The resulting curve tends to be gentle, affecting similar values, so that the changes in the image usually appear natural rather than overly dramatic (depending on your edit choices). For instance, in our test image, we heightened the saturation of green leaves, and deepened the reds in painted planks, without affecting any other color values in the image. Alternatively, you can select specific colors in the spectrum, choose saturation, brightness, or hue, and use the tools in the dialog box to make the adjustment. Then drag up or down to increase or decrease the saturation, brightness, or hue of all similar pixels in your image. With Advanced Color selected, click anywhere in your picture-that will automatically choose the color values directly under your cursor. We were particularly impressed with the new Advanced Color tool (which is available in both the Develop and Edit sections). All adjustments in both Develop and Edit display on the image immediately, with no time lag.
If you revert to your original (or to your Developed image) after using the Edit tools on any file other than a RAW image, the software will discard all modifications you made in Edit (unless you save the Edited image in a separate file). The Edit section of the Process tab includes such tools as Selections, Red Eye, Add Watermark, and Special Effects, as well as pixel-based Exposure, Tone Curves, White Balance, Sharpen, and Color adjustments. Whenever you open a previously edited image in ACDSee, your Develop settings will be loaded in however, you can revert to your original at any time. Any changes you make in Develop are saved separately from your original image, protecting the original.
Develop (an expansion of the program’s RAW processing from previous versions) is further divided into tabs for Tune (to adjust exposure, tone, and color), Detail (for sharpness and noise reduction), and Geometry (to handle lens distortion, rotating and straightening, perspective, and crop). The Process mode now has two edit methods: Develop, which is nondestructive (meaning that it won’t affect the integrity of your images), and Edit for pixel-level adjustments. But it would be much more useful if ACDSee were to combine the functionality of Manage, Compare, and View into a single tab. In View mode, you do have the ability to use the same caption, rating, and tagging tools as in Manage, which is a major help.
Similar to the separation of the Compare window from the main Manage mode, the division of the View and Manage modes seemed counterintuitive to us: When we manage, compare, and sort our images, we prefer to have full zooming capabilities, along with all the organizing tools. Here, you can play movies and add sound to your images, too. The View mode provides tools for inspecting your images at higher zoom levels than what’s available in Manage it also allows you to watch a quick slideshow of selected pictures. Since the other Manage functions are not available in the Compare window, you can’t rate or keyword-tag images as you compare, which can hamper efficiency and slow down your workflow. Unfortunately, Compare, which allows you to choose among similar images and tag them with a checkmark for further consideration, is a separate window. The batch processing remains a convenient, simple-to-use function, and includes batch-developing, file-format conversion, renaming, and so forth. As in the previous version of ACDSee Pro, keywording, rating, and organizing all work smoothly and easily searches are quick and savable. Manage mode is where you import, organize, keyword-tag, rate, batch-process, search for, and compare images. The redesigned tabbed interface now conforms to what has become standard in asset management software, as it’s divided into four functionality areas that are similar to the steps in a typical workflow: Manage, View, Process, and Online. The company has improved the online options and functionality, too.
Finding those images can be a challenge, though, which is where ACDSee Pro Version 3.0 comes in ($170, upgrade $90 prices as of February 8, 2010).ĪCDSee has completely redesigned its image management software’s interface, paying special attention to a photographer’s workflow and image editing.
If you’re an average user, it’s probably in the many thousands. Think about the number of photos squirreled away on your hard drive-or across multiple drives, for that matter.