Corel Aftershot Pro2: Has anyone used Corel Aftershot Pro2? Corel has a special price of less than $50. recently and I wonder how well its works -- and how easy it is to use. I'm...

Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

Has anyone used Corel Aftershot Pro2? Corel has a special price of less than $50. recently and I wonder how well its works -- and how easy it is to use. I'm tempted to try it. I have been using Picasa for years and also iPhoto for a year.

pixbyjnjphotos Loc: Apache Junction,AZ

I do use Corel's Aftershot Pro 2. I like it. I think they will need a couple more upgrades to make it really good. It is certainly a useful program now. Aftershot Pro2 does have cataloging, tagging, importing, and exporting, but you can easily circumvent all that and just bring in a photo you want to work on. It is pretty easy and has good adjustments. The plugins are not all that great. It is really a RAW file converter but, works on jpg as well. When you are done with all the adjustment fiddling, you will have to export the result. I like to export as a tif and finish up in Corel's Paint Shop Pro X8. I think Aftershot Pro is well worth a try. You can download for free trial. However, the holiday prices are very tempting. Aftershot Pro 2 works on Windows, MAC, and Linux. Give it a try. Hope this helps a bit. Have a GREAT DAY!

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Morry wrote:

Has anyone used Corel Aftershot Pro2? Corel has a special price of less than $50. recently and I wonder how well its works -- and how easy it is to use. I'm tempted to try it. I have been using Picasa for years and also iPhoto for a year.

Got it for free with my PSP X8, tried it once or twice, don't see a need for it, I do my RAW conversion in DPP, and 'cataloging' I do is either in the directories or in PSP itself, Bob.

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

Morry wrote:

Has anyone used Corel Aftershot Pro2? Corel has a special price of less than $50. recently and I wonder how well its works -- and how easy it is to use. I'm tempted to try it. I have been using Picasa for years and also iPhoto for a year.

I gave Aftershot a try some time ago - I'm not sure now what version it was. After trying it I decided I liked RawTherapee better as a RAW converter. I'm not much into the idea of image management - I have my own system and it works for me.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

bobmcculloch wrote:

Got it for free with my PSP X8, tried it once or twice, don't see a need for it, I do my RAW conversion in DPP, and 'cataloging' I do is either in the directories or in PSP itself, Bob.

Actually what you got was After Shot 2, not After Shot Pro 2.
It is a simplified version Pro has more features and is supposed to be faster.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

robertjerl wrote:

Actually what you got was After Shot 2, not After Shot Pro 2.
It is a simplified version Pro has more features and is supposed to be faster.

Okaay.. What does it do that I can't do with PSP, I see no point in an extra step in cataloging and am happy with DPP for RAW conversion, actually PSP does a good quick conversion on it's own.

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

bobmcculloch wrote:

Got it for free with my PSP X8, ...

Bob,

Did you find much in PSP 8 to make it a noticeable improvement over PSP X7?

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

pecohen wrote:

Bob,

Did you find much in PSP 8 to make it a noticeable improvement over PSP X7?

Good question, not sure, did a lot of things on the computer at that time, I think it works a little faster, I'm actually using my back up computer for the last 2 weeks so it's slower going anyway, the things I usually do I'd say about the same, but once your a registered user you get advance and discount on the next upgrade so I did it, lot cheaper than Adobe CC and easier to use, I haven't found anything that I can't do, doesn't have a dehaze but the suggest settings does reduce it a lot jsut used it on some from Friday, dismal morning in Lancaster, PA, almost ready to post some shots on Flickr and Tumblr, did panos, very moody looking shots.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

[quote=pecohen]Bob,
OOPs double post

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

I'm a long-time PSP user but I'm still using PSP X7. I couldn't see any new feature that mattered much to me aside from supposedly better performance - something I tend to be skeptical about. A 1ms improvement is a performance improvement but I'd not notice it. I think it was supposed to have an improved selection brush - maybe worthwhile on occasions.

There seems to be a bug in X7 and it seems to still be there in X8 and if they managed to fix that I would gladly upgrade. The problem is that selection curves don't seem to work in 16-bit resolution; when you use an adjustment curve the histogram gets ragged. So I avoid using adjustment curves in PSP by using Raw Therapee as a front-end. If Corel doesn't fix this problem I may be forced to switch to Adobe some day.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

bobmcculloch wrote:

Okaay.. What does it do that I can't do with PSP, I see no point in an extra step in cataloging and am happy with DPP for RAW conversion, actually PSP does a good quick conversion on it's own.

Haven't learned it yet, got my first copy when I bought PSP X8. I have been using PSP since Corel aquired it. Before that I used Photo Paint, the photo editing app in Corel Draw Suite.

I have been using LR for a couple of years and don't like the CC rental idea much but thought I should try it, I still haven't learned to use PS, I mostly go to PSP or PSE from LR. I do well over 90% of all my PP in LR alone. I have the standalone LR6 on my laptop so that if I decide to drop CC I will still have access to my LR processed images. Since I got After Shot I really need to learn to use it and decide if I want to go over to After Shot Pro in place of LR. I also need to learn PS so I can judge them and decide which to keep using.
I have this awful feeling that I will find I like parts of each of them and want to keep them all.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I have this awful feeling that I will find I like parts of each of them and want to keep them all.[/quote]

That's a possibility, strong points , I'm slowly reducing the number of utilities I use, Irfanview is just too good of viewer, Fastone Resizer too, Oh well, have a good day, Bob.