Sometimes you just want to fix up a picture without all of the baggage and learning curves that come with powerhouse image editors like Photoshop andGIMP. Obviously, a program as primitive as Paint won’t do, and even middle-of-the-road programs likePaint.NET sometimes won’t cut it. Thankfully, Ashampoo’s Photo Commander 11 steps in to fill the gap.
I’ll be honest: I’m really not one to do a lot of photo editing. I rarely do anything related to photos, whether it’s taking them, touching them up, or even looking at them. But even for someone like me, Photo Commander 11 was a breeze to operate. For those of you who actually like photo editing, this program will serve you well.
Photo Commander 11 is available for USD $49.99 on Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8. But for you, we’ve got a great offer that you just won’t be able to pass up: we’re giving away 10 copies of Photo Commander 11 worth a total of $500 for free! Keep reading to see how you can take advantage of this awesome offer.
Photo Commander 11 Review
When you first start up the program, you’ll be met with a quick setup wizard. This wizard allows you to choose file associations, languages, interface layouts, and a few other simple settings that’ll help you get started. It’s not the most helpful introduction, but it’s something.
Photo Commander 11 opens up to a clean workstation layout with pleasant aesthetics. I chose the photo editing layout as opposed to the photo manager layout (I don’t have many photos to manage) or the film strip layout (didn’t really appeal to me). I admit that I felt overwhelmed at first, but it all started to make sense after a few minutes of exploration.
The main aspect you really need to become familiar with is the top bar – not the usual menu options that you’d see in any other program, but the special blue navigation bar that holds all of the actions and options that you can play around with. It’s similar to Microsoft’s ribbon interface except not so wieldy.
- Quick Fix: This section of the bar is where you’ll find a bunch of one-click photo fixers like cropping, contrast & brightness, color correction, red eye removal, tilt shifting, visual effects, and more.
- Objects: This section of the bar lets you edit the photo by drawing some boxes and circles if you please, or maybe some speech bubbles or image stamps if that’s what you prefer. It’s not as feature-rich as Photoshop by any means.
- Create: Despite the name, this section of the bar is less about creating photos and more about organizing them. There are buttons to create slideshows, albums, collages, panoramas, and other containers along those lines.
- Organize: Again, despite the name, this section is less about organization and more about utility. Rename a bunch of photos at once. Find duplicate images on your hard drive. Burn images to a CD or DVD. Rotate and optimize JPG files. Lots of miscellaneous actions that don’t fit under the other sections.
Visual effects are one of the most elementary operations you can perform on a photo, but they’re just so awesome and Photo Commander makes them so easy. It really is a one-click action and you can stack multiple effects on a single photo in case you really want to touch up an otherwise subpar picture.
When you want to create a photo container – like an album, a slideshow, a collage, etc. – Photo Commander again makes it easy thanks to the various wizards that come as part of the program. No matter what you want to do, all you have to do is fill out a few fields and check (or uncheck) a few checkboxes, and voila! You’re done.
Photo Commander 11 lets you take command of your photos without requiring you to have any prior photo manipulation experience. Here are some more great features that you’ll find here:
- Automatic photo backups as you work and easy restore.
- MiniMap live preview of the photo you’re editing.
- Fullscreen editing mode to cut away all other distractions.
- Comparison mode where you can compare before and after image modifications.
- Image conversion between multiple supported formats.
- Share your photos through email, Facebook, Picasa, or even YouTube.
No comments:
Post a Comment