Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

Description
With a built-in photo browser and extensive RAW support, ArcSoft PhotoStudio
Darkroom offers a full range of standard image processing features, including exposure
and white balance adjustment, lens correction, curves and levels, crop and straighten, redeye
removal, and one-click spot/patch removal. It supports the most popular color spaces,
has batch export facilities, and can convert RAW files to Adobe DNG for archiving.
PhotoStudio Darkroom’s interface has the modern arrangement of thumbnail strip at
the bottom, histogram at top-right, and a large viewing area for the images. You can see
your pictures in “Before-After” viewing mode or in “Side-by-Side” mode for comparison
and selection. The lens correction utility can fix purple fringe, vignetting, barrel,
pincushion, and perspective distortions. Export of the processed RAW files is to highquality
JPEG or TIFF (24- or 48-bit) format.
Comments
ArcSoft PhotoStudio Darkroom was placed by Popular Photography as No.2 in a list of
five top RAW converters. That is quite an achievement, given the competition. Its RAW
format support is particularly strong, including output from Hasselblad H2D and
Mamiya ZD cameras. Like most ArcSoft products, it is aimed at both professionals and
hobbyists, a dual personality that may tend to confuse its image in the market.
Essentially it is a low-cost alternative to Apple’s Aperture, with support for Windows.
Version: ArcSoft PhotoStudio Darkroom 1.5 (2008)
OS: Windows 2000, XP, and Vista; Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4
RAM: 512MB
Supported file formats: Most RAW formats; JPEG and TIFF
Price level: Approx. $100
Address: ArcSoft Corporate Headquarters, 46601 Fremont Blvd., Fremont, CA 94538, United States
www.arcsoft.com
ColorWasher
Vendor: PhotoWiz
Purpose: A set of tools for correcting, enhancing, and restoring photos
Chapter 8 ■ Image Processors 85
Description
With ColorWasher, you can correct the colors, contrast, exposure, and saturation of
8-bit and 16-bit photos. The vendor, Harald Heim of The Plugin Site, suggests that you
use it after RAW conversion to fine-tune the adjustments.