I love this time of year for many reasons, and the annual release of a new Adobe Photoshop Elements program is right up there on the list! I’m always excited when I get my invite to the press unveiling of the new release and it’s always hard to wait until release day to share the details with all of you. This year, the unveiling took place on October 7th - right in the middle of our family’s early Thanksgiving celebration (more on that in Wednesday’s post) so I’m a little late in posting. So let me get straight to sharing the cool stuff with you!

First item of business - if you don’t know why you should use Photoshop Elements, I hope you will watch my video tutorial here. That video was made using the 2021 version and this new release is the 2022 version. I will be sure to address the differences below.

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.

Highlights of the Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 launch include:

• New automated features powered by Adobe Sensei AI technology that easily turn photos into art with one click, warp photos to fit any shape, and automatically reframe your subject when you resize videos for social media.

• Four new Guided Edits for a total of 87 so you can easily grow your skills.

• All new photo and video slideshow styles so you can craft fun personalized creations.

I’m most excited about the Warp feature as this has been something you could only do in the more expensive full Photoshop program until now. You photos to fit any shape. Now you can place one photo inside another by wrapping it around an object like a coffee mug or fitting it inside shapes like the lenses of sunglasses.

I also think the new tool to extend photo backgrounds is really cool! You can create a stunning landscape or reposition your subject for the perfect social post by easily extending your photo’s background. The magic of Content-Aware Fill technology in Photoshop Elements makes it all possible.

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 versions after 2018 especially have such great improvements over older releases that I feel like you are missing out if you don’t have a newer program. 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. The new features are mainly focused on photo editing. I really do love having so many guided edits and photo editing tools in the Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 program. These features have been greatly improved with each new edition.

• There are no new changes to the digital scrapbooking (expert mode) interface so if you use the program primarily for digital scrapbooking without photo editing, you may not need to upgrade if you have a recent version. I find myself wishing for updates in this area, but I’m not even sure what I would request as it’s just a fantastic program for digital scrapbooking. Adobe Photoshop Elements is hands down my favorite program to use for creating, especially when it comes to making memory pages and scrapbook layouts.

• I’m going to upgrade to the 2022 version because I love having the latest and greatest tools for photo editing so you will see me working with it in future video tutorials.

• Not sure if you want to upgrade? Take the free trial version for a test run. For a complete list of what’s new this year, please visit the Photoshop Elements 2022 and Premiere Elements 2022 What’s New page

Katie the Creative Lady