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Excerpted from Digital
Camera Solutions
(Reprinted with permission)
by Gregory Georges
First,
what is a digital image editor? Simply defined, it is a software
application that enables you to edit a digital image on a pixel-by-pixel basis
to enhance, alter, or transform it into the image that you want it to be. The
number and kinds of things that can be done to an image, as you will see, are
virtually endless. Most of this digital transformation occurs as a byproduct of
running complex mathematical algorithms on the digital image.
One of the major differences between various applications for digitally manipulating images is the amount of control, or lack of control, they provide to the user. To some degree, the more control provided to the user, the more difficult the application can be to learn how to use. The corollary: Applications with less control are generally easier to learn how to use, but they are less capable of doing as much as those that provide more control. Thus, the tradeoff you must consider is the classic case of ease-of-use versus more powerful capabilities.
Let's now look at a few image editors! The following list should not be considered to be a complete list of competitive products, nor should it be viewed as a product evaluation or review - rather, it is a list of applications widely recognized to perform well and produce excellent results. The purpose of the list is to show the kinds of products that you can purchase and the wide range of features that these products offer. We'll review applications in the following four categories:
If you intend to become a master of illusion and create digital masterpieces, you need powerful tools as well as expertise. The three products in this first group offer you as much power as you will find in any product. These are the "best of the best."
Adobe's Photoshop 5.5 Photoshop is unquestionably the professional image editor's choice. It is the best of all the image editors. It is also the most expensive and the most difficult to learn how to use. Adobe assumes that Photoshop's users are professionals and, therefore, offers few presets for instant success. Expect both a steep learning curve and the best possible results from this.
Adobe also offers Adobe Photoshop Limited Edition (Photoshop LE), a "lite" version with a street price of under $100. To learn more about this product and how it differs from Photoshop, visit the Adobe Web site at www.adobe.com/products/photoshople/comparison.html.
Corel's PHOTO-PAlNT 9 PHOTO-PAINT 9 is a powerful image editing and painting application. It also comes with a media asset management tool, textures, 1,500 photos, 1,200 clip-art images, 1,500 floating objects, digital water marking, morphine software, and more. Besides getting all of these extra goodies, PHOTO-PAINT 9 itself offers the most feature-rich editor in this category, with many presets that enable you to get good results - quickly.
MetaCreations' Painter 6 Painter 6 is known for its capability to faithfully capture the subtleties of an artist's brush strokes and translate them to print or the Web. Painter's Natural-Media digital technology faith fully recreates traditional artists' mediums in unlimited quantities, such as oils and acrylics, airbrushes, colored pencils, chalk, charcoals, crayons, and felt pens, combined with hundreds of papers, patterns, and textures. Additionally, it offers most of the capabilities found in Adobe's Photoshop, as well as techniques not offered by Photoshop. For those with a fine-art background, this tool will both amaze and please you unlike almost any other digital tool on the market. For some of the painting features, a digital tablet is desirable.
You might now wonder which of these three editors is right for you. If you have a limited budget, you might want to consider buying PHOTO PAINT 9 or Painter 6, as Photoshop has a price around $600. PHOTOPAINT 9 can be purchased for $300 and Painter 6 for about $400. If you are artistically inclined, Painter 6 is an excellent choice. PHOTO-PAINT 9 is a good mix of the two products. If cost is not a consideration, then get more than just one, as many professionals do.
This category of tools offers a mixture of the power of the more professional tools and the ease-of-use of the consumer tools. Each of these products offers strong Internet capabilities as well as standard digital image editing features. With a moderate amount of skill, you can achieve excellent results with little effort and in a short amount of time.
Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 6 Arguably one of the best values in terms of features for the money, Paint Shop Pro 6 is a complete solution for creating Web graphics and enhancing digital images. It also comes with an excellent animation tool and a good image browser. This is a good choice for almost any digital image-editing task, especially if the images will eventually be used on a Web page.
MGI Software's PhotoSuite III, Platinum Edition A wide range of powerful features are accessible from an exceptionally clean interface with PhotoSuite. It makes it easy to get, prepare, compose, organize, share, and print photos. Additionally, it offers image management, digital image stitching, and PhotoTapestry features, as well as the capability to create Web pages complete with thumbnails that contain links to full-size images.
Microsoft's PhotoDraw 2000 PhotoDraw combines powerful illustration and photo editing in one easy to-use program that works like Microsoft Office. If you are not a graphic designer, and you know what you want to create, this project-oriented application might be perfect for you. It comes with more than 300 templates to help you get started quickly on business cards, logos, brochures, Web banners, and more.
Ulead Systems' PhotoImpact 5 PhotoImpact is far more than an image editor - it offers one of the most useful image album tools, Web graphics tools that are considered by some to be the best, and an extensive range of image editing capabilities. Web designers and business users will find the vast number of presets useful for getting projects completed speedily.
All five of the products in this category are both fun to use and very simple to use. The strength of this product group is that users do not have to understand fundamental image editing concepts. They just have to be able to follow logical steps and select the results that they want from automatically generated previews or presets.
MGI Software's PhotoSuite III, Platinum Edition Unquestionably, PhotoSuite III is one of the most highly capable products in this category so much so that it can be of tremendous use for advanced consumers and business users, as noted in the preceding section.
Streetwise Software's Professor Franklin's Instant Photo Artist Photo Artist lets you select from one of many predetermined art styles and then paint right over your photos, enabling you to transform them into works of art. After you complete your painting, you can use templates to turn it into a greeting card, a T-shirt, an invitation, a flyer, or any other useful project. For the occasional artist, this is a cool product.
Streetwise Software's Professor Franklin's Instant Photo Effects This is a wonderfully simple and capable product that produces excellent results. If you want a point-and-click application that does all the work for you, this is a good choice.
Ulead Photo Express Platinum 2000 What a bargain! You get an image cataloging tool, a calendar maker, a Web studio, more than 500 project templates, interactive 360-degree or wide-angle panorama capabilities, a photo assistant, and more than 6,000 graphic elements for your projects. A great interface makes this an excellent product and one that is easy to use.
Xaos Tools' FlashBox With a little work, this innovative and unique product enables you to turn your digital photos into an endless variety of artistic creations that probably will be unlike work created with other products.
A plug-in is an application that has been designed to work seamlessly with a helper application, such as Adobe's Photoshop. While most of the plug-ins have been designed to work with Photoshop, an increasing number of them also work with MetaCreations' Painter, Corel's PHOTOPAINT, and Paint Shop Pro. There is also a trend to make these plug-ins work as standalone applications (in other words, without the help of an application such as Photoshop). If you are buying a plug-in, make sure that you understand what other applications (and specific versions) you might need to make them work properly.
Extensis PhotoFrame 2.0 This product enables you to interactively design border and edge effects in a multitude of combinations. A full-screen preview enables you to create great frames and excellent edges.
Extensis Intellihance Pro 4.0 Intellihance is a plug-in dedicated to image enhancement and color correction. With both automatic and manual controls, this product makes it as easy as possible to make your images look their best. It even offers special presets for digital cameras. You can fine-tune and compare different settings for fast, professional results by viewing up to twenty five setting combinations or multi-pane previews simultaneously (see Figure 6.1). If you can't fix an image with this plug-in, it can't be fixed.
Extensis Mask Pro 4.0 Mask Pro enables you to remove with precision and ease almost any 11 object from its background by using the Magic Brush, Magic Wand, Magic Pen, and Magic Fill tools (see Figure 6.2). Not only does this plug-in save an enormous amount of time, but it also produces cutout objects that will blend seamlessly into new backgrounds as if they were taken with the background picture. If you frequently need to cut out objects, and you use Photoshop you must have this tool.
Right Hemisphere's Deep Paint Although Deep Paint can be used as a standalone product, it was designed to complement Photoshop by adding artistic tools to Photoshop's powerful editing tools. This tool creates very distinctive work that is unlike work created by any other software, with the possible exception of MetaCreations' Painter 6.0. The Artistic Cloning feature enables you to transform digital images into rich oil paintings, delicate charcoals, or any one of many other media types. If you have artistic skills and a graphics tablet, you'll love this product.
Auto F/XAutoEye 1.0 This plug-in was designed to enhance and improve digital images. Significantly, it also can be used as a standalone product. Batch processing and drag-and-drop file launching capabilities make this an excellent product for production workflow.
Auto FIX Photo/Graphic Edges 4.0 Like AutoEye 1.0, this application works as a plug-in and as a standalone application. It creates awesome edge effects for images of any type. Multiple edge portfolios are available that contain thousands of edge effects. If you want edges on your images and you want the greatest control possible over your edge effects, this is the tool to use (see Figure 6.3).
Alien Skin Software's Eye Candy 3.0 Eye Candy is one of the leading special effects plug-ins, with twenty-one special effects, including Fire, Smoke, Antimatter, Chrome, Carve, Cutout, Drop Shadow, and Bevel filters.
Alien Skin Software's Xenofex 1.0 Xenofex offers 16 time-saving special effects filters for print, Web, or multimedia projects. This tool helps you create lightning, clouds, and stains. Other unique effects include Stamper, Constellation, Crumple, Origami, Rounded Rectangle, and Shower Door.
MetaCreations' KPT5 Pretty-darn-cool tools! Kai's Power Tools 5 is a collection of plug-in applications that includes ten plug-in tools, in addition to the original eighteen KPT3 filters. If you are the creative type and want to do something different with your images, then get KPT5. See Chapter 7, "Filtering for Special Effects," to see some work that was created with a few of the KPT filters.
Xaos Tools' Total Xaos A bundle of three designer plug-ins: Paint Alchemy, TypeCaster, and I Terrazzo. Paint Alchemy transforms images into fine art, with more than one hundred preset paint effects, such as Colored Pencil, Impressionist, or Pastel. TypeCaster turns ordinary type into broadcast-quality 3D titles. Terrazzo creates symmetrical tiled backgrounds.
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About the author, Gregory Georges: Using medium format, 35 mm, and digital cameras, Gregory has amassed a personal collection of more that 12,000 pictures -- all taken purely for the fun of it. He has, in one way or another, used computers extensively for work and at home since taking his first computer class in 1969. As an experienced photographer and avid user of computer technologies, Gregory has the perfect background and passion to write about digital cameras and how to get the most from digital images. You can visit him at his website: www.reallyusefulpage.com .
Digital Camera Solutions is published by Muska & Lipman Publishing of Cincinnati, Ohio. You can visit them at www.mlstore.com/camera.html to find out more about this book.
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