Adobe updates Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements every year, and this time around it seems to be focusing heavily on one-click effects and AI, which is where the industry is going right now. So what’s new in Elements 2024 and is it worth using as a photo editor?
I’ll leave Premiere Elements for another time. This site is all about stills photography, though I do video work too so maybe a spin-off site might be a good idea one day.
In any event, there’s plenty that’s new in Photoshop Elements 2024 to take a look at:
- NEW: Match color and tone via built-in presets your own photos, with the opportunity to fine-tune hue, saturation and brightness
- NEW: Select a sky or background with one click to create automatic selections. Powered by Adobe Sensei
- UPDATE: New Guided Edits, including stylized text for social posts and new background scenes and background replacement
- NEW: Create fast-moving Photo Reels from sets of images which you can share as videos or animated GIFs
- NEW: Access free Adobe Stock photos (though to be fair it’s just as easy to use other free sites such as Pexels or Pixabay)
- NEW: One-click Quick Actions for background removal, skiing smoothing, dehazing, colorizing and more
- NEW: Remove JPEG artifacts. Powered by Adobe Sensei
- UPDATE: New Artistic Effect options for turning photos into art in popular styles. Powered by Adobe Sensei
- NEW: Fresh, redesigned interface with modern fonts, icons, buttons, and colors, plus light and dark mode options.
- NEW: Add creative overlays in the web companion app (English-only beta), one-click fixes and more in the mobile companion app. (English-only beta), Auto-sync your photos and videos to enjoy them anywhere. (English-only beta) Sync across the Elements Organizer and the web and mobile companion apps.
Photoshop Elements offers a lot of guidance and inspiration for beginners or casual photo crafts, but it’s not exactly a photo editing tool for photographers. The kind of quick fix results and image effects that might satisfy a casual home user won’t necessarily impress a photographer.
I also find, personally, that Photoshop Elements offers so many ways to do so many things that it has ended up being far more confusing to beginners than a regular, more serious photo editor. I would always recommend beginners to start with Lightroom not Elements (Lightroom does have a lot of very good, very basic learning resources). The only area where Elements really scores, in my opinion, is for craft projects and gifts.
It is, however, available subscription-free, either on its own or as part of a combined Photoshop/Premiere Elements bundle.
Adobe Photography Plans
• 20GB Photography Plan: now $14.99/month, no longer available to new users
• 1TB Photography Plan: $19.99/month
• 1TB Lightroom Plan: $11.99/month
* A trial version lasting just a few days is available but requires card details and must be cancelled before the trial expires to avoid automatic subscription
** Note that these are annual plans paid monthly. You may have to pay a cancellation charge if you want to end your subscription before the end of the current year
