Serif Digital Photo Suite 2009

A basic, but affordable, photo-retouching program



Serif's new Digital Photo Suite 2009 doesn't have the powerful editing tools of more expensive rivals such as Photoshop Elements, but it provides a good basic set of photo-editing tools at a very affordable price.

The suite consists of two programs, Album Plus and Panorama Plus, although it's the first of these two that provides the main organising and editing features When you launch Album Plus for the first time, it asks if you want to import a set of photos from a specific folder, or simply let the program search your entire hard disk.

Like most photo organisers, Album Plus allows you to browse and search for pictures using settings such as date, rating, or keywords, and you can switch from thumbnail previews of large groups to zoomed-in views of individual images simply by double-clicking on any picture. There's nothing particularly innovative here, but the program's photo-management features are straightforward and simple to use.

In addition, Album Plus includes three 'studios' that can be activated simply by clicking on the Fix And Enhance button at the top of the screen. The Quick Fix Studio allows you to perform simple editing tasks such as adjusting brightness and contrast, colour saturation, cropping an image, or removing red-eye Each tool is represented by a large icon in the toolbar that runs across the top of the screen, and when you click on any tool a second panel on the left-hand edge of the screen displays tips that explain how it works.

There's also a useful split-screen option that displays 'before' and 'after' versions of your photo so that you can see how your changes will work. And, as well as the standard 'Undo' command, there's a 'revert' option. The Makeover Studio works in a similar fashion, but provides tools designed specifically for working with portrait photographs. There are options for whitening teeth, removing dark circles from under eyes, smoothing out wrinkles, and even a 'fake tan' option.

Instant Artist Studio allows you to create effects such as a pencil sketch, oil paints and watercolours and impressionist or expressionist paintings. These filters produce mixed results though — sometimes they can be quite effective, while you can just as easily end up with a big blotchy mess of colour.

The three studios are all easy to use, so even complete beginners will be able to tidy up their photos quickly. Our only real complaint is that the program can be a little sluggish when working with very large, high-resolution images (we tested it on a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 laptop).

When you've finished editing, the final option is the Create And Share button This allows you to upload
photos to Facebook or Flickr, or save them as a Flash video file that can be uploaded to sites such as Youtube. You can print a variety of documents such as calendars and greetings cards, or the Panorama Plus program can be used to 'stitch' together a series of overlapping landscape photos.



Admittedly, Digital Photo Suite doesn't provide the precise editing tools or the wide range of special effects filters that you can find in programs such as Photoshop Elements or Corel's Paint Shop Pro. This means you're essentially limited to fixing flaws in your photos. Rather than being able to creatively modify or combine photos to create new images. However, it is a good tool for newcomers who don't want to spend a lot of money on more advanced editing program. Cliff Joseph.

Contact www.serif.com
System requirements 500MHz processor, with Windows XP or Vista • 512Mb Ram • 650MB hard disk • Internet access for file-sharing options

Personal Computer World February 2009


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