Express Digital Darkroom
Written: Nov 05 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A complete package for the professional or advanced amateur photographer.
Cons: It is costly.
The Bottom Line: Be prepared to spend over $300, but you will be getting your moneys worth, especially if you run a photo business.
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| lucie30's Full Review: Express Digital Darkroom |
Digital photography is here to stay, not only for the occasional snapshot taker but for the professional photographer as well. As for me, I am delighted to be rid of darkrooms, chemicals and cumbersome enlargers. In the past, digital photographic processing ranged from the rather limited capabilities of software included with the camera purchase to really complicated, long learning time programs such as Photoshop. The time it took to master such intricate programs was a big overhead lug for small to medium studios and a real problem for the individual operator taking wedding, birthday and other event photos.
Express Digital Darkroom is the answer to many a prayer. It has every imaginable feature that I would have ever dreamt of and many that never occurred to me.
It automatically handles almost all of the overhead, tasks such as: customer information, photo identification, photo collation, catalog organization, slideshow making, printing, disk burning, archiving, shipping and even the interface with commonly used bookkeeping software such as Quick Books. This automated capability is a virtual office staff and a godsend to the small to medium operator. For larger operators, the program supports networking. I tried it on my office network with 4 connected computers running everything from Windows 2000 to Windows Vista and the networking worked just fine. It is wonderful to be able to easily perform the routine tasks and have time for the creative.
The setup is simple, just insert the program disk into your drive and follow the on-screen prompts. This process took a matter of minutes on a machine running Windows XP Pro with an AMD processor running at 2100 MHz. The next step is to insert a software protection device (dongle) that looks like a key chain memory stick into a USB port. The dongle allows access to the full program and is the only rather minor fault that I found with Express Digital Darkroom. If you have several computers, as I do, it is a pain to have to bring the dongle with you, especially with a laptop that goes on field assignments.
The operational aspects of the software are very well designed and quite intuitive to follow, and the well-written manual had to be referred to very few times during the initial learning period, which is on the order of 2-hours. At this point, you can start to use the software productively.
Try that with Photoshop.
Photos can be imported either directly from the camera, from the camera memory card through a card reader or from a file. You may open RAW and proprietary digital camera files, import from any compatible Twain source, open any standard digital file format, and capture images directly from most digital cameras. It worked for me on a Nikon Coolpix, an older HP and a brand new Canon.
Once imported you may readily catalog photos by event, subject or location, and archive photos to CD or DVD, plus basic batch process such as copy, rotate, preview and add notes to your photos.
I have a 40GB portable USB-2 hard drive that I immediately copy my memory card photos to, so I have quite a bit of storage. I then save the originals to a file on a DVDRW disk for archiving. I do my editing on the hard drive photos. Express Digital Darkroom handles this process with ease. I really like the ability to import all photos at once and so very quickly. The thumbnails in the resulting catalog show me exactly what I have and which need enhancement. Pictures are individually selectable by clicking on the thumbnail for processing.
The enhancement prompts are clear and the effect of each step is shown on screen along with the original so that you may instantly see the results. The enhancement features are essentially one-click steps so you are always in control. You then may easily create new photoproducts using borders, text, and overlay graphics. Enhancement functions include: brightness, color, contrast, and sharpness adjustments with advanced retouch workflow to get the best overall image possible. A very nice feature is the ability to enlarge a section of a photo so that you may do things such as examine an individual in a group photo or look at a specific area of a landscape to identify a feature or enlarge a sign or inscription so that it can be read. I often take photos of informational signs when I travel to add a bit of historic or technical data to the scene. This feature is also great for forensic work.
I can heartily recommend Express Digital Darkroom with no caveats or hesitation.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lucie30
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: A small island in the Intercoastal.
Reviews written: 252
Trusted by: 53 members
About Me:
3 University degrees. 30+ years in Electronics R&D. Registered Professional Engineer. Graduated USAF Flying School.
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