Sarasota PC Monitor
AKVIS Enhancer & AKVIS Noise Buster
A Software Review
by Lloyd Lininger
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.Digital photographs may be obtained in several ways, using a digital camera, scanning pictures and saving them as digital images or capturing them in some other manner. If the purpose is to use them in a casual or informal manner one frequently does not do anything expect view them on the monitor or print them. The quality of digital images ranges from very poor to extremely good, with most being much closer to very poor. Many people spend considerable money on equipment and time to obtain a high quality picture. If you start with a lower quality picture and want to "improve" its quality, there are several ways to approach the problem. There are several software packages that are designed for users with a wide range of experience and expertise. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Elements and Jasc Paint Shop Pro to name a few. With each edition of these software packages more bells and whistles are added to make almost anything with a digital image possible. ( I should also point out that most digital camera produce the so-called digital noise. It results in grains that compromise the smoothness of the photo. Many who are already aware of this also use software to routinely correct for it since they use the camera.)
AKVIS Enhancer ($69) is designed to reveal details on a picture that is underexposed, overexposed or otherwise need correcting without manipulating exposure. AKVIS Noise Buster ($49) is designed to reduce luminance noise in pictures. They are designed to be used as plug-ins in image processing programs that support plug-ins and they are compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, etc. They are used as filters can be used automatically, i.e. in a default mode, or tweaked manually by using sliders to obtain desired results. They can be used to improve new or old digital photos. They can be used in most photo imaging packages that allow plug-ins, and are probably most helpful in lower end packages. They can be very useful in improving scanned images from photo albums.
These packages do not have as much flexibility as more expensive software designed to do more extensive enhancement, nor do they allow one to use them in a batch mode as some of the other packages. :
Copyright 2006. This article is from the November 2006 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.