No layers?

[EricB Profile]

I've taken a break from this for a couple of weeks as I had a significant amount of editing to do in photoshop. Now I am trying exactly what I was doing there, masking out the background, clearing it and pasting in new background. This is what i tried to do before in this package. Maybe I'm just too entrenched the the "photoshop way" but I just can't get my head around the (lack of) (or too well hidden) options this package offers. I don't seem to be able to persuade it to select/mask in the same way twice, even on same image/same brush settings. Even when I do have a successful selection I can't save the mask or just delete/clear unwanted pixels. Output is only to JPG/tiff or own file type, nothing too useful for photoshop. Not much point in saving if I haven't cleared what isn't wanted. Adding in rep background certainly isn't "intuitive'..

Probably just me but big thumbs down atm...

[admin]

It's true, we have taken a very different approach to Photoshop. (If we tried to just copy photoshop a small company like ours would be crushed). There are lots of things we don't even try and support, partly because each extra feature that gets added adds complexity and, like lightroom, we are trying just to be a tool for improving photographs. What this software is not trying to be is a design package, so you won't find things like drawing tools, text, the ability to lay out pictures on a page, etc. Replacing the background with one of your own choosing is something that is not well supported currently partly because it falls more towards the design end of the scale (which is fuzzy). However, it's something we could easily add if there was a lot of support for it. So are there many other people out there who want to be able to replace a background with another picture? If we did support it, it would more likely be a single tool specifically designed for doing that, rather than the photoshop approach of a lot of separate tools that one has to figure out how to use.

Tony

[EricB Profile]

I've kept coming back to this package over the weeks and am still at a complete loss as to what it has that brings any benefit at all to my workflow. As I stated when I originally applied to beta test for you (and not knowing what it was I'd be testing other than it being photo related), I am a photography student on the brink of going pro freelance photographer. It seems an awful lot of the filters produced so far by contributers are "arty' effects, which without a lot of work are probably likely to be applied in an almost random way by users to produce "wacky" "out there" visually exiting pics. I'm not saying there isn't a demand for that, just I can't see how to utilise it in a way that allows me to market my images to the benefit and approval of my customers. I need far more control than this package offers.

Regarding being too small to compete with Adobe photoshop. Not suggesting you would. But I think creating something these days that doesn't interface well is making life difficult. There are numerous "small" companies out there doing very well in the PS plugin game.

[Miss Lou Wise Profile]

It's true, we have taken a very different approach to Photoshop. (If we tried to just copy photoshop a small company like ours would be crushed). There are lots of things we don't even try and support, partly because each extra feature that gets added adds complexity and, like lightroom, we are trying just to be a tool for improving photographs. What this software is not trying to be is a design package, so you won't find things like drawing tools, text, the ability to lay out pictures on a page, etc. Replacing the background with one of your own choosing is something that is not well supported currently partly because it falls more towards the design end of the scale (which is fuzzy). However, it's something we could easily add if there was a lot of support for it. So are there many other people out there who want to be able to replace a background with another picture? If we did support it, it would more likely be a single tool specifically designed for doing that, rather than the photoshop approach of a lot of separate tools that one has to figure out how to use.

Tony

Yes that is a "must". posting.php?mode=quote&f=12&t=168&p=320# My ambition is to make my own photos as spectacular as possible. Ex: The montain in silhouet in front of a great sunset instead a blue regular sky; or adding a nice surrounding to kids playing outside... posting.php?mode=quote&f=12&t=168&p=320#I can do it with Photoshop but Smart Photo Editor with the easy selecting tool would be a very good shortcut.posting.php?mode=quote&f=12&t=168&p=320#

[Miss Lou Wise Profile]

(personal) why the emoticones that I have put in my text are not showing ? just the text.

[admin]

It seems that there certaonly is a lot of demand for combining pictures so this is now something we are now actively working on. This is why these forums are so important to us, when you can all tell us what you want, we can try and provide it!

[sassafraspics Profile]

I am confused..i just bought this program. Why is it some effects I can confirm and others I can't? it will take me a very long time to use this, I am afraid.

[admin]

It's only in the gallery where you have to confirm which effect you want, because it's only in the gallery that there are lots of different choices at once. For all the other tools, there is only one thing happening, so you don't need to confirm. We are currently rethinking how this is presented to make it less confusing to new users.

Tony

[Robert F. Frydryck Profile]

Still layers wold be a welcome if not necessary addition unless the photoshop plugin is on it's way.