ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 7 AND PREMIERE ELEMENTS 7 ANNOUNCED 
Newest Release combines Photoshop.Com options and new tools.

(August 26th 2008) Today Adobe Corporation introduced its latest desktop software for the Consumer Digital Photo and Digital Video enthusiast market, Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Adobe Premiere Elements 7.  Both programs will be available separately and bundled together to make even greater use of this software that allows for completing task such as adjusting and correcting photos, capturing and editing video, Picture and Video Sharing and Creating Presentations to put on DVD or watch on the computer.

Adobe’s mission with these two new offerings is to revolutionize how the world engages with Ideas and Information

What the Premiere Elements 7 programs offer is a platform that can tell a story with photos and video personalized by the creator. Adobe has become a standard for professionals working with Digital Images from its Photoshop CS3 Extended software program at the top of the line to its recently released Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 to Photoshop Elements and then Photoshop Express which is a free online tool for sharing and basic tools for fine tuning a photo. While the new offerings of Photoshop and Premiere Elements 7 are geared at the consumer, it is for the user that would like to do a little more with the photos or video they take and add that personal touch to them.

Over the years as these tools have developed, telling a story with your media has changed as well. It’s no longer about sending an email with a picture attachment, it is being able to share with others and allow those to comment or reciprocate with another photo from anywhere in the world. In addition to the software itself, Adobe has launched a one stop location for the sharing and backing up of images to a location on the web.

With this software announcement, Adobe has also announced the launching of Photoshop.Com membership which handles Video and Photo features in four different areas. How the membership with Photoshop.Com can be used is first in the delivering of tips and how to explanations as well as providing ideas for getting the most out of the editing tools available. Users will also find Online Sharing, personalized and private on Photoshop.com with a private address for sharing with family without worrying about strangers looking at your family pictures. Backing up your photos and videos managed and organized with Elements can now be backed up to a secure off site server for safe storage and can also be accessed anywhere by logging in. This will allow the user to have the digital media with them at all times when near an internet connection and PC or Mac. Windows Mobile users will also be able to access their content from mobile devices with Photoshop.Com mobile which will be in Beta this fall.

This will not mean Photoshop Express will be going away; the current free mass market tool will be increasing from 2GB to 5GB. The Membership structure of Photoshop.Com at $49.95 will offer 20GB of storage and other features for plus membership which will offer more to the end user.  Purchasers of the software package will be able to sign up for Photoshop.Com basic membership for free and receive 5GB of online storage.   

With the new Photoshop Elements 7, the software itself features an organizer which allows the user to create a keyword tag for each photo on the entire local hard drive which will allow it to be found faster and much easier. Albums can be easily created to drag photos into such as vacations, parties and lifetime events. This can allow photos shared with participants of these functions to easily be found and again shared. The Albums can be automatically saved and synchronized to the Photoshop.Com personal site for backing up, live updating or removing of photos.

A Wide range of interactive templates can be used to create a theme for the albums. The organizing features of Photoshop Elements 7 are wonderful for the consumer and the Editing features take the experience using the program to higher levels. Photos can be adjusted easily in Quick Fix with the ability of fine tuning selections of a photo rather than adjusting the entire photo. Some of the most common fixes include making the selection of a photo area and then having the adjustment applied immediately such as Whiten Teeth, Red Eye Removal or Blue Sky tools which can easily fix areas of a photo. In Full Mode editing, users can examine the edits in layers that are generally found in the upper end Photoshop CS3 program but again, made here with just a couple of steps. A Smart brush can handle task easily such as turning a photo into black and white while leaving some color elements showing. This is one of those tools that viewers will usually “Wow” at while observing the photo.

Another impressive tool we had a chance to get a demo of during an online conference with Adobe was Photo Merge. In Photoshop Elements 7 and the Photo Merge Seam Cleaner, the user can take multiple shots and then apply them together to get a perfect picture. This can be great when you want to remove people in a shot or car passing by. This can be accomplished rather easily and with two , three or even more photos.

In the sharing element of Photoshop Elements 7, Slide shows can also be created easily and in many cases by dragging and dropping photos or albums into the presentation. Themes can be applied to jazz the production up even more and then shared online or on the computer. For users looking for ideas,   Tutorials can also be accessed to pick up tips and can be shared with others within Photoshop Elements 7 and the Photoshop.Com site. In short, with Adobe Photoshop Elements 7, Personalizing and touching up your photos has never been this easy.

The Adobe Premiere Elements 7 package works with Video and Adobe has made sure to include the most recent AVCHD format that is found on Camcorders recording onto Flash or Hard Discs. An Organizer in Premiere Elements 7 can be used to store and keyword video into albums which can also be used with Photoshop.Com. Clips can be previewed and tagged automatically with Smart Tagging where the video clip is analyzed and then is automatically tagged with items such as video quality, motion, speed and direction, how many people are in the shot and then what elements are in the audio. This can be extremely helpful in bringing clips to a final presentation.

Another feature called Instant Movie allows the user to take footage, select a theme such as extreme sports, wedding, comedy and music video style to name a few and then create a video based on the theme selected. Users can still customize how the movie is finally put together and then the product can be output to Photoshop.Com or DVD.  Another tool that has been included with Premiere Elements 7 is an easy Video Merge. With the Video Merge feature, a subject video in front of a solid color wall can be “keyed” to put that person on the moon or in front of famous location, special effects that years ago would have been costly and hard to accomplish without expensive equipment.

I would recommend the bundle of products with Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 where buyers will find a price break with the purchase of the combination pack which includes the full programs for $149.99. Individually the programs retail for $99.00. It’s the best of three worlds as Video, Photos and the web merge together the Adobe Elements 7 programs and Photoshop.Com membership. For more information take a look at http://www.adobe.com     

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Last Update- 09/11/2008