This is going to be the shortest review, so I might as well get it over and done with.

LightCraft’s LightZone (version 3.8 tested) is advertised under the slogan: Photo editing for professional photographers who like things made simple. Version 3.9 is available now, but I seriously doubt that it will magically differ from the version tested.

Professional looking box with poo inside!

And it simply doesn’t work on my machine. What will earn it a big sweaty and hairy pair of bollocks as a verdict is the fact that it requires a processor with SSE2 support and the only way to find it is to go through “Help” section on LightCraft’s web page. It simply isn’t mentioned anywhere else.

While the SSE2 support requirement is not entirely unreasonable, it isn’t essential for running any other RAW processing software including, believe it or not DxO Optics Pro! Furthermore, it is appalling that the setup does not halt if CPU doesn’t conform to the requirement, as you can clearly see in the series of the screenshots as follows:

Ok, files are extracting...

Maybe tell user now that the system doesn't match the requirements?

Ok, how about now then?

Maybe now then?

Not even now?

Whaa..? So my system is ok? Let's run the software then!

BANG!

Also, none of the digital medium format cameras including CaptureOne’s P65 or P40, Pentax D645 or (no, I didn’t even expect that one, but still) Leica S2 are supported. And LightCrafts still dare to claim “Photo editing for professional photographers..”

So, LightZone you say? No thank you!!!

If you work with digital photography, you undoubtedly came across OnOne software’s various plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop. So did I and unfortunately for me I decided to try some of the “goodness”. After all, I do like to simplify certain tasks. And I genuinely trust Mr David Huss of the Photoshop User Magazine (sarcasm)….

And Mr. Gavin Seim continues down the same path. Quote: “Sometimes you just want to add a sloppy border, acid burn, or other creative edge. PhotoFrame is the best I’ve found. There are loads of options available and the new interface makes it easy to mix match and decide what works.”

Don’t get me wrong – PhotoFrame is actually quite useful for those who haven’t learned to create own actions or install abundance of free pre-made ones. And there are plenty of freebies on the net. One particular springs to mind – Action Central. Until now I personally used 3-4 actions I created in 10 minutes or so. And that is without any particular advanced knowledge of Photoshop.

Here I wanted a particular edge effect and simply used a custom brush. Free of charge, of course.

Furthermore, if you use Photoshop simply to resize the images this plug-in is absolutely for you. I feel that the “Professional Edition” in the title is quite misleading. There is absolutely nothing professional about it. If you look at one of the tad more obscure products on the market – Graphicxtras Frames Collection (unfortunately no longer available), the latter actually did offer so much more. What was especially appealing about Graphicxtras collections is that instead of a plug-in, you were using basic Photoshop (alternatively PainShopPro) tools in order to achieve the look you want. Something that gave one knowledge of and something which one undoubtedly benefited from. Alternatively, there are tons of free shapes, actions, and scripts online which can be used to frame your images.

Let us first take a look at system requirements. OnOne’s PhotoFrame 4.5 requires following:

Pentium 4 or equivalent

• 2GB RAM
• 3GB of hard drive space
• OpenGL 2.0 capable video card with 256MB VRAM running at 1024×768 or higher

Additional requirements – Internet connection for auto-updates, activation, and video tutorials and Adobe Flash Player 10. Integration with Adobe Lightroom requires full version of Photoshop (CS2, CS3 or CS4). OnOne claims compatibility with recently released CS5, but I personally wouldn’t take it for granted. Last but not least, software is available in English only.

I am not sure if you do, but I find it a bit too juicy for my liking.

Well, what are requirements for Graphicxtras Frame Collection then? Roughly 290Mb of HD space and that’s all.

There is a certain trade-off for everything. Perhaps PhotoFrame 4.5 is taking a lot of workload off my plate? Let’s try then…

So there it goes. My Photoshop CS2 is effectively dead after the installation of the OnOne PhotoFrame Pro 4.5. Removing it does not resolve the issue, and I fear I will have to re-install all my CS2 applications.

Additionally, the uninstaller leaves behind a lot of orphaned files and entries in the registry. Very poor.

Most unfortunate in this case is perhaps the fact that I didn’t bother to create a restore point (Windows user, yes), thinking that I am quite likely to be safe. I was solely mistaken. Not least due to the fact that I actually thought PhotoframePro 4.5 could ACTUALLY offer anything of use.…

Perhaps just a final tip to resolve the R6025 – PureVirtual Function call Runtime Error:

Should you get the error message, browse to your Adobe Photoshop plugin directory (default and usual one is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CSx\Plug-Ins) and remove the onOne Library.acel.8bx and onOne Library.dll files. Accidentally, these files are orphanned during the uninstall process so if you believe you can resolve the issue by uninstalling PhotoFrame 4.5, you are in for a surprise.

With the help of the files mentioned above, OnOne attempts to create a dedicated menu in Photoshop – quite an ego trip one would think. And unnecessary one at that. Once you remove these files, the plugin will be accessible from the “Automation” menu within Photoshop instead.

Though, I personally skip it…

I have been long searching for decent RAW processing software. Don’t get me wrong – there is a plethora of different programs offering various bells and whistles. They all look wonderful, but how do they contribute to my workflow?

Most of us have got our own unique way of processing, categorising and re-working our photos and the software we choose should complement our needs as opposed to forcing us to adopt other’s. And so my requirements are more than likely to differ from yours, obviously.

So, what am I looking for in the RAW processing software? Below is a list of criteria important to me personally. The list is not presented in any particular order – all items are equally important.

1. First off, I need to be able to adjust all properties of the RAW file – sharpness, noise (both colour and luminance), brightness, contrast, exposure, vibrance and saturation. I should also be able to edit tone curves both master and for each channel individually.
2. Second, I need to be able to manage my photos including the storage of processing settings and cache. This means that I don’t want software to store “sidecar” files in the same directory as my photos given that I might be processing photos directly from the memory card (should I have the necessity) or optical media (which would effectively prevent the processing software from writing to the storage anyway). This prompts for the software which allows me to select storage for the processing files.  It is necessary to mention that Adobe’s sidecar invention will result in the hard disk fragmentation as they tiny in size. I also want to able to use a dedicated hard disk for processing cache, catalogue and or database as opposed to storing it all on local drive.
3. Third, is catalogue and database. IMHO it is a waste of time. I want an option to turn it off, since I have very little need of being bound for life to some proprietary database. If I want to catalogue my shots, I will do it myself thank you very much. And if software insists on using database, it might as well be using a proper database engine such as MySQL or MSSQL. I am sure many would appreciate being able to maintain a far more manageable database than software offers.
4. Fourth, functional tools allowing you to deal with distortion (barrel and moustache) and CA. There should not be need to process the images in 2-3 different apps.
5. Fifth, stability and speed. Few people enjoy software crashing every 5 minutes and/or crawling at a pace of a plastered snail (Adobe Photoshop springs to mind). Some may argue that upgrading the hardware and updating drivers resolves the issue. I agree to disagree. When software is released, is it written with future drivers in mind? I don’t think so. Furthermore, if I have used my camera since 2005 for instance, and size and structure of my RAW files hasn’t changed, and my processing software previously worked at a decent speed, how come now I now have to put up with bloatware? And I prefer increase of speed at a cost of beautiful 3D interface.
6. Last but not least, I appreciate the software which can remember last opened folder and perhaps also be configured to always open a default folder for file export. Not really much to ask for, I hope?

Most of the software will attempt to entice and lure you with catchy and impressive slogans such as “with the flexibility to adapt to the way you work” (ACDSee Pro Photo Manager 3), “…fundamentally changed the way digital photo editing is done—reducing complexity
and returning control to photographers” (LightZone), “designed to create the best image quality in the market and holds a series of easy-to-use tools created to match the professional photographer’s daily workflow.” (PhaseOne CaptureOne). This list can go on.

First thing to perhaps realise that these slogans are written by corporate sales departments – people creative in their own right but as long as decent sums of money are involved. In reality they have no interest in photography and yours in particular. Please forgive my cynicism, but after 9 years as a systems engineer I boast quite an experience of corporate machinery.

So, with all this in mind, in the coming series of posts I will review all the software I have been (un)fortunate to use