Cyberlink PhotoDirector 3 review

Software

9 May 2012

Ben Pitt

Our Rating :

Price when reviewed : £90

inc VAT

An interesting blend of features inspired by Lightroom and Photoshop Elements; it doesn't beat either but the combination of features works well

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The Edit tab is also home to four effects: Black & White, Sepia, Tint and Blur. Each one has a brush so that the effect can be selectively removed from parts of the image – perfect for creating black and white photos where one area is in colour, and also for simulating the narrow depth of field of a wide-aperture lens. However, the blur effect is a little ugly, turning each pixel into a square-shaped block. A circular blob to simulate the curved aperture blades of an expensive lens would give more attractive results. We’d also like to see a gradually increasing blur radius rather than a fade between blurred and sharp versions of the image.

PhotoDirector blur
Selective blur simulates depth-of-field effects but its execution could be more polished

The Object Removal tool is essentially the same as the Wrinkle Remover, and it works much better than Lightroom’s Spot Removal tool for removing large objects with complex shapes. Background Removal extracts a subject from its surroundings. Areas are defined with either a Lasso tool or something very similar to Photoshop Elements’ Quick Selection Tool. There’s also an Edge brush, which coped superbly with the complex outline of a fluffy llama. The extracted area is then saved as a PNG file, ready to drop into another image using the Photo Composer tool. The only snag is that PhotoDirector doesn’t support PNG files anywhere except in the Photo Composer, so we had to rummage around the hard disk to locate the saved file. The Photo Composer is destructive and exports JPEGs, but these too must be reimported into the library manually.

PhotoDirector extract
The Background Removal tool handles complex shapes brilliantly; its inclusion here might save the need for a separate layer-based editor

Lightroom can’t match the tools in the Edit tab but it does have other features absent from PhotoDirector, including an excellent mapping function, webpage generation and book design. Which set of tools is more useful is a matter of personal preference, but PhotoDirector’s extra features feel better suited to home use.