If you want to edit your photos, you have several options. You can use Photoshop CS3. CS stands for “Creative Suite” and is the latest version of the professional-power Photoshop photo editing suite. It also costs a whopping $649.99 at last check on Amazon.com. If you want something lighter, the consumer version of Photoshop–Photoshop Elements–is a bit cheaper, but at $99 it is still a little too much for the average home user who simply wants to touch up photos and maybe add a few special effects.
Thankfully, software maker Adobe has just released Adobe Photoshop Express. This version of Adobe’s popular photo editing software is different in two regards:
1. Photoshop Express is free.
2. Photoshop Express has no software to install on your computer: It is completely web-based at http://www.photoshop.com/express.
If you’re looking for the huge power of Photoshop CS3, you won’t find it here. However, if you are the average consumer who takes point-and-shoot pictures with a digital camera and likes to share those photos with friends and family via Flickr.com or Facebook, Photoshop Express is for you. In fact, in my trial run, Adobe Photoshop Express is faster and easier to use than other free online photo editing services, such as Google’s Picasa (picasa.google.com).
Using Photoshop Express, you can do a wide variety of simple photo editing tricks and touch ups. For example, you can hide blemishes, rotate pictures, convert your photos to black-and-white, crop pictures, remove red-eye, and do other edits that can add a little special something to your digital pictures. One of my favorites, which has become rather popular among photo editing enthusiasts, is changing a single color in a photo (for example, making everything black and white except for, say, a blue sofa).
Even better, Photoshop Express lets you save your photos into albums and galleries to share with your friends and family with a whopping 2 gigabytes (GB) of free online photo storage. Basically, Photoshop Express is a one-stop website where you can edit and share your photos without having to sign up on anywhere else.
Using Adobe Photoshop Express:
Using Adobe Photoshop Express was a lot easier than I thought it would be. As an experienced Photoshop CS3 user, Photoshop CS3 is nothing like Photoshop Express. However, that is a GOOD thing. Photoshop Express is a lot easier and more intuitive for consumer users. Even if an Express user has no prior experience with Photoshop, he will find it easy and fast to edit his photos online using Photoshop Express.
Some of the photo editing features that Adobe Photoshop Express online offers include:
1) Red eye correction
2) Fixing blemishes
3) Cropping pictures
4) Adjusting photo colors (including black and white)
5) Adjusting photo exposure
6) Adjusting photo sharpness and clarity
7) Photo distortions
8) Photo blurring
9) Rotating photographs
Overall, Adobe Photoshop Express is fast and very easy to use within the confines of your Internet browser (Firefox or Apple’s Safari web browsers are great). You can even create a “history” of photo edits so that you can go back in case you make a mistake, such as cropping off Great Aunt Bertha’s beard.
Sharing Photos Online Using Adobe Photoshop Express:
One of Photoshop Express’ greatest features is the ability to share digital photos with your friends and family. There are a variety of ways that Adobe allows you to do this. You can email your edited photos directly to an email address, or upload them to another photo sharing website (such as Photobucket.com) from within Adobe Photoshop Express. A great service for younger audiences is the ability to edit your Facebook photos directly from Facebook. You can also create cool Flash slideshows that you can embed on other websites, such as your Myspace web pages.
As a free online photo editing service, Adobe Photoshop Express blows the competition out of the water (especially when compared to other free Internet-based photo editing programs, such as Picasa from Google.com). If you are a home user who wants to edit your digital photos without paying for Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Adobe Photoshop Elements ($649 and $99, respectively), Adobe Photoshop Express is perfect for you. One of the only downsides is the fact that it works best with a high speed Internet connection (such as high speed WiFi or DSL) and a recent web browser (such as Firefox or Apple’s Safari).
