I upgraded from Photoshop Elements (PSE) 6 for Windows to PSE9 for Mac and was glad to see that the Mac and Windows versions were essentially the same. Since I use iPhoto for organizing, I can't say anything about PSE's Organizer, but I gave the Editor a workout.
Elements is at the high end of what I'll spend for a photo editor, and I buy roughly every third version to keep the price reasonable over the years, so it's time, and I'm happy to say that 9.0 fits my needs . . . and then some.
Like PSE6, PSE9 it is a great overall photo editor. It does a good job of enhancing photos, either with a click of a button or just a few clicks if I happen to disagree with the Auto Smart Fix. It can process batches of photos that all need the same work done to them. And it has enough manual controls (histograms, contrast, brightness, shadows/highlights, red eye, color correction, layers, etc.) to do just about anything to a photo you can imagine.
Pros:
* It works smoothly with iPhoto; I could switch back and forth easily and quickly and open multiple photos at once for editing.
* It's fast on my MacBook Pro.
* The editor hasn't crashed yet, and I'm running through thousands of photos.
* All of the features that I'm familiar with from previous versions still work well, and some, like the magic lasso, work even better than before.
* Content-aware healing can perform minor miracles in my hands. In the hands of an expert, or someone with more patience, it can probably perform major miracles.
* The Guided Edits helped me visualize the steps involved for some of the more complicated features, which helped me make better use of the Full Edit.
* PhotoMerge Group Shot is incredibly easy to use. I had two photos shot at different distances, and PSE had no trouble making the necessary adjustments.
* Removing clutter from photographs is simple.
* Oh happy day, Elements now has layer masks, a feature that used to be the domain of its pricier sibling. Now you can make parts of a layer more or less opaque, allowing for some really neat effects. I won't use this often, but a few of my photos are just crying out for it.
Cons:
* The Welcome Screen is still annoying. Fortunately, you can set it up to go straight to the Organizer or Editor.
* It still can't batch process the Save for Web feature. Sigh.
* My camera has a panorama assistant but doesn't stitch them together, so I was interested in PSE9's enhanced panorama stitching. For the most part, it's very easy. PSE does most of the work. Unfortunately, it created an enormous file--117mg--out of my five 5mg photos and ran out of RAM before it could finish everything--even after I maxed out the RAM in Preferences. I ended up with a very nice panorama but had to reduce the file size before doing some of the final touches myself. Then the final jpeg size turned out to be smaller than any of the individual photos.
* Yeah, I would have liked a manual.
If you are currently using PSE 8, there may not be enough new features to warrant an upgrade yet, though the content-aware healing might make it worth it. From version 6? Definitely.
If you have never used Elements, this is a great application with a bit of a learning curve. Get the free one-month trial, and borrow a book on it from the library. That's where I'll be headed once the manuals for version 9 show up. Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (Win/Mac) [OLD VERSION]
I've been using Photoshop Elements for over 5 years and have always thought it was a tremendous value. I've also used the full version of Photoshop, and if you can afford it - it's worth the money. I'm a professional photographer and marketer. I use Photoshop Elements almost every day and it does 99.5% of the things that I would use Photoshop to do (off the top of my head I can't think of anything I want to do in Photoshop that I can't do in Photoshop Elements).
I was thinking of updating to the full version of Photoshop for it's new content aware healing features. Photoshop Elements 9 adds this functionality to Photoshop Elements (and some other great additions too). If you're looking for a photo editing software application Photoshop Elements is the best value on the market. Period!
I would give PSE 9 zero stars if I could. If you are a Windows 7 user BEWARE! PSE 9 has serious flaws and Adobe's Customer Support is extremely poor.
My issues with PSE 9 on Windows 7 x 64 machine are:
1. Self corrupting software - this is a persistent problem that started with PSE 8 and continues in PSE 9. The program installs fine, will run fine for 4-8 weeks, then one of the critical PSE files gets corrupted. The only solution for this to date has been a complete uninstall, including registry cleanup and removal of all traces of PSE, then a clean boot re-install. This takes several hours and is not trivial - miss something and you get to do it all over again. After reinstallation it runs fine again for 4-8 weeks, then it corrupts again, and the entire process has to be repeated. This kind of problem appears in several forms and is well documented in multiple threads in Adobe's Customer Forums, for just one example see here:
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2. Adobe Customer Support - the poorest I have ever experienced from a major software company. After installation you get 90 days of free support. If your problem extends beyond what level 1 can resolve (not much) and gets escalated, expect to wait 4-7 days for the next level to contact you. Once they do successive iterations of a try this and tell us how it works followed by the next step take more than 2 days. So far I have been through level 2 for 5 days and still no sign or indication of any resolution.
3. Product structure - the Organizer side of PSE 9 is a real dog (as it was with PSE 8)! I haven't seen a serious positive comment on this portion anywhere. Unfortunately this portion is essential if you want to print more than 1 image on a single piece of printer paper. Overall, poor software design and structure.
My history with Adobe's PSE products has been extensive spanning 10 years. I have been a loyal Photoshop Elements user since the introduction of the first version in 2001. Along the way I made periodic upgrades including versions 4, 5 and 6. With a new system in 2010 and the Windows 7 operating system it was time for the then new version of PSE, which at that time was 8. Shortly after the initial installation the problems I noted above (1.) first appeared. I fought with this problem for ~ 6 months, without help from Adobe's support group. With the release of version 9 I was hopeful that the "bug" would be resolved and Organizer would be improved, so I bought it. Sadly, I was wrong.
Two months after the installation the same problems with the Editor returned, and disappointingly Organizer is just as bad in version 9 as it was in 8.
After working with Adobe's Customer Support folks for more than a week with an average response time of more than 2 days between successive contacts and still no sign of any resolution to the self-corrupting nature of PSE 9 in Windows 7 I have concluded that there are far better options.
If you are a Windows 7 user I strongly recommend that you stay away from this product and find an alternative from another supplier. There are several excellent options that readily handle Adobe's PSD files, so you will easily be able to work with your old PSE created files. - Photo Editing - Adobe Photoshop - Photoshop Elements - Image Editing'
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