First Exposure: Corel PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate

Photo enthusiasts working on Windows computers have some incredibly capable image editing software to choose from. And, thanks to the competition between developers, they are all aggressively priced around $100. With the release of the PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate (PSPX4) and the slightly less featured PaintShop Pro X4, I would place them in the top tier, competing for position with Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Serif PhotoPlus X5.

Both versions of PaintShop Pro X4 build on the changes incorporated into PaintShop Photo Pro X3, including the attractive Graphite Workspace user interface introduced in X2. “Photo” is eliminated from the product name in the current version in recognition of its additional uses for Web pages, scrapbooking and social networking. The workflow is improved in PSPX4 with the addition of tabs to navigate between the Manage, Adjust and Edit workspaces. Now only one click of the mouse is needed to navigate between workspaces. And now you can make the Organizer display visible in all three workspaces, saving mouse clicks to navigate to the separate Organizer workspace in previous versions.

There are a few new features and a number of significant enhancements in both versions of PSPX4. The new Photo Blend feature allows you to quickly combine the best features of two photos and eliminate the worst. If you are faced with a group shot with subjects blinking or moving in different frames, it is a simple matter of swapping the best heads into one photo, provided of course that your camera was tripod mounted.
Selective Focus is another new feature. It allows you to turn a normal scene into a “miniature” or to blur the foreground and background to draw your eye to the subject. It is far more useful to do this in post than while you are shooting with a camera that offers this feature.

Also new is the Vignette feature. Vignette effects are staging a significant comeback and PSPX4 has a nice one with options for circular, rectangular and freehand shapes along with dark/light, blur, diffuse glow and feather sliders.

And PSPX4 now has Clarity and Fill Light tools. The Clarity tool has positive and negative values, allowing you to increase or decrease the appearance of fine detail in the image. I found that the positive values worked very nicely with landscape images while the negative values subtly softened portrait detail. Using the Clarity tool in conjunction with the Makeover tools in the Adjust tab, the Selective Focus and the Vignette tools, I was able to retouch a difficult portrait with ease.

The new Fill Light tool is grouped with the Clarity tool for some reason, rather than the Brightness/Contrast tools, which would seem more logical to me, but Fill Light works as expected. What is lacking, however, is a Fill Light tool in the RAW Lab.

I have been critical of earlier versions of PaintShop Pro for its slow support of RAW file formats and its lack of tools in RAW Lab, PaintShop Pro’s RAW file conversion module. File support is vastly improved in PSPX4—even Phase One RAW files display as thumbnails and are supported in RAW Lab, along with my Nikon P7000 NRW files. There is a new highlight recover tool in this version, but it’s a drop-down menu with only a few options rather than a slider. And as I mentioned, there is not even the most basic fill light tool for RAW files. This may be fine for enthusiasts, but will be disappointing for professionals wanting more control.

Another criticism I had from previous versions is the choice of sRGB as the default color workspace. Again, this may be fine for some enthusiasts, but isn’t appropriate for most users converting RAW files. Yes, advanced users may find the Color Workspace preference (File>Color Management>Color Workspace) to change the color space, but if not, every image defaults to 8-bit sRGB.

Another enhancement in PSPX4 is the HDR tool introduced in X3. Added to this latest version is an HDR Batch Merge tool and HDR presets and custom settings. While these don’t offer the options available in expensive HDR standalone software or HDR plug-in filters, they do a good job creating an HDR image with basic adjustments available for the image.

Other tools that were introduced in PaintShop Photo Pro X3 remain. The Smart Carver allows you to seamlessly remove objects from anywhere in the scene and then alter the proportion of the image when they are removed without distorting the rest of the image. The Object Extractor makes it easier to remove part of one image and add it to another. All that you need to do is draw around the edge of the object, slightly overlapping the background, fill the object with a mask color and PSPX4 extracts the object.

However, PSPX4 is missing PaintShop Project Creator, which shipped with PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and the Ultimate version, and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 that shipped only with the X3 Ultimate version. Corel cites lack of user interest, but I rather liked Photo Essentials for its ability to quickly enhance a photo with a painterly look. Corel Painter Essentials 4 is now available as a separate program with a $49.99 MSRP.

With all of the features described above, PSPX4 is a powerful image browser, editor and output creator and a top competitor in a competitive arena. Registered users are entitled to a free download of WinZip 15 and the KPT Collection—24 creative plug-in filters that let you add dramatic effects to images and photo compositions, adding further value to PaintShop Pro X4. But Corel has taken PSPX4 a step further with the release of the Ultimate version. PSPX4 Ultimate adds four additional features to the package.

One of the new features, Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3, is worth the cost of the Ultimate version upgrade by itself. These 52 filters include effects and styles with over 250 separate effects to further enhance images. Both versions of PSPX4 accept Photoshop plug-ins, so you can add additional third-party plug-ins at any time.

Picture Tubes, the ability to paint a collection of objects on an image, are popular with many enthusiast photographers. Over 200 Picture Tubes are included in the Ultimate version and many more are available online.

Also included with the Ultimate version is the ability to download 21 royalty-free images at no cost, as well as illustrations from Fotalia Images and the ability to create a free custom photo book from Blurb.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, Serif PhotoPlus X4 and Corel PaintShop Pro X3 all have basically the same tools with different additional features. Choosing between these programs will be heavily dependent on your individual needs. For example, PaintShop Pro X4 is the only one that supports CMYK input and output for commercial printing. This may not be relevant to many enthusiasts, but will matter to some. And if you have a collection of Kodak PhotoCDs, you can open the images with the Corel and Serif software, but not with Adobe’s.

If you add IPTC data to your RAW files when you import them into your computer, the Adobe and Serif softwares preserve this information when the file is converted to TIFF or JPEG, while PSPX4 strips IPTC and EXIF data from the file when saving. And when you make adjustments to images, a Levels adjustment for example, PSPX4 applies it directly to the active layer while the other programs automatically create an adjustment layer and layer mask to apply the change non-destructively. These subtle differences can lead to big disappointments if you have purchased the program, so it’s a good idea to take advantage of the free trial periods before buying.

A fully functional 30-day trial version of Corel PaintShop Pro X4 is available for download from Corel’s Web site for you to see for yourself the power and versatility of the program. In fact, the Corel Web site, www.corel.com, is loaded with support possibilities. These include tutorials, tips and tricks, free downloads, an extensive knowledge base, member discussions and more.

I’ve only scratched the surface of all the features in PSPX4. Consumers in North America can purchase Corel PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate for $99.99 MSRP (USD and CAD). Registered owners of previous Corel PaintShop Pro products can upgrade to Corel PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate for $79.99 SRP. Corel PaintShop Pro X4 is available for $79.99.

Stan Sholik is a commercial/advertising photographer in Santa Ana, CA, specializing in still life and macro photography. His latest book, HDR Efex Pro After the Shoot, covering Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro software is published by Wiley Publishing and is now available.