Serif's PhotoPlus 11
Image Editing Powerhouse
by Mickey Maguire
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With the popularity of digital SLR cameras, more people are getting serious about photography. It's almost as though we have returned to 1976 when Pentax captured the imagination of the world with the rock-solid, easy to use K1000 35mm SLR camera. Pentax was not the only company in the game. Olympus, Minolta, Canon, Nikon, and lots of more exotic camera makers were putting 35mm single-lens-reflex cameras in stores around the world. Budding photographers were not afraid of fully manual cameras, in fact, they unleashed their creativity and photo labs opened in every shopping mall in the country. After years of point-and-shoot 35mm compact cameras, people were spoiled. They wanted automatic everything and most people became intimidated by any form of manual control, be it focus, aperture, or anything else. Enter digital SLR cameras... Now that DSLR cameras are spreading like wild-fire, people are once again experimenting. They are fooling around with manual settings and playing with cameras in creative ways. Their creativity doesn't stop there. Since computers are in just about every home these days, digital SLR owners are dumping files to their hard drives and playing with software applications designed for image editing. Everyone has heard of Adobe PhotoShop, and many people have heard of PaintShopPro. Well, there are other choices out there, some good, some bad. Chances are good that if you are not in the United Kingdom, you have not heard of Serif's PhotoPlus. It's time for an introduction. I had not used Serif's newer versions of PhotoPlus and I didn't know what to expect. Looking at the company's website, http://www.serif.com, I was very interested in reviewing their latest version (PhotoPlus 11). What I found was a powerhouse! PhotoPlus has all the essential ingredients of a professional image editor and a lot of extras that make it a compelling investment. |
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One feature that old film shooters will love is PhotoPlus' dust and scratch removal filter. It is an automated feature and does not require anything more than a single click of the mouse. It also works to remove "noise", that digital grain we often see in blue sky in .jpg images. Here are two sample images, click them to see a close-up screen capture.
a shot of my wife as a baby scanned high-res, cracked and grainy
same shot after Serif PhotoPlus dust and scratch removal tool
An essential part of every image editing program is the ability to revive old photographs. In addition to removing cracks, scratches, and dust from high-resolution scanning, color is often faded and black & white images are often dull and lifeless from age. PhotoPlus features a powerful "curve" editing tool that helps you enhance the high and low dynamic range of your images to give them punch. Here is an look at that tool:
adjusting the curved line can manipulate the dynamic range of your shot making it pop!
Another inportant tool included in PhotoPlus is its powerful "cloning brush". This is the BEST cloning tool I have ever used! It perfectly matches color, texture, and tone. I was very impressed. I even used it to clone hair in an image. Here is a sample shot:
I took this image from Serif's included samples from the program CD, repairing a seam
Digital SLR cameras do a great job, but, there are still times when I like to shoot with a medium format film camera. I took some family shots with a twin-lens-reflex camera at a family celebration, my parent's fiftieth wedding anniversary. Well, I loved the "snapshots" but, I wanted to give them an antiqued look. PhotoPlus was ideal for the task. I used the "effects/render/lighting effects" tool using it to darken the edges of the picture. Here are the before and after shots:
my parents, shot with a twin-lens-reflex camera and converted to gray-scale
here is the shot after the light effects have been applied
I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison with PaintShopPro on an image that needed some enhancement. I shot a photograph of an old grain silo or similar structure in Mountaintop, Pennsylvania. The image was a high-contrast composition with the building silhouetted against a deep blue sky. There were puffy white clouds above the building making for a dramatic shot.
The PaintShopPro image is on the left, the PhotoPlus image is on the right.
The left image (above) has a little too much red in it. I edited it out in an attempt to make it as close to the original image from a photo lab as possible. Oddly, there is a tinge of pink in the clouds, yet, the image is a bit cooler than the shot on the right.
The PhotoPlus image (above right) is much more natural in color and exactly like the image that came from the photo lab. The clouds are pure white and the building has the warm rusty hue of the original lab print. The weeds behind the structure are more natural colored, too.
After this side-by-side comparison, I am convinced that Serif PhotoPlus has better color rendering than the competition. There are all the usual image editing features that we've come to expect. You can lighten and darken images, change the color balance in several ways, modify the dynamic range of an image, remove excessive noise or add it. You can convert images to watercolor, pencil art, or pick from several other "instant artist" filters. You can use a "lens filter" tool to change color temperature in a flash. There is a "smudge" tool, "blur" tool, "dodge & burn" tool, "red-eye" tool" and a "scratch removal" tool in the toolbar.
There is a patch online that you will want to download that fixes a "save original" setting that was not working before the fix was installed. You could save by renaming the file, however. I found no other flaws and since the patch fixed the problem in less than a minute, I am totally satisfied with that. If I could add one thing it would be a simple gamma correction tool. I use it all the time in PhotoShop and PaintShopPro. PhotoPlus can correct gamma problems, but, you have to do it manually.
In conclusion... PhotoPlus 11 is a powerful image editing application that will give you professional results. Its greatest strengths are color balance, dynamic range tonal enhancement, and the very best cloning tool I have ever used! The application supports every popular image format and even does animations. Don't forget to install the patch from Serif's website.
If you want a professional image editing program that is affordable, Serif PhotoPlus 11 is it. You can purchase it at Serif's website:
For Great Performance and VALUE, we recommend 
XR Di Series lenses.
© 2006 Tricorn Publications
