Adobe Photoshop elements 2018
Elements’ more beginner-focused interface masks a great deal of its overall power (PC/MAC) £85.56/$79.99
This is very much the ‘amateur’ version of Photoshop, with a simplified, family-orientated interface and a heavy emphasis on beginners and novices, but there’s plenty here for enthusiasts too. Photoshop Elements 2018 is actually two programs not one. It consists of the Elements Organizer and the Elements Editor, which do work together but can also work as standalone programs.
The Organizer can browse your photos folder by folder, but it also offers albums for bringing your photos together ‘virtually’ and some good search tools. You can add tags (keywords) in the normal way, but it also offers Smart Tags which identify common subjects automatically, saving on time.
From the Organizer, you can open images directly in the Editor, which has an elive mode for inspiration and tutorials, a Quick mode for fast and simple effects, a Guided mode with an everexpanding list of effects walkthroughs, and an Expert mode with the full range of tools.
Performance
The Organizer and the Editor are both modern-looking, clear and friendly, and between them they make Photoshop Elements 2018 very good value. But enthusiasts may be disappointed by the cut-down version of Adobe Camera Raw that comes with it, which has only a small subset of the tools provided in the Photoshop version. It also does not come with lens correction profiles or chromatic aberration removal.
Many of the preset and Guided effects are quite crude and even in Expert mode the range of adjustments is limited compared to Photoshop – you don’t get Curves, for example. Nevertheless, Elements 2018 is great value, straightforward and friendly.