I agree with AG. I started on PWP and then moved later to PhotoShop
because I was being instructed in PhotoShop by my photo mentor who also
supplied the software (well, the first version anyhow. Now I'm on the
upgrade treadmill). Anyhow, I still do use PWP from time to time as
there are some things it just does better than PhotoShop or that
PhotoShop doesn't do at all that I'm aware of.
It's usage is much different than Photoshop but I doubt there's anything
you can do in PhotoShop that you can't do in PWP. PWP 5.0 is very, very
new and the initial bug reports are still coming in but that should slow
down pretty quickly.
Chuck Norcutt
Ken Norton wrote:
> 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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