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Jon Canfield is the author of several books on digital imaging, including “Print
Like a Pro” from Peachpit. You can reach Jon on his website, www.joncanfield.com.
Believe it or not Microsoft has been doing digital imaging programs for years.
Picture It! has a long reputation as an easy to use program with features that
are designed for the casual user. In recent years Picture It! grew into Digital
Image Pro with features designed for experienced users, while still retaining
the simple interface of Picture It! and support for Adobe Photoshop plug-ins.
The latest version, Digital Image Suite 2006 takes it up another notch in
power, making it a very appealing image-editing option.
There are a number of new adjustment options that can be accomplished with
one click by the novice, or with full manual control for the advanced user.
These tools include Exposure and Contrast Adjustment. The Exposure and Lighting
control, for example, has sliders for each setting, access to Curves, and auto
settings for exposure, contrast, backlighting, and opening up shadows.
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Digital
Image Suite 2006 is the latest version of Microsoft’s powerful
but friendly image-editing suite.
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Also new to Digital Image Suite (DIS) is support for RAW files from many Canon
and Nikon digital cameras. Support can be a misleading term though. DIS will
open these RAW files, but you lose all control over what gives RAW its true
advantage—the ability to manipulate image properties before the file is
converted. With most converters you have the ability to make white balance,
exposure, and other advanced adjustments. DIS offers none of these prior to
conversion, making the support less useful than it would originally appear.
Smart Crop is a great teaching feature and quick editing tool. Using the rule
of thirds, Smart Crop will analyze your image and make a suggested crop based
on what it determines is the area of interest in your photo. It works remarkably
well for most subjects. Smart Erase is a great tool for removing distractions
from your image and automatically filling the area with surrounding texture.
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The Exposure and Lighting control is an excellent example of how
Digital Image Suite combines simple Auto Fix features with full
manual control.
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Black and white fans will appreciate the powerful conversion tools that let
you make adjustments to each color channel as well as add toning effects.
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Digital
Image Suite has a number of sophisticated effects, including black
and white conversion with toning, and full channel mixer support.
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