PHOTOSHOP ONLINE PHOTO EDITING IS A GOOD BEGINNING

For a long time now, there has been an ongoing effort to fundamentally change the process of how we get things done on our computers. For the most part, if you want to get something done, you purchase a specific piece of software that's designed to do it. Want to write a letter or document for example? You buy a word processing application like Microsoft Word. Want to edit photographic images that you took using your digital camera or scanned in with your flatbed scanner? You buy a high-ticket application like Adobe's Photoshop if you¹re a professional editor. Or if you just want to do some basic editing with the option of doing some of the more sophisticated stuff automatically without having to crack a manual, you may buy the less-expensive, consumer-orientated Photoshop Elements.

But more and more, we're seeing these applications going online. Now I'm not talking about going online and downloading the software although that really is an added convenience these days. It certainly beats having to drive down to the local computer store where you may or may not find exactly what want. But whether you order it from an online store or directly download the application to your computer, you still have to install the software onto your hard drive where it just sits and takes up space until you're ready to use it. And hopefully it won't collide with any of the other applications, utilities, drivers and a host of other software that you've already installed.

What I am talking about is the effort to duplicate on the Internet the power of an application running on your computer. These online applications don't reside on your computer at all. To use these applications, you go online and use them through your web browser.

Adobe has finally stepped up to this online plate with its recent introduction of Photoshop Express. For sometime now there have been a variety of web-based applications that do photo editing but this is Adobe and let's face it. When it comes to photo-manipulation, Photoshop is the industry's 800 pound gorilla. So when Adobe says it's getting into the online photo-editing application arena, you really want to check it out and see what they're doing. So far, they still have a ways to go but the website is still in its beta phase. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be using it or at least give it a try. Besides, Photoshop Express is totally free, at least for now.

To use Express, you will need the latest version of Flash which will be automatically downloaded to your computer before you begin editing. Once there, you register and set up your own gallery of photos. Just click on the Browse button and Express will upload any photographic image residing on your computer to your gallery. Your account gets 2 gigabytes of free storage on Express. This is nice because you can get to and edit your images on any computer with Internet access. Of course everything is protected via passwords. This ability to access data from anywhere, even sharing that information and having that data offsite goes to the heart of what having applications online is all about.

Continuing with Photoshop Express, after you upload your images, you can do a fair amount of editing. Of course, all the usual editing features such as red-eye removal are there. But Express offers a lot more fine-tuning abilities such as adding light fill, highlighting and special effects.
Adobe is also working with other websites such as Flickr and Facebook so that your images can be seamlessly edited and transferred back and forth to these services.

According to Geoff Baum, Adobe's Director of Express Products, this is a good time to give Express a try because the developers are still taking requests from users to help further enhance their Express experience.
Express should be out of beta by the end of the year and he's sure that added extra features will be forthcoming later on to those paying for more enhanced versions. But for now, Photoshop Express is completely free and the basic version will always remain so.

Adobe Photoshop Express works with both Windows and Macintosh systems and can be accessed at www.adobe.com/express.

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