PhotoTune 2 is a product whose goal is to allow you to do color correction in Photoshop without having to learn complex controls. It is really two separate programs that target different methods of correcting color.

First there is ColorTune that uses a six step process to correct the color in your digital photos. Essentially what ColorTune does is present you with two images, side by side as shown below. You choose which one looks the best and then you select it and you move on to your next choice until you complete all six steps.

By using this six step process, it makes it very easy for anyone to use PhotoTune 2 and come out with better looking images without having to know a whole lot about Camera Raw and curves manipulation. It works kind of like an eye exam in which you are presented the images and you make adjustments (or you can use the default changes and just select the image that looks best) until one of them looks good to you. You select the image and then you move to your next correction. You work through tone, brightness, and color temperature until it looks right to you.

The next module of PhotoTune 2 is SkinTune which focuses on skin tones. The SkinTune portion works in a similar way except that when you open your image, you are asked to select a skin tone and a racial type, Caucasian, Asian, African, etc. Then you select a skin tone, and it auto corrects based on a bunch of calculations. See the second image below.

What is needed to run PhotoTune 2? On Mac you need OSX 10.4.8 or higher with either Power PC or Intel Processor. On Windows you need XP SP2 or later. And then you need Photoshop CS2, CS3, or Photoshop Elements 4 or later. 512 MB ram, 150 MB disk space, and Adobe Flash Player 9 for tutorial movies.

So what is new with version 2 (actually this review is based on version 2.2) of PhotoTune?

• Six Step Approach – takes the color wizard down from 13 steps to just 6 steps. It now takes less time to auto correct your images.

• User Control in the Color Wizard – now lets you set the amount of each change during each step in the 6 step process. You can now adjust the dynamic range, brightness, contrast, saturation, and the shadows and highlights.