Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Review

For keen photographers on a shoestring budget, Photoshop Elements 6 is the latest version of Adobe’s popular entry-level image editor. New features include the Guided Edit mode, which helps walk users through the steps of improving a photo, and Photomerge, which combines facial expressions from a series of shots to create a single cohesive group shot. Photoshop Elements 6 for Windows costs £70 / $99, and a MAC version is on the way very soon. Jon Canfield found out if Elements 6 is all the image editor that you really need…

Website: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Review

Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008

Reader Comments

1. Does it include ACR ?

   Tom at 02:29pm on Thursday, February 21, 2008

2. Hi -
   ACR is included. Like version 5, it's a reduced feature version but it includes all of the main controls including the new Vibrance and Clarity adjustments.

   Jon Canfield at 04:54pm on Thursday, February 21, 2008

3. I think the statement about being able to upload photos to Flickr is a mistake, as evidenced by Figure 4.

   Mike at 05:11pm on Friday, February 22, 2008

4. Mike -
   The latest update to Elements 6 includes support for Flickr. The screen shot I used for the review was grabbed prior to this update being available.
   
   Jon

   Jon Canfield at 07:13pm on Friday, February 22, 2008

5. You're absolutely correct. An update to the software adds this capability. This is one of the few things I missed after moving to Photoshop Elements from Picasa. Thanks!

   Mike at 10:32pm on Friday, February 22, 2008

6. The first 2 chap of the PE5 manual were all 'you cans' with no 'how to do'. Very confusing for the new reader/user. Has this been corrected in PE6 manual?
   
   There was no box to enter the security word when I first tried to submit.

   Andrew Lowery at 01:14am on Saturday, February 23, 2008

7. I believe just a little bit of critical thinking would make such reviews a lot more informative.
   
   Three points mentioned as good reasons to upgrade to version 6 a very questionable:
   
   - The "group shot" idea was invented by microsoft and they are giving such a tool tool away for free.
   
   - Elements has a tool called "curves" but it is good merely for marketing purposes. It is intentionally crippled to an extreme which makes it mostly useless. A much better and free plugin can be downloaded here:
   http://free.pages.at/easyfilter/curves.html
   
   - the b&w;tool is similarly half-baked and free plugin alternatives are better in this case,too, e.g. from Virtual Photographer, Simpelfilter graymixer, photoplugins B&W;,...

   luc at 11:14pm on Sunday, February 24, 2008

8. I am upgrading from Elements 3 as it is not compatible with Vista on my new laptop. I need to be able to convert RAW files from Nikon cameras..does Elements 6 have RAW conversion option? Not mentioned in the review.

   andrew inglefield at 10:59pm on Tuesday, March 04, 2008