After years of doing very little to no photo-editing of my photos I begun the search for a good, solid editing and management tool. This was last Fall when this journey began but life has a way of setting our priorities and mine did. Now I finally have the time, and truthfully the energy, to try again. I am leaning heavily towards Adobe Lightroom and adding other software as plugins. Till then I dug around some photographers I respect and see what they are using. Steve @ daPonte Photography uses OnOne Software so I looked at their products and decided to downloaded their freeware Perfect Effects 8. The first photo I used Perfect Effects 8 to give it a light HDR/Grunge look. The second is the original with a brightness/contrast adjustment applied with Paint.NET, a software I stumbled upon while digging around the web..
Next week I am hoping to test drive TopazLabs free trail of some of their software. My buddy Mike @ Mike’s Look at Life does some amazing things with his already solid captures using some of their software. Till then here is Two To Compare.


I took advantage of the free download too of Perfect Effects 8 and have really enjoyed working with it-it will be interesting to see how this editing journey of yours unfolds-
Me too! I use Corel Paintshop X6 but honestly there so much I leave on the table because I do not understand working in layers. Also I like to use minimum adjustments and trust my equipment settings as I learn them. Perfect Effects 8 is to me much more straight forward….and simple 🙂