Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0

Adobe Photoshop has long been recognized as the premier photo editing software package for professional and serious amateur photographers, but now much of the power and flexibility previously available only to users of Photoshop CS2 are available in Photoshop Elements 5.0, Adobe's consumer version of its highly popular photo imaging software. Previous versions of Photoshop Elements included such powerful selection tools as the magnetic lasso, the magic wand and others that make working with selected parts of an image fast and easy. Other powerful image editing tools such as the often-used redeye removal tool and the amazing sharpening tools have also helped make Photoshop Elements a strong contender among consumer image editing programs for several years in a row. In the newly-released version 5, Adobe has added powerful "Adjust Color Curves" controls that make it even easier to make fine-tune adjustments to color, brightness and contrast. Are you the type who prefers the "quick and dirty" approach to image editing? If so, you'll love several automatic tools that do an acceptable job at fixing most image problems with just one click of the mouse. The enhanced Photo Downloader application can even fix redeye on the fly as your photos are downloaded to the hard drive - and then automatically delete the files from your memory card after the files have been safely stored on your PC! Just imagine how much time you can save before you even open an image in the editor! With Photoshop Elements 5.0, Adobe has brought the functionality of Elements even closer to that of the full-blown CS2 version. And while the pros will still be better served by footing the bill for Photoshop CS2, most casual photographers will find Photoshop Elements 5.0 more than adequate for their needs at a fraction of the price.