Corel PaintShop Pro X6 – Daffodil Hill Photography

Last month, in response to a suggestion from Nelson @ A few images, frozen in time , I wrote about the software I use to do my post photo-editing. Corel PaintShop Pro X6 is my main editing tool but I have been messing around with Perfect Effects 8 Free edition as well. As is my preference at this time I set my camera to the standard or natural setting in the camera’s onboard color mode. Since I usually do not limit my self to one subject when I am walking about this has several advantages. One is it allows me to shot an old building, like the following two, or brighter subjects with greens, reds or yellows without fear of the color blowing out the detail. Secondly I am freed up to enjoy the journey and live within the moment without sweating the small stuff. Since PaintShop Pro X6 has nice smart-fix menu tweaking the captures takes no time at all. I do not like spending time behind the computer so I keep it real simple. With Perfect Effects 8 Free edition tweaking my shots took a while but once I developed a sense of what I like I do not use more the four or five settings or effects as it is called with Effects 8. Below are two photos, one is I used PaintShop Pro the other Perfect Effects 8. I would be interested if anyone could see tell which was done with paid-for software or by freeware. Let me know I and I will respond to your comment.

Today I am going to act upon a suggestion from Nelson @ A few images, frozen in time and tell you about the software I use on my photos. I use Corel PaintShop Pro X6 because several years ago I got a copy of PaintShop X4 on closeout and two years later I was able to upgrade to X6 just as cheaply.

I use a simple one click photo fix that allows me to sharpen, brighten and adjust shadows and highlights from one place. I like this option since I do not like fiddling with my photos much. Why? I kind of like them as they are but sometimes you just need to give them a little love. Just saying. On the two below photos I used PaintShop’s HDR photo merge and took them with my Canon SX10is. As some of you know I am just getting into DSLR’s but used the Canon because it has an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) mode where my more expensive DSLR’s do not…..lesson here is if you want to do HDR check the camera you are looking at for this function (AEB). You can do this manually but so far my results, read here stuff I like, is better served with the AEB mode. I use a simple approach at this time and choose one of the six defaults PaintShop presents. I hope that helps anyone looking at getting into HDR even if just as a way t0o express oneself artistically. I hope you enjoy these two photo merges.