Adobe Systems Inc. introduced on Wednesday Photoshop Elements 3.0, a major upgrade to its consumer-level photo editing application. The update adds several new features and enhancements that allow the amateur and pro alike to edit photos with a few mouse clicks.
While many Mac users currently use iPhoto to brighten a picture or reduce red-eye, Adobe says the two products don’t compete and can easily be used in conjunction with one another.
“People wanted an integrated solution and iPhoto already had a lot of the functionality, so we chose to build a product to complement iPhoto,” Tapan Bhat, Director of Product Management, Digital Imaging at Adobe, told MacCentral.
In addition to the Quick Fix, which allows you to correct some of the most common types of flaws in photos, Adobe has added Smart Fix to Elements 3.0. Smart Fix automatically detects and fixes lighting, color and contrast of an image for you. Both Smart Fix and Quick Fix have an advanced option that will allow you to control the enhancement levels manually using slider bars.
Elements 3.0 will also include many other feature improvements such as editable and searchable metadata, Spot Healing Brush & Healing Brush, the ability to use Camera Raw files, PDF slideshows, and Web Photo Galleries to name just a few.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 requires Mac OS X v10.2.8 or higher and costs US$89.99. It will ship later this fall and is available for pre-order today. The Windows version will be available for $99.99.