Photoshop Elements 3 - Darn
I’ve just installed Photoshop Elements 3, and unfortunately, I’m really underwhelmed. I say this reluctantly, because I’m a big Adobe fan, and really loved Elements 1 and 2. Also, Adobe generously supports our training program here at Puget Sound ESD as a service to teachers in our region, so I feel pretty positive about the company as well.
Still, if you currently have Elements 2, don’t be in any hurry to upgrade to version 3. They have made some significant changes to the interface, and in my opinion made it a cluttered mess. For instance, the Palette Bin that used to sit unobtrusively in the upper right-hand corner is now a huge box that runs the whole length of the screen on the right side. You can hide it, of course, but I never had a reason to before.
There are many little issues like this, including moving items from one menu to another, adding new (more complicated, unnecessary) options, and removing useful ones, such as “Fill Flash” and “Adjust Backlighting.”
It feels like a bad case of Over-Engineering Disease. The focus was on adding more functionality without keeping in mind the target customers, who want something that’s fairly simple to use. It reminds me of Adobe’s first stab at photo software for consumers, called Photo Deluxe. It never did very well because it was a bad combination of limited functionality with an over-friendly, cluttered interface that actually made it more confusing (to me, anyway) than the full-powered Photoshop.
Adobe learns from their mistakes, though. I hope that version 4 takes a step back to a cleaner, neater interface. And “Revert” goes back under “File” where it belongs!