Author Archive
OSXcellence – ACDSee Photo Flash Review
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Many of the apps I review in this column are stacked full of features and, seemingly, developers seem to think that more really is more. ACDSee Photo Flash is as far from these do-it-all apps as it’s possible to be, but will the traditional adage of “less is more” ring true for this minimalist app?
The one-and-only function of Photo Flash is image brightening, the claim being that this app is an in-Mac flashgun. My initial thought was, “Why can’t I just use the exposure slider in Aperture/iPhoto?” ACDSee claim, however, that their special “Lighting and Contrast Enhancement (LCE)” technology is a superior option. This function is adjustable, using Flash Photo’s only control – a percentage slider.
After studying images outputted from Photo Flash, I would say that the exposure adjustment which this app provides is tempered by highlight reduction and shadow lifting. The images, as a result, have a slight HDR feel, but nothing too garish, or even noticeable. I have to admit, though, that the effect is quite similar to the illumination that flash gives.
OSXcellence – cf/x photo Review
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I have reviewed a number of simple editing apps in this column, many of which are effects-based. But suppose you don’t want to make your picture look like a badly exposed polaroid, yet still would like the simple operation that apps like CameraBag 2 have? Today’s app is cf/x photo, which aims to fit just this description – but will it fill the niche?
I hadn’t heard of this app, or its makers – cf/x software – before stumbling upon photo in the Mac App Store. On initial inspection, photo seems to follow the trend of sleek and simple effects/edit apps. Unlike the standard formula in this genre, however, photo is not about messing around with your pictures (even though a few basic effects filters are included). The aim of this app is summed-up nicely by its makers: “CROP. TWEAK. ENJOY.” As a result, the focus in photo is practical functions, like cropping and watermarking. You can also create classy frames of any colour you desire, and put text onto the image as well.
The crop function includes a number of aspect ratios, as well as the ability to crop at an angle. Given that you have a Mac (on which photo runs), you automatically have iPhoto, which can perform these crop functions itself. The need for such a cropping function in photo, then, is somewhat lacking.
The frame options in photo, whilst being basic, are very useful, allowing the easy addition of a coloured border, with one or two-colour options available. The width of the frame is adjustable, but unfortunately, making the frame wider makes it encroach on your image more, rather than expand outwards – a disappointing feature.
Text can be added in one of three segments of the image – top, middle and bottom – although the text actually sits somewhere near the top of each of these segments. The placing of these is strange, and makes this tool useless in comparison to the Mac’s inbuilt app, Preview, in terms of annotation. Read More→
OSXcellence – Picture Collage Maker Lite Review
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What’s better than a great photo? Lots of great photos on the same sheet of paper, of course; and so the collage creation app is born. Or should I say, “apps,” as this is not a niche market. Today’s app, Picture Collage Maker Lite, is one of many, but will it be this app that is the remedy for all of your multi-photo cravings?
This Lite version comes with 42 templates, including some quite elaborate, themed templates – Christmas and Wedding being examples. Additionally, there are numerous layout templates, which go beyond the usual grid, and allow your images to be arranged in a neat, but seemingly random pattern. A good variety of grid-based templates are available to use as well, if you so desire. Each of these templates has an adjustable size (although if you want to create something bigger than 1920×1440 pixels, you’ll need to upgrade to the full version of Picture Collage Maker).
The controls for making your collage are simple and well built. You can alter how the photos “lie” and the amount of the original image that is masked. There is a large library of shapes and looks available for masking, including theme-related shapes. If you fancy, text can be inserted onto the collage in the same way that photos are. Read More→
OSXcellence – Big Aperture Review
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Look in the Mac App Store photography section, and you’ll see a number of tilt-shift apps (see one of my previous reviews) but not so many dedicated to standard blurring of fore- and backgrounds. Perhaps this is because of the relative complexity involved in making depth-of-field blur look realistic in software. Can Big Aperture for Mac (from Everimaging software) be the go-to app for this task?
Big Aperture isn’t stacked full of controls, not least because the task it is set up to perform doesn’t require a vast set of menus. This provides the benefit of an uncluttered interface, which is already enhanced by Big Aperture’s classy, darkroom-style presentation.
There are two main control menus – Basic and Advanced. The Basic control menu – which I actually found the more useful – edits each image in what is, essentially, a four-step process. First, you select a blur “mode”; the selectable options are Nature, Portrait, Macro and Architecture, all of which act as presets. Their true function, however, is the selection of blur type; whether there is a sharp spot in the centre, with blur increasing outwards, or whether the blur is depth-based, with a horizontal plane of focus across the image, and blur increasing above and below this plane.
OSXcellence – The Photographer’s Ephemeris for Mac Review
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Unlike many of the apps I review in this series, today’s is neither new on the market, nor new to me. In fact, I have been using it for years now, so it’s about time I shared the brilliance of The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) with you.
This app provides accurate prediction of sun and moon positions at a given time, in relation to a location on the inbuilt version of Google Maps. A simple function it may seem, but for any photographer who needs to work with the sun’s light, TPE provides a unique and incredibly useful utility.
TPE has a very polished interface, with period-style visual details, providing a beautiful accompaniment to the app’s purpose. The main focus is on the Google Maps area, where you navigate to the location of your shoot – a search bar is provided at the bottom to ease this, as is a favourite locations list – and then hit the marker button to see the line of the sunrise and -set, and the moonrise and -set in that location. In addition, you can see this data for, seemingly, any date in the future, and information on the timing of the rise and set events is included on the right of screen.
OSXcellence – Photo Sense for Mac Review
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So you have a Mac? And you want to make your images look better? But you can’t be bothered to use iPhoto’s manual editing controls? And you want to use auto-enhancement on batch images? And you’re willing to pay two-thirds of the price of Photoshop Elements to get something that performs this function only (which, of course, Elements can do – a lot better)?
Well, whilst I would suggest that you are a fairly niche target market, the market that you represent is catered for (or so the makers, VeprIT, hope anyway) by Photo Sense for Mac.
The process of “improving” pictures with Photo Sense starts with adding images, which have their previews immediately “enhanced.” The options for processing include the standard exposure, contrast and saturation adjustment, as well as noise reduction and sharpening. In addition, effects can be added, although the extent to which you use most of those included very much hinges on “personal taste”.
By clicking on each individual image, you can manually adjust it, with the aid of a histogram and a split-screen before and after.
As with most auto-enhancers, the results of Photo Sense’s default processing are at best, “dramatic”, and at worst, disasters. Whilst the heady mix of over-sharpening, super-saturation and ridiculously boosted contrast can be attention grabbing, the thought of allowing these images into print fills me with dread.
OSXcellence – CameraBag 2 Review
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The original CameraBag was one of the first style and edit apps, not only on Mac, but on iPhone too. It was well built, and performed well, but since then it has been trumped by FX Photo Studio Pro (see my review) in this category. Now, however, the folks at NeverCenter have come back fighting, with their new offering, CameraBag 2.
CameraBag 2 is a slick looking app, but pretty looks aren’t the main feature of this app. Editing is conducted using impressive 32-bit processing, RAW is supported, and editing is non-destructive – all high-level features, aimed at the serious photographer. CameraBag 2 includes 100+ filters under the Styles tab, but far more important than this are the editing controls under the Adjust tab. Here you find the standard fare of contrast, saturation, exposure and so on, but additionally, more higher-level controls, such as RGB and luminance curves, selective saturation and grain. When these are used in conjunction with the adjustable inbuilt filters, almost any effect is achievable. What is striking is the quality of manipulated images, thanks to the 32-bit processing; this app produces classy, print quality pictures.
The preset filters that come with CameraBag 2 are very nice, both in terms of quality and quantity. Most are based on various print or film types and techniques, and are (in my opinion) very stylish. Examples include “Cyanotype,” “Leaky Helga” and “Super 1962.”
OSXcellence – Inpaint Review
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“DAMN!” – you’ve taken a world-beating image, but just as you’re about to Google “Wanderlust photo competition,” a terrible reality dawns on you. There is some pesky passer-by’s blurred head in the bottom corner. What are you going to do?
Teorex, the makers of Inpaint, would no doubt suggest that you head for their app.
Inpaint (temporarily on special offer at £0.69/$0.99) is an app specialising in removing unwanted objects from your image.
The name implies Inpaint’s method of operation – paint a red overlay onto the objects you wish to remove, and hit the “Inpaint” button to get the app working. The cloning is reasonably snappy, only taking 20 seconds or so, and the results, at first glance, are respectable. Areas in the image around the objects to be cloned are copied, in a manner not unlike Photoshop’s dust cloning tool.
OSXcellence – PhotoZoom Pro 4 Review
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For some photographers, the need to enlarge an image comes before uploading to a stock library. For others, it’s before a large print is made of the image. But sure enough, for whatever reason, all photographers at some point need to play around with digital image sizing. Photoshop is often used, mostly due to its already prominent place in most photographers’ workflows, whilst hardcore upscalers invest in Genuine Fractals (now known as Perfect Resize). BenaVista hopes that some may turn to their own contender in this market, PhotoZoom Pro, which (as a package) can be used both as a standalone app and photoshop plug-in resizer.
PhotoZoom Pro 4 claims to beat all of the standard resizing methods mentioned above, aided by its “patented S-Spline algorithm” – no, I don’t know what that means either (anyone brave enough can view the basics on Wikipedia). First impressions suggest that whatever S-Spline may be, it helps – this app certainly holds its own compared to other resizers. Small enlargements seem to have no discernible effect on image quality, whilst the results when an image is enlarged to 150% are respectable; stock library standard? Maybe.
Large print of your Grandmother’s dog for her
wall standard? Certainly. Read More→
OSXcellence – Pixlr-o-matic
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For some time now, I have admired and used Pixlr-o-matic for adding style to my images. Only now, however, can I feature it in this column, as a Mac version has recently been released.
Pixlr-o-matic doesn’t have the largest range of styles; in fact, it has very few in comparison to other more popular filter apps. The reason I believe Pixlr-o-matic stands out from the crowd is due to the attractiveness, and careful selection, of the filters installed. As a result, when I want one-click stylising of an image, I rarely need to venture further than this app.
Pixlr-o-matic’s interface is very simple, with a live preview illustrating the current effects applied. Filters come on a “film-strip” which is dragged sideways to scroll through the options. The simplicity of this app’s system is refreshing, with a maximum of three effects applicable on any single image – a colour/exposure/sharpness layer, a texture/damage/artistic layer, and a frame layer. None is obligatory, and that’s a good thing, considering that most of the middle stage’s filters range from bizarre to ugly to pointless. The other two layers by themselves, however, provide truly stunning results which replicate great film effects of the past.
