Buy Now...

Everything I'm telling you about today was the result of a meeting around a month ago with Mike Lampietro of Adobe a demo and some slides, as and when the new versions are available which I am told is likely to be around the end of September I will try various things for myself in separate reviews.

So what is new is Photoshop Elements 7? Smart Brush, PhotoMerge Scene Cleaner, New Quick Fixes (3) Toothbrush, Bluer Skies and Black & White Paintbrush. New Guided Edits: Effects, Pencil Sketch and Old Fashioned. Actions: Slimming, Cropping and Captions. Adjustments: Level and Fix Distortion. Surface Blur. New Web Gallery Templates: World Travel, Newsreel and Sports Travel. Text search box.

See also: Graphic software

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What is new is Premier Elements 7? Instant Movie, Videomerge, Smart Sound. Instant Movie and Slideshow Themes. The ability to edit in AVCHD and automatically analyse footage for quality and interest, and, applying smart tags.

The required specifications will rise to a minimum of 1GB RAM, Windows XP 2 or higher or Windows Vista. 2GHz Processor (3GHz for editing HDV or Blu-ray) 1.5GB hard disc space for Photoshop Elements and 4.5GB of hard disc space for Premier Elements. CD drive for Photoshop Elements and DVD drive and Direct X 9 or 10 for Premier Elements. Monitor displaying at least 16bit colours and 1024x768 or better.

In Photoshop Elements the Data Bar will be hidden by default bit it is still there as an option if required.

In Premier Elements the Videomerge (Chromakey) works best with blue or green backdrops.

During a conversation with Mike Lampietro I suggested that 'Elements' were programs for people who knew what they wanted to do but not necessarily how to do it. He seemed to think that they were exactly that.

So were all the features from current or earlier versions of higher level packages such as Photoshop and the answer was not always as some of the features were developed especially for Elements.

For Premier Elements it is now possible to produce your first movie faster than ever and of course it now has AVCHD support. The visuals and sound support are greatly enhanced. You can now share your movies everywhere by uploading to YouTube or other personal sharing sites.

For Photoshop Elements you can make your photographs extraordinary by easily say whitening teeth and only the teeth as it now is even easier to select smaller objects and selecting the shade is simpler too so whiter teeth enhance the photo and do not stand out because they are so white as to be untrue.

Easily find all your photos and videos with custom tagging you can search and sort in many ways so that you find what you are looking for in the way you want to look for it.

InstantMovie allows you to add flair and much more to your movies with things like music made to fit with no real effort from you.

Capturing single video frames and working with it and adding it as a still into a movie this can look stunning when used in the right context in a mixed setting.

As yet no firm date for availability but the end of September was mentioned. Each product individually will have a recommended price of £59 and upgrades for £49. While the bundle of both Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements will be £89 with upgrades for £75. These prices are yet to be confirmed and are excluding VAT.

I understand there could be a free upgrade for anyone purchasing Photoshop Elements 6 or Premier Elements 4 after today but this still has to be confirmed so if this is you hold on to your receipt you may end up with a new version for no outlay.   

www.adobe.co.uk