Photoshop Elements 5 Released

The latest version of Adobe Photoshop Elements is here.

Adobe has released Photoshop Elements 5.0 for Windows (no Macintosh version yet). Photoshop Elements has always been a Photoshop application for the everyday consumer, and the latest version adds some cool new features that make it more robust for that consumer group:

• More layout options for photo groups
• Animated slide shows and galleries, powered by Flash
• Ability to map shooting locations and upload to the web
• More editing tools, including lens distortion correction and and curves
• Built-in photo services
• More support for Raw files
• Flipbook feature to string images together into a motion picture
• View photos on TV or mobile devices

Some of these features, such as the map, would be great to have in the next version of Bridge.

Along with this release is the release of Premiere Elements 3.0 (Windows only), which is to video as Photoshop Elements is to photos. It also has some robust new features. What’s most interesting to me is that Adobe is now offering a bundle of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, which I don’t think has been done until now. The trend in the past few years has been the development of consumers into prosumers, as well as the branching out of photographers into other creative areas such as video and web media. More and more convergence is taking place and the bundling of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements is an example of Adobe meeting the needs of these integrated creative prosumers.