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| | Features | Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 combines power and simplicity so you can easily go beyond the basics to tell great stories with your photosMake your photos look extraordinary with easy-to-use editing options--whiten teeth, recompose photos, remove unwanted elements and moreShare your stories in beautiful, personalized print creations and on web galleriesEasily manage all your photos and video clips from one convenient placeCompatible with iPhoto
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| | Description | Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 software combines power and simplicity so you can make your photos look extraordinary, share your life stories in unique print creations and web experiences, and easily manage and protect all your photos and video clips. for mac | |
| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 7.5 inches | | Product Width: | 5.5 inches | | Product Height: | 1.5 inches | | Package Length: | 7.6 inches | | Package Width: | 5.5 inches | | Package Height: | 1.4 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.3 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 131 reviews |
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| | System Requirements | | Platform: | Mac OS X Intel | | Media: | CD-ROM | | Item Quantity: | 1 |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 131 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
264 of 272 found the following review helpful:
 Worth the upgrade Oct 23, 2009
By Michael McKee
"mystic cowboy"
When Adobe skipped version the Mac with version 7 of Elements, I wondered if there would be another upgrade. I'm glad that 8 came out, and at the same time as the Windows version. I often wait a version or two between upgrading but there's enough here to make the new purchase worth it to me.
I'm a fan of this program. It is all that most photographers need. Actually it does much more than most people who own it ever get to. If you are not a graphic designer, Elements is great. I've said this in prior reviews of Elements but it's a much better value than the CS version of Photoshop and up to some heavy duty image editing. You won't be able to edit photos more effectively with the full version of Photoshop. I've challenged pros to do editing with Photoshop CS that I can't do with Elements and so far haven't had to eat crow. That's not saying that Elements has *all* the tools that CS does. But Photoshop has always offered multiple ways to get things done and Elements has enough tools to do the job. The photo tools are there, though.
With this version there are some compelling new features. The first I'll mention is not really emphasized in the Adobe marketing info, but is a wonderful set of tools for photo editing. That's Adobe Camera Raw 5.5 (ACR). ACR isn't actually part of Elements but included with the program. It basically gives the same editing tools available in Adobe's Lightroom. I often use ACR to edit photos and get the majority of my work done there. This is a quality addition that most people don't know about. The upgrade in ACR from version 4 which comes with Elements 6 to version 5 adds some really useful photo editing tools.
Another add on to Elements is Adobe Bridge, which a lot of pros use to sort and catalog their images and video. It's also a quality program in its own right and the center of my photo workflow. It can be well integrated with Elements and is probably worth the cost of the whole bundle on its own. It also plays nice with iPhoto if you want to keep your pictures stored there.
Now to Photoshop Elements 8. Besides the upgrade to ACR, the updates that our Windows brethren got in version 7 have been included, as well as some excellent tools for making composite photos from multiple images. They're slick and very easy to use. There are some one step editing tools that are new to the Mac version and a totally cool way to squeeze a photo into a smaller space without squashing the import parts of the picture. The photomerge can save the day with group shots. Simply take several pictures. The use Elements to switch the picture of your brother in law with his eyes closed for one where he looks awake. It's seamless and easy.
Elements makes sharing your images easier, too with streamlined web albums and slideshow capibility. There's even a send to iPhone function.
Any down sides? Well, Adobe's installer seems to take forever and it helps to have a fairly new computer with a decent amount of RAM. Elements wants some power to perform quickly. And the program is complicated. Though it is much easier to learn than Photoshop CS4. The upside is that since it's so popular there are a lot of good books, web tutorials and classes to help.
This is a solid upgrade to an already excellent program. I recommend it strongly. It's has all the editing power that most photographers need, without the price tag of the full Photoshop. I'd even go so far as to say that if you even question if it's good enough it is. Photoshop CS4 is a professional program with extra professional features, few of which are actually photo realted.
74 of 77 found the following review helpful:
 A surprisingly useful program for a serious pro photographer Nov 05, 2009
By David Garth
A am a longtime, part-time professional photographer who takes more than 10,000 images a year and sells only about a hundred a year to publishers. I need to intensively enhance some of these images to get them ready for publication. So my requirements may be different than yours. I have used Photoshop on a PC from Version 4, and I have bought every PC version through CS3. But recently I switched to a Mac Pro, and I was shocked to find out that Adobe would sock me for the full price to upgrade to the Mac version. So, I thought I would give Photoshop Elements a try.
So far I have been very happy with it. If you have experience with Photoshop you will find many of the selections in the same place. The organization and workflow of the two programs are remarkably similar. The tools that have been moved in Elements are mostly in more logical places. Many tasks have actually been made easier; I especially like the new "easy selection" feature. The editing tools that I use have all been retained in Elements. The program has performed flawlessly and fast on my quad-core Mac Pro with 8gb of memory.
Bridge and Camera Raw, two very important auxiliary programs, are identical to the Photoshop CS4 versions. Personally, I prefer Bridge to the new consumer-oriented organizer in the PC version. Frequent Camera Raw updates support the latest cameras.
What's missing? For me, the biggest loss is complete 16 bit support. As I recall, this came first in Photoshop CS, and was welcome for images that need extreme manipulations, and avoided banding (especially in skies) when there were major tonal changes made. For most images is isn't that important. I use Nikon Capture NX for those images before I import them into Elements and can do the gross changes in that program. CMYK support is also absent. In the old days that would have been important, but now almost every publisher, graphic artist or photo printer prefers Adobe RGB files, and those are supported.
In summary, I have concluded that this program offers most everything a serious photographer is likely to need--and for a bargain price.
104 of 113 found the following review helpful:
 Caveat Emptor!! Nov 14, 2009
By Chip E
PSE8 for Mac is great for all the reasons covered by the previous reviewers. As a long time PS2 and PSE3 user, I have used these programs to generate stunning art work, which usually begins with my own photos and then utilization of a variety of brushes, plug-ins, styles. I have a hunch there are others 'out there' who have intuitively discovered the grand set of tools available in PS and PSE, who may appreciate the following discoveries (much to my dismay and disappointment) before making any kind of upgrade to this version. The bottom line (and this is after several correspondences with Adobe tech support) is that many of my precious plug-in's (Kai Power Tools and Xaos Terrazzo) DO NOT work with this version!! Also, although brush,shape and gradient files can be added (dropped into the appropriate folders), the styles files CANNOT be added!! Anyone who has worked extensively with styles will know how valuable they are! There is an assortment of 'canned styles' included, but if you go to the preset manager there is no longer even a drop down to select 'styles' as in other versions of PS and PSE!! If any of this is of significance to a reviewer, and helps to avoid making a hasty purchase, then I will feel a little better about my own hasty rush to upgrade. Will I use PSE8? Of course, but I will stay primarily though, with the earlier versions that allow free addition of styles and work with my precious plug-ins! I'm so disappointed, but am learning the hard lesson that newest and latest, isn't always the best choice!!
21 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Everything 99% Will Need in a Photo Editor/Paint Program Feb 24, 2010
By Ron B
"ole Zipperneck"
This review was made using PSE 8 Mac.
Unless you are a VERY serious professional (think Photoshop CS4 - $699), PSE 8 Mac has everything and more that the average user and enthusiast will ever need in a photo editor. At the same time, it contains a full blown paint program (45+ tools in the toolbox including text), a welcome feature for Mac users and the feature I use most. But first things first.
Installation: A clean installation was painless. I downloaded the free trial version, which is actually the full version good for 30 days, directly from Adobe, and therefore I had the most updated version. I purchased the boxed version from Amazon merely to obtain a user license after I was ready to purchase. With Amazon's price and $20.00 mail-in rebate from Adobe, you can save around $42.00 off the MSRP. Installed on my iMac and MacBook Pro with no problems..
Photo Editing: The program has three levels of complexity the user can choose from: Quick Edit, Guided Edit, and Full Edit. Users completely new to photo editing will probably want to start out with Quick or Guided Edit. But that's not to say that these two levels aren't quick and effective for any level of experience. More experienced users and those wanting the the whole enchilada from the start will probably want to use Full Edit mode for a more Photoshop CS4-like experience using the complete editing toolset and seemingly endless professional dark room tools, enhancements, filters, and file (image) manipulation options and combinations that are available. As you might guess, things can get quite complex at this level, if you desire.
Documentation/Manual: I have to say this first - after reading about 15 of the newest reviews for this product, I have to conclude that either: A) the Windows version is completely different from the Mac version in this respect, or B) some of these people are completely blind (not good for photo editing). There are several methods that you can choose from to get help using this software, and you'll want to be on-line to access most of them. I'll start with the manual. The program comes with a 304 page, alpha-to-omega, color PDF manual that you can download (through the "Help" menu), and save to your hard drive if you want. Its very thorough (too thorough for me actually) and covers everything you can find in PSE 8, so it can be sort of text book-ish after a while. Even has a glossary at the end. But I guess if its in PSE 8, its in the manual somewhere. For the most part, the manual is in plain English but some concepts may seem strange or confusing at first if you are new to this. Heck, I'm not new to this and some of it is still difficult for me to grasp.
Help: Its everywhere and since clicking on the Help menu is always a good place to look for it, I'll start there. You have several options after opening the Help menu:
- You can type a word or words into the "Search" box which will give you a list of menu items related to your search, if there are any. Mousing over an item in the list will interactively open the drop-down menu for that item with a really big blue arrow pointing to the item. To return to the Help menu drop-down list, click the little x inside the "Search" box.
- Clicking on "Photoshop Elements Help...", will open Adobe's 'Using Adobe PSE 8" web page. From here you can do several things; type a word or phrase in the "Search" box and PSE 8 will list the search results from all of Adobe's sources including the knowledge base, user forums (Essentials Village etc.), the manual, product centers, tutorials on-line, and whatever; e.g. enter "draw circle" and you'll get a bunch of links related to that. Of course, search result links from user forums are interactive if you want. Also on the opening page are quick links to topics from the user manual, Adobe's Help and Support Center for PSE 8 (tips, tuorials, etc), and downloading Adobe Help Viewer (free). BTW, the PDF icon near the top-left that says "View PDF Help (25MB)" is the link to your user manual. Click on it to open it (will take a few seconds to DL) and from there you can open it in Preview and save a copy of it.
- Adobe's On-Line Support Center. Has lots of links to tutorials, tips, videos, PSE 8 forums, updates, customer support, etc. Go to [...], click on Support, click on PSE 8
- Adobe Support Programs. These are pay-for programs for direct personal support form Adobe. Note that Adobe only provides free one-on-one support for sales, installation, and registration problems. I highly DON'T recommend these because they are expensive and more oriented to users such as developers, corporate users, or really advanced users with highly technical questions. Us regular humans will find sufficient support for free using the resources listed above or you can always use third party books, magazines, web sites etc.
Input and Devices: Mouse, keyboard, and full pen tablet support. Since the pen tablet is supported, I would recommend using one to maximize your experience and for ease of use. A Wacom Bamboo Pen ($53 Amazon) will do nicely to get started if you don't already have a pen tablet. The program comes with a generous set of customizable brushes and as already mentioned, a fully stocked toolset. The Adobe Color Picker and six customizable color watches come preinstalled. Of course on a Mac, the Apple Color Picker is also available and can be set to the default instead of Adobe's. Since I personally prefer Apple's, I appreciate that Adobe doesn't force their's down your throat.
Candy and Fluff: The usual suspects are included here in the "Create" and "Share" modes - Photo Book, Greeting Card, Photo Prints, Photo Collage, Web Photo Gallery, PDF Slide Show, CD/DVD Jackets or Labels, share to e-mail, cd/dvd, PDF etc.
Bottom Line: You'd have to pay a lot more than the $57.00 net I payed to get more bang for your buck for a photo editor/paint program. Is it a perfect dream come true? No. Sometimes relatively simple tasks seem unnecessarily complicated or unintuitive, but then some more complex tasks are surprisingly easy. Speed is OK, but not notable. Interface has a little too much of a Windows feel, i.e. they need to cut down and streamline the user interface in a more sensible Mac-like manner, especially the bloated drop-down menus. It might be more than some users need, but for $57.00, one can use the Quick and Guided editing modes and grow into the rest, which in the long run might be cheaper than buying a lower-priced product now and then upgrading to something more later.
23 of 24 found the following review helpful:
Worth every penny Dec 05, 2009
By ksuwildkat
"ksuwildkat"
I have used Elements since version 2 and this version replaced version 4 for me. Unlike 3 and 4, I found version 5 was a step backwards and 6 worse. When Adobe skipped 7 I was afraid 8 would be a step backwards too. It isnt. After just 3 days I was happy to remove my copy of PSE4. Even without the rebate, this version for Mac is worth every dime.
What's new
The most obvious change is the interface color. Matching Lightroom and bridge, you now work on black. I have been using Lightroom for a while so it was not a big change for me. A side effect of this is to make the color tools stand out far more and tools that were previously B&W are now color. That took longer to get used to and it is probably the most "disturbing" of the interface changes.
Unlike the Windows version, PSE 8 for Mac includes a full copy of Adobe Bridge CS4. The version of Bridge in PSE 4 never worked on any of my Macs but CS4 is rock stable. Bridge is completely integrated with PSE 8 if you want it to but you are not forced to use it. If you are already using Lightoom or Aperture, Bridge is probably redundant. If you are using iPhoto and shooting a lot of RAW, Bridge will probably be very useful. I personally found RAW processing in iPhoto very frustrating and iPhoto really bogs down when you start adding lots of 16MB files. I have no uses for Faces or Places in iPhoto and got tired of waiting for Faces to run.
Editing now has three options - Full, Quick and Guided. Guided is like a Q&A session. I wont ever use it and I doubt anyone will use it very long. Quick resembles Lightroom's editing options in the Library view with basic lighting, color and sharpness adjustments. Quick also includes tools to automatically whiten teeth, make skies blue, remove redeye and convert to B&W. Full has the full range of tools you would expect from PSE.
Two new tools are the Recompose tool and Magic Extractor. Used together, they allow you to radically change photographs quickly and easily. Magic Extractor does exactly what you would think - lets you remove just about anything from a picture. Using colored brushes you tell PSE what you want out and what you want left alone. You preview the results and if they work, hit ok. The most obvious application is to remove unwanted people or things from a picture and the results are excellent. Its not really magic, just automation of the laborious process of selecting and then removing that you have always been able to do. What is magical is the Recompose tool. If that person you removed happened to be in the middle of the picture, even replacing them with blue sky can make the image look "Photoshoped." Recompose can "squish" the picture together while keeping the rest of the picture normal. Have too much sky between your subject and that beautiful orange sun? Move it down. Ex-Boyfriends or embarrassing aunts will never ruin a photo again!!
Improved
Lots of things have been improved but a few stand out. Sharpening is now available as in the Enhance menu as well as filters. Same tool, just in a second, more logical, place. The new "Convert to B&W" tool is a combination of remove color, brightness and contrast, levels and hue/saturation. Healing Brush and Spot Healing brush are much improved with Spot Healing now my preferred way to remove blemishes on faces. The awful stand alone help program has been replaced by web based help. True it wont work if you are not on the net but I found the Help in version 4 so bad I relied on the web anyway. Create and Share have new ways to make things with your pictures but I dont use either so I dont know how good they are.
Under the hood
I appreciate all the new tools and the new interface but the single biggest change is the in the core of the program. PSE 8 requires a multi-core Intel processor and while that may seem like a bad thing, it isnt. Getting rid of the legacy code for PPC processors and older versions of OSX has made PSE 8 faster, smaller and far more stable. No more emulation, no more Universal Binary fat. Its not often that a newer program runs better on older hardware but in this case, it absolutely does. I have an original Intel MacBookPro (2006) and the difference is HUGE. If you own an Intel Mac and are using any older version of PSE, you will absolutely notice the improvement in speed and how well it gets along with other programs.
Bottom Line
I use PSE every day and I was very disappointed in both version 5 and 6. Adobe has more than made up for it with version 8. This is the biggest and best upgrade since v2-v3 and the first to ever use fewer resources than the previous version (as long as you have an Intel Mac). I was debating the big jump to full PS CS4 (student cost is very reasonable) but didnt want to sacrifice the speed and compactness that PSE offers on my older system. Next year is "Desktop Upgrade" year and I will wait until then to get CS4 but even then, I dont see PSE coming off my laptop (or my wife's). Highly recommended.
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