What's new in Elements 2020?

Although recent updates in the last couple of versions have appeared to be little more than stability and reliance fixes, Adobe has pushed ahead by interlacing its artificial intelligence technology (AI) with a range of automated features—making complex and time-consuming processes easier, quicker, and more reliable.

I'd be the first to suggest that such technology would, at best, be fraught with errors, but this new version proves me wrong. Its new AI-driven automated features—notably, tools for Colorizing black and white images, Skin Smoothing and Object Removal, and Subject Selection—are remarkably effective and pretty much do what Adobe claims them to be capable of, that is, to colorize black and white images with a single click, select and remove objects automatically, smooth skin tones flatteringly, and instantly isolate your subjects from busy backgrounds without the usual time-consuming selection tool process:

And while the success of these new AI-driven features does rely, to an extent, on the content of the images in question, I find that even if the result is not entirely as expected, the effect created is invariably something very desirable.

As with most new features introduced in the 2020 version, if the AI-generated version does not turn out as you'd hoped, you can apply the effect manually with greater control—but that takes more experience. That said, in the example of this classic Hollywood image, I think the automated results (the three color versions to the left of the main image) are as good as the manually created, and more time-consuming, version seen on the right-hand side.

Users might also note that the application is now compatible with HEIF and HEVC (photo and video) files, further streamlining performance, especially when using files sourced from Apple iPhones.