Ashampoo Photo commander versions have been passing here for some time now. This new version seems to be a bigger change in the workflow than previous versions according to several reviews. This is how PC12 looks in "explorermode" with dark skin: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/00.JPG (With the very very small sprocket wheel to can choose between display options.)
This is the editor interface: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/00c.JPG
There are two bars, one menbar blue with uppercase letters, but small, and a big letter buttonbar. They don't seem to communicate with each other like in offices ribbon bar. Tried some things like cropping a picture. There are 4 options.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/01crop.JPG
Rectangular select works logically. but the freestyle crop only produces a menu (after closing the selection) without a crop option...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/02crop.JPG
Contrast and colors: very easily set, but in the dark skin very difficult to see. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/03contrastcolors.JPG
There are lots of effects, https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/03effects.JPG , but sadly you can only set the strength. There is for instance a dotted mesh effect, but you can not set the size of the dots...
There are some nice features like the color accent feature. Choose a color and only that color will show in the picture, rest will be greyscale. But... I was somewhat baffled by the way it operates: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/04.JPG
Well, some optimizing then, it should offer a lot: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/07.JPG
Strangely optimizing is not done with a before and after picture standardly, you have to set it manually to do that.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11463671/gotd/photcom12/08.JPG . I found it irritating that it often sets itself back to "compare off" mode.
My conclusion: There are a lot of functions, but frustratingly I could not find a general way for things to work (so working intuitively was possible). The uppercase small type menu, and the big type bar below don't seem to interact logically. The very simple functions i tried were implemented in a way that I really needed the directions in the windows that popped up; few things worked intuitive and logical in this program. I can't determine what is the use of this program. In my opinion the picture/movie manager part of the interface is not very well thought of. As a picture editor there are some nice features but very few settings available to give it the personal effect. I like ashampoo products a lot but this is not one of them. To me, version 12 is a step down.

Calimero  –  8 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+71)

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Have been keeping a copy of Ashampoo Photo Commander in my PC since version 7.
Been stepping through the changes to Version 8, 9, 10, 11 and now 12.
But nowadays mostly use ACDSee Photo Manager. The other good Photo manager is Zoner.

ric  –  8 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+44)

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Ashampoo Photo Commander is an easy to use image cataloging app with some basic editing & annotation features. IMHO it's a good starter app for people who don't store their pictures online, and aren't really into photo editing -- it helps you keep track of your photos, lets you do some minor editing if you want or need, & lets you do stuff like print a simple card using your picture.

The popular Zoner is a step up in terms of capabilities, but that means that by necessity it's more complicated & a bit harder to use. Zoner doesn't quite make it to being a serious photo editor, but it does let you do more than Photo Commander, providing you spend the extra time to learn the software.

Corel's PaintShop Pro sits at the top of combined cataloging & editing apps, with an image editor that can rival Photoshop. It does require learning, and can take a fair amount to take full advantage of its features that include layers. PaintShop Pro can also be the best value if you catch it on sale [for around $20-$30], particularly when Corel get's ready to release a new version.

For the last several years it's been possible to buy cameras with interchangeable lenses [e.g. DSLRs] for as low as $200, & sometimes even less, making cameras that can save pictures in the RAW format fairly popular. A RAW image file basically contains all the data the camera's sensor captured. When a camera saves a .jpg photo, & most cameras that can shoot RAW will also save .jpg, it processes all that RAW data into an image you can view & easily work with. The advantage of having a RAW image file is that you can then control all of that processing yourself.

The popularity of shooting & saving RAW images has caused a number of companies to release cataloging software that specialize in processing those RAW images. Probably the most popular one is Adobe's Lightroom -- Corel has their competing Aftershot, which can be on sale Much cheaper, while you can sometimes pick up an older version of DxO Optics Pro for free. You generally do not perform your final editing in these apps, but control how the jpg images they can export look. The original RAW images are normally left untouched, so you can always create a new version of a jpg file, & Lightroom can save every processing step you perform as a sort of script, so you can apply it to all or several photos, or go back to a RAW image & change or tweak your processing without starting from scratch.

The reason for those last 2 paragraphs when we're talking about Photo Commander, is that Photo Commander, Zoner, & PSP are also supposed to handle RAW images. They do not handle processing RAW images the same way more specialized software can, & by the same token, there's little reason or benefit to using software intended for RAW images with jpg potos. It's possible to do both -- there may be cases when that makes sense to you -- but don't buy Lightroom just to handle your jpg collection, & don't save your pictures as larger RAW format files if they're just going into Photo Commander [or Zoner etc.].

mike  –  8 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+22)

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Slightly annoyed because I bought this from Ashampoo less than a month ago.

Personally I don't think its as good as programs like Picasa or Zoner, it definitely doesn't handle large collections on network drives very well, keeps saying "not responding".

BlackKnight_UK  –  8 years ago  –  Vond je deze reactie nuttig? ja | nee (+22)

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