As a professional speaker, author and consultant, I never travel without a digital camera and have accumulated over 30 Gigabytes of picture files. Having shot thousands of images from all over the world - management can present a significant challenge. Photo and Video editing products have greatly improved over time and finally there are some solid, easy to use packages for home and small business users. An excellent example is Adobe’s Photoshop Elements. This feature rich program allows users to easily organize, edit and share photos with relative ease.

This software is amazingly robust and relatively simple to master. It contains a variety of sophisticated yet easy to use features to help photographers organize, enhance and publish there digital images.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 is divided into four logical segments labeled: Organize, Fix, Create and Share. As a test, I started with 500 digital photos from a recent trip to Italy. My first goal was to select the best 100 photos, make corrections and adjustments and create a simple slide show to share with friends and family. The organizer allowed me to view all of my pictures in one convenient place. I was able to resize the thumbnail views simply by dragging a horizontal slider. I imported the selected folders, tagged the best pictures for subsequent editing, and then the fun began.

Organization and photo selection is made simple through the use of keyword tags such as travel destination, friends, family, events, etc.  The software is even smart enough to automatically tag all pictures that include face shots of people and although not infallible, its accuracy rate was quite high.

Photoshop Elements 6 search function allows users to select up to 10 criteria to search upon. You can even search by date taken, camera used, file size and a variety of other unique criteria. Once these items are selected the program displays only the pictures which match your specific search criteria. Users can rate their favorite pictures using a star system similar to Netflix. Highlight the number of stars and then filter your viewing to show only the pictures that you really like.

Photoshop Elements 6 has some very nice touches including a calendar mode which brings up a visual calendar which displays photos taken by date. There is also a unique mapping feature that allows users to drag pictures onto a separate pane which displays Yahoo maps. By selecting the related push pin on the map, users can view the related photos. This information can be stored locally, placed on your website, shared using Adobe’s online sharing service or uploaded to Flickr. This offers a great way to share your travel experiences with family members and friends.

Another nice feature allows individuals to select two pictures at a time for side by side comparison. This comes in very handy when you have shot two photos that are very similar and you want to select the best one for viewing.

Thumbnails can be resized and pictures can be easily rotated using the horizontal slide bar or rotate icons at the top of the screen. Batch processing for multiple photos can be accomplished easily as well.

The editing mode has all of the usual features including: one-click fixes, red eye reduction, cropping, resizing, etc. In addition, there are numerous tools to allow for adjustment of color and lighting.

One particularly fun and useful feature is Photo Blending. Let’s say that you have two similar photos of your closest friends, however one friend blinks in the first photo and the second photo contains someone else whose expression just doesn’t cut it. This tool allows users to merge images from both photos and create one picture using the best images from both.

The create function makes it easy to make scrapbook pages, cards, and CD/DVD labels. With a list of smart selection menus, simply choose the type of creation you'd like to make, and the appropriate tools and instructions appear at your fingertips.

Now that your photos have been organized and edited, it is time to share them with family and friends. The share function does just what the name implies and allows users to display their content in interactive web galleries, slide shows, etc.. Adobe Flash® technology lets family and friends interact with your photos to add even more fun. You can easily order prints, share photos and photo creations on the web, share on CEIVA Digital Photo Frames™, and much more.

Adobe Photoshop Elements offers ease of use along with a robust feature set that is far easier to master than those found on its big brother – Photoshop. Watch out because the wealth of features included in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 offers an addictive experience that can take a fair amount of time, but yields great quality results. For ninety percent of the bang on a fraction of the buck I can easily recommend this program.

Don't forget to check out Adobe's bundle of Photoshop Elements 6 and Premier Elements 4. This dynamic duo offers all of the digital photo editing features plus a full featured video editing and authoring system.

Product Features*

Minimum System Requirements
Intel® Pentium® 4, Pentium M, or Intel Centrino® 1.3GHz (or compatible) processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista®
256MB of RAM (512MB recommended)
1.5GB of available hard-disk space
Color monitor with 16-bit color video card
1,024x768 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less
Microsoft DirectX 9 compatible display driver
CD-ROM drive
Web features require Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Netscape Navigator 7.0, or Mozilla Firefox 1.5

Product specifications are subject to change without notice or obligation.

----------------------

*Features courtesy of Adobe Systems Incorporated

Manufacturer: Adobe Systems Incorporated

www.adobe.com

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6

Suggested Retail:$99.99

Street Price - Under $80.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and Adobe Premiere Elements Bundle

Suggested Retail:$149.99

Street Price - Under $120.

Subscribe Now!!