Adobe Photoshop Elements, as the name indicates is in the products of Adobe and is image editing application. iPhoto is from Apple Inc. and is for Mac OS. This also is an image organizing program.

Adobe Elements and iPhoto aren\’t similar programs though they share a few common features such as the photo organizer, basic colour correction and image correction features.

iPhoto is basically an image organizer but Adobe Photoshop Elements is far more sophisticated and is an image editing software itself. Moving through the huge album of images and making corrections to them is far simpler in Elements than in iPhoto. Using Adobe Photoshop Elements, you may composite the various photos you\’ve and combine them to form one, or transform it to a completely new one. If you just wish to do the basic image correction tasks, then iPhoto is useful. You can even use Adobe Elements and iPhoto together. In this case, using Photoshop Elements as your editor will be a better option. You can import the photos into iPhoto and edit it using Adobe Elements. For this you will have to set the option to \’Edit\’ in External Editor in the iPhoto menu. iPhoto is not that an expert tool for editing your photos. And if you\’re an expert working with editing pictures, Photoshop Elements is the correct choice.

Adobe Photoshop Elements has a lot more editing options that iPhoto as it is an editing software and iPhoto has more organizing options. The organizing features of iPhoto are key words and non destructive editing. It\’s easy to use books and calendars in iPhoto. Whereas the benefit of using Adobe Photoshop Elements is that there\’re three ways of editing pictures. The latest in the line, Elements 10 for Mac stands up to the expectations of the users. It\’s targeted at both professional and also amateur users. And it is possible to use iPhoto along with Photoshop Elements 10. These days in some packages you may buy the iPhoto with the Adobe Photoshop Elements. In the package charge, you\’ll find that iPhoto is provided absolutely free. This package can include Adobe Bridge and a raw image converter also.

Apart from editing pictures, Adobe Elements provide lot of options in adding effects to the photos. This isn\’t possible in iPhoto. Along with Photoshop Elements comes the Bridge which aids you to assign the metadata keywords to the images. In iPhoto you can add just the proprietary keywords. Using Adobe Photoshop Elements, besides organizing your pictures, you can also share it by creating scrapbooks, web based albums, and in many more creative ways. Another drawback of iPhoto is that when you start using it, it sometimes changes the folder structures you\’ve created.

Also you cannot use Adobe Bridge and iPhoto together on the same images. This is as the keywords and the meta-data of the pictures crash the iPhoto when viewing these pictures using the software. And when you export the photos from the iPhoto, the program writes the keywords and titles corresponding to the images in the respective IPTC fields.