photo editing
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ThisLife wants to store and manage all your photos
ThisLife is an intriguing and capable photo system from the folks at Shutterfly. It's been in beta for a long time, and we last took a look 2 years ago when the service was by invitation only. ThisLife is an end-to-end photo manager. It gathers photos from your local computer, cell phones, tablets, and any social services you are a part of. It uploads them in full resolution and then provides a web based portal and dedicated apps for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. ThisLife automatically uploads in the background on iOS, and you can tell it to only upload when you are on Wi-Fi if you are watching your data use. On a Mac, there is an auto uploader that watches what is going into iPhoto and uploads images in the background, or you can do it all manually. You can also point the uploader to folders on your Mac and upload those. Families can have sharing, so all photos from all devices can be uploaded into a large pool -- or not -- as the user wants. Like iPhoto, you can tag the photos with locations and people names, and you can rotate, crop or delete individual photos or groups of photos. There are no other editing tools, so don't expect filters and some of the other tools iPhoto provides. On the web, or using the iOS app you get views of your library, people, places, stories, and a find function. Stories are photos grouped by theme. I tried the app on my iPad, and also uploaded about 2,000 photos from my laptop. Everything went smoothly. When I uploaded duplicates, the ThisLife software figured that out and only uploaded the highest resolution photo. Getting photos back is a breeze: any photo in the collection can be downloaded in full resolution to your desktop, laptop, or to your iOS device. The ThisLife system is not alone in the consumer space, but it does provide a more end-to-end solution. iPhoto limits you to Apple devices. Flickr and Google+ do photo editing and syncing, but they don't aggregate from other social networks. Once your photos are in the cloud, you can forward them to others, either singly or as a group. ThisLife supports adding annotations to photos, and you can even record a short voice clip. You can also order photo books, with the design and layout nicely automated by ThisLife. The automation and level of control with This Life is commendable. I never saw any bugs, and uploading was quite fast over my not-so-speedy DSL connection. Improvements? I can think of a few. There are small differences in the GUI between the Mac and iOS versions, so if you learn on one platform everything is not in the same place on another platform. While help is available using the web based portal, there is no help in the iOS apps. I'd also like to see the ability to change the size of the thumbnails in the web version. ThisLife only supports jpeg images, and a wide variety of video formats. Some people might be happier with TIF format storage or even RAW file uploads. Pricing is quite reasonable for the features offered. A free plan provides space for 2,500 photos. A $59.00 annual plan offers storage for 25,000 photos and video up to 100 GB. To sweeten the deal, you can get a photo book printed for free. A Premium service is $139.00 annually, providing storage for 100,000 photos and videos up to 400 GB. There is also a free photo book offered at the Premium level. Prices are quite fluid, but for a rough comparison SmugMug charges begin at $40.00 per year for unlimited storage, Flickr offers a terabyte for free, and Google+ is $120.00 annually for a terabyte. While all the services overlap, not all have all the features you may want, while ThisLife pretty much does everything. ThisLife is a powerful service for getting all your photos in one place. Vice President Erik Weitzman told me he was hoping to offer a reliable and easy to use service for families that have photos scattered over many computers and mobile devices. That goal is accomplished with ThisLife, and I think families and individuals will see this as a worthwhile solution. You can certainly try the free limited services to get a taste of how it all works, and of course the company is hoping you will find it attractive and sign up. I think many people will appreciate another option in the increasingly crowded field of photography management and storage.
Image-editing technique lets 2D objects get flipped, turned upside-down
Sure, Photoshop and other image editors are becoming increasingly good at transforming elements of a photo, but most of those tweaks are limited to two dimensions (resizing, rotating, repositioning, etc.). Researchers at Carnegie Mellon are pushing into the third dimension, using a technique that compares the 2D objects in a regular photo with 3D models freely available online. The result? The ability to manipulate part of photo as if it were a real, three-dimensional object, even exposing angles and sides that weren't visible in the original image.
Effects Studio for iOS takes photo effects to the max
There are so many apps for editing and adding special effects that it's pretty hard to keep track of them all. I've reviewed so many that they can become a misty blur. Effects Studio (US$0.99) takes adding effects to your photos way beyond where most apps go but still manages to offer the basics, so it does stand out from the crowd. You get the expected filters, including all sorts of wild colors and polarization effects, as well as common adjustments of luminosity, color and contrast. There are focus and blur tools, as well as tone and curve tools. Where Effects Studio steps up with something beyond the basics is additions like horror masks and hair pieces. Now I realize most people won't want to add grotesque teeth to their photos of family and friends, but Effects Studio does this in such a way that it doesn't look like something pasted on a photo. You can re-size and blend the effect onto your image, so it looks as 'natural' as something like this can look. There are 30 frames to choose from, and most generate masks so the frames can be more ornate than a simple rectangle. A resize command lets you change the size of your photo to any of several pre-sets, or to a custom size that can be upscaled or downscaled from your original. There are brushes for adding to your photo, in addition to text and cropping tools. Effects Studio seems to work both ends of the editing spectrum. There are pro tools like curves, while there are also some wild effects that can make your images pretty bizarre. Effects Studio is a nice package for $0.99, and it only requires iOS 6 or later. It's not a universal app, and it should be. It will work on any iOS device, but not at native screen resolution on iPads.
Truefilm: Capable photo editor for iOS with unique features
I am always on the prowl for something a little different in a photo editor, and Truefilm (US$0.99) meets the requirements with a comprehensive suite of tools at a low price. The emphasis in this app is on making changes quickly and having a complete ability to go back and try things again. There are the usual adjustments for photos, but they go deeper than a lot of editors. You can play with color temperature and balance, there is an effective clarity tool for sharpening, selective blur and a patch tool for removing blemishes. The latter isn't something you usually see in an iOS editor. Crop tools are one tap away in a variety of aspect ratios and you can create your own cropping shapes. Truefilm provides a wide variety of frames and some useful filters that are subtle rather than garish. There are also some black and white transformations. Text can be added with various colors and levels of transparency. I think one of the best thought-out tools is the history view. It's a bit like Apple's Cover Flow; you see a series of stacked images that represent each saved edit to your image. You can roll the history back and forth, then tap on the edit you want to preserve. This is far more useful than endless undos. No app is perfect, and that's the case with Truefilm. I'd like to see curves added, a tool that digital photo editors use all the time. Also, I'd like to see some more tools for blurring. The way the app works now, you use the clarity tool and slide it to negative numbers, but I'd prefer a dedicated global blurring tool that supports gaussian, lens blur and other forms of modifying the image. Truefilm does have a useful smoothing tool, but I think that is more useful for portraits. All in all, Truefilm packs some excellent tools in a $0.99 app. It's not trying to offer 200 filters that you will never use; instead, it offers about 20 that are really useful. The face retouching tools are something I don't see on a lot of general editing apps, and the History View is unique and useful. I like Truefilm and the price is reasonable. I'm adding it to my suite of editing tools. Truefilm is not a universal app, but will work scaled up on an iPad. It requires iOS 7 or later, and it ran smoothly in iOS 8 beta 4 during my testing. I don't expect it to have any issues with Truefilm when the iOS upgrade hits this fall.
Instagram for iOS adds extensive new editing tools
Whether you use it to tirelessly document your meals or make your friends jealous of your vacations, Instagram is probably the go-to app for photo sharing. Thanks to its latest update, your photos will look better than ever, even if you can't stage a decent shot. Previously Instagram featured a small number of filters and a limited amount of post-filter effects like blurring, borders, and straightening. Now all of the app's editing features are getting an upgrade. When you access one of the app's standard filters now, simply double tap on the filter's icon to adjust the strength of the filter effects. This is a major change from the app's previous "one tone fits all" approach to filtering. Next up, there are ten new tools for improving the look of your photos that can be used with or without the filters. These new tools are accessed by clicking a new wrench icon that appears in the top right of the filtering menus. Warmth and Saturation controls will help you keep the colors in your photos rich, while adjusting lights and darks in your images has never been easier thanks to Brightness, Contrast, Highlights, and Shadows. The final new tool is a much needed Sharpen option. You can find the new and improved Instagram right now in the iOS store.
Lightroom mobile review: Adobe brings (most of) its digital darkroom to the iPad
Talk about timing. Almost as soon as I convinced myself I could use an iPad Air in my life, Microsoft and Adobe made my day with mobile versions of two of my most-used PC/Mac programs -- Office and Lightroom. Not long after Microsoft revealed an iPad version of Office, Adobe followed up with a tablet-friendly version of its popular Lightroom photo editor. Like Office for iPad, Lightroom mobile (its official name) is more workflow companion than PC replacement, letting photographers experiment with images from anywhere there's an internet connection before finalizing projects back at home base. With a number of solid photo editors already available for the iPad, though, the free-to-download Lightroom mobile needs to offer some unique advantages if Adobe hopes to lure folks into its subscription-based Creative Cloud service. Is the new app up to the task? I added it to my regular photo-editing workflow to find out.
TruHDR adds a Mac app after success on iOS
TruHDR is a really nice HDR (High Dynamic Range photography) app that has been around a long time for iOS. It improves on Apple's built-in implementation that lets you take pictures with much better dynamic range than a single shot can provide by using an algorithm to combine three photos taken at different exposures. Now, TruHDR is being offered at a bargain price for Mac users to try. At an introductory price of US$3.99 you can combine several exposures to produce a new image that gives you better shadow detail and avoids blown-out skies. TruHDR claims to be able to merge up to 100 images into one HDR image, and I tried with five and seven exposure bracketed images, which worked fine. Other similar HDR apps for Mac range in price from $29.00 to $100.00 and can only merge three to seven images. Of course, most photographers won't have a hundred images to combine, but it is good to see that feature exists if it's ever needed. The app is simple to use: click on import and select your images. They appear in a scrolling pane on the left of the app GUI. You can then do a simple merge if your shots were made from a stable tripod or a merge and align if you were shooting handheld and may have swayed a bit between exposures. When the images are combined, an edit panel shows up to let you adjust contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpness, tint and color temperature. There are also presets to render the image in various styles, including sepia tones and mono. I thought TruHDR worked quite well, and it is certainly one of the most reasonably priced HDR apps around for OS X. It doesn't have all the controls I would associate with HDR apps, like strength, tone-mapping or shadow detail, but I could get very nice looking images with the controls that are provided. The developer tells me those additional controls are coming in later updates. I tested some multiple bracketed RAW files from my recent trip to Monument Valley in Arizona, and was pleased with the results. Even though all my photos were taken on a tripod, the merge and align mode worked better at providing me with sharp final output. If you are serious about HDR, my app of choice is Photomatix, but it is almost a hundred dollars. If you've explored HDR on the iPhone and want to see what you can do from your DSLR images, TruHDR is an easy buy. There are a couple of rough edges in version 1, but judging from the success of TruHDR for iOS, I know the developer will continue to enhance and improve the program. While some of the other Mac apps offer more editing/rendering features, they are all more expensive, and it looks like TruHDR will get similar editing enhancements soon. TruHDR requires OS X 10.8 or later, and a 64-bit processor.
Blue Sky for iOS lets you visualize clearer air
Blue Sky is a free iOS app coming out of China, where skies are often gray and air pollution is often out of control. Of course, China isn't alone with that problem. Blue Sky is sponsored by the World Wildlife Federation and an advertising agency, Ogilvy and Mather, based in New York and Shanghai. Since it's Earth Day, I thought it might be appropriate to point out this little app. It's simple in concept and execution -- you take a photo or select one from your camera roll. With your finger, paint in a bluer sky on the photo you've loaded. It's easier if you have a pretty flat horizon. The app doesn't let you magnify your photo to work in tight places, and there is one and only one brush size. The app simply serves as an environmental reminder to let you visualize cleaner and clearer skies. The app also lets you add your signature to a petition to state your preference about 'bringing back the blue'. Although the app was designed for a Chinese audience, it works just fine everywhere else. Doug Schiff, Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne China, said, "Many in China feel only the government can improve the worsening air conditions, but WWF wanted to encourage individuals to think up and support individual initiatives, and this app is a step in that direction." Blue Sky isn't a sophisticated photo editor by any means. But it packs a little message, and you can certainly do some simple editing to improve your images of cloudy or polluted skies. The app is not universal, and requires iOS 6.1 or later. It is optimized for the iPhone 5.
Adobe releases Lightroom Mobile for iPad today
Lots of Adobe pro users and serious photographers will be thrilled with this news: as of today, you can download Lightroom Mobile for iPad from the iOS App Store. It syncs with Lightroom on your desktop or laptop, and while not meant to be a replacement for the Mac app, it does allow photographers to view, edit, and then update their images on their remote computers. The app requires an internet connection, and it comes free with any Creative Cloud Subscription. That's the only way to get it. After downloading the app, you enter your Adobe credentials, and you are on your way. If you have non-Creative Cloud versions of Photoshop or Lightroom, the iPad app is not going to work. Adobe Lightroom mobile consists of three components: Lightroom for iPad, Lightroom 5 on your desktop, and the Lightroom mobile service. The Lightroom mobile service handles sync between Lightroom on your iPad and Lightroom 5 on your desktop. Features include: • Seamless sync with Lightroom 5. Edit and organize your images anywhere, anytime using your iPad or iPhone. Adobe Lightroom Mobile automatically syncs your work with Lightroom 5 on your desktop. • From snapshots to raw. Edit everything from smartphone photos to raw images from DSLRs using Smart Previews. Adobe Lightroom Mobile can handle virtually any image format. • Camera roll compatible. Import images from your iPhone or iPad camera roll straight into your Lightroom catalog. Enhance them using familiar and powerful Lightroom tools. Share them online quickly and easily. • Share edited images to your social networks. Share directly from Lightroom on your mobile device. • Showcase your images. Present photos with built-in slideshow. • View your images online at Lightroom.Adobe.com The Mac version of Lightroom has been updated to version 5.4 to allow the syncing. This is a bold step by Adobe, and it is a recognition of how important mobile computing has become. The company says an Android version would follow, but no timeframe was mentioned. There was no word about an iPhone version, which due to screen size would not be very practical. Adobe is also not commenting on any future Windows tablet versions. I'll have a complete review of Lightoom Mobile for iPad when I've had a chance to put it through its paces. Adobe is offering a free 30-day trial of the Mac and PC versions of Lightroom at http://www.adobe.com/go/trylightroom. Lightroom Mobile requires iOS 7 or later. It works with all versions of the iPad and iPad mini with the exception of the original iPad.
Prism for iOS is a new unique filter based editor for your photos
Prism (U.S. $2.99) takes a unique spin on applying photo filters. You load an image, and the app checks to see what colors make up your photo. It then displays a filter wheel, and as you move around the outer edge and explore the central parts of the wheel you will see a variety of effects. Some are subtle, others are pretty wacky. Of course, the ultimate filter selection is up to you. Prism also lets you engage the iPhone camera and snap away with filters applied. There isn't a help menu, but you can view how it all works in an online video. I would put the app in the "you figure it out by exploring" category. There's nothing wrong with that, but some people might be frustrated. Even selecting photos isn't exactly standard. When you start, the latest item in your camera roll appears. You can swipe to the next one, or use the wheel to rapidly move in your library. The app really is a clever way of applying filters, and you'll get a lot of ideas exploring the many permutations offered. Prism provides 14 color-based filter groups and 128 filters. Your images are saved at full resolution. Prism is a great way to explore the possibilities in each photo you take. You'll have to invest some time learning how the app works, but with that investment comes the power to create some really expressive images. Prism is not a universal app, so it's best for the iPhone or iPod touch. It requires iOS 7.0 or greater, and it's optimized for the iPhone 5.
Bazaart for iOS can help you make some memorable photo collages
When I think of collages, I think of apps that allow me to arrange individual photos into a new composition. Bazaart (free) does something else. You can take individual elements from photos and make a new photo from those parts. Usually, this is very difficult because removing an element from a background can be difficult. Even Photoshop isn't perfect at this, but it does provide tools that make it easier. Bazaart is the best I've seen at this task. I took a picture I had of my parrot, tapped on him, and Bazaart figured out how to grab the image, then let me put it in the foreground of an image from the desert. See the slide show below for the result. It was quick, clean and easy, and if you need to manually clean things up you can do that too. The app also allows you to add text, and control the transparency of your picture elements. You can also just as easily remove a background and replace it with something else, leaving the foreground intact. Since the app has a social element, you can explore the photos of other people. When you are done, save your image to your camera roll, email it, or send to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, What's App or Pinterest. The app has some videos that explain how it works. A couple of notes. To use the app you need a free account. That is what gives you the 'social' aspect. When you save an image, the app defaults to sharing. You may not want your images shared with other Bazaart users, so turn it off for images that you don't want published.I think the app should default to private. Bazaart has an accessible privacy policy, so they won't be selling your information to others. Expect to see some newsletters from them regarding the app, but those can be unsubscribed to. Bazaart will stimulate your creativity and make some usually hard photo editing functions quite easy. The app is universal, requires iOS 7 and it is optimized for the iPhone 5. Bazaart offers some additional fonts as an in-app purchase, but there is a nice free selection.
Photo Grid Collage Maker is capable and free
Photo Grid is a free (ad supported) app with lots of options for creating collages, as well as video slide shows accompanied by music. You can select the aspect ratio for the photos, and choose from more than 300 layouts. The layouts that appear depend upon how many photos you have. You can also select background colors, frames, text, and stickers. Your finished collage can be shared with the various social networks, emailed, or saved to your camera roll. I have used the app on several of my pictures, and find it straightforward. You point the app to your photo roll, select the photos you want to use, and the rest is pretty obvious, with controls along the bottom of the screen. There is also a feature that lets you create videos with photos. There's isn't a lot of flexibility there. Once your photos are selected, you can't change the order. And there are no dissolves between photos, which I think is a requirement for a nice looking slide show. The photos just cut from one to another. You can add music easily, and the app takes care of the timings and conforms the music to your slide show duration. Photo Grid works well and it is a universal app that costs nothing. It does have ads, and they can be distracting. I pressed a 'next' button on screen, and got more ads, when I thought I was advancing to the next screen of the program. Even with my caveats, Photo Grid has a wealth of features at an appealing price of free. I still like Diptic as a paid app for collage creation, but the creators of that app are getting carried away with too many in-app purchases. Photo Grid requires iOS 6 or later to run and it is optimized for the iPhone 5.
Almighty Photo is a slick photo album and editor for iOS
I originally thought Almighty Photo (US$2.99) was another me-too photo editor, but quickly saw that the app was much more than that. It's an innovative and powerful approach to photo management and editing. The app is designed to browse and organize your photo libraries. It never touches the originals, but gives you a new way to display and make sense of your photos. Almighty Photo is a great app for people who have lots of photos on their iOS devices. The app automatically sorts your photos by day, month, year, lenses or tags. Like the native photo library in iOS 7, it also separates your photos and videos. Almighty Photo can automatically put your images in frames, and create nice collages. Of course, you can control the look if you'd like. Live filters, which work on photos and videos, will apply filters without changing your originals. Photos can be auto-rotated for the best fit to your screen, and partial metadata can be displayed. The app also features slideshows, and photos can be squared for Instagram sharing. There is a built-in tutorial when you first launch Almighty Photo, but most users won't need it if they are willing to explore the app. In use, Almighty Photo is quick and intuitive. The slideshow option is very complete -- you pick your photos, an amount of time to keep each visible on the screen, a transition effect and music from your library. My only complaint? I wish the slideshows could be exported as a movie to share with others. One thing to watch out for is the "save to camera roll" function. When you select share, it's on a second page and you may not notice that you have to swipe to see more options. If Almighty Photo interests you, there is a free "lite" version, but the full version is reasonably priced and does not burden you with optional in-app purchases. I'm impressed with Almighty Photo, which brings a fresh approach to organizing and editing photos. The app requires iOS 6 or later, and is optimized for the iPhone 5. It's not a universal app, and I'd love to see an iPad-enabled version.
OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 8 Review
Perfect Photo Suite 8 from OnOne Software is a robust photo editing suite that allows you to customize your photos in ways only limited by your imagination. This update to version 7 hit the stores in November, 2013 and now is up to version 8.1. It is well worth your attention and dollars. Some of the updates in version 8 include a new content-aware Perfect Eraser, and a Perfect Enhance module that offers preset filters. These filters let you auto correct your levels and colors, which acts a white balance tool, some preset filter enhancements or you can add your own presets. Everything is adjustable with simple tools in the right sidebar. A picture Browser is new as is some new interesting effects, which you can add to images in a batch. Why a Suite When you get home and offload your photographs from your camera there is often a disconnect. I don't mean physical connections between your computer and camera, but the disconnect from what you remember shooting and what you see on screen. Cameras cannot always capture the color, intensity, or range of light we see in real life. This is why there are so many apps available to edit your precious memories. There are hundreds of apps available now to help you bring out your inner Ansel Adams, but most come with presets that are not adjustable. If you want the ability to tweak the finer points of your image or use customizable editing presets, than you may find that the Perfect Photo Suite 8 meets all your needs. It can almost replace Photoshop and Lightroom, if Adobe's new software rental program isn't to your liking. Modules I could easily write 1000 words on each module available in Perfect Photo Suite 8, but I'll spare you with an overview and some example shots. There are eight modules in which you can apply different kinds of edits. The modules are Browser, Layers, Enhance, Portrait, Effects, B&W (black and white), Mask, and Resize. You can open the whole Suite or individual modules as a stand-alone product or as a plug-in to Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, or Photoshop Elements. Through Lightroom you will not have access to Perfect Mask or Perfect Layers, because Lightroom does not support layers. If you choose the whole suite any module is available to use, whereas if you choose just one plug-in module, only that plug-in is available in that editing session. You can open any image stored on any device, including cloud storage from within the PhotoSuite. This is a great time saver and a useful new feature. The Browser lets you use a slider to make the previews bigger and includes an Info box that lets you see some basic information about the shot, including some EXIF data, such as ISO, F-stop, and color space. You can sort the files by Name or Date Modified. I wish they would add a list view though, because sometimes it is easier to choose a shot from a list if you know the name of the shot you seek. When you open the Suite, the Browse or Layers module opens, depending on how you set the Preferences. The Layers module lets you crop, edit, blend, mask, clone, retouch and blend without using any of the available filters. Many of the edits you might apply in Photoshop or Lightroom are available in the Layers, Enhance, or Effects module. Your screen layout in those three modules presents filters and presets on the left, your photo in the middle and customizable tools on the right. When filters show on the left, other tools appear to the right of them. You can see many of the options available in the Effects module in the screen shot below If you wanted to test different kinds of edits on one of your photos, it would take you hours in Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture. In Perfect Photo Suite 8 you can click through the filters so quickly that you can preview hundreds of different edits in minutes. As you can see on the right in the screen shot above, once you find a filter you like, you can customize it in a variety of ways. Features In Action The new content-aware Perfect Eraser tool works well and I had less trouble learning to use it than the one in Photoshop. The accompanying Perfect Brush check box to constrain painting in or out an effect doesn't always work perfectly, but if you work at 100% you can catch the little errors. There are so many filters in the Effects module that it's hard to pick out the newest ones. I did find that the Glow, Bleach Bypass, and Grunge looks added some interesting effects when applied selectively. You can see my silo and barn shot in which I used the Perfect Eraser and a combination of filters in the slide show below. Some sample filters appear below in my waterfall reflection photo (larger view appears in slide show). Version 8.1 lets you import your own backgrounds, borders, textures, and presets. A very useful tool that allows you to open a shot as a layer, so you can blend photos was also added to Lightroom and Aperture. The third update lets you reset the slider tool with a double-click on its label. You can also create Photoshop actions that include the Suite plug-ins in the action. The Resize Module is not new, but I had not used it previously. I tested it with a photo shot with a 2.1 megapixel digital camera twelve years ago and upsized it. I am impressed with the result and can finally print an 8 x 10 version of the photo. You can see the original on the left and a zoomed-in shot of the detail in the upsized version in this New York moment below. Preferences As with all programs, a walk through the Preferences is a good starting point. General, Lightroom Plug-ins specific, and Performance options tabs are available through the Perfect Photo Suite 8 application itself. You can set a particular color space for new files, whether to open the product in Browse or Layers, and customize your background. When you use the File menu - Plug-in extras from Lightroom, it creates a copy of your file. These prefs let you set the file type, color space, bit depth and resolution of that copy. The Performance tab lets you set Memory Usage and VRAM Usage, which helps avoid lags and the wait cursor that was so prevalent in previous versions of the Suite. I actually bought a faster iMac with extra video RAM due to the lag I experienced with Perfect Photo Suite 6 and 7. That lag is gone from version 8.x unless you're working on a very large file. Small Annoyances I still had some trouble when opening a RAW file that I'd edited in Photo Suite 8 and saved as a Photoshop PSD file. In a couple of cases the layers did not show up and I couldn't switch into any other module. My workaround included making Photoshop edits and crop, then saving the file and reopening it in Perfect Photo Suite through the Photoshop Automate command, and then adding a vignette. Although I could see the options in the left pane in which you choose the type of vignette, the previews did not appear on my edited shot. I picked one and hit Apply anyway and the vignette did appear in the Photoshop file. A bit odd. (You can see this Herring Gull shot in the slideshow below.) I quit everything and did it all again and it worked fine, which probably means my RAM cache was full and caused the problem. My iMac has 16 GB of RAM and I guess that is just not enough when complex editing is applied. I had to restart the Suite after editing about five shots to clear out my cache. If you pass a file back and forth between Photoshop and Photo Suite 8, you cannot view the Photoshop created layers. The Suite only gives you the option to view a merged composite of the image. That kind of defeats the purpose of saving layered files. You need to be careful when applying sharpening, contrast, and some masking techniques. While the edits may look ok when fit in frame, you need to remember to zoom in 100% to check for noise and artifacts. In a few cases the shot looked ok in the Suite, but in Photoshop the noise was too visible to print. You can see this problem in my Herring Gull face below. The Suite introduced a halo and noise when I used the default dynamic contrast, but it wasn't until I blew it up to 200% that I noticed the problem. I wasn't able to adjust this filter upon reopening the .PSD file and had to re-edit it. One feature I would like to see added is when edits are applied that the layers specified which filter was used, but the layers only designate the module used. Options to Buy Prices vary according to your needs. You can buy the Premium Edition of Perfect Photo Suite 8 for US$179.95, that will eat up over 1/2 gigabyte of hard drive space. It includes the stand-alone app and the plug-ins. The standard edition is $79.95 and only works as a stand-alone photo editor. The plug-ins for Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, or Aperture also include the stand-alone edition for $129.95. If you own more than one of these programs, I recommend you buy the whole shebang. The option to view OnOne's introductory videos that appears after you install it is recommended because there are a variety of ways you can launch the product(s). The stand-alone app is not installed in your Dock or Launchpad by default. Generally, I do not do much intensive editing of my photos, so using some of the tools in Perfect Photo Suite 8 were a challenge for me. I used the Premium Edition of Perfect Photo Suite 8.1 for this review. There are just so many tools and options in the Suite that I recommend you watch some of their video tutorials or sign up for one of their many free webinars. I found these very helpful. They often cover aspects of good photography, which is fun too. In addition, OnOne offers free sets of new presets periodically, which I've used for great effects. Overall, I enjoyed using Photo Suite 8 and will go back over more old shots to see what new life I can breathe into them with some of the interesting filters offered. This product is totally worth the price of admission. In the slide show below, the original photo appears on the left and the edited photo is on the right with the exception of the silo and barn. The unedited RAW file is first and the Perfect Photo Suite edited file is second.
Prettify makes your photos prettier with a couple of clicks
There are two types of iOS photo editors: the type that lets you fiddle and adjust images in very precise increments, and the other type that provides a way to enhance your photos with a minimum of clicks. Prettify (free with some in-app options) belongs to the latter category, and it does its job with flair and ease. Open a photo, click enhance and you get Hi-Def, Illuminate and Color Fix options. Each enhances the image in a different way: Hi-Def appears to adjust curves and saturation; Illuminate adjusts brightness and contrast; and Color Fix rebalances the color. Each fix can be used separately or in an additive way with another fix. Beyond those fixes there are many Instagram-like filters. There's also a tool to defocus or sharpen selectively, and there are the standard cropping and saturation tools. Portraits can be retouched with a teeth-whitening filter, red-eye removal and a blemish eliminator. The app does a nice job at every task and is quite attractive, with beautiful gradient backgrounds and very contemporary icons. The app is free, and I saw the occasional advertisement. An in-app purchase of US$1.99 removes the ads if they annoy you.There are other in-app purchases for adding text, frames and stickers to your photos, but many iOS photographers will most likely have other options for those effects and can avoid the purchases. Prettify uses the tried-and-true Aviary photo editor, and then adds some additional tricks of its own. It is an excellent quick-and-dirty photo editor, and it runs Aviary in a really good-looking wrapper. If you are looking for something easy, attractive and free to make a good iOS photo great, Prettify is worth a download. Prettify requires iOS 7 or later. It's not a universal app, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5.
The Phoenix Photo Editor is a quick and powerful app for iPhone
The Phoenix Photo Editor joins a crowded field of photo editors for iOS, but it's free and has a wide selection of features. Of course the app has the usual filters and tools for cropping and saturation. It also adds high-end features like lighting effects, vignettes, selective blur and a nice variety of frames. One sign of a good app is not needing help when first exploring it, and the Phoenix Photo Editor lets you get right to work without needing pages and pages of explanations. Many photo editors skimp on undo features, and this app lets you go all the way back to where you started, a step at a time. Metadata is preserved when images are edited, but you can elect to add or edit geolocation information, which is nice. Images do not save in full resolution. On the iPhone 5s, which has a resolution of 3,264 x 2,448, images save at 3,000 x 3,000. Anything with a higher resolution will save at that size. Although the app is free, there are 10 in-app purchase packs at US$0.99 each. I didn't find any of them absolutely necessary, but I thought some of the lens flare effects might be worth it for some photographers. I felt I could do a good job of editing any photo from the free version. I especially liked the color splash tool, which lets you selectively add or subtract color from an image. The effect can and has been overdone, but when used artistically, it can really make a photo quite striking. There are plenty of ways to share photos, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr and Google+. Of course you can save to your camera roll and go anywhere from there. I'm still partial to Snapseed (free) for photo editing on my iPhone and iPad, but the Phoenix Photo Editor brings quite a few tools Snapseed does not offer. Still, Snapseed has more powerful color- and contrast-enhancing tools. The combination of the Phoenix Photo Editor and Snapseed would be a powerful one, and might be all the serious iPhone photographer needs, but everyone has their likes and dislikes, and there are hundreds of worthy editors being offered. The Phoenix Photo Editor is not a universal app, which is a shame, but the developer tells me the iPad version is ready and awaiting Apple approval. The app requires iOS 6 or greater, and it's optimized for the iPhone 5.
Perfectly Clear for iOS corrects your photos with a tap or two
Almost every owner of an iPhone is taking pictures all the time, but most of us won't take the time to improve them after the fact. Apple provides some rudimentary tools for editing, and there are tools ranging from quick-and-easy to almost Photoshop-like in their power and complexity. I'll put Perfectly Clear (US$2.99) in the quick-and-easy department, and add effective as well. You can take a photo from within the app, or open an image you have already taken. The app automatically applies some fixes, and gives you a sliding bar so you can see the before and after. Some additional features like "fix dark" and "fix tint" can be added, and there is a "beautify" button for faces. If you want to do even more, there's even a "tweak" control, that brings up additional fixes for things like sharpening, noise removal, eye enhance, teeth whiten and skin smoothing. There are complete explanations of the filters on the developer's website. I tried the app on a variety of photos, and in general the app improved upon the original unretouched images. Usually I added a few more enhancements, which takes away a bit from the "one touch" simplicity, but I appreciated the ability to make more changes. The app seems very careful to not overdo the editing. I couldn't drive exposure into clipping, and the sharpening controls were subtle without adding noise to the image. There was even a "de-purple" filter that removes the purple lens flare that occurs if you take a photo with the sun just off to one side. One thing missing from the app is the ability to undo the last change. You can go back and start again, but if you are doing multiple enhancements, you can't just take the last one off. That seems an odd thing to leave out given the overall power of the app. Perfectly Clear is a good app, and it gets good reviews from users. With a useful undo command, Pefectly Clear would be perfect. Perfectly Clear is a universal app, and it requires iOS 7 or later. It's optimized for the iPhone 5.
Review: Focus 2 for Mac is a worthwhile app for non-Photoshop users
Focus 2 (US$ 11.99) is a useful Mac photography app that probably does the opposite of what you might think from its name. The app isn't designed to focus your images, but rather de-focus them so you can direct the eye to the portions of the photo that are really important. The app simulates what special lenses can do on your camera, but with Focus 2, it's possible to endlessly adjust and refine focus effects rather than just get one chance with a single photograph or two. You start by dragging a photo into the app, and then selecting from macro, tilt-shift, portrait, nature or architecture tools. You can move and rotate the focus point around to get the effect you want, straighten and crop images, add vignettes and adjust aspect ratio. There is also a one-click enhancement feature that changes contrast and saturation to improve some photos. The app works just fine. I actually found more photos in my collection were enhanced by using Focus 2 than I expected. Photos can be sent directly from Focus 2 to Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom and iPhoto. Focus 2 supports RAW files, and has been updated for Mavericks. Changes of focus are fast, and tapping the space bar on your keyboard reverts to the original image. In portrait mode, face recognition helps the placement of the focus points. All in all, this is an impressive app. The well-skilled Photoshop user has other ways to achieve these effects, but applying them is a lot easier in Focus 2 than going through the multi-step methods required with Photoshop. Another app with a similar, but not as extensive, feature set is Focus Pro at $4.99. I think Focus 2 wins a comparison simply by having more editing tools and flexibility. The tested version is scheduled for release this week. It's a performance update from the original release, and also adds monochrome filtering and some additional realism to the blur effects. Focus 2 requires OS X 10.7 or later and a 64-bit processor.
iColorama for iOS can artistically enhance your photos
iColorama is a photo-colorizing app on steroids. It has a vast array of features, from basic editing like saturation, cropping and editing, to all kinds of color and distortion effects. The app comes in two versions, one for iPad (US$2.99) and one for iPhone ($1.99). I did most of my exploring on the iPhone version. Although there are tutorials available, the app is straightforward. Load or take a photo, then get to work. Options scroll across the top of the screen, and when you select a process, you will see more options and presets at the lower right. If you don't like the presets, there are all sorts of manual settings. Photo editing can be subtle or pushed to the limit. Every user will find something that they like. You can make infinite changes and tapping on a new effect will wipe the old one until you hit the "apply" button. Then you can send your creation out via the usual social networks, email or save it to the camera roll. I've seen a lot of filtering and editing tools, but I have to say iColorama has some of the most varied and powerful effects I've encountered in an app. These effects aren't for every photo, and it is easy to go overboard, but what is overboard for one person is subtle for another. iColorama operated smoothly with no glitches. It's a handy tool to have in your photo-editing folder. The apps require iOS 5.1 or greater. The iPhone version is optimized for the iPhone 5.
Review: Photo Studio HD for iOS
I had high hopes for Photo Studio HD, a universal US$1.99 app that provides an extremely wide selection of tools to edit and enhance photos. The problem is, I really couldn't import any pictures and truly improve them using the app. The issues started when I opened a landscape image with the result that it lost most of its resolution and looked blurry and blocky. Not good for an app that calls itself Photo Studio HD. In addition, the app's editing tools are difficult to launch. When you swipe across the scrolling list, sometimes a tool near your finger opens, instead of the expected movement to the next tool. The sharpen tool made my picture look much worse. Few of the tools are subtle, and they can give you a garish image whether you like it or not. Even selecting frames was an odd experience. Most of the frames are garish and over the top. I was looking for a simple white frame and a matte, but couldn't really find something I liked. Some aspects of the UI are confusing. If I want to undo an action, for example, the app sometimes offers a yes/no option, other times it has a button marked 'proceed'. It's not clear if that means proceed with the undo, or proceed with the effect. Contrast that with the free Snapseed app, which was able to improve almost any photo I threw at it, with no loss of resolution or quality. The app does have extensive help, which links to YouTube videos showing the filters and effects in action, but generally, I didn't like any of the effects. Worse, when I clicked the instructional video on saving a photo, it played a video designed for another app! The lighting commands just make my photo dark. Really dark. Saving is no picnic either. There are a lot of export options, including most of the social services and email, but there is no option I could find to just save to the camera roll. The app advertises a 'quick save to camera roll' feature but I could not locate it. An option marked 'gallery' saves a thumbnail, or a 360 x 480 pixel image. That's nowhere close to my original resolution. The app crashed on me a few times while opening an image, which just added to my frustration. There's a kernel of a good idea with Photo Studio, but the execution seems flawed. With all the creative options and filters, this should be a great app. But the amount of creative control you could have is thwarted by filters that can't be throttled back lack subtelty. Performance is also pretty slow on my 3rd generation iPad, but was much better on my iPhone 5s. Photo Studio HD requires iOS 6 and is optimized for the iPhone 5. I'll keep an eye on this app to see if it improves, but at this point I think there are many better paid and free options for iOS photographers.
