Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 - new release and review
Every year, I make sure to check out the new Adobe Photoshop Elements update and review it here on my blog. I appreciate that Adobe has given me the opportunity to work with a review copy this year so I could play around with the new features and share my thoughts.
First item of business - if you don’t know why you should use Photoshop Elements, I hope you will watch my video tutorial here. You can also see my previous reviews of the 2020 version of Photoshop Elements here. Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) is my favorite program to use for creating digital scrapbook layouts on my computer. I also use it for a lot of my design work. It’s a standalone product that does NOT require a subscription or cloud-based service. It is easy to learn and very powerful. It’s also fabulous for editing photos and this new version has even more options to make creative masterpieces from your photographs.
After years of doing this, I already know the question I will get asked the most - “Do I need to upgrade?” - as always, my answer is “It depends” 😀
If you are using a version older than PSE 2020 and can afford to upgrade, I definitely recommend it. The 2020 and 2021 versions have such great improvements over older releases. If you can’t afford the upgrade, consider putting it on your wish list for later or give Santa a few hints. Remember that you get a discount if you are upgrading from an older version.
If you use PSE for a lot of photo editing and/or to create images for social media, this version is worth the upgrade.
If you already have PSE 2020 and use it primarily for digital scrapbooking, you don’t need this upgrade as there are not any significant changes in the expert work mode.
Not sure if you want to upgrade? Take the free trial version for a test run.
If you are planning on upgrading, NOW is the time to do it because they are running an early Black Friday special right now! The 40% off price is good through 12/1/2020
The best thing you can do is to get a good look at the comparison buying guide chart to show what is new. This is the source you will want to refer to so you can see what has changed in the last few versions.
I don’t currently use the organizer feature, but I have heard that there are some improvements to that in this version. The biggest boosts in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 are centered around photo editing. They use Artificial Intelligence (AI) features to make editing easier and more powerful.
The new edits I’m most excited about are:
Look what I was able to do with a photo from our trip to Germany in 2015. It was hazy and dull. Now it reflects the beauty that we really saw that day. The Perfecting Landscape edits made this super easy!
As if the box of chocolates isn’t tempting enough, let’s try it on zoom! lol!
There are all sorts of quote graphic edits that make it easy to add text and graphics to your photos. These are great for social media and also to add some eye-catching details to your photos for scrapbooking.
I’ll admit that this is not an edit I will use frequently, but I still think it’s really cool! It would be a fun one to use to make a series of prints to frame and display.
I’m happy that they keep improving this fabulous program each year. Well done, Adobe!
