Our need for a photo editor has come about because we can now store and modify digital photos on our computer. Even though photo editors are used commercially for web graphics, this review will be limited to editing family photos for personal use. Let's begin by looking at the ways we can acquire digital photos.

• If you have a scanner, you can scan a photo, slide, or negative and then edit it if needed.
  
• You can obtain a CD of your photos when you have your film developed.
  
• You can download photos from a commercial web site that develops your film.
  
• If you have a digital camera, you can download your photos from your camera.
  
• You can save photos that were emailed to you.
  
• You can download a photo from a family web site or from a free commercial photo sharing web site.
  

However you acquire your digital photos, you will eventually want to modify them, create a collage, or use them in a project like a greeting card. Most of all, you will want to create digital photo albums to preserve those cherished memories. Unlike paper photos, you can store descriptions, dates, and keywords for searching those photos you want to display in a slide show for a special occasion. I think the greatest advantage of digital photos is that you can easily and cheaply copy thousands of digital photos to a CD to share with your children and future generations.

Photo editors fall into three broad categories; entry level, intermediate, and professional. Your entry-level editors are designed intuitively so that beginners can be productive quickly. They generally have all the basic photo touch up tools, some special effects, are limited to single layer editing, and like most entry level photo editors, provide for some organization and management of photo albums. The entry-level editors are for home use and are designed to do fun projects. The intermediate editors are for serious amateurs and small businesses. These editors have more advanced editing features, provide for multi-layer object editing, color management, filters and special effects, and have extensive help and how-to features. Intermediate editors generally have no provision for organization and management of photo albums. The professional editors are for photographers, graphic designers, and businesses. They provide for high-end capabilities and have a high-end price tag as well.

Adobe Photoshop Elements falls within the intermediate category for photo editors. I have had experience with several other photo editors, namely, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Picture It Publishing, Microsoft Photo Draw, MGI Photosuite, Adobe Photo Deluxe, and Arcsoft Photo Impression. The editor that I choose to use is Adobe Photoshop Elements. I like this editor because it has a lot of editing power for the price. I have not found an editing need that cannot be accomplished with Elements. I like quality software, and this product says a lot about quality since it is version 1.0 and has never crashed on me both under Windows 98 or Windows XP.

I purchased an Epson Stylus C80 printer in March of this year. When I printed out my first photo on it, the photo had a reddish cast to it. I feared that I had purchased the wrong printer. After some research I found a topic on color management. I then found that Elements supported color management and I set that option on. I reprinted the photo and the colors came out as they were displayed on the screen.

The features that I use the most with Elements are: Import from Scanner, Rotate, Resize, Crop, Brightness, Contrast, Adjust Backlighting, Fill Flash, Color Hue & Saturation, Sharpen, Zoom In & Out, Smudge Tool, Red Eye Brush, Dodge & Burn (Brighten and Darken Brush), and Undo & Redo. Above the work area is the Menu Bar, Shortcuts Bar, Options Bar, Palette Well with docked palettes. The Toolbox is a floating window in the work area. The Palette Well contains the following palettes: File Browser, Recipes, Filters, Effects, Layer Styles, Swatches, History, Navigator, Info (color & coordinates), Layers, Hints. The Recipes palette contains the instructional steps to accomplish a specific photo enhancement, such as, adjust brightness and contrast. The History palette lists all the modification steps and you can click on any of these to bring your work back to that point.

Multi-layer object editing is a feature of your better editors. This feature is like having multiple panes of glass with a photo object on each. That is, you could be working with the following layers:
(bottom) Layer 1 - background trees and bushes
   Layer 2 - person taken from another photo
   Layer 3 - foreground flowers taken from another photo

The object in each layer can be worked independently from the other. The Layer palette allows you to select the layer you want to work on. It also allows you to hide any or all the other layers while you are working on one of them. You can adjust, resize, or move the image on a layer so that it blends with the other layers. There are so many variations that this is a form of art. Beginners cannot just jump in and begin to use Elements. It would be best to have a couple of basic lessons and then experiment using the user manual. I found at least a dozen Photoshop Elements books on the web and some resource sites.

Photoshop Elements isn't for everyone. But for those who are serious about photo improvement and want flexibility and some powerful tools, Elements is the editor for you. The lowest price I found for Elements is about $85 and can be less if you qualify for a rebate.