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Add Artistic Frames to Your Photos, Make Them UniqueDesigning attractive collages has never been easier |
By Giorgiana Bursuc, Windows Editor
30th of November 2007, 21:23 GMT
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How many times did you come back from a magnificent holiday and wished you could display all your photos in an original, fun way? To create an album that could convey all the joy and happiness you felt while being on vacation and taking those pictures… I know, you lacked the corresponding artistic frames that would round up your images - and this is why you will appreciate Photowall so much.
This program is designed to make all your dreams come true when it comes to boasting the great places you visited or the luxurious parties you attended. As you probably realized, Photowall can be useful regardless of the style of your pictures and the truth is that it is fit for every occasion.
To make my point clearer, I will explain all the steps you need to take in order to come up with an entirely original graphic creation. First, you choose your image and open it with Photowall. Then simply browse through the extensive frame gallery until you find something appropriate to your needs - if you don't want anything fancy, you can just select one of the several shapes (they are quite flexible and will suit any image ranging from a cute little puppy to an extravagant wedding).
If you feel experimental, you can even rotate your images and/or the frame to obtain an attractive design, or create a collage that will make a great gift for the ones you love (a little reminder of the times you spent together and of your artistic sense).
Furthermore, you can adjust the level of brightness and contrast for each of your photos according to your precise preferences. Also, to ensure that the quality of the output picture is as high as possible, you can even modify the RGB channel or the HLS adaptation.
For a beginner, these details may not have any significance, but let's face it, we were all unhappy at one point in our lives with our photos' appearance, and wanted to change them. Using Photowall, you can simply play around with the controls until you get a perfectly balanced image.
In addition to that, you can apply four types of
shadows to your chosen frame: drop shadow, inner shadow, outer glow and inner glow. Some frames look better with a simple drop shadow, whereas others may require more of these effects - it is up to you to find the best combination. Whether you select just one or all of them, you can adjust the direction of the shadow or the shade, so your picture will be considered as taken from a magazine.
Another feature you will definitely notice is the multitude of sounds provided by Photowall. Whenever you want to select a frame or perform any other action, you will hear a sound. To me, these sounds were a little annoying and I could not understand their purpose, so I quickly looked for the right place to disable them - it turned out to be the Preferences window. Maybe it would have been handier to have a button within the main window so we can easily turn the sounds on and off. And I am still wondering about their purpose…
Talking about unusual characteristics, I have to mention the strange order of the upper right buttons: we are all used to associate the green button with the 'Minimize' function, the yellow one with the 'Maximize/Restore' and the red one with the 'Quit the application', right? Wrong! With Photowall, you will have to use the green button to maximize and the yellow one to minimize. It will be quite uncomfortable at the beginning, but you will get used to this if you really value your pictures.
However, leaving this aside, you will be pleased to know that you can save your embellished pictures under several formats, such as JPG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, TGA, GIF, PCX, so you don't have to worry about converting them later.
All in all, Photowall will be a great asset for your computer if you take lots of pictures and also want to display them around the house. Therefore, make sure you try out the demo version. The watermark will not matter anymore once you start discovering all the great frames and mentally placing them onto your images.
The Good
Well, I already mentioned that the frames will suit every occasion (and I really meant it). Also, it is a very useful thing that you can edit your photos right on the spot, and you can also zoom in/out as much as you need. And don't forget to rotate them to create unusual displays.
The Bad
The great fault would be the price - $24.99 may be a little too much for your pockets - but in the end it is all a matter of perspective, as some of you might think that special photos require a special all-in-one product. And I still have a problem with the (unnecessary) sounds…
The Truth
Photowall has satisfied me, offering an extensive range of frames and providing me with the means to come up with interesting designs for my pictures. Editing photos has never been easier and the output formats are exactly the ones that people frequently work with. In the end, we can say that Photowall has strived to cover all the basics and has done a good job in this respect.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
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