The latest updates to the powerful Windows-only Zoner Photo Studio X software includes many enhancements of benefit to portrait, wedding and event photographers, whether they capture still or video images. While the prior update primarily targeted new and enhanced video capabilities, the most recent update includes many new and improved tools for working with still images, while further extending the video capabilities of the software.

Zoner Photo Studio X: What’s New

For still photographers, the new features in the latest Zoner Photo Studio X software are found in the Develop module. These include major changes to the Exposure and Noise Reduction settings along with faster, more responsive edits.

In Exposure, the sliders are now grouped into three sections. The first section holds the Exposure, Contrast, White point, and Black point sliders from the previous version. The second section is “Dynamic Range” and contains the previous Lights and Shadows sliders plus the new White and Black sliders. From the previous version, Clarity and Dehaze are found in the third “Details” section, along with a new Texture slider.

The new White and Black sliders give greater control over tonal areas than simply using the previous version’s Lights and Shadows sliders, which had a strong effect on areas at the ends of the tonal range. In the latest version of Zoner, the Lights and Shadows sliders have been reconfigured to adjust a more limited tonal range that results in a more natural result without generating artifacts than can occur by making major tonal adjustments.

[Read: Zoner Photo Studio X Updates: Enhanced Local Edits]

The new Texture slider functions to bring out nuances and fine detail in the image. The Clarity function in previous versions, which is still available, served to enhance detail throughout the image. The Texture function is limited to the lighter contours in the image. This makes it particularly useful for enhancing a model’s hair without affecting the skin, or for bringing out fine detail in landscape and close-up images.

There is also a completely redesigned noise reduction function in the Develop module. It now includes Detail preservation sliders for both the Luminance and Color noise reduction tools, which have been reengineered to deliver luminance and color noise reduction with minimal artifacts and banding. The Detail preservation sliders serve to bring back some of the detail sharpness always lost when reducing noise.

Videographers, who were the major beneficiaries of the Spring 2021 update, have not been overlooked. Updates to the video editor and video files make life easier and faster for the increased need for video editing by professional photographers.

Video clips are now marked with a movie slate icon in the Manager module and more information on the clip is included in the Media section of the right panel. In the video editor panel, it is now possible to separately turn on and off the insert mode for each track for increased flexibility. You can also now adjust the vertical size of each track in the timeline and batch edit the type of transition between tracks by holding the shift key when selecting the transitions.

Finally, Zoner Studio X now supports the new AVIF (AV1 Image Format) supported by Google, Netflix, Microsoft, and Amazon and most browsers other than Safari. AVIF is able to store image data with lower data consumption and higher quality compared to the JPEG format.

User Friendliness

The user interface may look busier than other programs for new users since it combines the capabilities of Adobe Bridge, Photoshop, and Lightroom (if you choose to use the Zoner Photo Studio X catalog function). Once you become familiar with it, the flow feels smooth and natural. The horizontal list of tools in both the Develop and Editor modules takes a little getting used to, but the popup labels will help new users become quickly familiar with them. And while you must go to the on-line help, accessed through the question mark icon in the upper border, to find the keyboard shortcuts, many of them are common with those in Adobe programs, which have become the de facto shortcuts for many imaging programs.

What Works

As with previous versions of Zoner X, I have found little to fault with the latest features and enhancements. The software continues to approach the features in the very top tier of imaging programs for Windows users. In some ways, the user interface and user friendliness in Zoner is superior to more feature-rich competitors. The addition of sliders for blacks and whites is welcome and the range of nearly all of the sliders seem more than adequate to save all but the most improperly exposed captures.

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I did notice what felt like increased responsiveness in the Develop and Editor modules with this update. It seems that all new releases tout increased speed, but this release of Zoner actually did seem more responsive to slider adjustments. Whether it is actually six times faster, as the company claims, is difficult to quantify even though there is the unique ability in the program to compare the current version with previous versions.

The improvements for video editing, while not groundbreaking, are useful. For occasional video edits, or to create a video from still and video clips, Zoner is more than adequate.

What Doesn’t Work

While Zoner Photo Studio X continues to improve in small ways, there are significant features lacking. There are still no content-aware tools. Also needing major work are the selection and masking features. Presently the selection tools are less precise than those found in other imaging programs and there are fewer ways to precisely refine the selections. This makes sophisticated masking more difficult, although it may be adequate for many users who don’t require precise masking of hair from a background for example.

I would also like to be able to see the list of keyboard shortcuts and the rest of the help topics without having to go online. There are times when you don’t have internet access for instance. And it would be nice to have editable keyboard shortcuts so that you could transfer ones that you are familiar with or have created in other imaging software into Zoner.

Zoner Photo Studio X: How It Compares

Zoner Photo Studio X remains one of the top image editing programs for Windows. While Photoshop offers a more robust set of editing and export options and of course Mac compatibility, Photoshop is far less user friendly with an enormously greater learning curve than Zoner. Zoner Photo Studio is available for less than half the cost of the Adobe photography bundle, and you keep the Zoner program if you don’t renew your subscription.

And if you are looking for photo and video editing capabilities in one program, the only choices other than Zoner Photo Studio X are really Photoshop and ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate. For professional still photographers who are adding video services and are on Windows, this latest update to Zoner Photo Studio X is worth a serious look.

Costs for Subscription-Only Zoner Photo Studio X

The subscription-only Zoner Photo Studio X software is available for $4.99 per month or $49 per year and permits installation on an unlimited number of Windows computers. The subscription includes 20 GB of on-line storage through Zoner Photo Cloud with additional storage available. Also included are 15 free 4 x 6-inch photo prints each year that your subscription is active. And if you decide not to renew your subscription or are late with your renewal, you keep the current program and your work, you just don’t receive future updates. A 30-day free trial is available at zoner.com. You might also be interested in Zonerama, a free online service integrated into Zoner Photo Studio that offers users unlimited space and lets them upload photos and videos, organize them into albums, and then easily share them. Find out more here.

Stan Sholik is a prolific photographer and tech writer located in San Clemente, California.

Read more of Sholik’s software reviews here.