RSSAdobe to unleash new Elements products, emphasizes Web
By Tim Conneally | Published August 26, 2008, 3:27 PM
Adobe has launched Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7, the company's hobbyist-level photo and video editing suites which are now more closely tied into the company's growing online toolkit.
The major innovation in these releases in their tie-in with a soon-to-be-revised Photoshop.com, that is expected to divide its service into basic, "plus," and mobile tiers. In fact, the announcements regarding Adobe's online service alone practically outnumber the new features in Elements series 7.
Photoshop Elements 7 will add a "Smart Brush" feature that auto-adds effects to selected areas. There's a new "Scene Cleaner" based on CS3's Photomerge, that allows unwanted obstructions to be removed and panoramas to be stitched together without damaging the background. Finally, PE7 also includes new "Quick Fix" tools, including one-button correction features such as sky brightening and automatic teeth whitening. (In earlier versions, you had to use your own tricks for whitening teeth, as in the case of this weird-looking guy in an excerpt from a Sams book on version 3, from Safari.)
In addition to newly-added support for AVCHD format, Premiere Elements 7 includes automatic smart tagging, which makes video clips searchable based upon number of faces present, video quality, or sounds recorded. "InstantMovie" functionality includes theme-appropriate editing effects and transitions (birthday, sports, wedding, etc.), and "VideoMerge" affords rudimentary green screen-style background changes to clips.
Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 will be available in October as a bundle for $149.99, or individually for $99.99.
Earlier this year in the Photoshop.com domain, Adobe opened the beta of Photoshop Express, a photo sharing site a la Flickr that offers Flash-based photo editing tools sporting the powerful Photoshop brand. In October, Adobe will open new sections of that site which will supplement both the Premiere and Photoshop Elements desktop software.
Some of the extended capabilities through the Web site will include: automatic backup and storage of photos and videos, templates, tutorials, and user help sections, as well as the social aspects already seen in the Photoshop Express beta. A basic membership will provide 5 GB of free storage, and a "Plus" membership will provide 20 GB for $49.99.
Furthermore, Adobe announced the upcoming beta of the Photoshop Mobile application, which will run in the background of compatible devices; allowing photos to be shared and accessed virtually anywhere.
