PhotoTune 3 by onOne Software - Color Correction Software Review & Buying Guide

PhotoTune 3 by onOne Software - Color Correction Software Review & Buying Guide
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Color Correction made easy!

Color correction is a significant step in the creation of the final image. The very first step of color correcting an image begins from the point at which the image is composed for shooting. The initial step would be to ensure that the white balance is set properly using a grey card or any other preferable method. But once the image has been shot most color corrections are classically done in Adobe Photoshop or other photo editing software. Photoshop offers a wonderful set of controls in the form of Curves, levels, etc. These controls offer a very precise control over how one can set the color and mood of an image. That said, these controls require constant tweaking and considerable amount of Photoshop expertise and many man-hours to get a satisfactory result. PhotoTune 3 by onOne Software offers a simple to use and effective interface to color correct images quickly and efficiently.

PhotoTune 3.0 by onOne Software

phototune 3

PhotoTune 3 is a part of the Plug-in Suite from onOne Software and is also available as a standalone package. The application is designed for quick and accurate color correction of images. Unlike classical Adobe Photoshop based color correction procedures, PhotoTune utilises a much more simpler and effective interface to easily color correct images. Using sliders and visual appearances a user can easily color correct an image without much technical knowhow. PhotoTune 3 is the latest version of this fabulous tool with more features and ease of use. In this review we will take a look at the new features that come with version 3 and the other improvements made to the application.

onOne software PhotoTune

PhotoTune 3 color adjustment

PhotoTune 3 Tone adjustment

PhotoTune 3 wizard

Features & User Interface (5 out of 5)

Welcome

PhotoTune has been improved from the previous version by adding several under the hood features as well as some visibly different improvements. It is significant that all these improvements to the application has still not affected its ease of use and effectiveness. The new improved features include the awesome user interface where the tool can be invoked with a professional interface where there more power is given to the user to modify and fine tune the image and the much more simple but elegant wizard interface that achieves the same with little knowledge and fiddling around with the controls. Once you are comfortable with the wizard based correction process it just a matter of time before you move onto the professional interface which is much more powerful. If you are the kind who loves to fine-tune and generally poke around with finer aspects you can call up the Pro Interface which gives control over tonality, color, skin tone and more.

skinTune fixes skin tones, by easily selecting racial type and a skin tone you start out to adjust your subjects skin color and are quickly on the way to the perfect tone that you expect. The changes are made exclusively to the skin tones only and do not affect the general look of the image in any other way. Such a task in Photoshop would definitely involve the use of multiple layer masks and extensive tweaking of the color channels. Automatic Corrections in PhotoTune 3.0 is an awesome addition which employs the eye-fidelity algorithm which will correct images for brightness, contrast, color and dynamic range thereby making it more lifelike. The remapping of tones in the image makes the dynamic range pop-out and adds a realistic look to your images. PhotoTune version 3 can also be used as a smart filter in Photoshop and these can be selectively applied to smart objects like RAW files providing a complete non-destructive workflow when combined with Adobe Lightroom.

In the wizard mode the introduction of an interesting user interface in the form of sliders where sliding the image in different axis alters different aspects of the image like brightness, contrast, etc. Though getting used to this type of a control is a bit annoying initially, with time it turns out to be a great help in easily adjusting images.

Verdict

Though PhotoTune 3 is designed for every kind of photographer, it still could be on the steep end (of cost) for the casual shooter. For professional and other commercial photography onOne Software is a great buy at $160 because it saves a lot of time spent on color correcting images in the post processing phase. For anybody who is already a user of previous versions of PhotoTune, the upgrade is priced at $99 which is a bargain for the features added to version 3. PhotoTune 3 is an awesome software package for any photographer.