. And yet another groundbreaking feature lets you save multi-page image files in Elements' proprietary new PSE file format.
Premiere Elements' user interface has been dramatically changed to allow for easier use of its editing features. A new Monitor window allows for editing in a single location, and allows the user to experiment with and preview various edits. Adobe said Premiere is also being able to import video from just about all digital media devices.
Ranked as the best-selling consumer photo and video applications, Photoshop and Premiere Elements are offered either separately or as a package deal. “Both retail for $99.99 USD apiece, or $149.99 USD for the bundle.” Adobe also said a version of Photoshop Elements for Mac OS X is available for $89.99 USD.
Three Photoshop Showcase service tiers will be offered based on storage levels that weigh an uploaded photo, video or flash gallery of photos equally as one storage "share," according to Adobe. “The site will offer 1,000 shares with its free level of service, 5,000 shares for $3.99 per month, and unlimited storage for $7.99 per month.”
You will find many other exciting new features in this great upgrade. For those who want a well-integrated package that handles photo organizing, editing, and sharing, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 is the way to go.
Both Photoshop Elements 5.0 and Premiere Elements 3.0, along with the package deal, will be available through Adobe and its retail partners beginning in October.