Photoshop Elements 7 is Adobe’s latest version of their consumer photo-editing software.  Doesn’t this run-down of some of its fun, useful and time-saving new features sound good?  Keep reading!

The Smart Brush And Lose Weight Actions

• The Quick Edit now lets you “brush” teeth and make dull skies bluer.
• The Guided Edit has, get this, a Lose Weight action.  You can lose either 2% or 4%.  Hmmm, let me put a lot of time into thinking about which I’d choose for myself. . . . .
• The Smart Brush selects and transforms specific areas of a picture with one brush stroke.  This is a quick way to enhance greenery, selectively colorize, change the color of an item, add lipstick when you forget to put it on, or apply one of about 60 other enhancements.  The first shot below was my starting point.  The second was after spending about 30 seconds applying the Smart Brush Greenery Enhancement and Color Change:

Scene Cleaner, Templates & Artwork

• A Scene Cleaner removes distracting elements from your picture.
• Templates and artwork, seasonally-inspired, are dropped by Photoshop.com into your software periodically.  Here’s a screen shot of some of the autumn graphics available to Photoshop.com Plus Members:

Inspiration Browser Tutorials

• Inspiration Browser Tutorials like:
  • Working with Type
  • Create a Greeting Card
  • Adding Drama to Black & White Photos

Surface Blur

• Surface Blur quickly softens photos while keeping edges and details crisp.  This feature works nicely on wrinkles (not that I have any to experiment with, of course!)

Do these new features sound tempting?

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Erin is a bookish SAHM, former Latin teacher and occasional CPA.  She is Episcopalian, a yellow dog democrat and an addict of British royal history.  She is trying to add photography to her repertoire due to a moral obligation to document for posterity the extreme cuteness of her husband and two daughters.  Her blog, DigitalPhotographyForMoms.net, offers tips and short cuts to help other Moms create great pictures of their kids.