Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 offers a range of new features throughout its workflow, including the image import, organising, editing and sharing phases. When importing images, an improved Red Eye Removal tool can be set to look for and correct red-eye in pictures, with an emphasis on reducing false positives. First the EXIF header is checked to determine if the flash fired; if so, then a face detection algorithm tries to find any faces in the image (which does rely on both eyes being visible). Finally, if faces are detected, the algorithm looks for red-eye in the areas where the eyes would be, and fixes it if found. The Red Eye Removal tool can also be run on a batch of images already on your computer.

The facial recognition technology mentioned previously is also used to aid tagging of images, in what looked to be one of the most impressive new features of the program. According to Adobe, somewhere in the region of 80% of photos taken by their customers are people photos. The facial recognition function can be used to scan images for people's faces, and then shows thumbnails of only the faces - allowing you to very quickly identify photos containing the same person and select them for tagging. A recently used tags pane helps speed the process up even more, remembering the people you've recently tagged and letting you drag and drop faces from new photos for tagging as those same people. As the faces are tagged, they disappear from view. Occasionally, the software will identify a face that isn't actually a person - for example, a carving of a face on a carousel, or a completely unrelated object that has fooled the algorithm. The program can be told to ignore these, removing them from view quickly and simply. All in all, it looks to be a great way of removing one of the most tedious parts of tagging your images.

Image tags are stored in a database rather than in the actual images, during normal use. This is apparently to keep program speed up, however the tags are automatically written back to the image when it is exported for sharing, or moved to another folder. You can also manually choose to sync tags back to images. When a tagged image is imported into Photoshop Elements 4.0, you're advised that the image is already tagged and asked if you wish to import the tags. If there are conflicts, the tags can be merged or portrayed as a different tag, and you can also set up tag name conversions so that you don't have to recreate them. Adobe's representatives described this last function to us as being designed to solve what they've internally been referring to as the "Uncle Joe is my Dad" issue, where different members of a family or social group may want to refer to the same individual in different ways. A couple of other notable changes when organising images are that there is less jumpiness when scrolling the photo browser, and larger catalogs should be possible without slowdown.

When editing images, users now have a new tool that is somewhat similar to the Magic Wand, known as the Magic Selection Brush. This uses a new algorithm that takes color and texture into account to detect edges. You simply "scribble" on the area of the image you want to select, or draw a vague line around the inside of the object - or potentially even just make a single dot inside the object in some cases - and Photoshop Elements selects the object. If areas are selected that you didn't want included, you can do a negative selection on the area you want removed. As an indication of how much easier and more intuitive Adobe considers the Magic Selection Brush to be than past tools, it has now become the first selection tool that can be used in Elements' "Quick Fix" area (it is also available in the standard mode).

A related tool is the Magic Extractor tool, which lets you select an object in much the same manner. You can then preview the object without any background, defringe it by a certain number of pixels, and fill in holes to make a contiguous object. When you're satisfied, the object can then be moved to another image and resized, making it easier for beginners to make a composite photo. Two further new tools are the Skin Tone Adjustment, which works much like a white balance tool, but adjusts the image based on a selected skin tone. We're told the tool recognizes all different types of skin tone and different races, but should the result not be quite to your taste you can fine-tune the results with tan, blush and temperature sliders. Finally, a new Straighten tool lets you quickly draw a straight line that should be level, and the image can then be rotated to fix a crooked horizon, etc. - either with or without cropping to account for the rotation.

In the sharing area of the program, there are two main areas of change. The Printing section now lets you create identities of people you'd like to send prints to, as well as entering billing info, preferred print sizes, etc. for each person. When browsing images, you can then quickly drag thumbnails onto the relevant identities on the prints panel, and a selection of prints is built up. When you exit the program, you're asked if you want to order the prints you queued. You can choose to double-check the selections if you like, but can also simply agree and the program will automatically make the order without you having to check selections, enter billing info, etc.

The other main change to sharing is in the Creations area, and particularly to slideshows. There are thirty new templates across all creation categories, with more seasonal templates that will be available to download throughout the year. During slideshows, you can now set a subtle pan and zoom effect across an entire slideshow, or set specific (and multiple) pans and zooms to each photo. This is done very simply, by selecting starting and ending positions and a crop size around each, the program then calculates the transition itself. You can also apply multiple background music tracks to each slideshow, specifying where the tracks should start and end. You can also select to apply effects such as an Auto Smart Fix, Auto Red Eye Fix etc. to images as you're queing them for the slideshow, or call the full editor from slideshow mode to perform more detailed work on an image. Finally, you can overlay simple text and graphics (frames, speech bubbles, etc.) without needing to enter the editor. Slideshows can then be burned to a video CD, saved as a WMV video or a PDF (although pan, zoom, and certain transitions are lost in this format), or burned to a DVD (if you have Premiere Elements on your system). Files created can be emailed or sent to your TV if you have Windows XP Media Center Edition.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 now offers the ability to adust the monitor, timeline, etc. size and have other window panes automatically resize themselves to accomodate the change. Projects can also now be exported using the Project Archiver feature, allowing them to be moved to a different computer. A new context-sensitive properties panel allows the results of every effect, preset, title screen and DVD menu to be controlled and previewed.

Both updated programs will both be available in early October, either separately or as a bundle. Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 will cost $99.99, and Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 will cost the same. Together, they'll be offered for $149.99. A $20 rebate will be offered for existing Photoshop Elements owners or owners of certain competing products who upgrade to Photoshop Elements 4.0. The bundle and Premiere Elements will offer a $30 rebate open to all users.