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Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 for Photographers

Review by Ron Risman, April 2008

Before getting to the book review I wanted to take a moment to let readers know about the power and benefits of using Corel Paint Shop Pro X2. Virtually all photographers have heard of Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is synonymous with photography the way that Google is to search. They are both standards and Adobe has done an incredible job at keeping the software updated and fresh. Competing with a program as powerful and popular as Photoshop is no easy task and few companies bother. Luckily for us, Corel not only competes with Adobe, but the features and power they have integrated into Paint Shop Pro X2 is simply short of outstanding considering the retail price is only $99.99. Compare that to the $649 price of Photoshop CS3 and you'll quickly discover why you need to take a good long look at the features, power, and ease-of-use of Paint Shop Pro X2. Since this is a review of a book that helps you get the most out of Paint Shop Pro X2 and not a review of the software itself I will get back to the task at hand - reviewing the book.

This book, written by Ken McMahon, is broken into 10 chapters that take you step-by-step through Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. The book covers virtually every aspect of Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 through a photographers eye and when finished will have turned you into a master image editor. Techniques you learn in one program are typically very similar when using other programs, so your education will never go wasted if at some point you go to work for a company that wants you to use Photoshop.

The Basics
Each of the 10 chapters tackle a different aspect of image editing starting with 'the basics' in chapter one. This chapter introduces you to the tools inside Corel PSPP X2 and provides an overview of the new features you'll soon learn about inside Corel PSPP X2. The last section of each chapter provides step-by-step projects that really help you to understand how to use the tools that were previously explained.

Since chapter 1 covers just the basics, the step-by-step guides walk you through simple enhancements such as straightening, cropping, and correcting the perspective in images.

Simple Picture Manipulation
Chapter 2 explains how to improve your photos by getting you comfortable with the histogram, color balance, and sharpening tools as well as the fill flash and backlighting filters.

Controlling Change: Using Selections
At this point in the book you will have already covered over 100 pages and you are well on your way to becoming a true image enhancement pro. This chapter covers how to use multiple exposures of the same photo to create a single photo that has an extremely wide tonal range. This is called HDR, which stands for High Dynamic Range. Corel PSPP X2 offers support for HDR and this chapter takes you step-by-step while you create a true HDR photograph. You will also learn how to make selections, use channels and masks, how to fix an overexposed sky, how to control focus and

The book continues to progress through all of the features in Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 in chapters 5 through 10. Within these pages here is just a few of the features you'll learn about:

• How to combine pictures using layers
• How to use layers to adjust an image while keeping the original layer intact
• Adding the perfect shadow to your image
• Adding text to your images to make greeting cards and calendars
• Creating special effects using the filter and lighting tools
• Creating Panoramas
• Creating Edges, border and frames using the Picture Tube feature
• Printing with Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
• Image resolution explained
• Printing multiple photos with print layout
• Resizing images for the web
• Creating web animations such as rollover navigation bar
• How to upload files to a web server
• and much more

Before running out and buying this or any book designed to teach you how-to use a specific software program, I would first recommend checking the manufacturer's website. You will often find free tutorials designed as Screencasts or Video clips that give you a first-hand view of how-to use specific tools. I personally think online videos are a better, faster, and more exciting way to learn about a program. So do you need a book to teach you or should you go online. The answer is both. Books typically provide insight as to why, when and how, whereas online videos most often just focus on how. This book in particular also provides insight into far more tools that manufacturers cover on their site and definitely more than covered in any manual. Manufacturers also focus only on the most popular features, the ones they know will have an instant "wow" factor with the consumer.

If you are serious about photography and prefer not to spend $500 or more on Adobe Photoshop, go to the Corel website and either try or buy Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, watch the online videos on Corel's website and then, if you want to learn more, pick up a copy of this book. The author, Ken McMahon, will take you step-by-step at a pace you control.

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