The folks at Adobe keep coming at us with new, updated products. And the improvements seem to come from user input.
You are totally the right people to listen to.
They will be making available a new version of Photoshop Elements for the 93% of you (the PC crowd) now on version 7 by the end of September.

[photopress:PSE7_3in_boxshot.jpg,full,centered]

What do you have to look forward to?

There are 2 key additions that are in the “about time” category:

1. With purchase of software you get 5 gb of free storage on line. You can purchase up to 20gb in a “Plus” package for $49.99 a year. You get a better deal in the first year, if you do the upgrade when you buy the software. You can also set the software to automatically back up your files to a server.
2. You can now upload, create cool presentations, and share your photos from anywhere, directly from the software. Or post them to Facebook, Flickr, and more. Of course you can just upgrade for less.

Auto save to a server? How cool is that? You know we are always harping on backing up.
This makes it super easy. So you have your original on your computer and a second set on the Adobe server.

The #2 item sound similar to iPhoto products you can get now.

So the diff is:
.Mac or.Me is $99 a year and you get email. iPhoto costs $80 in a bundle with other products in the iLife package.
Photoshop Elements Membership gets you just as much online storage, better photo editing controls, AND auto back-up for $49.99 a year.
No email but more powerful services.And no garageband.

Wait, us Mac folks can’t get the new Elements yet, anyway.
Never mind.

What else is new?
There is an easy to use set of tools in the toolbox. Our favorite was a toothbrush icon that, of course, whitens your subjects teeth. And to make sure you don’t go blinding fake, Hollywood white, each pass of the brush gives a new shade of lightening till you get what you want.
And there is a new tool to just get the blue in the sky to a deeper tone adding drama.

Now both of these tools may sound like you must be a precision watchmaker to use.
Nope. Easy-Peasey. The tools just know what to affect with a less than critical swipe. Love these Adobe folks.

[photopress:clean_your_scene.jpg,full,alignright]
Oh, and there is a photomerge edit for scene control called a scene cleaner.
What the heck is that?
You have just set your loved one in front of the statue, but everyone else keeps walking through the scene.
No worries. just keep shooting (best with a tripod) and when you merge the photos you can scrub out the extraneous people. You know at one point there was someone on the left, then someone in the back, and of course that couple that walked right in front of your camera.
You will now be able to combine these shots, easily, cleanly and make those folks disappear, using only the clear parts of each shot.

This membership deal is truly the biggest news, though. By strongly bonding a powerful editing tool, to an online support and storage system, you get a full service, easy to use
life sharing environment.

If I was a betting man, and I am, this is a template that could be rolled out to some of the more advanced systems like Lightroom.
What do you think, folks at Adobe? I’d pay to see that. Truly, I would.

By the way, this software can be bundled with the new version of Premiere, the fine Adobe video editing software for the home user. yep, you can also back-up your movies to the online server. And with the proliferation of hard drive based video cameras, you better make sure to back up those memories any and every way you cam.
Honestly, if I’m shooting with digital media, it’s a 3x back-up. Love having the HDV tapes though.
Let’s see what did we forget……..oh, right. There are on-line tutorials that will help you learn all about your software. PSX (photoshop express) is still a great way to share your photos and do some minor corrections all online. And all for free.

How about dealing with you mobile phone photos?
This just in:Photoshop.com members also will be able to upload photos directly from a
mobile phone. The addition of Photoshop.com Mobile beta, a rich Adobe
Flash based mobile application, offers camera phone users the easiest
way to upload, share and access photos using their Photoshop.com
account. Photoshop.com Mobile runs in the background and allows
consumers to take photos, send messages and run other applications while
pictures are being uploaded to their Photoshop.com account. To learn
more about Photoshop.com Mobile and for a list of supported phones,
visit www.mobile.photoshop.com.

At Photoinduced.com, we try out all kinds of imaging software.
But just go for the gold standard: Adobe Photoshop.
Elements 7 has opened the door for the future of integrated photo sharing for the enthusiast.
And everyone else will benefit from that technology.

C’mon…when can we have the MAC version??