Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022
£86.56/$99.99 Lots for beginners to play with
Photoshop Elements is Adobe’s novice-orientated version of Photoshop. You can buy Photoshop Elements on its own, or as a bundle with Premiere Elements for video editing. Either way, it also comes with a separate Organizer app. This fills the same organisation role as Lightroom in the Adobe Photography Plan, but is a much more novice-orientated tool.
Photoshop Elements tries hard to make things simple for novices by offering easy quick fixes, a Guided Edit mode that walks users through a process so that they learn at the same time, and an Expert mode, which offers more hands-on control and functions.
Despite its colourful buttons and walk-through processes, Elements isn’t as user-friendly as it might be. The multiple modes for editing your photos introduce a lot of crossover and decisions. The Guided Edits show how common editing processes work, but the results can often lack finesse.
Lightroom is an all-in-one image cataloguing, raw processing, editing and effects preset tool that can tackle just about any kind of photo enhancement, short of multi-image composites, type and illustration effects. (For that, there’s Photoshop, included alongside Lightroom in the Adobe Photography Plan.)
Lightroom Classic is the ‘old’ desktop-first Lightroom, and the version likely to be used by most photographers. Images are stored on your own computer (though collections and smart previews can be synced online) and you can use plug-ins and external editors freely.
You can get excellent results very quickly in Lightroom Classic, although its multi-module interface feels like a throwback from the past, with Map, Slideshow and Web modules that feel far less relevant today. Its noise reduction also seems some way behind Capture One and DxO PhotoLab.
Capture One comes in an ‘all cameras’ edition, plus a Nikon-only version at around half the price (and Fujifilm and Sony editions, too). All editions are available for a one-off fee, or on a monthly or annual subscription.
Capture One is a direct alternative to Lightroom, offering the same combination of image cataloguing, non-destructive editing, local adjustments and preset effects. It does not offer cloud synchronisation (though that’s planned), but is strong on tethered shooting.
Apart from Capture One’s sophisticated masking and colour control, it has visibly superior raw processing than Lightroom, with finer detail and less noise. Capture One and DxO PhotoLab (reviewed on the next page) are easily the two best raw processors here.
By the time you read this, Capture One 22 will be out, adding panorama stitching and HDR merge tools.
Exposure X7 is an all-in-one program that can browse, catalog and edit your images non-destructively It’s very good at regular image adjustments, but specialises in analogue film effects and darkroom processes.
Exposure X7’s presets apply a series of adjustments that you can browse and modify manually. These include image borders, light leak effects and textures that you don’t get in regular all-in-one programs like Capture One and Lightroom. However, Exposure X7 also works as a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop, and as an external editor for Capture One, so you can use these programs for your organising and raw processing, and Exposure X7 solely for its effects.
If Exposure X7 has a weakness, it’s raw processing. Raw images often look quite noisy and a little soft at the same time, and the highlight recovery isn’t that good.
Luminar AI is not quite the latest incarnation of Skylum’s ever-changing photo editor. The company has been pushing and pre-selling its Luminar Neo product for months, though it’s now not scheduled for release until February.
With Luminar AI, Skylum really pushes the AI angle, with excellent Sky Replacement and AI Portrait enhancement, which can find and enhance facial features quickly and naturally, without turning people into caricatures. The AI Composition tool is less impressive; AI Structure doesn’t seem to add much; and the promise of automatically selected Looks doesn’t really come off, largely because Luminar AI’s supplied Looks (presets) are actually on the dull side.
Other disappointments, after the high of Luminar 4, are that layers are no longer supported and the catalog tools still don’t include proper search tools or virtual copies.
Adobe is in a unique position in this roundup. It has two (three, if you count both versions of Lightroom) very different programs in this group test that deserve to be here on their own merits – yet you get both via the Adobe Photography Plan. However cheap Adobe’s rivals might be, this still has to be just about the best value of all. But there are some compelling contenders for Adobe’s crown.
A subscription-free Lightroom/Photoshop alternative that covers a lot of ground with its toolset, but is also pretty technical, with an unappealing interface. It looks pricey unless on special offer.
PaintShop Pro Ultimate’s biggest draw is value. You do get a lot for your money with the Ultimate edition, although at times it does feel a bit like a bargain bucket rather than a cohesive suite.