Blog

Amazing but true: This is the first time that Elements has had a tie-in to Facebook. Once you authorize the application to upload images, you can select one or more images, enter an album title and description, and Elements will compress and upload them to your Facebook account, with automatic posting to your Wall. That makes it much easier to post several photos at once. The auto-analyzer first appeared in the Windows version of Elements 8, and now makes its appearance in the new Mac version.

The analyzer worked very slowly on my bit Windows 7 system, often requiring 30 seconds or more to analyze a single shot, and at one point it sucked up more than 3GB of RAM, on top of the approximately MB of RAM reserved by the main Elements organizer application, and another few hundred MB for the editor. Elements is still a bit application, by the way, unlike its full-blown CS5 brethren.

Elements 9 has new options to create things: For example, select some images in the organizer, choose Photobook from a menu, get sent off to the editor application, and Elements then prearranges the photos in an attractive layout that can be printed on your own printer or uploaded to Kodak Picture Gallery or Shutterfly.

Nor could I edit elements of a collage; I had to edit the original image, then reimport it into the collage the editor did not autoupdate the image within the collage, as other Adobe applications do. Fine Art Nude Photography. Download Photoshop Online. Skylum Luminar 4 Review. Best Free Graphic Design Software.

Best Photo Editing Apps for Android. Free Adobe Software of Best Motion Graphics Software. The old Healing Brush was great for removing spots on areas of consistent tone or texture, but would flub near edges. Now, turn Content Aware on while in the tool, and you can remove spots that are near or even covering edges or in multiple textures. Masks in Elements is a bigger deal yet. Up until now, Masks have only been enabled when using Adjustment Layers.

But with this version, you can do really sophisticated retouching and compositing previously possible only in the much more expensive Photoshop. Elements 9 also contains some new stuff for casual users and those new to image editing. You can view your images in a typical grid or see them as thumbnails arranged on a calendar. You can create tags and label your pictures singly or in batches. And you can use People Recognition to find and tag faces of friends and family.

By the way, if you’re not familiar with it, there is a great trick for adding masks using something known as a “clipping group” in the last few releases of Elements. Select the layer below the one you want to mask and add a new Levels adjustment layer to it. Leave the Levels settings unchanged and simply click on “OK.

Yes, it’s on the adjustment layer rather than the image layer you really want it on, but here’s where the trick comes in. As a result, it will appear to become slightly indented in the Layers panel but will otherwise be unchanged. But if you now go back to the mask on the dummy Levels adjustment layer and paint on it, you will find it effectively masks the layer you just created a clipping group from. The Levels mask has been turned into the functional equivalent of an image layer mask but lives on the layer below it rather than next to it as the real thing would.

There are plenty of other new features in Elements 9 too. The content aware capability Adobe added to healing brush in Photoshop CS5 has found its way to Elements now. Mac OS users will be grateful that they now can use the Organizer previously on present in the Windows version.

Photoshop Elements layer masks.

 
In Adobe Photoshop Elements, learn more about layer masks, resolution-dependent bitmap images that are edited with the painting or selection. Adobe finally gave us layer masks in Photoshop Elements 9! This is exciting news for anyone who often uses the layer mask workaround. Watch the Photoshop Elements video training tutorial for beginners. Learn about the layer masks and how to work with it.