14 DAY TRIAL // I remember my first steps into image editing. It was cruel what I did to the dog in the picture, but hey, I had to start somewhere. The good thing is that the "Undo" function was a click away and I could restore that "work of art". I don't recollect the name of the application, but it resembled Paint a great deal.
Much later, I discovered the true powers of image editing with Photoshop and started learning about it intensively, but this is another story. The thing is that, in time, I learned a bit about all sorts of image effects and filters. At that time, I had no idea how many of them there were.
Anyway, recently, I bumped into a nice little application that allows you to quickly convert a photo into a perfect sketch, make it look like a work of art or even hand drawn. Photo Effect Studio comes with a $15 price tag and provides a fast way to apply different effects on your pictures.
The interface is plain and simple, maybe too plain for Vista, but it is this simplicity that makes it easy to use and handle. All the options are available in the superior part of the application window and are sheltered by the menu bar and the toolbar.
Photo Effect Studio contains little options and there is are no configuration settings available. Practically all the functions have something to do with the loaded picture and none of them is software related. Toolbar comes with a set of options for opening a new picture, saving the changes for the current image, "undo/redo" functions, image resizing options, refresh, zoom control, clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation, set loaded picture as wallpaper, send it to the printer or to a friend via email (default email client will automatically launch).
But these are the regular options that have nothing to do with turning your image into an artistic work. Menu bar is where all the goodies are stored. You have to know from the start that applying an effect on the image is as easy as breathing and your own intervention consists in tweaking some options by simply dragging a slider.
B&W menu is the first in the list. It comes with Pencil and Pen Sketch effects, Kryptol and Pen & Ink. As the name of the menu suggests, any colors available in the image will be eliminated and only black and white will be used for drawing different types of contours. Users get a minimum configuration of the filters. Depending on the selected effect, you can adjust the contrast, lighting, pen pressure, direction and scope in the case of Kryptol and thread if Pen&Ink is chosen.
Color effects options are designed to completely transform your picture into a work of art. You can select the smooth and shy lines in Color Pencil, add a touch of Realism by making the lines more evident and playing with light intensity, make the settings for Pop Art and Abstract effect. The downside for these effects is that you have to handle a bunch of numbers, but you don't really know what they are for.
With Watercolor and Brume effects, things are simpler as the slider is back in place and all you have to do is drag it to the desired amount. However, you should know that the only preview available in Photo Effect Studio is applying the effect. Lucky thing you have Undo option, but it does not have any shortcut.
For most of the effects, the application is perfectly capable of batch converting entire folders containing images (JPG, BMP, WMF, EMF and GIF). To achieve this, you must enlarge effect window and add the input and output locations. The conversion is pretty fast and, if you have quick eyes, you can see some of the images as they roll in the image window of the software.
Color Adjustment menu contains options for making the desired settings for hue, saturation and luminosity, apply a color filter (red, green, blue, yellow, cyan and purple) and play with Color Variety (apply tints of colors).
Veins effects is as modest in options as all the other menus. The only alternatives available are Emboss, Texture and Stria. Emboss supports adjusting lighting and depth of the effect and I have to say that the image looks damn good. Texture contains a set of patterns (fifteen of them) that can be applied over the original picture (again, the image looks extraordinary) and for each of them you can set the pressure on a scale going from 1 to 100.
Stria effect consists in applying striations, vertical or horizontal, to the loaded picture. The surprise here is that, besides setting the thickness of the stripes and the space between them, you can also set the transparency of the image behind the effect.
Photo Effect Studio is quite modest in options, but the little effects at hand do a great job and do not damage the picture. With an artistic eye and a bit of patience, you can obtain great results. However, the quality of the result alone cannot add value to the app; users need more in order to use the software intensively. Even if the price is quite low ($15) there are still lots of shortcomings.
The Good
Photo Effect Studio is extremely easy to handle and it also works on Vista, despite the fact that it had not been designed for this operating system.
The images can be set as wallpapers and sent to a friend via email within a few mouse clicks.
The Bad
Preview window is missing in action and there are no shortcuts available. The list of effects is extremely short.
The interface needs retouching as users have to resize effect settings windows in order to view all available options.
The Truth
The quality of the effects is great, but there are too few of them. The entire interface needs revision.
All in all, the application does a pretty good job, but needs enrichment.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
