This post is in partnership with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 and Best Buy.
Photographers know that when you shoot RAW images, they aren’t fully processed until you edit them in a photo editing software of choice (for me it has been Adobe Lightroom for years) to finish them up and make them ready for others to enjoy. It’s a lot of fun, because we can be creative and make big changes in our digital darkroom- without any chemicals or the large time and expense photographers used to invest in their photography.
Sometimes an image needs something extra, and I would typically use Photoshop CS6 for this, but it’s a process-heavy program that sometimes ran a little slow on my old computer struggling to run other programs at the same time, I found myself hesitant to use it as often as I would have liked, even though Photoshop is amazing. I wished I could harness that magic with an easier, more intuitive program, and after I was recently introduced to Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020, I realized it is the answer for all of us who want the added wizardry of Photoshop easily incorporated into our everyday photo editing!
What I love about Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020
1. Layers!!!– Photoshop Elements 2020 picks up where Lightroom leaves off. Lightroom is a wonderful program that I have used almost daily for many years to develop my digital images, but it doesn’t have the layers of Photoshop or allow me some of the fun features I always loved playing around with in Photoshop. Photoshop Elements offers layers ♥︎, so now I can easily fix, remove, move, erase, and more from images with the use of layers that can be edited, moved around, etc. I can add a color layer for a dreamy or moody effect, or a sharpening layer, or any of the other features I loved with Photoshop, and it’s much quicker with Elements 2020 because it’s a lighter program.
2. Includes great features of Photoshop– The sharpening and blurring effects of Photoshop are here! Adobe Photoshop Elements is only a fraction of the cost of Photoshop, but offers many of the same adjustments to help the photographer decide what areas of an image to sharpen, blur, remove, etc. Favorites such as Gaussian blur are here!
3. Fix backgrounds and flaws, add text, and more– I can remove backgrounds and even completely replace them. I never learned how to do this in Photoshop, and with guided edits in Adobe Photoshop Elements, it was so incredibly easy to do for the first time. Elements 2020 has a variety of guided edits that literally aids you- step by step- in incorporating some really interesting and fun edits. You can add text and borders (make your own holiday cards!), clean up skin flaws (think teen acne- no one wants to remember that in 30 years), restore old pictures (a beautiful gift for family who would love old, vintage images kept intact and beautiful), add speed effects, reflections, and out-of-bounds 3D popping effects, and LOTS more.
4. Colorize black and white photos– This one is very special because we have many old photos of family from my parents’ villages growing up, and they are all black and white (with everyone posing with super serious expressions- back then, photos were for record keeping and historical documentation, not for fun memories of adventures and activities). There is something amazing about being able to see my grandparents in color ♥︎.
Photography is for everyone
I always loved photography, but it wasn’t until digital cameras and home photo editing software was available that I could afford to really embark on this journey where I could record daily family life as I see it, and save it forever. Digital photography made it so much more affordable for all of us – we don’t have to pay for film, for mistakes, for someone else to develop our pictures without our creative control over the final product, or for the materials for a darkroom. High costs no longer have to keep any of us from this wonderful hobby, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 is only $99 for all this magic!
In addition to the cool text image above of my son ziplining, here are some other quick edits we created while trying it out to share our review with you:
A 3D pop-out effect (would work great for images with someone jumping, kicking, or raising their arms up too!)
A painterly effect (altered to look like an oil painting reveal)
A 3 minute background change! This was made using one of the background options in the program, but if you have beautiful scenery shot you wished you had a shot of your family in, that would be an amazing use of this feature (and you can refine the edges to work better with the background you are choosing, as well as blend in the photo for tonality too)
And this is fun if you struggle with panning and have children in sports (and don’t really need the viewers eyes to go anywhere but the star of the image)- a motion blur effect!
Elements 2020 offers gradients and a selection of their own clip art pieces for you to use in the backdrop while getting the hang of these really fun options, and once you do, you can start incorporating your own favorite scenery or location shots to completely change your image, and even plan future photo shoots around being able to enhance images with these Elements 2020 features. See a beautiful spot that would make a great background for your family portrait? Snap it and add the family later when they aren’t in school or at work 😉
I really love Photoshop, but I don’t need for daily editing (most people won’t unless they are professional photographers who require a rock star program that lets them do major editing like head swaps). I’m now able to use Photoshop Elements 2020 everyday for my fancier-yet-not-too-complicated editing that I can then print out, turn into canvas art, gift to others, or create photo books from. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 has become part of my daily photo editing arsenal!
Here are options for creating your photo…
into these photo gifts (over 140 options for gifts and prints):
Create slideshows, collages, memes, and more, all powered by Adobe Sensei AI technology, and organized with smart tags, people recognition, and auto photo curation based on quality, faces, and subjects. Share to social sites you love, including YouTube and Vimeo! It’s never been easier or more fun than with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020!