Snaps are fun. Love my camera phone. And my point and shoot. Sure, I still use iPhoto and love it. But so many of my photographs can be made better with some extra care. Heck, in the wet darkroom days exposure, paper choice and burning and dodging did all that.

I’m working it all dry now. In the light. OK, subdued light.( best for looking at your monitor)
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If you are ready to move from iPhoto, the next step for you is most definitely Photoshop Elements 6 For MAC. It’s time to get into the Photoshop Family. We wrote about the Windows version before, and we’re loving the Mac version now.

Look, you make great images with your DSLR, but you know you can work em a little more to make sure they stand out. You did pay a bit extra for all of those camera features. This program has what you need to get started in taking advantage on the post production side. I think Albert Watson said: “it’s not a photograph, until it’s a print” and you can’t make a great print till you’ve made a great digital file.

Here is the best mid-level toolkit to get you there. Think of it as the sophomore or junior year of college.

With a great introduction into the Photoshop family of toolbars and some very cool items I WISH CS3 had (who doesn’t want a Magic Wand?), this surprisingly full monty, could be all you need for a long while.

The interface is very “Lightroom-esque”, which we are fans of, but the main goodie here is the inclusion of Bridge in the MAC version.
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You’ll be able to track and rack all of the photos on your computer and bring em in at will, without missing a beat. Bridge is a great tool to manage all of your goods.

Easy access is what we’re talking about.

And you can do some simple color correction:

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Or perhaps you’ve been missing Black & White? Elements has been able to take advantage of the strides Adobe made in CS3 with B&W, so you can once again enjoy the gray scale. You will dig the difference it can make in a photo that could be drab in color, can be just right in black & white.

You can start to learn about Layers in Photoshop to adjust exposure in each section of your photo.

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Photomerge is a cool feature that lets you take a bunch of snaps (from the same place) and pick the best faces for the final. So when that person who always insists on making a face, settles down, you can put together the right photo for all eternity.

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In this part you can even merge features from one face and put them on another. Maybe find out what a child would look like from your favorite couple sharing facial features

And don’t be afraid that all of the new tools may be too difficult to learn: there is a very easy to follow guided tour for each feature in the Edit mode. And this program keeps it light hearted. And fun. Like we said, how many places can you get a magic wand?
And at a comfortable $80 . USD from Amazon, it’s a bargain.

So you’ve heard the pros, what are the cons? Well the program opens to the full screen without the option to resize. All you can do is hide the program to do your multitasking. Hmmm..that’s about it.

I have a friend who is brand new to digital and since CS3 is such a memory hog, he was going to have to upgrade his whole system for hundreds of dollars …or use Elements for $80 and get most of what he will ever need.

Adobe is a company that is dedicated to your images, both in still and motion. They are always striving to make it a better product by listening to you. And they are here to stay.
I like that. A bit of comfort.

Their product line is expanding and taking care of every skill level including the new Photoshop Express, the free online simple photo editor.

So start moving up to the next level in your photographic life. Photoshop Elements 6 For MAC will teach you all of the basics that will keep you on the path.

C’mon, join the family.

Stay with us for another review coming up soon with a great companion tool for this software: The Wacom Bamboo tablet.