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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 15, 2008 / 9 Adar I 5768

A Middle path for Mac photo users

By Mark Kellner

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The arrival, last month, of Adobe's Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac, list price $90, begs a question: why would a Mac user want this software, particularly since Apple's $80 ILife offers its own photo program, IPhoto?


There are several potential answers to the question, however. There are people, including those who've switched from PCs running Microsoft Windows to the Mac platform, who would find Photoshop Elements more comfortable. Others are looking for something with more capabilities than IPhoto, but aren't ready for either the cost or learning curve of the full Adobe Photoshop program.


Both groups will find a lot that is useful in Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac. It's a great program, a good compliment to IPhoto, and something I could envision using on a daily basis, largely because I work with photos just about every day.


IPhoto's great strength is its extreme ease of use and integration with digital cameras and other image sources. Photoshop Elements 6 plays off of this, using another Adobe program, called "Bridge," to let users view photos in IPhoto "libraries" and then work with those images. Bridge is included in the Photoshop Elements 6 package.


This means that if you've built up IPhoto libraries of several hundred (or thousand) images, you can edit, enhance or use these in Photoshop Elements without an extensive conversion process. This is part of what makes Photoshop Elements a "middle path" for Mac photo enthusiasts. Although IPhoto has some good editing and enhancement tools, these have their limits. The full Photoshop program is the "gold standard" for image editing and manipulation, but it may be too much for many, as mentioned earlier. Photoshop Elements delivers a "just right" combination of power and ease.


One example: take those inevitable group shots that you'll find in the aftermath of a wedding, graduation, company picnic or other event. In some of those group shots, everyone is looking at the camera except for one person. That soul is swatting at a fly, or is otherwise distracted. In another group shot, the fly-swatter is great and everyone else isn't.


In earlier days - or in Stalinist Russia after Trotsky was literally made a "non-person" - you'd need razor blades or other devices to excise the offending person from a negative and perhaps insert a better one. Today, you line up the two photos digitally, make a selection, and Photoshop Elements moves the better image of Mr. Fly-Swatter into position. It seems magical, and, to this reviewer, it is. (Such manipulation is anathema at The Washington Times and other reputable newspapers; for your Aunt Sally's 90th birthday scrapbook, however, it may be acceptable.)


Ditto for stitching together photos into a panorama. Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac will do this far more easily than I ever could with other software, no matter how much patience I could manifest.


It's also easy to take a collection of photos and "publish" them online in an interactive Web album. That's something IPhoto does, too, but I like the Photoshop Elements approach.


Both programs also offer a variety of output ideas, including books, calendars, T-shirts and other items. Once you enhance a photo by removing "red eye" or other blemishes, why not share it with Uncle Harry on a coffee mug?


Despite some similarities, I get the sense that Photoshop Elements is not only the more powerful photo-editor, but is also designed for more "commercial," or near-commercial applications. I know that when I take photos for use in print or on the Internet, previous Mac versions of Photoshop Elements have made it very easy to modify and save photos in just the format needed. That hasn't changed in this version.


If you're happy with Apple's ILife suite, you may not feel compelled to add Photoshop Elements to your arsenal. But if visual communication is important, having this new version of Adobe Photoshop Elements for Mac will not only enhance your images, it will also improve the way you work with them.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.

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