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(More customer reviews)I'll be honest. I made the choice of picking Picture It Photo Premium 9 over Adobe Photo Element 2.0 solely because of the big price difference. Plus, Microsoft's rebate has no conditions attached, whereas Adobe's requires you own a previous version of the same product.
Now that I've used it for a while, I'm happy to say I'm quite satisfied with Picture It Photo Premium 9 (PIPP9 henceforth) running on my Windows XP Home laptop. Previously I played with a couple different versions of Picture It but never became a serious fan, relying on Photoshop mostly for picture editing. But with PIPP9, I now have a simple-to-use, one-stop shop program for all my digital imaging needs.
Unlike the other MS offerings (Digital Image Pro and a deluxe version of that), PIPP9 emphases simplicity, so you won't find advanced editing tools like white balance adjustment and tint/hue adjustment as in Digital Image Pro. It's fine for me because I also have Photoshop. If you think you'll be doing a lot of manual editing, but not on the advanced-advanced level of Photoshop, you may want to get Digital Image Pro instead.
That said, here are some of the tools that I find tremendously well done in PIPP9.
1. Rule of thirds cropping guidelines. The first step in editing a photo (after making a backup copy of the original file, of course), is to re-orient it if necessary and crop it. (Crop carefully and don't lose anything you think you might need. You can always do a final crop at the very end of your editing process.) PIPP9 shows the "rule of thirds" grid so you can crop the photo properly. For those not familiar with this rule, it states your primary subject in the picture should be positioned at one of the intersections of three horizontal and three vertical lines running through the picture (like tic-tac-toe). For most personal photos, this rule allows a well-balanced picture in terms of subject positioning.
2. Batch file processing. After I download pictures from my digital camera, they have names like "DSCF001.JPG", "DSCF002.JPG", etc. PIPP9 lets me change the names all at once easily.
3. Auto level and contrast adjustments. I always let the program do some auto-adjusting first. With my Minolta Dimage F300 camera, it already gives the best machine-picked brightness and contrast, but I run PIPP9's auto tools anyway to be sure. Then I manually adjust the settings in Photoshop if necessary -- which is rare these days.
4. Picture straightening. This is not new but improved. Basically it corrects crooked pictures. Especially handy for scanned photos.
5. Picture sharpening and other effects. I do sharpening in the end because it affects contrast. Dido for other effects such as white balancing which I manually do in Photoshop if necessary (again, not often).
6. Finally I save. PIPP9 also lets me easily resize my photos for my Palm, my old Pocket PC, and even my Sanyo 8100 cell phone. The quality of the shrunk pictures is better than in previous versions.
Without listing every single feature I use often, let me just say that compared to other programs, PIPP9 is easy to use, has an attractive interface, and offers almost all the digital tools you'll need for photo editing. (Unless you are a total pro in which case Photoshop is still your only choice.) Performance is fast and reliable, and the end products look excellent. And, not the least, the price is totally right for home users.
One thing PIPP9 is not good at (other than the lack of sophisticated editing tools) is organizing photos. Microsoft has another program for you (Digital Image Pro, which includes PIPP9 and Photo Library). But I use Picasa which is great for organizing and sharing my huge collection of photos.
In summary, PIPP9 is perfect for home users who want the simplest way to enhance their digital images.
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