What's New in Photoshop Elements 15

Adobe re-built the guided edit mode from the ground up in version 14. In Photoshop Elements 15 Adobe has continued this development, adding several new features. 

ELEMENTS EDITOR

Effect Collage

The Effect Collage Guided Edit helps you apply effects to different sections of your photograph. Take a regular image and apply multiple effects to it to make an eye-popping piece of contemporary art. 

Find this guided edit in Guided >> Fun Edits >> Effect Collage

1 With a photo open, in Guided mode, under the Fun edits tab, select Effect Collage.

2 Select a layout. Choose from a total of 9 different layouts -3 layouts in each of the sections.

3 From the drop-down selections, choose an effect to be applied to the collage.

4 (Optional) Use the Intensity slider to vary the opacity of the applied effect. 

For best results, perform steps 3 and 4 repeatedly until you get the right look. See example (before & after) below,

Before



After

Before

After

Painterly

Painterly is a way to create artistic output by painting your photo with a brush on different textured canvasses and applying different painting effects.

 

Find this guided edit in Guided >> Fun Edits >> Painterly

1 With a photo open, in Guided mode, under the Fun edits section, select Painterly.

2 Click the Paint Brush button to automatically paint the main subject of the photo with an artistic surface. A special set of brushes is available to paint the main subject of the image.

3 Select a background color for the canvas. Click Black or White to pick those colors. Or, click Select Custom Color to use the color picker and choose a color that blends or provides better contrast with the picture.

4. (Optional) Click Texture to choose an appropriate texture for your picture.

5. (Optional) Click Effect to apply a painting effect to your picture.

Click the next button to save or go into Expert mode to add extra brush strokes and flourishes. See sample below.

 

 Photo Text

Create text with a stenciled appearance with one of your photos as the background fill.

Find this guided edit in Guided >> Fun Edits >> Photo Text

1 In Guided mode, open your image and click the Fun edits tab and select Photo Text.

2 Click the T tool button and type your text on the photo

3 Choose how you want to adjust the text on the image (Fit or Fill)

4 Select a background style (Black, White, or Clear)

5 Crop the image to the text using the Crop tool.

6 Click Small, Medium, or Large, to adjust the type and intensity of the bevel, drop shadow, or stroke that is applied to the text.

Tip: Click the Advanced button if you want more control over the bevel, stroke and drop shadow.

Your output could look something like this.

Samples: 

 Speed Pan

The Speed Panning feature is a great way to add a sense of motion to your subject by blurring the background. The direction of the motion blur and intensity can be adjusted to give impact.

Find this feature in Guided >> Fun Edits >> Speed Pan

1 Open an image.

2 In Guided mode, click Fun Edits > Speed Pan.

3 Click the Quick Selection tool, and draw your selection around the subject of your photo. Your options:

-Use the Brush Size slider to change brush size.

-Use the Add or Subtract buttons to vary the selected portions of your photo.

4 Click Add Panning Blur to apply the speed panning effect. Your options:

Use the slider to change the intensity of the effect.

Use the Angle control to set the angular direction of the motion blur. This angle is typically the direction in which your subject is moving.

5. (Optional) To remove any excess blur, click Fine Tune Blur, and then drag the pointer over the area that you want to remove excess blur from.

 Sample

Before

 After

 Frame Creator

You can now make a photo frame using any photo that you have in your library. Use the Frame-maker guided edit to quickly create a custom frame to outline your photos. Share and load frames into My Frames.

 

Access this feature in Guided >> Special Edits >> Frame Creator

1 Open a suitable image in the Editor to be used as a photo frame.

2 Select from one of four selection tools:

Quick Selection

Selection Brush

Magic Wand

Polygonal Lasso

You may add another image to the frame by clicking the drop zone, or double-clicking this frame in the Frame panel (after it has been created).

3 Use Tool options pane to tweak Selection tool parameters. Create a selection on the image canvas.

4 Click Create Frame, provide a name for the frame, and create a frame from your selection.

5 Click Save Frame. When you click Save Frame, the newly-created frame will be available in Expert Mode >> Graphics Panel >> Frames.

Use the right panel to find your frame. From the drop-downs select By Type > Frames > My Frames. Frames are now sorted alphabetically, so that you can quickly find the one you are looking for.

6 Do one of the following:

Click Done

Refine the frame further by modifying it in Expert mode. Click Continue in Expert.

Import a shared frame

Not only can you now create fun, customized frames that speak your story, you can also import frames that other Elements users have created and shared on-line.

Imported frames can be loaded in a few simple steps:

1 In Photoshop Elements, switch to Expert mode.

2 Click Graphics, and then from the fly-out menu, click Add Frame.

3 Select the PSD file that represents the frame you are importing, and then click Load.

View an imported frame

1 In Expert mode, click Graphics.

2 From the drop-downs available in the right panel, choose By Type >> Frames >> My Frames.

Samples 

Before

After 

 

 

Before

After

Perspective Cropping

The Perspective Crop tool lets you transform the perspective in an image while cropping.

Use the Perspective Crop tool when working with images that contain keystone distortion. Keystone distortion occurs when an object or building is photographed from an angle rather than from a straight on view. For example, if you take a picture of a tall building from ground level, the edges of the building appear closer to each other at the top than they do at the bottom.

Using the Perspective Crop tool:

1.    To correct image perspective, select the Perspective Crop tool nested with Crop Tool in Expert Mode. You will find it in the tool options.

2.    Draw a marquee over the image and a grid will appear. Match the edges of the grid lines to the parts of the image that need correcting by dragging the corner handles of the marquee. See example (before and after) where the building on the right is leaning to the left.

3.    Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) or Click on the Green Check-Mark Button to complete the perspective crop.

It may be necessary to switch to the regular crop tool to remove any blank pixels left behind.

(Optionally) you can use the tool to crop to a specific Width, Height and/or Resolution of the Final Cropped image. You can also toggle the grid on and off to use it as a guide while correcting an image.

Before

After

Expert Mode Workspace

 Adjust Facial Features

The new Adjust Facial Features workflow uses face-aware technology to identify and adjust facial characteristics. You can now easily retouch portraits and other images of people. You can take a portrait picture and adjust facial features like the jaw, nose, lips, and eyes using simple sliders to increase or decrease an effect.

Using the Adjust Facial Features workflow:

1 Open an image in the Elements Editor, and from the menu bar choose:

Enhance >> Adjust Facial Features.

2 Use any of the sliders to change modify facial characteristics for the selected face – highlighted with a blue circle.

3 Click each tab (lips, eyes etc.) to expand the slider options.

4 Click the Before /After toggle switch to compare the current state of the photo with the original photo.

5 Click OK and save.

Other Enhancements & Fixes

Content-Aware Move 

While using the Content-Aware Move tool, you can now adjust the scale and rotation of the:

-Object you are moving, or,

-Area that you are extending

The box “Transform on Drop” is checked by default.

After dragging and dropping your selection, and before clicking the green check-mark, a bounding box now gives the options to rotate, scale and skew.


      

Layer Groups

From Photoshop CC, grouping layers helps organize and editing of the different components of your projects, and keeps your Layers panel uncluttered.

1. Select multiple layers in the Layers panel.

2. Do one of the following:

Choose Layer >> Group Layers.

Layer >> New >> Group from Layers

Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) layers to the layer group icon in the layers panel.

3. To Ungroup the layers, select the group and choose

Layer >> Ungroup Layers.

Layer Color Coding

Color coding layers and groups helps you locate related layers in the Layers panel. Simply right-click the layer o rgroup and select a color.

The Color option for layers is available in the New Layer and the New Group dialogs.

Filters Enhanced

In previous versions of Photoshop Elements, the filters inside the Effects panel were single-click-and-apply. You could not vary or modify the intensity of the filters effect applied to the image. In Photoshop Elements 15:

Some filters have an Advanced Options (for example, Colored Pencil). The Advanced tweaks enable certain further modifications to the filter effect applied.

Some filters have an Apply More button (for example, Blur).

Frames and Backgrounds

Photoshop Elements 15 now includes brand new frames and backgrounds.

51 new backgrounds

52 new frames

To choose a new graphic:

1. In Expert mode, select the Graphics panel.

2. From the first drop-down select a type of graphic that you want to see.

3. From the second drop-down, select whether you want to see backgrounds or frames.

Note: The new backgrounds and frames are displayed at the top of the list.

Smart Objects - preference 

The Preferences dialog (Preferences >> General tab) now has a checkbox that disables automatic creation of Smart Objects when you place or drag images from the photo bin.

Tool Performance

 
The Healing Brush and the Spot Healing brush have been enhanced for better performance. 



ELEMENTS ORGANIZER 

Smart Tags

In the Organizer, Adobe has introduced Smart Tags, based upon their preview technology seen in Lightroom Mobile Web. In PSE15 this is taken one step further adding greater functionality to the catalog. This technology cleverly uses composition and other information to automatically tag images, vastly increasing search options, even where users have added no keywords of their own. 

I typed a couple of generic words such as Food or Ocean and was impressed with the results from this new technology.  After importing new images or converting a catalog from an earlier version of Elements, it’s best to let the indexing finish, for maximum efficiency.

At present, smart tagging only works with the English language.

 

 

Click to enlarge

Search Revamped

Use the new search button to find media or use the keyboard short cut to find items quickly (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F)

The new search bar lets you build multiple criteria simply by clicking icons displayed in blue on the left or by typing words or phrases. For example, keywords can be used in conjunction with smart tags or any other criteria.

Instant Fix Enhanced

The new instant fix function in Organizer has been moved left on the bottom options bar. It can now be found next to the Editor Button which seems more logical.

The filter options appear on the right as a series of blue icons.

Multi-image Instant Fix

Batch processing is now possible using the instant fix filters. In multi-image view, edits are applied to all the selected photos.

Opening a filter displays a series of thumbnails which can be clicked to apply an instant “look” or the slider can be dragged up or down from a central starting point.

Click to enlarge

I think I prefer the tabs for Light, Color, Clariy and fx. The thumbnails provide a good representation. The one click smart fix seems to add a lot of cooling while pumping up the shaddows, although the results vary from image to image; sometimes adding a blue tint and sometimes removing it where the original is predominantly blue. Having said that, I have some night time images and smart fix really makes them pop. But most of the time I would use the Editor: Enhance >> Auto Smart Fix as I find the results more pleasing. Still it’s good to have options.

The instant fix options do provide for big changes e.g. in color saturation or de-saturation. So I don’t think the smart fix button is out of place.

 

eLive Search

Inspirational, help, and troubleshooting guides are regularly added or updated in eLive mode. PSE15 lets you search for eLive content, documentation, and troubleshooting knowledgebase articles from within the eLive mode.

Note: eLive is only available for installations in the English language.

Simply type a word or phrase to bring up suggested links.

Note: eLive Search is available in both Photoshop Elements Editor and Elements Organizer.

Watch Folders Available on Mac OS

In previous versions, Watch folders were available only on Windows. In PSE15, Watch folders are available on Mac OS as well.

Elements Organizer automatically detects when new media files are added to a Watch folder, and prompts you to import them to a catalog.

Automatic addition of Cloud storage folders

The Cloud-based storage folders linked to your computers and devices are now automatically detected and marked as Watched folders.

The Pictures folder is included by default. The supported cloud-based storage services are:

DropBox

OneDrive

Google Photos

Enhanced User Interface

When new media files are detected in a Watch folder, the new Import Media dialog is now displayed. You can easily import media files from within this dialog. The dialog also displays the current list of the Watch folders. You can add or remove watch folders as preferred.

Share to Facebook Enhanced Workflow

As part of the enhancements to the Share workflow, this PR drop includes an updated Facebook share workflow.

To access the Facebook share feature, select the media files you want to share, and then select:

Share >> Facebook

The following enhancements have been made to the Facebook share workflow:

Log in from within the Share dialog - in the previous version, to share your media files on Facebook, you had to log in to Facebook from outside Elements Organizer (for example from a browser). In this release, you can log in to Facebook from within the login dialog in Elements Organizer.

Share multiple images at a time - you can select and share multiple images at a time. You can share these images:

-to your timeline

-to a new or existing album

Share a video - you can now share videos to Facebook.

Note the videos can only be shared one at a time.

Tagging Facebook friends - you can now tag your Facebook friends in your photos. You can tag one or more friends at a time.

Sharing with different privacy levels - you can share your media files with any of the following privacy levels:

-Public

-Friends

-Only me

Touch-based Editing

Elements Organizer is now touch-friendly!

Organize photos with your fingertips. Now, you can simply tap to find, sort,

and enhance your photos in your touch-screen devices. The new Instant Fix

mode in Element Organizer also supports touch, putting all those cool

effects and edits literally at your fingertips!

Enhancements and Fixes (APD)

The fix for the Adobe Photoshop Downloader will help Macs users.

Since the release of Photoshop Elements 14, a common issue was the Adobe Photoshop Downloader (APD) being unable to detect iOS/PTP/MTP based devices on Mac OS 10.11.x. Apple completely re-designed the USB stack in El Capitan and many devices became unrecognizable. This issue has now been fixed, and devices will be recognized in Elements Organizer without any issues.

How to get Photoshop Elements 15