Thursday 26 March 2015

Powerful and intuitive


PhotoDirector 6 Ultra has all the advanced tools you need to edit your shots to perfection. Matty Graham takes a closer look at CyberLink’s latest software...

Cyberlink’s PhotoDirector 6 Ultra is a powerful post-processing and photo management software package, designed to rival better-known packages such as Lightroom and DxO OpticsPro. The software costs £116, which is roughly the same price as Lightroom at £110. The two are very similar in terms of interface, features and handling, so if you’ve used Lightroom in the past, you can expect a very shallow learning curve when you get started editing your shots.


The software, which allows for completely non-destructive editing, is split into five main sections marked by tabs along the top of the interface: Library for organising your images, Adjustment and Edit for making changes, Slideshow for viewing, and Print for accurate reproduction. As you’d expect for advanced photo editing software, PhotoDirector 6 Ultra comes with a very impressive adjustment toolkit, giving you full control over the results. Most settings are adjusted with sliders so changes can be made quickly and easily, and all settings are applied in real time.

There are several interesting editing features new to this version, including a Radial Filter to adjust settings within a targeted area of the frame, and a Photo Merge feature to stitch a series of images together into a detailed panorama. There’s also increased portrait editing control with the new Skin Tone adjustment tool, and a Face Swap feature for achieving smiley, blink-free group shots. Other creative additions include a Grain Effect to give your images a film look, and a Photo Composer function for cutting out and superimposing your subject onto a different background.

PhotoDirector 6 Ultra comes with a large number of one-click adjustment presets to speed up operation, and if you tire of these, you can download many more from the PhotoDirector community for free.

PhotoDirector 6 Ultra’s spec has been beefed up to off er 16-bit colour quality and RAW decoding technology, and users can share their creations to Flickr or Facebook via a dedicated Share button. The software comes with 10GB of free space on the CyberLink Cloud, so you can back up your images wirelessly, and you can now also work on the go with the PhotoDirector app.

Offering great value for money, this advanced software is everything you need for editing, organising, viewing and printing.

Pros
Simple & intuitive interface | Compatible with RAW files | Plenty of one-click presets | Easy to share images online | 10GB of cloud space

Cons
No ability to edit video | Price-tag a little high compared to Lightroom and Elements