O Walt would have been excited. Version 5.0 of PWP is released. Still
doesn't have layers (and probably never will), but proves that there is more
than one way to cut the cheese.
Several new/improved things of note, that I've found which is worth the
price of admission:
1. Resizing algorithms work and work extremely well. Scaling in PWP was
always better than Photoshop, but I believe it is now taken to another
level.
2. Improved workflow and Raw Conversion. Version 4's RAW converter was based
on DCRAW (which this one probably still is in some sort of way), but it is
now improved and pretty much has corrected the maize artifacts in Olympus
RAW files. I see a lot more detail in the highlights and shadows (transition
areas) without wonky colorcasts. Colors from the RAW converter are a little
flat compared to Olympus JPEGs or Olympus software converted files, but are
highly malleable.
3. Extremely fast. A process that takes 15 seconds in Photoshop (such as a
resize or sharpening), can take 1-2 seconds in PW--even in the native 48 bit
mode.
4. Image stacking. First of all, this is the non-layers approach to
layering, so those who like layering aren't completely out in the dark. But
there is actually two different ways of stacking, and you can do HDR stuff
with the best of them.
5. "Healing Brush". Not called that, but same functionality. It's not as
good as PS's Healing Brush on grainy/noisy images, but definitely works
better when close to other things. For example, you can't use the healing
brush to zap a zit near an eyebrow because it'll smear the eyebrow up into
the healed area. PWP's version doesn't do this so the algorithm is
definitely different. It seems to work great for general spotting.
6. One of the very best monochrome conversion engines made. What was great
seems to have gotten even better. You can spot a digital BW image a mile
away, but PWP's make you do a double-take. The color filtering really does
work.
7. Cropping, framing, borders, etc. This is a well-honed section in the
software. Easily, this is among the best in the industry and
I could go on and on, and probably will..... Regardless, you can download
the complete software to try it yourself for 30 days. It's only $89 USD.
The bargain of the century. And the "upgrade tax" only happens every two or
three years. If you like version du jour, this isn't the software for you,
but if you like well-sorted software that doesn't demand extremes in
processor and memory to support the latest/greatest huge digital files, this
is worth looking into.
No, I am NOT getting paid for this announcement....
AG (elated customer) Schnozz
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