CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra review

Our Verdict

CyberLink PhotoDirector is a prosumer photo editing parcel that folds in some professional features that ready it apart from consumer software.

For

• Piece of cake to learn and use
• Supports Raw editing
• Numerous useful and unique editing features
• Guided edits help users accomplish complex special effects

Against

• Major new features are reserved for subscriptions
• Subscriptions come after for the Mac afterward Windows
• Some Guided Edits can get long and complex

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

CyberLink PhotoDirector is a prosumer photo editing package that folds in some professional features that gear up it autonomously from consumer software.

Pros

• +

  Easy to learn and use

• +

  Supports Raw editing

• +

  Numerous useful and unique editing features

• +

  Guided edits aid users reach complex special effects

Cons

• -

  Major new features are reserved for subscriptions

• -

  Subscriptions come up later for the Mac later on Windows

• -

  Some Guided Edits can go long and complex

CyberLink PhotoDirector is an oft overlooked photo editing app that appeals to both consumers and prosumers. Over time, it has come to include about of the important features hobbyists and memoirists expect from their photo editors, with a healthy dose of artificial intelligence thrown into the mix. PhotoDirector facilitates numerous artificial intelligence special effects, animation furnishings, content aware features, photo merge, video-to-photograph effects, layer-based editing, watermarks, face and body enhancements, and 360-caste photo editing.

Despite its densely packed feature ready, we found during this CyberLink PhotoDirector review that they're like shooting fish in a barrel to apply and learn. The Limited Mode will appeal to beginners while experienced photo editors will invariably launch direct into Full Way to quickly access the app's large spectrum of features. It'south like shooting fish in a barrel to run across why it's some of the all-time photo editing software around.

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12: Cost and availability

There are various means to purchase PhotoDirector on both Mac and Windows platforms, both as a perpetual license or subscription. A perpetual license for PhotoDirector 12 Ultra for both Mac and Windows costs $100, with upgrades priced at $70.

CyberLink also offers a subscription programme chosen PhotoDirector 365, which is currently available on Windows for $55 per year based on an annual program. The 365 version is not still available for Mac at this writing, but is in the works, and will be out presently. Prices are oftentimes discounted from the MSRP either past tertiary-political party vendors or CyberLink itself. A free trial is also available. PhotoDirector too offers a complimentary, advertizement-supported mobile app for both iOS and Android, which nosotros have not tested for review.

Subscribers get immediate updates, diverse goodies like groundwork music, artistic plug-ins and effects, images and audio files from Shutterstock, and 50GB of online storage. Sadly, some of the newest special effects features are express to the subscription programme. In this review, we combine both the Mac Ultra program and the Windows 365 subscription to encompass all the headlining features in version 12.

CyberLink PhotoDirector: Organization requirements

PhotoDirector 12 Ultra is available for Mac and Windows and can run quite well on older systems. You lot volition demand a 64-bit system running Microsoft Windows 10, eight/8.1, and 7. On the Mac side, you will need macOS 10.thirteen, 10.14, or x.15. Information technology requires an Intel Core i-series or AMD Phenom II and above, 128 MB VGA VRAM or higher, and 4GB of RAM.

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra: Interface

CyberLink is famous for cramming a huge number of features into a fun, piece of cake-to-use interface. There's a lot to account for, but the logical layout divides the interface into six distinct categories: Library, Adjustment, Guided, Edit, Create, and Impress.

Library is for image organization, including face recognition. Adjustment is where Raw files are candy alongside other popular formats. The Guided section is where yous'll notice Guided Edits, which walks users through complex effects pace-by-step. The Edit section is for standard prototype editing with the familiar Layers, Tools, and Layer Masks, while the Create section facilitates slideshows, animated GIFs, and Motion Stills which are two or more like images used to create an animated effect.

Most people will spend the bulk of their time in the Adjustment, Guided, or Edit tabs. The Adjustment tab gives you lot most of the edits you lot would expect with both manual and preset adjustments for white residuum, tone, particular, and more for regional and global adjustments. In the Adjustment mode, you can view Before and After variations on a split screen in various magnifications.

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra: All-time confront forward

PhotoDirector'southward People Beautifier module gives you multiple opportunities to make people in your photos await their best, including slimming faces, removing shine, and brightening optics and smiles.

The People Beautifier module gives y'all many tools to assistance gear up faces to look their best. (Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The techniques are unproblematic and effective as you brush on effects and adjust their intensity. Subjects however wait similar themselves, but without distracting skin imperfections and perhaps fewer wrinkles and nether-eye shadows. Sliders make it easy to have your discipline expect as natural or as plastic as you'd like, then practiced judgment is critical.

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra: Special furnishings

CyberLink's stated specialty is making your photos wait more than like fine art. For that, there are new features including Glitch Art, which lets you apply a multi-colored glitch effect, a Dispersion Effect where parts of an image dramatically atomize, and Person Segmentation, which lets you remove human subjects from their backgrounds, replace backgrounds, or apply special effects to either. I-click Style Effects and a Light Rays Effect let you add a burst of sunlight to images.

Image ane of 2

This utility lets you ascertain where you want the upshot to become. (Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

Paradigm 2 of ii

You lot can control the Dispersion result and then that it makes your nonetheless prototype look dynamic. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Artificial intelligence, which is starting to dominate popular pro and hobbyist level image editing programs similar Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, makes an appearance in PhotoDirector as well. A DeBlur tool that subtly clarifies your photos, likewise as pop style transfer techniques that make pictures await like paintings, are consistently quick to process. These castor and slider based tools are easy to employ and infinitely customizable with instant results.

Bogus intelligence governs how the DeBlur feature can subtly fix a blurry photo without over-sharpening. (Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra: Glitch Effect

Guided mode's Glitch Effect features a colorful, adaptable double exposure that you can shift vertically and horizontally and adjust the fade or transparency. Equally with other Guided furnishings, you tin automatically exclude the treatment from a subject or apply it only to the subject.

This neat special issue is new with CyberLink 12. (Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra: Pro level features

While PhotoDirector is marketed to consumers, in that location is a broad prosumer appeal in the plan as well. For example, the app's manual adjustments can identify the precise interchangeable lens you used to shoot an image and it can procedure numerous camera raw formats.

To get a more accurate rendition of your image in the programme, yous tin can have the app place the lens yous used for your shoot. (Epitome credit: Tom's Guide)

No program can cover every unmarried format, then if this is important to yous, make sure the app is compatible with the photographic camera y'all are using.

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra: Layers and text

PhotoDirector's Edit mode uses non-destructive layers, much like we're used to with Photoshop and other pro-level image editors. You lot can create empty layers, edit with layer masks, grouping layers, add aligning layers, and create clipping masks.

Prototype 1 of ii

One mode to utilize layers is with CyberLink's text tools, which give you many options for calculation text to your images. (Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

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Ane mode to utilise layers is with CyberLink's text tools, which give y'all many options for adding text to your images. (Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

PhotoDirector offers 27 blending modes, which offers a lot of creative options. One significant use is to utilize text to images with the program'due south detailed text controls, which let you adjust font, size, kerning, shadow, and border effects —  including bevel and emboss.

CyberLink PhotoDirector 365: What you get with a subscription

Features like Sky Replacement, Sparkle, and complimentary access to the Shutterstock stock photo and video site come only with a PhotoDirector 365 subscription, every bit opposed to the standalone perpetual licenses. Heaven replacement, a Guided feature with AI underpinnings, worked particularly well, and alongside the Shutterstock subscription, may exist a strong incentive to buy the subscription, which is currently bachelor merely on Windows, only is coming soon for the Mac.

Heaven Replacement, which relies on AI, is extremely like shooting fish in a barrel to utilize. Just choose the built-in preset heaven you want to apply while handy sliders let you customize the upshot. You can use a static sky or moving clouds to create GIF animations. Additional presets are available online.

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The Heaven Replacement feature can transform an ordinary sky into a dramatic sky, changing the mood of your photo. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

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Cull from a number of pre-loaded sky images to supplant a tedious sky. (Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

Sky Replacement, which relies on AI, is extremely easy to employ. Just choose the built-in preset heaven you lot want to utilise while handy sliders let you lot customize the effect. You can utilize a static sky or moving clouds to create GIF animations. Boosted presets are bachelor online.

The new sparkle effect adds a fleck of twinkle to your images. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Sparkle is a specialized effect that offers dozens of varieties of tiny highlights that provide some dazzle for posters, greeting cards, and photos. Merely pick the kind of sparkle you desire to employ from the presets and apply endless adjustments either with preset car settings or manually. You can add or remove individual sparkles from the composition, alter their rotation and colour, and much more. Sparkle is not something you lot'd employ every day, but it's easy, fun, and works well.

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra: Bottom line

CyberLink PhotoDirector 12 Ultra is a consumer and prosumer oriented photograph editor with a vast portfolio of AI-based artistic special effects broiled in with nuts and bolt epitome editing features. The interface is friendly and easy to manage.

(Image credit: Cyberlink)

If you desire the professional industry standard, Adobe Photoshop is your deal. If you want a pure consumer experience, and so Photoshop Elements is the meliorate option. If you want something in between, then give CyberLink PhotoDirector a endeavour. Nosotros would have preferred that features like the Heaven Replacement and Sparkle be included as office of the perpetual license, but otherwise almost hobbyists and memoirists volition be happy for the many features that give them room to grow.

Jackie is an obsessive, insomniac tech writer and editor in northern California. A wild animals advocate, cat fan, and photo app fanatic, her specialties include cross-platform hardware and software, art, blueprint, photography, video, and a wide range of creative and productivity apps and systems. Formerly senior editor at Macworld and creativity editor at The Adjacent Web, Jackie at present writes for a diverseness of consumer tech publications.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/cyberlink-photodirector-12-ultra

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