Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 Review

Video editing can be a complex thing, but Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 does its best to simplify the process.

While professionals can spend years mastering the nuances and intricacies of powerful software like Adobe Premiere Pro, many of us just want to create and share fun, meaningful videos of our lives and loved ones. Adobe Premiere Elements excels in this regard, thanks to an accessible interface, relatively easy-to-use tools, and a cool creative style.

The interface’s three tabs – Quick, Guided, and Expert – offer novices the ability to quickly fix their videos and/or learn more sophisticated workflows, while offering more experienced users plenty of sophisticated tools and even powerful.

The newest release, Premiere Elements 2022, has added a handful of new and improved features, and a few of them are so useful that they alone will make family and amateur videographers sit up and pay attention. It’s an easy pick for the top of our list of best video editing software.

Note: This Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review only covers the latest features of the 2022 release. Check out our Adobe Premiere Elements 2021 Review for a larger overview.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review: Price

Adobe Premiere Elements pricing remains the same for 2022, and unlike Adobe’s Creative Cloud products like Photoshop CC, you’re buying a perpetual license. For a new purchase, it’s $99.99. An upgrade from a previous version costs $79.99. Or you can buy it bundled with Photoshop Elements 2022 for $149.99, or $119.99 for an upgrade.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 Review: System Requirements

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 runs on both Windows and Mac systems, with 6th Gen or newer Intel processors or AMD equivalent (7th Gen preferred).

You’ll also need at least 8GB of RAM (16GB RAM for HD media, 32GB for 4K media); 4GB GPU VRAM; Display resolution 1280×800 (at 100% scale factor); Fast internal SSD for installing and caching apps; additional high speed drive(s) for media and internet connection. Premiere Elements 2022 cannot be installed on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices.

For Windows, you will need Windows 10 version 2004 or newer (21H1 recommended), 64-bit version only, HEIF/HEVC import supported only on Windows 10 version 1903 or newer; 6.7 GB of disk space for installation and an additional 13 GB for optional content; DirectX 12 compatible sound and display driver; Windows media player; and a compatible DVD burner required to burn DVDs.

For Apple systems, you will need macOS 10.15 or macOS 11, 8 GB of disk space for installation and an additional 11 GB for optional content.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 review: new features

Most consumer-created videos end up on social media. And each network has a preferred aspect ratio for optimal viewing. Taking a page from Photoshop Elements (and other mainstream photo-editing programs), Premiere Elements 2022 now gives you the option to choose the aspect ratio of your video project based on where you’ll upload it to.

Your video’s aspect ratio can be set during your project setup, and the process is as easy as you’d expect.

Alternatively, you can export your video according to preset social media sizes, as well as presets for different devices such as a TV or tablet.

For anyone who posts videos to social media, like most of us, this is a great addition to Premiere Elements. Unfortunately, the only network not listed in the configuration or export options is Twitter. For Twitter, choose 1280×720 (landscape or portrait) or 720×720.

Cropping your video

When you choose to create or export a video in an aspect ratio other than the original one, black borders will be automatically added to your video. These borders are necessary to avoid cropping the action. But you can choose to use the Adobe Sensei AI crop tool to fill the frame with the central action of your video. The excess will then be cut off.

For example, suppose I want to create a vertical project, but want to use a horizontal clip. Sensei will analyze the horizontal clip and do his best to retain what he decides to be the central action in the vertical crop.

In my experience, this sometimes cuts out important details, because not all central action frames fit into the chosen aspect ratio. But that aside, Sensei AI cropping makes it easy to create smooth and engaging video projects that combine clips with different aspect ratios. Just keep in mind that it will work best if you shoot wide, leaving lots of empty space around the central action of your videos.

Better support for vertical videos

When you open a vertical video in a new project, the project now automatically sets its aspect ratio to match the clip. Additionally, in any vertical project, all elements (titles, mattes, or backgrounds) will automatically resize when placed in the project. Given how many people hold their phones while shooting videos, this new feature is bound to be very popular.

Two new Guided Edits

The Guided Edits feature in Premiere Elements 2022 helps users learn how to use key video editing workflows. It’s a simple setup, allowing you to work on your own videos in the Expert tab, with pop-ups that guide you. However, while they’re generally great for helping you master what might initially seem complex, Guided Edits often skimp on explanation. I suspect the idea is to get you learning with as little interference as possible.

For example, who doesn’t have a video that captures that perfect moment, but is too dark or not sparkling enough? The new Adjust Shadows and Highlights Guided Edit provides step-by-step instructions for correcting or improving a clip’s exposure. This allows you to open and place the clip in the timeline, using the Shadows and Highlights tool, then play the video to check the effect and finally export it. However, it does not give any guidance on how to change your settings after applying them.

This helper, the Adjust Highlights and Shadows Guided Edit is a valuable addition to Premiere Elements 2022, and encourages users to explore and learn more about these essential controls and sliders.

The other new Guided Edit – Animated Overlays – is much less serious: it teaches you how to apply animated butterflies, bokeh lights, snowflakes, clouds, and more. to your video. Options include blending modes, opacity, uniform or non-uniform scaling, rotation, and an anti-flicker filter.

Adobe Premiere Elements 2022 Review: Verdict

Premiere Elements continues to be an excellent mainstream video editing program suitable for both novice and more experienced users.

In the latest release, we were sufficiently impressed with the value of the various new aspect ratio options, the cropping tool, and the new Shadows and Highlights Guided Edits to recommend upgrading to Premiere Elements 2022 over the based on what they offer the typical consumer videographer. And they’re making this a good year for new users to download the trial version and see if it’s finally time to take the plunge and buy Premiere Elements.