Software Review: Perfect Photo Suite 7 – Perfect Effects 4 From onOne Software

Perfect Photo Suite 7 is the latest bundle release of products from onOne Software. It contains seven separate products, that when combined, will provide you with just about everything you need to handle even the most complex of photographic post processing tasks.

The seven products are Perfect Effects 4 (formerly known as PhotoTools) for adding photographic effects, Perfect Portrait 2 for working with portraits, Perfect Mask 5, for masking images, Perfect Layers 3 for the ability to use layers in Lightroom and Apple Aperture, Perfect Resize 7.5 for photographic enlargements, FocalPoint 2 for adding depth-of-field to your images, and new to this lineup is Perfect B&W for creating stunning black and white images.

Also new to Perfect Photo 7 is the fact that it comes in three different editions – Standard, Lightroom and Aperture, and Premium Editions. For more information about what the differences are between these editions and the pricing, check out the comparison page at onOne’s website.

With the Perfect Photo Suite you get the most current version of each of the seven products. Two of them are the same that came with the prior version of the suite so for further information about FocalPoint 2 and Perfect Mask 5, please refer to my prior reviews. For this review I will look at Perfect Effects 4. To see what is required to run the onOne Plug-in Suite, please refer to the specs page for proper minimum system requirements.

Perfect Effects 4

The purpose of Perfect Effects 4 is to give you the ability to create images with more impact. It contains a complete library of photographic effects that you can apply to your images to transform them instantly. You can give them an HDR look, make them that vintage look, or apply looks that give them that real film style. You can preview on to your image before being applied and you can even stack your effects for more dramatic styles and endless possibilities.

Perfect Effects 4 can be used as stand-alone, as a plug-in within Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, and within Adobe Lightroom, and Apple Aperture. Perfect Effects 4 gives you a whole set of advanced tools and options to limit effects to specific colors or tonal range of an image. You can recreate the look of film, add borders, and correct many photographic problems.

So what is new with Perfect Effects 4?

• Browser and Keyword search – now gives you the ability to quickly find the effects that you want to use inside the updated browser. You can use the expandable column views to preview how the effect will look on your image.

• Favorites – will save you time and effort by letting you keep your favorite effects, presets, and extras close at hand. You simply mark the effects that you like as being a favorite, and then you can filter to show you only the ones you like.

• Paint-in Effect Brushes – lets you, through simple brush strokes, paint-in effect onto certain areas of your image. This will let you solve common photographic problems quickly and easily. You can make areas darker or lighter, bring out detail, add warmth, and many other effects.

• Masking Tools – gives you the ability to selectively apply effects from the library just by using the Masking Brush to either apply or remove the effect from specific areas of the image as well as using the masking bug to create vignettes and graduated filter looks.

• Perfect Brush – can be turned on when using the Paint-in Effect Basic Brushes or the Masking Brush. It will give you the ability to achieve precise edge-detected masking with the new Perfect Brush and it will allow you to smoothly apply or remove adjustments to the specific area that you are working on without going outside the area that you are restricting yourself to. This means that if you want to bring out the impact in the eyes, you can better isolate your efforts without impacting the skin around the eyes.

• Improved blending modes – lets you create more stylized looks by controlling brightness, contrast, and color of the image. Perfect Effects 4 now includes over a dozen new blending modes that include Linear Burn, Color Dodge, Pin Light, Luminosity and more.

• Borders from Photoframe – can add that additional style to your image giving it a more finished look. Now you can add that finishing touch to your image with a collection of borders handpicked from PhotoFrame. Find a creative assortment of these design elements in your Effects Library.

• Enhanced library of effects – are at your fingertips with as little as a single click. You can add popular HDR or vintage looks to your image, recreate the look of film and darkroom techniques, and more. You can also add depth and dimension with texture effects, highlight with glows, simulate filters after the shot, and enhance detail and color. Combine, stack and blend your choice effects to create your own unique look.

Perfect Effects 4 contains a lot of really powerful effects that can be used to transform your image quickly and easily. It would take you hours to attain the same type of effects using Photoshop alone – not to mention the skills that you would need, that you can get with a couple clicks of Perfect Effects. The nice thing is that it works with most of the popular photo editing software products on the market and will even work standalone mode so you don’t need an editing program.

My favorite additions to this product are the new paint-in effect brushes that give you much finer control than you ever had before. The Perfect Brush with its edge-detecting capabilities, and the improved blending modes. Overall, Perfect Effects 4 as well as Perfect Photo Suite 7 are really powerful and definitely must be looked at when looking for plugins and it is really a worthy upgrade. I highly recommend this product.