Adobe Photoshop Elements 8: First Look

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Earlier today Adobe announced the latest version of its best-selling consumer-oriented photo-editing and organization package Photoshop Elements 8. This has become something of a yearly event and the previous version 7 release clearly suffered from the tight turnaround in a Creative Suite year. By comparison, version 8 is packed with new power and has a strong focus: building on Adobe’s state-of-the-art image analysis to bring the best out of images and to make life easier for the end user.

Editing highlights include the new Photo Merge mode that automatically picks out and combines the best exposed areas of bracketed shots to produce a best-lit composite image and the Image Recompose feature that automatically preserves foreground objects while removing unwanting backgrounds as you resize your image – in real time.

Elements’ editing power remains unchallenged in the consumer arena but, for most users, serious editing images is a relatively rare requirement compared to the regular chore of getting on top of your images through tagging. Here Adobe’s image analysis expertise promises even more, holding out the prospect of automatically tagging images based on quality and – through automatic face recognition – even subject.

It sounds great on paper and works brilliantly with the sample images included in the pre-release press pack, but how does it work in practice with real images?

(more…)

How to add punch to your digital photos with the Levels and Curves tools

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

A common complaint from new DSLR owners is that their cameras leave their images looking rather dull and washed out: not like the punchy, eye-catching images they used to get from their cheaper compact camera.

The complaint isn’t baseless. Most DSLRs, by default, do less in-camera processing than compacts; the assumption being that you’d rather start with as exact a replica of reality as possible and edit it later.

Still, there’s little worse than a perfectly-composed, perfectly-exposed image that nonetheless doesn’t look as exciting as you thought it would. The answer is to get to grips with the Levels and Curves tools. The good news is that virtually every photo editor includes these, from Photoshop and Lightroom, to Photoshop Elements, and even free applications such as the GIMP.

(more…)

Photoshop rivals – one real, one fake

Friday, November 7th, 2008

Photoshop’s had more than a few imitators over the years, but I’ve never before seen one that was made from real world materials!  It was beautifully constructed as part of an advertising campaign for an Indonesian firm called software-asli.com – you can see how it was made here on Flickr. 

Coincidentally, I also stumbled across this browser-based Photoshop equivalent today:

It’s called Pixlr and though it’s not about to surpass Photoshop CS4 in terms of power and features, it’s more than competent for applying quick fixes and touch-ups to digital photos. It’s impressively fast too – much faster, in fact, than Adobe’s own online editor at Photoshop.com and it doesn’t demand that you fill in any annoying registration forms. You just rock up and use it. 

I’m particularly fond of Pixlr’s Old Photo filter. Let me know how you get on with it on the comments below.

First look: Nvidia’s integrated graphics

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Intel beware: Nvidia has its scope trained squarely on your dominance in the notebook graphics market. With an estimated 140 million laptops in the wild in 2008, more than two-thirds of which feature nothing more powerful than basic integrated graphics chips, it’s a huge segment that Nvidia has until now had no access to.

The 9400M is the key that Nvidia hopes will allow it to eat away at Intel’s share. Combining the north bridge, south bridge and GPU into one chip less than half the size of Intel’s GMA X4500HD, it could be the great leap forward we’ve been waiting so long for. The integrated graphics solution that can actually run the latest games – we’d almost given up hope.

(more…)

My debut as a hand model

Friday, July 11th, 2008

I never thought I’d end up doing this when I joined PC Pro but, as potential career directions go, it could prove quite lucrative.

As part of the artwork for an upcoming Labs, I’ve been roped into some hand-modelling. It’s a glamorous affair: I was led down to one of our plush, fully-equipped photo studios and fussed over by a skilled and talented photographer and his able assistant.

There was more, too: members of the production team evaluating the pictures to see if my hand was behaving, and Art Editor Jo Clements was lovely enough to hold my elbow up throughout so I could keep the object in the correct position.

The best part, though? Finding out that the top hand models can make hundreds of pounds per hour if they keep their cuticles in great shape and wear gloves everywhere they go.

I also know how the average celebrity feels, now, as I’ve been told that my hand just wasn’t svelte or tanned enough – and I’ve been Photoshopped. The finished image, when it appears in the magazine, will feature numerous changes: the nail on my right thumb has been tidied up, a few unsightly hairs have been virtual-plucked out of existence, and my pasty, pale, IT journalist’s skin has been given a touch of fake tan.

It’s the only time that I’ve ever been able to say that I feel like Britney.

Now that the photoshopping’s out of the way, then, there’s only one mystery left – what am I holding?

Unless you can guess – and please let me know if you do – then the only way to find out is to wait and see: Issue 168 hits the shops on Thursday the 14th August. Me and my hand will see you there.