Editing:  

The main focus of this application is obvious; photo editing. For this Adobe has included a set of tools and features that is unmatched in this category. You will find basic tools for cropping, minor cleanup, red eye removal and even a cloning tool. The Quick Fix tool is where most people start in Photoshop Elements 8. This lets you apply basic edits like color and lighting adjustments with one click. A preview window displays a before and after comparison of the image prior to actually applying the correction.

A project wizard is available to walk you through creating custom projects like photo books, calendars, greeting cards and photo slide shows.

Photoshop Elements 8 has advanced selection tools that allow you to extract portions of a photo and insert that clipping into another shot. Also, the High Pass filter can be used to extract line art and large black and white portions from scanned images.

Layer masks and clipping masks are both available in Photoshop Elements 8. A layer mask can be used to protect a portion of an adjustment layer where as a clipping mask can be used to apply a gradient without actually altering the photograph.

Photomerge Exposure is a new feature in Photoshop Elements 8. This tool can be used to adjust photos with exposure issues by seamlessly blending two or more photos, thereby eliminating under, or over exposed portions. Photomerge can also be used to enhance facial features by using elements from other images. An example of this would be extracting the eyes, mouth and nose from one photo and inserting those features on another photo. This also works to insert (or remove) other people into a shot in case you were left out of a picture and want to correct the mistake.

If you have taken several shots of a scenic view you can use Photomerge to combine the shots into one perfect image. You can also combine a series of individual shots to create a panoramic image.

The recompose tool is a new feature in Photoshop Elements 8. This lets you resize photos without losing important visual elements like people or buildings. Normally when scaling an image the result includes squatty or lengthened objects in the photo. Recompose identifies important objects in the shot and scales everything around them, resulting in a resized image with correctly proportioned objects.

People recognition is another new tool in Photoshop Elements 8. The Auto Analyzer automatically tags images that contain faces. Once this process is complete you can begin identifying people in the photos. The program will learn what people look like and will start making suggestions about who is in each photo. Eventually it will actually find groups of photos of a particular person and allow you batch tag them to save time.