imageediting
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Vic Gundotra post hints Snapseed for Android may be close, bring Google+ integration
When Google bought Nik Software, there was some worry that Snapseed would go the proverbial dodo's route and fade into obscurity as part of a larger Google app. We won't see that ignominious end anytime soon if Senior Engineering VP Vic Gundotra's photography is as valid a clue as it looks. On an evening flight to Baltimore, Gundotra posted a view of the setting sun to Google+ using Snapseed -- a rather unique achievement given that the existing, iOS-only app doesn't know the social network exists. Knowing the executive's usual choice of smartphone, the public use could be the hint of the already planned Android port getting close to launch, even if there's no way to know exactly when and how the image editing app could arrive. Let's hope that Gundotra's post is more than just a fleeting glimpse of a product that gets shelved later on.
Google buys Snapseed developer Nik Software, raises the eyebrows of Instagram shutterbugs
Google makes a lot of acquisitions, some of them more important than others. Its latest purchase might skew towards the grander side, as it just bought imaging app developer Nik Software. While the company is known for pro photography apps like Capture NX and its Efex Pro series, the real prize might be Snapseed, Nik's simpler image tool for desktop and iOS users. Both Nik and Google's Senior Engineering VP Vic Gundotra are silent on the exact plans, but it doesn't take much to imagine a parallel between Facebook's buyout of Instagram and what Google is doing here: there's no direct, Google-run equivalent to Instagram's social photo service in Android or for Google+ users, and Nik's technology might bridge the gap. Whether or not Googlegram becomes a reality, the deal is likely to create waves among photographers of all kinds -- including those who've never bought a dedicated camera.
Inpaint Pro allows for easy photo retouching
About a year ago I took a look at Inpaint, an interesting Mac OS X app that is similar to the content aware fill feature of Photoshop, but a fraction of the cost. My only real gripe back then was that the app could not open raw files. In its latest incarnation, Inpaint Pro can now open raw files, and the app has added a few additional tricks to the feature list. Inpaint Pro can load an image, and with some brush strokes, it can eliminate unwanted elements from the picture. It could be an errant tourist who wandered into your shot, or a sign that might detract from your image. If the offending elements are fairly small and don't dominate the image, Inpaint Pro can seamlessly erase the unwanted person or object, and smartly fill it in. Another lets you load multiple images at once and if a person, for example, moved, you can eliminate the person by brushing in pixels from a second photo that doesn't contain the person. That feature is called Multi View. The app can also easily remove time and date stamps from photos, remove blemishes from a face, or repair old scanned photos to get rid of tears or other defects. I've tested the app and found that it does what it claims to do. There is a help file with some video examples, so getting the hang of the app won't be a mysterious process. I noticed a few times that the app seemed to stall, but it quickly recovered. It never crashed, but I suspect it may require some further optimization. The app isn't a substitute for the considerable power of Photoshop, but what the app does, it does well. Inpaint Pro is on sale for US $4.99, which is a considerable savings over the $14.99 list. If you have the need for what it does, Inpaint Pro is worth serious consideration. The app is an 8.8 MB download and requires OS X 10.6.6 or greater. %Gallery-160424%
Alien Sky gives your photos an other worldly look
I grew up reading science fiction books and loved the cover illustrations with vistas of alien worlds. I particularly remember the great paintings of Chesley Bonestell, an architect who later in life became a premier illustrator of space scenes. He also worked on some classic sci-fi movies like Destination Moon. This brings me to Alien Sky, a new US$0.99 iPhone app that will easily transform your images into something that can recreate that eerie outer space look on your own photos. The app features illustrations of galaxies, moons and planets. It also includes gradient filters and lens flares. You select an object and drop it on top of an image from your photo library, or take a fresh picture with the iPhone camera. Once the object is layered over your photo, you can change the size or rotate the object to any angle. It can then be saved to your picture roll, or shared via email or Twitter. It can also be directly imported into some photo editors on your iPhone like Photo Splash or Photogene. Of course, once in your camera roll, the image can be opened by any image editor. The results with some western landscapes I had were excellent. Maximum output resolution on my iPhone 4S is 3072x3072. A couple of changes I would like to see include some masking features which would let an object go behind something in the foreground like a rock or a building. For now, you can work around it using some of the objects in the library which have only partial images and move and rotate them near rocks or other things. Also, the app is not universal and it would be great on the iPad at full resolution. I talked with developer James Grote who told me he is working on including masking and there will be an update that makes the app universal. For now it works natively on the iPhone and iPod touch. Alien Sky is a very slick app, and if you have a fondness for science fiction illustration, you'll enjoy playing with your own photos. I've included some images I did while testing the app for this review. They are in the gallery below. %Gallery-159980%
Aviary photo editor arrives on the iPhone for free
Aviary is known in software circles as an Android photo editor and a plug-in for developers who want to easily add photo editing to existing apps. Now iPhone photographers can try Aviary as a standalone app that is powerful, has nice features, and best of all, is free. The app includes one-tap photo enhancing, ability to add text to photos, sharpen and blur, crop and rotate, and adjustments for brightness, saturation and contrast. For portraits, there is red-eye removal, whiten teeth and blemish removal. There are also some fixed adjustments for things such as black and white conversion, sepia and more. There's noting groundbreaking in the Aviary package, but it has a solid mix of editing tools. One particularly good feature is that you can output your photos at full resolution, up to 12 MB, which exceeds the size of iPhone photos. You can make subtle changes or garish ones. That's up to you. One criticism of the workflow: there is no clear way to save. You save by hitting a button marked 'done' but that might confuse some users. When you press the 'done' button, the image is saved to your photo roll. There are also additional filters that can be added as an in-app purchase. I would have rather seen Aviary charge a dollar or two and provide all the features to begin with. Despite those minor shortcomings, Aviary is powerful and simple to use. I think it's worth a download if you are an avid iPhone photographer. %Gallery-158758%
Aviary launches photo editing application on iOS, turns Android plugin into an app
Last we heard, Aviary was being chosen to replace the deceased Picnik as the main photo editor on Flickr, and now the startup is getting ready to launch its first iOS app and give its previous Android offering a major boost. The Jeff Bezos-backed company has just announced its entry into the application game, giving iOS and Android folks access to an array of its image editing tools -- much like Apple's iPhoto on Cupertino devices or Photoshop Express on ones powered by Google's OS. Naturally, you'll be able to do run-of-the-mill tidbits such as cropping, rotating, sharpening and blurring, which are bundled alongside others like cosmetic tools, one-tap auto enhance and "gorgeous effects." It's also worth noting Aviary was once present on Google Play as a plugin, but has now made the change to a full-on, feature-packed application. Those interested in taking the fresh app for a spin can hit either of the source links below, where a mighty free download awaits you. %Gallery-158194%
Fotor CameraBag -- Get this super iOS photo app while it's free
I'm always on the prowl for great photo apps, so let me tell you about Fotor CameraBag (now renamed simply Fotor). It's free for a limited time, usually selling in the App Store for US$1.99. There are a lot of iPhoneography apps that try to do everything, but many of them perform their functions poorly. Fotor CameraBag, on the other hand, does a lot of things and does them very well. First, it has excellent HDR imaging. Take a photo from within the app, and you can make final adjustments and tweaks before you save. I put it to the test with a darkened interior room with bright morning sun in the windows and the results were excellent. Next, for non-HDR imaging you get a variety of filters, a one-tap enhance option, frames, and something rare in an all-in-one app -- the ability to make collages. There's also a tilt-shift option called Big Aperture that simulates the effect of a tilt-shift lens. Fotor CameraBag also includes the usual social sharing options, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and email. With all of those features, there are a few annoyances. The work flow can be convoluted. You can't save directly to the camera roll of your iOS device; you save to the app's own library, and then export to the camera roll. That's just not necessary, and it should be an option you can turn off. The Color Splash tool, which allows you to selectively add or erase color, is a bit confusing. The icon to adjust brush size is simply called 'brush'. Until I clicked on it, I had no idea what it was for. Don't let these mild criticisms put you off. Fotor CameraBag is a very powerful app, and if you want just one app for editing that includes excellent HDR, I'd give this app serious consideration. The fact that it is currently free is the icing on the cake. The app is a 22 MB download, and works on the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. It requires iOS 4.3 or greater. This app has no relationship to the similarly named CameraBag, which has received positive reviews. It is an excellent filter collection, but not an image creation app. I've got an example HDR and some screen shots in the gallery below. %Gallery-156873%
Photo trips with the iPhone 4S and iOS photo apps; past and present
It was about 14 months ago that I took a jaunt to Northern Arizona for a landscape photography trip. I hit Canyon de Chelly, a dramatic area of seldom visited beauty, and the iconic Monument Valley that straddles the Utah and Arizona borders. On that trip I had my trusty DSLR, a Canon 5D, and for fun I took some shots with the iPhone 4. I've repeated the trip, only this time with my iPhone 4S. What a difference a year makes! I still did the majority of my shooting with my Canon, but for a quick grab and a share with friends and family you can't beat the iPhone 4S photo system. In general, I still use Pro HDR. It supports the full resolution of the iPhone, is faster at rendering than previous versions, and still delivers an excellent image under high contrast situations. We now also have iPhoto for iOS, which I found invaluable for editing, but also for creating journals (iCloud users only) of photos that can be shared directly from the iPhone. We also have Snapseed from NIK software, that gives you a measure of control when editing on the iPhone that is both simple and powerful. I also used a free app called Magic Hour to predict the best lighting for photography. The only challenge is connectivity. I didn't see any wireless access in and around Monument Valley. There might be W-iFi in the hotel rooms there, but I didn't see any wireless networks come up. Even phone reception was spotty, and sometimes I saw the AT&T EDGE Network and sometimes not. At Canyon de Chelly near Chinle, Arizona things are a bit better. The town has cell service, and generally I could get on the EDGE network, although uploading photos is slow. The two major hotels in Chinle -- a Best Western and a Holiday Inn -- both have free wireless, so I was able to get some images out. The only downside of the visit was that I just missed Johnny Depp who was there filming the new Lone Ranger movie. I was also testing Place Tagger, an app that puts GPS data on your DSLR images by syncing your location to photos taken at the same time. Of course the iPhone automatically embeds that info when you are using the iPhone camera. I'll have a complete review of Place Tagger soon. I was also surprised at the number of iPhones being used by tourists. I don't really consider the iPhone 4S camera my primary photo gear, but for lots of people it is. I saw far more iPhones taking snaps than I saw Android devices or other cameras or camera phones. And like me, people were sending those images back via the web, or using Photo Stream to have them when they get home. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the iPhone seemed to outnumber point-and-shoot cameras, at least in the places I was taking pictures. I have to say I'm impressed with how much heavy photographic lifting the iPhone 4S can do for photographers. It's becoming more and more mainstream, and with supporting editing apps, services like the iPhoto Journal feature, and of course with maps and specific travel guides, the iPhone is a one-device solution for a lot of casual photographers. Check the gallery for some iPhone 4S photos, and feel free to share any similar experiences you've had in the comments. Note that the images have been reduced in size and resolution for our publishing system. %Gallery-156386%
JPEGmini puts your images on a diet
If you're like me, you've got a hard drive filling up with images. I do a lot of landscape photography, and while I normally shoot in RAW format, they get output as jpegs for the web, email, and the printing service I use. Over the years I've seen a lot of applications that will shrink jpegs, and the jpeg itself is already much smaller than anything that started out in raw, native Photoshop or TIF format. I was offered a new OS X app called JPEGmini to test, and it is impressive. You can drag a folder of photos or even a complete hard drive onto JPEGmini and it goes to work, showing each image it opens and keeping track of how much is saved. It supports images from 2 MB to 17 MB in size, and I have some larger files so the app warned me those would not be shrunk. (Note: The developer says the limitation is resolution, not file size, so any resolution greater than 17 MP will be rejected.) I was a bit skeptical of this shrinking process, so I opened up some of my detailed landscape images and looked at them in Photoshop. I couldn't see any significant difference in the before and after images. I should note that I duplicated a folder of images for this test and worked on the copy, because once you shrink the photos, there is no going back. I saw more than 50% reduction in file size, and there would have been more if I didn't have so many files in that folder larger than 17 MB. This is very nice for sending files via email because I can reduce the file size while keeping the quality. Best of all is that your photos stay in jpg format. No program is going to have trouble opening them. If you want some details on the process, the developers go into more depth about how the application works. Besides the file size caveat, the program only works on jpegs. JPEGmini is US $19.99 through the Mac App Store. It's a little pricey, but it does what it claims. It mightnot be for the pro photographer, but I think most amateur and semi-pros will be thrilled at the drive space you get back. If you'd like to see how the program works without any investment, the developers have a free service on their website where you can upload some files and let their server shrink them and return them to you. Check the gallery for some comparison shots, but remember that these examples are further reduced in quality when we publish them. %Gallery-155373%
Adobe updates Photoshop Touch for iPad with better resolution
When I reviewed Adobe Photoshop Touch in February, I found it generally capable, but the app would downsize any large images you loaded to 1600 X 1600, which was very skimpy. This latest version, 1.2, released today, lets you increase the resolution to 2028 X 2048. Note that you must allow that in settings or it defaults to the standard 1600 X 1600. That's an improvement, but still falls short of even the iPhone 4 resolution (2592 X 1936), the iPhone 4S camera (3264 X 2448) and of course the new iPad resolution of 2048 X 1536 at a dense 264 pixels per inch. There are some other welcome features, including Creative Cloud auto-sync, and new special effects, including the ability to render in a pseudo HDR look. You can also now export to PSD or PNG formats via email, or from the camera roll. The update also sports improved rotate and flip workflow and the option to transfer images to your desktop via iTunes. iPhoto for iOS also downsizes imported images, unless they are being imported through the Camera Connection Kit. Used that way, iPhoto for iOS supports images up to 19 MP. While this latest version of Photoshop Touch still doesn't completely exploit the new iPad retina display, it is a step in the right direction. The update is free to current owners. The app requires an iPad 2 or greater, and iOS 5 or greater.
Process is a clever and able photo editing app for iOS
There's no shortage of photo editing apps for iOS, and I am constantly amazed at the quality and the creativity of the offerings. Process (US $2.99 universal app) has some unique features that can breathe some new life into your photos. The app features non-destructive editing, so you can apply multiple filters with one layer for each effect. It feels a bit like using Adobe Photoshop on my desktop Mac, but Process is much simpler to use. Photos are saved in full resolution, unlike the somewhat disappointing Adobe Photoshop Touch app for iOS. You can save your effects to use again, or share with others. If you use the app on both an iPhone and an iPad you can transfer the effects between devices via the cloud. The app supports the new Retina Display on the latest iPad. Process is a pleasure to use. The app has many presets and they are quite good. At first glance, they are not as varied or extreme as some of the other filter apps out there, but frankly, that is what I like about them. There's nothing over the top, and your pictures stay naturalistic, which is my processing style. You can certainly push the effects quite a bit, but they never look like a bad LSD trip. The app doesn't have some of the more popular effects, like tilt-shift, but again, that's not what this app is about. You can add layer after layer of effects, remove any of them to see how your processing is going, and try different combinations, all without destroying the original image. Help is built-in and is comprehensive. If you want to do more dramatic filtering and processing, I still like Snapseed from NIK software, but I think Process is very well thought out, extremely flexible, and can improve your images without turning them into Andy Warhol type art. iPhoto is also an excellent choice for photo editing, but it has a higher learning curve. You can check the gallery for some screenshots. %Gallery-152562%
Daily iPad App: Photogene
Unlike many, I didn't buy the iPhone 4S for Siri. It's nice to have a voice assistant, but what I really wanted was the camera. I shoot a lot of photos throughout the day using my iPhone and have been looking for a good image editor to complement its camera. Now with PhotoStream, I am no longer limited to using the iPhone for editing. I can automatically transfer my photos and edit them on my iPad, a convenience that led me to try Photogene for the iPad. Photogene is a fantastic editing application that's great for tweaking and touching up photos. You name it and Photogene has it. It lets you crop, straighten, resize, sharpen, reduce noise, adjust color, correct red-eye and remove unwanted blemishes or spots. If you want to get more creative, there's also specialized effects like reflection or vignette and standard effects like dodge & burn, blur, and grayscale. You can add captions and text to images and apply artistic filters such as sepia or charcoal. There's even several categories of presets that'll let you add a border or change the look of your photo in just a few taps. And if you don't like what you have done, there's multiple undo and redo. One of my favorite features is the collage creator which takes up to six photos and turns them into one image using templates. The app comes with a handful of collage templates and you can buy a pack of 60 that gives you twelve designs for each group of photos (12 templates for a 2 photo collage, 12 templates for a 3 photo collage, and so on). When you're done, you can export your images back to your iPad's photo library, upload them to an online web service like Dropbox, Flickr or Picasa, or share them via email, Facebook or Twitter. If you have a printer, you can use AirPrint to get a hard copy. Photogene is available for $2.99 from the App Store and is a must have for anyone that uses their iOS device for photos or image editing.
Daily Mac App: inPaint
I've used Photoshop for years, and recently upgraded to Photoshop CS5 mainly for one feature called Content-Aware Fill. It allows you to remove an element from an image, and the software very cleverly fills it in based on what is around the deleted object. It's quite amazing to use, and I'm often calling it up for landscape photos when an errant tourist or power line gets in the way of what would otherwise be a nice image. If you're not about to shell out several hundred for Photoshop, or almost a hundred for Photoshop Elements which has a similar feature, let me direct your attention to inPaint in the Mac app store. This US $9.95 app (on sale for about a week for $5.00) has this same feature, and if removal of some parts of an image is what you really want it's worth the small price asked. Here's how it works: You open an image in inPaint. You use a brush tool to paint out the object you want removed, then you hit a 'play' button to start the repair. The brush tool can be varied in size, and you can brush away multiple unconnected objects in one operation. I tried inPaint on a variety of images, and compared how it did to Photoshop CS5 content-aware fill. In some cases, inPaint removed the object with fewer steps and left no evidence it had been used, where Photoshop left the image looking a big ragged. In other cases, the two applications worked about the same, but in none of my experiments did Photoshop do a superior job. inPaint is not a substitute for a high-end editor. No layers, no sharpening, nothing really except the ability to smoothly remove parts of an image without a trace. One drawback is the app can't open raw files. The developer says that is coming. I had no trouble opening TIF, JPEG or PNG format images. Photoshop is a terrific app. I use it every day. It is versatile, and does everything a graphic artist or photographer would want. However, if you are looking only for the ability to smoothly remove unwanted things in your image, inPaint does it extraordinarily well at an almost microscopic price. I have some examples of the app and a Photoshop CS5 comparison in the gallery. %Gallery-134236%
Pixelmator releases ... an iPhone game called Flapcraft
I am a big fan of Pixelmator, the excellent image editor for the Mac, and was surprised to see that team's latest project: an iOS game called called Flapcraft, which hit the App Store today. Not surprisingly, the team used Pixelmator to create the game's look. What a clever way to show off your image editor. Flipcraft is a lot of fun. You play as a viking who jumps off of a ramp and executes elaborate tricks. An extensive upgrade system allows for higher jumps, bigger tricks, and more points. It's short, but entertaining. Plus, it looks great. You can pick it up for US$1.99 in the App Store right now. The Pixelmator gang has produced a making-of video which shows the team creating the game's art and designing its website. Pixelmator is indeed a really powerful graphical tool -- it's too bad all of that art and design talent doesn't come with it!
Luminance app for iOS has some pro features for image editing
The iPhone and iPad have really pushed developers to have more and better features for editing photos on mobile devices. I've used and been impressed with apps like Photoforge, PhotoStudio, PhotoWizard and more. Today I've been using and testing Luminance, which adds some clever functions for serious iOS photographers. First and foremost is the ability to add layers of adjustments to photos. While not the first app to do this, it's intuitive to add effects as layers, which can be removed or made transparent so other effects can show through. Another nice feature is the ability to save any effect as a preset, then apply it to other photos that you import. If you really like to tweak your images and have taken a lot of steps as you add to the original image, Luminance gives you unlimited undos, so you can walk the image back, or jump to any particular change and pick up from there. It's a powerful feature for an app designed to run on a phone and tablet. There are quite a few presets built in, and they can be modified to taste. As I edited my photos, the app was solid and speedy. I didn't see any crashes or bad behavior. The operation of the app is intuitive, and the developers say they were aiming for a blend between an iOS app and Lightroom or Aperture. I think they achieved that. There are some things I'd like to see, like some built-in help, even thought the app is very easy to use. I'd also like more tools, especially rotate and cropping. Posting to Twitter is coming soon, and I'm told users can look forward to Flickr posting, tilt/shift effects, and creating frames. I like Luminance because it pushes the editing envelope a bit, and I'm anxious to see how it evolves and improves. I've added it to my iPhone photo tool kit. Check our galleries for some shots of the app in action. Luminance is US$0.99, which is a sale price until August 23. %Gallery-131069%
Pixelmator 2.0 announced, coming to Mac App Store later this summer
Today, the Pixelmator team provided a peek at the next version of their namesake image editing tool. With the code name of Chameleon, Pixelmator 2.0 is a major upgrade that is expected to ship later in the summer of 2011. Anyone who has already purchased the app via the Mac App Store for US$29 gets a free upgrade to the new version when it arrives. Along with the increase in functionality provided with the upgrade comes a new price point -- $59. The new feature list is quite comprehensive. First, there are drawing tools (pen, freeform pen, convert, and path selection tools) that allow users to create and edit vector shapes. These tools also include pre-drawn triangle, line, rectangle, circle and custom shapes available on a new Shapes palette. The fill and stroke settings for these shapes are adjusted in a new Shape Settings palette, and shadows are easily added from this palette as well. Probably the most anticipated new feature in the upgrade is the content-aware fill technology that can be used to delete unwanted elements in images. Want to get rid of that sunburned spot on your nose from your vacation photos? With the new Healing Tool or the regular selection tools, it will be easy to select an area and let Pixelmator fill it with nearby image content. New retouching tools are part of the upgrade, including a Sponge Tool for adding or reducing color from image areas by dabbing at them, Burn and Dodge tools to darken or lighten portions of an image, and a Red Eye Tool for exorcising the red glow from eyes in your pictures. Finally, there's also a new Smudge Tool for smearing paint or obscuring details by using a brush tip to do the retouching. The user interface has been streamlined and made easier to use, there's a new Eyedropper Tool for picking up colors, and a number of other toolbars and palettes that have been included. With the announced upgrade, Pixelmator appears to be making great strides towards becoming a much less expensive alternative to Adobe's Photoshop. What do you think, Pixelmator owners? Are you looking forward to the upgrade? Let us know in the comments.
FX Photo Studio now for Mac OS X
I took a look at FX Photo Studio on the iPad earlier this year and gave it a positive review. Now the app has migrated to the Mac App Store, so that users who want to work on a desktop or laptop Mac can modify, adjust and remake their images using similar tools to the iOS versions. I've been using FX Photo Studio Pro for about a week and imported many of my images to see how it worked. The app is no substitute for Photoshop, but for the casual photographer who wants to explore filters, do basic sharpening, level adjustments, color balance, crop, rotate and change the color saturation of images, I think the app is worthwhile. With 159 filters, you can dramatically change your image. As with all filters, you are more likely to mess the image up rather than improve it, but if you are after a big collection of effects, you'll find them here. I thought the black and white conversion was nice and clean, and some of the vignette effects were also good. Things like night vision effects and some color glows that look like LSD-induced nightmares aren't my cup of tea, but some people will love them. That's the strength of having lots of filters. Use what you want and forget the rest. You can also create your own variations on the filters and save them for re-use. Images can be shared from within the app via Twitter, Facebook, email, Tumblr and Flickr. The app has a handy split screen mode, so you can see before and after your changes, and of course, there is undo. %Gallery-123727%
Plasq brings Comic Life to the iPad
Comic Life, the popular Mac application that takes your photos and lets you turn them into a comic book, is now available on the iPad. The iPad version launched late last week and includes several features of its desktop counterpart, including templates, balloon controls and social network integration. The iPad app is optimized for the touchscreen with a user interface that lets you edit and move items using your fingertips. You can also use photos from your photo library or capture them on the fly using the iPad 2 cameras. Once you create a personalized comic book, you can share it via email or Facebook or wirelessly print a hard copy for archival purposes. If you use Comic Life in the classroom or other group settings, you will be able to drag and drop comics between iPads so that you can share your creation with your fellow classmates or friends. You can grab your copy of Comic Life for the iPad from the App Store for US$7.99. [Via The Loop]
Skitch leaps out of beta, 1.0 available now
Since it debuted in beta form at Macworld Expo in 2007, Skitch has become a favorite Mac utility for many, many people. It's great at grabbing screenshots, adding annotations and notes, and sharing them on Skitch.com, Flickr, Mobile.me or even your own server. We've waited three years for a 1.0 release while the beta kinks got worked out, and now the wait is over. Skitch has burst out of beta with a ton of new features and an entirely revamped web app geared toward social image sharing. It's aiming to be the Flickr of screenshots, with a full-featured desktop app to back that up. Most of the features that have made Skitch so popular are still free, including screen capture, image editing and annotation, and online sharing of images. If you want to go "Plus," you'll pay a yearly subscription fee of $14.95 (that's a discount right now; it will go up to $19.95 soon). The Plus subscription adds a range of new features, from the ability to grab full-length web page captures to additional editing capabilities. It will also remove ads from the online experience and provide more storage and options. One of the best features in the Plus package, in my opinion, is automatic copy of direct image links after upload. Yes, you can get that for free using something like Droplr or CloudApp, but when combined with all of the other features, it adds some value to the subscription price.
Adobe's Premiere Elements now available for Mac
Adobe has released Premiere Elements for the Mac. Premiere Elements is Adobe's consumer-level image and video editing software, and this is the first time a Mac version has been released. This release -- version 9 -- offers some pretty cool features, like optimized editing of HD video and those neat photo books (much like the ones you can create with iPhoto). They're a big hit with Grandma. Much more powerful technology is behind the Photomerge Style Match feature, which is smart enough to match the style of one photo with another. Let's say you've got a beautiful landscape shot with ominous clouds, sparkling water and an impressive foreground, all perfectly exposed. Another picture is completely washed out and would be better if it looked like the former. Photomerge Style Match does its best to make that happen. You can watch a short demo video here. There's much more to this software, so go and read the details. Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, which is also available now, and Premier Elements 9 are priced at US$99 each. You can buy both for $149. Mac and Windows versions of the applications are included.
