KOH KHO KING

Photo Editing Program - my favorite Paint Shop Pro!

Posted on February 8th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT, Photography.

I have been using Paint Shop Pro program since version 4…that was more than 7 years ago…and I just love this program.

Why not photoshop? One of the main reason for me to go for Paint Shop Pro during the early days is because it is a FREEWARE. Yes, free to download and use on your computer. That was in version 4 and version 5. Version 9 and later is a paid software, but later Corel bought JASC and the last version from JASC was version 10. Version 9 was later given as a free software together with Lexar professional memory card, which is definitely a very very good value!

How is Paint Shop Pro as compared to Adobe Photoshop? For me, it does everything I needed in photo editing. Curve, contrast, brightness, unsharp mask, crop, border, layers, etc. It also is much easier to use and less resource hungry like photoshop. I can start and use my PSP within 5 seconds after launching, but for PS, I have to wait for 10s or more. Of course, if you have very fast PC, you might not notice the difference.

Today, I download the 30 days trial version of PSP from Corel website. I was already about to BUY already (already in the PayPal page, one click away from paying), but since there is a 30 days trial, I thought why not? I clicked the cancel order button and went back to download the software to try out first. The latest version is Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and my experience with PSP is mainly based on version 6. I want to see how much improvement it has after Corel bought over JASC, and the US$89.99 is worth spending or not.

What I am expecting from the latest version which I think is lacking in the dated version 6:

• Better noise removal
• Faster processing
• RAW file processing (version 6 can process raw file but loading takes ages…)
• More features on borders, templates, effects…etc.
• Smarter one step photo fix (available in version 6 as well, but I wonder if there is any surprise in the latest version)

Basically, that’s it. I don’t really need a software that has tones of features that I don’t use but burden down my computer.

Now…let’s see some examples that I run through PSPPX2 just now. The photos below are taken using Nikon D200 at IS3200, I set the camera at high ISO the night before and forgot to set it back to low ISO. My wife used the camera the next day to take Megumi’s photos… Originally posted at: 看我笑得见眼不见牙

(Take note that the before images are already of some processing previously…which used automatic batch process…hence the quality still not so good and some sharpness already lost)

Before

After PSP

Before

After PSP

You have to click the photo to appreciate the difference. There is a nice Skin Smoothing command in PSPPX2 which I find it delivers good results. The above is just a quick test…I will have to get some RAW files to test it further, but I think I am definitely going to buy one before the 30 days trial period ends up.

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A Dream Watch?

Posted on February 8th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Rojak.

Casio G-SHOCK’s 25th anniversary - MR-G Type MRG-8000G Ultra Limited Edition (200pcs)

Price? EUR 3220 (RM15k). Rolex definitely has a better resale value than this Casio watch…and once you wear (scratched) it…say bye bye to at least half the $$$ of what you originally paid. Ok, I know you do not intend to buy and sell later…you are rich…

Good news? Yes, this watch is available worldwide, not just in Japan. So you can ask your local Casio distributor now if you intended to get one. 200pcs worldwide…hmm…

Dream again…yeah…

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CaptureSG.com back online

Posted on February 8th, 2008 by KhoKing.
Categories: Computer / IT, Photography.

Today I managed to restore another photography forum of mine…CaptureSG.com. Since the server HDD failed on 21st Jan 2008, I was having problem in restoring CaptureSG.com from my backup, as the database tables were corrupted.

Today I learned a few things and managed to restore the database and manage to repair the corrupted tables and everything is back online.

Though CaptureSG.com is not a very active site and can’t be regarded a successful yet, but still there are some faithful members there that I owe to bring the site back.

I am glad that CaptureSG.com is back online now. Hope more will visit it especially photographers from Singapore.

CaptureSG = Capture Singapore!

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