Photo Essentials features a modular design that incorporates technologies seen in some of onOne's plugins for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. The new release includes improvements in most of the existing modules from Essentials 2, as well as one module that's entirely new. On launch, Essentials 3 offers a floating palette that lets the user select from five approachable-sounding options - "Make it Better!", "Cut It Out!", "Make It Cool!", "Frame It!", and "Enlarge It!". (A sixth option, "Learn more online", provides a link to the product page on onOne's website. Users more familiar with Elements' interface can opt to disable the palette, and instead access the modules via Element's File :: Automation Tools menu, with the sole acception of "Cut It Out!", which can only be accessed from the palette..

The "Make it Better!" module makes it simple to adjust images by comparing side-by-side previews showing the original and adjusted image. On launching the module, you're prompted to select whether or not the image contains people. You're then shown the before and after previews, along with a slider allowing the strength of the effect to be controlled. When you're done adjusting the slider, you simply click on the image that looks best - either the adjusted image if you liked the changes made, or the original image if you couldn't improve on it. The module steps through several individual adjustments - dynamic range, color, brightness, skin tones (if your image contains people), and sharpness. As compared to the previous version of Photo Essentials, the "Make It Better!" module has updated enhancement algorithms based on technology supplied by imsense Ltd.

onOne's Photo Essentials 3: Make It Better! module. Screenshot provided by onOne Software Inc.

The "Cut It Out!" module is unchanged from that in Photo Essentials 2, and allows a foreground subject to be separated from its background. Before use, the image must be promoted to its own layer in Elements. A variety of tools - eyedropper, highlighter, brush, fill, chisel, blur and pen - are available with which to select the image areas that should be kept or discarded, and several of these also offer Magic versions that alayze the image and help simplify mask creation. The Magic Brush and Magic Wand tools also offer color decontamination functions, which help correct colors when pasting a semi-transparent object into an image with a different background color.

onOne's Photo Essentials 3: Cut It Out! module. Screenshot provided by onOne Software Inc.

Next up, the "Make It Cool!" module offers a wide range of effects filters in seven different categories. This module is based on onOne's PhotoTools 2 product line, and is a new addition to Photo Essentials. Image Optimize filters include Boost Color, Clarity, Digital Fill Flash, High-Pass Sharpening, and Super-Sharpener. For Portrait Retouching, there are three choices - an Auto Skin Smoother, ShineWow (which softens shiny skin), and Zit Reducer. Under the Black & White Conversion category are three Convert to B&W choices - Easy, Filter (which allows Yellow, Orange, Red, Green, or Blue filters), and Infrared (which emulates the effect of an IR filter, with white foliage and dark skies). The Photo Filters group contains a range of effects that emulate the look of common filters including 85A Warming, Black Soft, Deep Red, Fall Enhancer, Graduated Blue, Graduated Cool-Warm, Graduated Warm-Cool, Spring Enhancer, Starburst, and White Soft. Film & Darkroom effects include Bleach Bypass, ColorChrome, Cross Process, Cyanotype, Film Grain - B&W, Green Velvet, HDR Look, Light Rays, Negative, Selenium Toner, Sepia Toner, and Vintage. Special Effects includes some more unusual options, such as Day for Night (which darkens images and gives them a blue tint), Golden Hour Enhancer, Hi-Key Color, Night Vision (green tint), Orton Hears A Who, Turbo Boost (emphasized color and contrast), and Wild West. Finally, three One-Click Art filters emulate the look of different drawing and painting types - Colored Pencil, Comic Book, and Impression.

onOne's Photo Essentials 3: Make It Cool! module. Screenshot provided by onOne Software Inc.

As the name would suggest, the "Frame It!" module offers a huge range of different picture frame effects, as well as some backgrounds and layouts. The module itself is basically unchanged, but there have been quite a bit of content and layouts added. In total, there are 676 frames, backgrounds and layouts in 14 different categories - Adornments, Art Supplies, Backgrounds, Clean Inner Edge, Digital, Frame Shop, Grunge, Holiday, Layouts, Man-Made, Organic, Photographic, Texture Overlays, and Typographic.

onOne's Photo Essentials 3: Frame It! module. Screenshot provided by onOne Software Inc.

Finally, the "Enlarge It!" module allows images to be interpolated to allow higher output sizes. Based on Genuine Fractals technology, this module has been updated with improved algorithms. Beyond just simple resizing, the "Enlarge It!" module allows control over sharpening, texture, and film grain, amongst others.

onOne's Photo Essentials 3: Enlarge It! module. Screenshot provided by onOne Software Inc.

onOne Photo Essentials 3 is available immediately, priced at $70 for new customers, and $50 for customers upgrading from an earlier version. The software is compatible with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 - 8 on Macintosh and Windows. More details can be found on the onOne Software website.