Ulead Photoimpact 10

Following a diversion from sequential numbering with Photoimpact XL, Ulead has made a return to convention with the release of Photoimpact 10.

Ulead's package has been criticised in the past for its unwieldy interface. Photoimpact has never been short on features, but ease of use has never been a strong point. With this new release, Ulead has attempted to make everything novice-friendly as well as adding new features aimed at digital camera users.

A new welcome screen offers a choice of common photo-editing tasks including scanning images, fixing photos, getting photos from a digital camera and browsing image collections, and provides appropriate tools and guidance for the task in hand.

Meanwhile, the workspace is less intimidating with the introduction of a Basic work mode. This hides the Easypalettes and replaces the standard toolbars with fewer bigger, bolder buttons. You can configure the application to start in either mode and easily toggle between them.

Improvements have also been made to what's now called the Standard mode workspace, with a reorganised menu bar and updated Layer Manager. But the biggest improvement is the inclusion of dockable panels that let you group frequently used panels and toolbars together at the screen edge.

Photoimpact's High Dynamic Range feature provides a unique method for tackling the age-old photographic problem of capturing detail in subjects with both dark shadows and bright highlights. One way to deal with this problem is to take several 'bracketed' images with different exposure settings and combine the correctly exposed bits.

To do this manually requires not only skill but a lot of time, but Photoimpact automates much of the process. The High Dynamic Range dialogue box is split into three tabs which allow you to compose, optimise and adjust the combined images.

The trickiest task in dealing with multiple images is getting them in exact register and this is handled automatically. We tested this feature using three bracketed images shot using a tripod, but Ulead claims it also works with photos taken with a handheld camera.

The High Dynamic Range feature isn't new, but it has been enhanced to enable the removal of conflicting image areas caused by camera or subject movement between exposures. You can ask the software to take care of this automatically, or manually paint out the offending detail using brush tools.

Making selections and cut-outs is now that much easier thanks to an enhanced lasso tool and a new Extract object wizard. The smart lasso hugs the edges of an object which it identifies by a big jump in contrast and you can set the detection scope in the attribute toolbar.

The Extract object wizard works in a very similar fashion to Photoshop's Extract filter, only with a little more guidance. Draw a thick outline around the object you want to extract and Photoimpact does the rest. You can adjust the sensitivity of the extractor using a slider and touch up the results using an eraser. On the whole it works well.

Extract isn't the only Photoshop feature that Photoimpact has assimilated. The new touch-up tool bears more than a passing resemblance to Photoshop's healing brush and is used to correct facial blemishes or for other retouching tasks.

Vector drawing tools have been improved to include multiple node editing and you can now add outlines to text as well as vector shapes. Other improvements and additions include a raft of new painting and artistic effects, split view in image adjustment and dialogue boxes, a noise reduction filter and display of Exif data in the Browse manager.

Photoimpact is great value for money. Also in the box are the Explorer 8.5 media management application, Photo Album 10, Gif Animator 5.05 and Ulead's excellent and easy-to-use panorama software, Cool 360.

All this makes the package a great choice for enthusiastic digital photographers who already possess some digital image-editing experience or don't mind spending time learning the ropes. Photoimpact has a lot in common with Paint Shop Pro in this respect: it's inexpensive, but well equipped.

However, Ulead hasn't gone far enough with ease-of-use enhancements to make Photoimpact a viable option for beginners, who'd do far better with Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.

Contact:
Ulead 01327 844 880
www.ulead.co.uk

System requirements:

• Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP
• PIII processor
• CD-Rom drive
• 128MB Ram
• 600MB hard disk space
• 600 x 800 24-bit graphics