Adobe Launches Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7

We’ve reviewed Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements — a photo and video editor, respectively, for mainstream users– and loved them both. Today, Adobe released the latest versions, along with Photoshop.com, an online editor/storage site. Photoshop.com will also have tips, tutorials, and a variety of seasonal templates and other content.

Membership to the site will have two flavors: Basic and Plus. Basic, free to anyone (even people who don’t own Photoshop or Premiere Elements), will have 5GB free storage by the end of September, and is essentially Photoshop Express with a different name. Plus membership costs $49.99 a year, and includes 20GB storage (ahem, Flickr offers unlimited storage– albeit, no editing– for half the annual price).

As for the desktop programs, Photoshop Elements has a new feature called Smart Brush that allows users to edit selective parts of the picture (for instance, apply a deep blue to the ocean in your vacation photos, but not the rest of the photo). With Scene Cleaner, you can remove unwanted strangers from a shot, so long as you take at least two shots of the same scene.

Premiere Elements has a new Smart Tags feature that automatically selects and bookmarks the best clips. Its VideoMerge feature allows users to insert home video in front of a moving screen (provided that you go out of your way to film your subject in front of a blue or green background first). Finally, InstantMovie gives novice users a drag-and-drop way of creating movies.

Users can buy either program individually for $99.99 or, as always, purchase the two as a bundle for a lower price: $149. Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements will both hit shelves in October.