pc-rubriek de Monitor: Sagelight, a great photo editor, for whatever you want to pay!

dinsdag 13 april 2010

Sagelight, a great photo editor, for whatever you want to pay!

"The freeware version of Sagelight Image Editor is currently our Top Pick for the "Best Free Digital Editor." During the month of April, in an exclusive offer through Gizmo's Freeware, you can get the $60 full-featured version of this amazingly powerful professional image editor and pay just what you want!
Sagelight Image Editor

Sagelight Image Editor V3.0 (previously called LightboxPlus) is a professional 48-bit image editor, with many powerful features that can take a humdrum snapshot, and turn it into something truly exceptional. If you can use a computer mouse then you can use this program. It is designed around a very simple and user friendly concept of click and drag sliders, that are completely intuitive, and you can see the results of the adjustments in real-time. You will be able to begin using it immediately to enhance your pictures, even if you have very limited knowledge of digital photo editing software. If you find yourself saying, "Since it is easy for beginners to use, it can't be powerful enough for a professional," then you would be very mistaken. The keyword here is "depth" This program has real depth. As you become more familiar with the program, you will find that every aspect of your images can be tuned. By combining different functions with each other, you can bring out details and colors you had no idea were even there.
Part of the power of this program is that it supports 48bit color depth. That is over over 281 trillion possible colors. The human eye can perceive little beyond 24bit, which might leave some asking, "So what the point of the other 24?" ......"
read more on Gizmo's Freeware
and on the developer's site
Watch how you can enhance an image in Quick Edit Mode:

Some features:

Sagelight 48-bit Image Editor v3.0 features:

Very fast, real-time native 48-bit editor
Most functions written with SSE/MMX technology
Easy and Intuitive controls, designed just for Sagelight
.8BF Filter Support. Many filters included.
Powerful 'Quick Edit Mode'
Professional level functions
Dodge and Burn, and Clone Brush
Unlimited Undo History with an "Undo Brush" to merge or blend different image states
"Smart Light" features to help add light or create contrast without destroying image information
Tooltips on every control and extensive help
Very powerful masking functions
Tutorials for major functions
Extensive Auto Color/Auto Level algorithms to help balance your image
Straighten Horizon (arbitrary rotate) with Auto Crop
Resize, Crop, Add Border, Red Eye removal, Print, etc.
Unsharp Mask, Gaussian Blur, Median, and Skin Smoothing and noise removal functions
More than 50 different functions and effects
48-bit RAW File Support with Highlight Recovery
48-bit, compressed tiff (read and write) support

New Features of Sagelight (compared to Lightbox 2.0)

ICC Profile Support with an ICC icon for images with profiles
Real-time Histogram with composite curve display
Core engine re-written in MMX/SSE technology (i.e. ultra fast)
40 new function and effects modes, including
- 48-bit Gaussian Blur, Unsharp Mask, Channel Mixer, variable Saturation Increase, Median function, Skin Smoothing Functions, Image Blending, Vignette, Photo Filter/Gradient, Skin/Image smoothing, abitrary rotation (i.e. straighten horizon), etc.
- Standard functions such as Posterize, Threshold, Maximum, Median, etc. -- all with multiple options for interesting effects.
- General effects such as Duotoning, Color Contrast functions, Soft Glow/Focus, Moasic 2d/3d, Vintage Picture, edge effects, glass, plastic, oil paint, etc.
All curves (i.e. RGB/Color sliders) have been redesigned to work more fluidly, faster, and are much higher resolution.
All Brushes (such as Clone, Dodge and Burn, and Undo Brush) have been redesigned and re-implemented and are now fast and realtime, making these functions a lot more useful and high-end quality.
New Auto Levels and Auto Color routines with Histogram Display
Raw Highlight Mode Recovery Support
the "Add Border" function has been revamped and is now much more useful
Initial load is much faster
There is now a mini-toolbar which is much more useful and out of the way -- the 2.0 version was too big and is now gone
The resizing functions have been enhanced
There is now a File Info function that displays Exif information
File loading and saving is much faster.

I took Sagelight for a test drive and it is an easy to use but powerful image editor!
The best advice: download and try for yourself, get convinced and make use of the April offer!
Some screen shots: (click on images to enlarge)