Remember the days of scrapbooking? Printing out photos, punching paper and creating themed pages with cute stickers and quotes? I think many of us love the idea of creating lasting memories from a vacation or for a family member, but it seems someone is always looking the wrong way, a head is cut off, the photo is crooked, or the lighting just didn’t work. Plus, the photos fade, supplies and materials start to take over, you lose momentum, and suddenly the entire project is relinquished to a closet. What if there was a better way?
I think I found my answer in Adobe PhotoShop Elements 13. Not only is the software affordable, it is incredibly easy to use. And this is coming from a mom who never used any photo editing software before other than Paint! I got started uploading some photos I wanted to work with and discovered right away it is very easy to organize the photos by date, where they were taken, and to tag the people in the photos. This feature also makes it easy to share and upload your photos to Facebook.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 (and Adobe Premier Elements for video editing) does a lot of the photo editing for you, making it easy for an everyday mom or dad can create and share professional-quality prints, movies, photo books, calendars, greeting cards, collages, Facebook covers, slideshows, and more. And yes, there are amazing tips and tricks to merge in a missing family member, correct color and lighting, and much more!
My trial run was with an old photo of me and my husband from a holiday party. I took some time to look through the ideas and demonstrations on Elements Live (eLive) for inspiration. With a few clicks and guided edits, I was able to remove our red eye, whiten our teeth, blur out the boring background and photo-bombers (using the Depth of Field and Vignette features), and use the new Elements 13 color-pop feature to really highlight my red gown. Not too bad in less than 10 minutes of work!
Even if you’ve used Adobe Photoshop in the past, Elements 13 has some great new features – like 50 one-click Effects (5 variations on 10 effects), allowing you to create incredibly sophisticated results in a way that is super easy even for beginners. Here are some more of the Guided Edit effects I used – simple instructions, a few clicks, and done!
Picture Stack Play – this feature worked great for this photo, as we had already tried to piece together a panorama, so it just continued to play off that effect:
Old-Fashioned Photo – because some moments just aren’t captured best in their original form, I really like the ability to add special filters:
Vignette, combined with a photo frame and addition of text:
Color Pop – again, because this is such a fun feature! The background in this photo was really washed out, so this was the perfect use for this photo effect:
And, this picture of my daughter taking her first steps to my mom, using the Zoom-Burst Effect turned out to be my favorite. I love how I was able to get my daughter and mom's face in focus and create an effect of motion:
What do I plan to do next? I have a couple projects in mind. Over the past several years, my husband and I visited dozens of National Parks. I love the idea of taking our best photos, adding some great effects like I started above, and creating some unique prints to frame or a keepsake photo book.
Another is a little closer to my heart. My mother was just diagnosed with a life-altering illness that may take her from us in the next few years, and my mother-in-law passed away just weeks before her first grandchild (my daughter) was born. It saddens me that my daughter will never grow up knowing her grandmothers. But, she was also lucky enough to meet all of her great-grandmothers and spend a few fun-filled years with my mother. These women, and all of our family, shape our lives in indescribable ways that can’t be expressed in words. Photographs can capture so much more, and so I want to celebrate those special moments and create something for my daughter that will show her who these women were – and that although they may not have had a physical presence in much of her life, they will always remain in spirit. It will be a work in progress, probably over a few years, but I know with Adobe PhotoShop Elements I’ll be able to continue to compile, organize and create amazing photos and a final product my daughter will cherish for the rest of her life.
So, are you ready to ditch the scrapbooking supplies and create lasting memories with Adobe PhotoShop Elements 13? I hope I’ve given you a little inspiration to give your photos new life. And if video is more your thing, simple editing capabilities are available with Adobe Premiere Elements 13 to get you the same fantastic results, allowing you to restore old home movies or create a new mini-movie from all those little video clips on your phone!
I received complimentary products for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
