Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Photo Explosion Deluxe
Image editing software comes in all shapes and sizes. But as Dave Cook discovers, you needn't pay a fortune to get what you want!
| Product | Photo Explosion Deluxe |
|---|---|
| Company | Nova Development |
| Web | www.guildsoft.co.uk |
| Price | £39.99 |
| We like | Easy to use, good array of tools, excellent value for money. |
| We don't like | At this price - nothing! |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
Let's face it, a professional graphic designer would be lost without a powerful (and expensive) application like Adobe Photoshop.
To the average punter, though, Photoshop is largely overkill, and if you're happy to create, edit, and manipulate images without the assistance of a few high-end specialist tools, there are far cheaper alternatives. One such program is Photo Explosion Deluxe, a complete digital photo solution from Nova Development.
Take Four
Photo Explosion Deluxe comes on four CDs that are choc-a-bloc with goodies. The software provides powerful photo editing features, special effects, and a whole range of ready-made designs for transforming your favourite photos into business cards, greeting cards, calendars and more.
Templates are also included to help you prepare images for handheld computers, PDAs, mobile phones, and similar devices. Though the ability for a mobile device to receive such images will of course depend on whether your service provider offers the SMS (Short Message Service) feature or a similar service.
Getting starting with a project is a doddle. You can choose from a range of templates for quick editing or you can transfer photos from digital camera, scanner, and so forth using drag and drop simplicity. Finding images is easy since active photos and projects appear as thumbnails.
Photo Explosion Deluxe is primarily used for three purposes: organising photos, enhancing photos, and creating photo-based projects.
That said, you'll find a host of features not found in the majority of top-end graphic applications including the ability to burn photo slide shows onto CD. You can add background music to the CD if you wish, and then play it on supporting DVD players.
Stitch 'Em Up
There are numerous editing tools provided in which to improve photos. You can stitch a series of photos into 360-degree (or wide-angle) panoramas, while damaged photos can be repaired onscreen using special transparency and cloning tools. A simple to use one-click red-eye removal feature is also to hand.
In addition, you'll find a range of special effects. For example, there are bubbles, charcoal, coloured pencils, oil paint, sepia, warp, and watercolour special effects to name but a few. Plus there are over 1,200 borders, frames and props from which to choose, as well as 5,000 24-bit high-resolution photographs.
Fancy a giggle? Just open one of supplied photo images and then introduce one of your own snapshots into the foreground. You can even add your own text, with over 400 fonts supplied. Then, when you have finished your work, it can be organised into a variety of onscreen albums.
Verdict
Photo Explosion Deluxe provides a range of uncomplicated photo editing tools and special effects. Photoshop it ain't, and yet it really does offer a complete digital studio for the masses. And because an excellent user guide is included, even the newest computer novice should find the program easy to use.
