Corel AfterShot Pro

by Corel

• Complete RAW workflow: Get super-fast RAW processing and color accurate images
• Flexible Photo Management: Choose from a variety of workflow options to organize, manage, enhance, and output photos virtually any way you want .
• Advanced non-destructive editing: Experiment with a huge range of adjustment tools without altering your original photos
• Breakthrough Performance: Accelerate every part of your workflow -- and get back behind your camera faster.
• A Multi-platform solution: Corel AfterShot Pro runs on Windows, MAC OS, and Linux so you can take advantage of this powerful photography workflow software on the platform of your choice.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B006WVR9GY
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 2 x 7.5 inches
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,441 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Platform: PC/Mac

From the Manufacturer

Corel AfterShot Pro is a fast, flexible photos workflow solution that combines robust photo management, advanced non-destructive editing and complete RAW processing. Organize your photos in catalogs or folders. Find images quickly with extensive Metadata tools. Experiment with and alter images freely with non-destructive adjustments and apply enhancements precisely with selective editing. With RAW support, powerful batch processing and a variety of output options, AfterShot Pro is the fast way to professional photos.

Thumbnail view assists in accessing images (view larger).

Tabs make it easier to work on images (view larger).

Selectively edit pictures (view larger).

Select pictures and formats for editing (view larger).

Complete RAW Workflow

Whether viewing, rating, sorting, editing, or exporting images, AfterShot Pro provides workflow options not found anywhere else. Other applications make you import a file before you can even view it, but there’s no need with AfterShot Pro. Whether a photo is in an existing catalog, in another folder on your system, or still on a memory card, AfterShot Pro lets you work with it.

Flexible Photo Management

Most photo-workflow programs only allow you to access a single catalog or database at a time, limiting the total number of images you can manage and edit in any one session. AfterShot Pro lets you use one catalog, many catalogs, or no asset management at all. With no restrictions or pre-defined process to follow, you can work whatever way suits you best.

Advanced, Non-Destructive Editing

Inspired by the renowned selective-editing features that made Bibble Labs a force in the industry, AfterShot Pro lets you non-destructively apply any adjustment or correction to all or a portion of a photo. And a fully stocked imageediting toolset allows you to do your work in AfterShot Pro without switching over to a deeper editing tool.

Breakthrough Performance

AfterShot Pro is nimble enough to run on netbooks, but powerful enough to get the most out of 16-core workstations. It’s fully multithreaded and optimized for multi-core and multi-CPU computers, so you’ll notice faster output, conversion, on-screen performance, and image browsing. AfterShot Pro is designed take advantage of every CPU at its disposal.

What's Included

• Corel AfterShot Pro — Windows, Macintosh, and Linux versions
• 128-page printed user guide
• HTML Help

System Requirements

Windows

• Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP with the latest service packs installed (32-bit or 64-bit editions)
• Intel Pentium 4 or later or AMD Athlon 64 or later
• 2 GB RAM
• 250 MB of free hard drive space
• Minimum display resolution: 1024 x 600
• CD-ROM drive

Macintosh

• Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6 or 10.7
• All Intel Mac models are supported
• 2 GB RAM
• 250 MB of free hard drive space
• Minimum display resolution: 1024 x 600
• CD-ROM drive

Linux Version

• Fedora Core 10 or Ubuntu 8.04 or later (32-bit or 64-bit distributions)
• Intel Pentium 4 or later or AMD Athlon 64 or later
• 2 GB RAM
• 250 MB of free hard drive space
• Minimum display resolution: 1024 x 600
• CD-ROM drive
• Dependencies: GLib 2.4, KDE, or Gnome recommended
• Enable desktop compositing recommended
• 64-bit distributions require 32-bit compatibility libraries (ia32-libs)

Supported Formats

• RAW file support from most leading camera manufacturers; see www.corel.com for the latest listing: ARW, CR2, CRW, DCR, DNG, MRW, NEF, NRW, ORF, PEF, RAW, RW2, RWL, SR2
• JPEG, TIF

Product Description

Corel AfterShot Pro is a fast, flexible photo workflow solution that combines robust photo management, advanced non-destructive editing and complete RAW processing.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It's very good but not perfect April 19, 2012

By Inksnatcher VINE™ VOICE

Platform for Display:PC/Mac|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I have to preface my review with stating I have been using Adobe products every day for at least 12 years including Photoshop and, for the last 3 years, LightRoom. From that perspective, I will be weighing Corel Aftershot Pro against the industry leader.

For the most part, at first glance and use, Aftershot Pro performs the majority of the tasks you would want it to if comparing it to LightRoom. If you didn't have LightRoom and were not aware of what to expect from image management or raw processing, then this would be a feature-rich, inexpensive platform to start on.

In addition to the almost identical feature set you get with LightRoom, there are a few features that appear to be extra, including the Perfectly Clear plugin from Athentech Technology and the Noise Ninja by Picturecode Inc.. Of these, the one that would be of interest to me is Noise Ninja if I needed to work on a shot where I was shooting in low light and had to increase the ISO above 1600.

Given the perspective I am coming from, the most critical environment I shoot in (and use image management and raw processing for) is NY Fashion Week. Each time I finish shooting a show I come out and give my memory cards to my digital tech and she will download & process and have JPGs ready to send to the client by the end of the next show. In this situation I would introduce risk by using Aftershot Pro because it is not as fast to render images as LightRoom is, and the full-size preview is not an accurate representation of the image once it is processed.

The images I saw when viewing at 100% were generally soft, thus my tech would never know if this was actually in focus or not and wouldn't know if she had selected the best shot for each look....

If you are not working in a fast-paced environment, then you would be well suited to give Corel Aftershot Pro a test run and see how if fits your needs, and given the fact that most people may not even shoot in raw even though their camera supports it, this would definitely give them a chance to produce better photographs than they had previously when only shooting in JPG.

Lastly, I found the tools like Clone and Heal and the use of layers as not something someone would get easily without the need to read instructions. I can only compare it to my introduction to LightRoom and how that was easy to get the hang of, despite not having read any instructions.

Cons (may not be applicable to every user):
A little sluggish (on a brand new top-of-the-line Dell notebook, the laptop where Lightroom performs flawlessly)
Issues with the rendering of the 100% previews

Pros:
Price Currently $79 v. LightRoom at $239
Feature rich/very close to LightRoom in what it does, including all the possible raw adjustments, ratings, multi versions, cloning, healing etc,
Batch processing
The creation of web galleries

For the money -- for a home user or small business -- you probably can't go wrong with Corel Aftershot Pro for image management and raw processing. Read more ›

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really astonishing for its price March 10, 2012

By JLDMan

Platform for Display:PC/Mac

My original use was with the previous Bibble Pro version, and then I've gone with the upgrade to Aftershot Pro. The catalog management is top tier, it's fast, and is the *only* multi-platform RAW image editor which includes Linux. It's terrific to work with a non-destructive editor.

Things that really stand out to me:

- I find the interface intuitive
- Noise Ninja integration (and the RAW noise settings) is powerful.
- There are plug-ins, which show promise for the platform (wavelet denoise).
- The contact sheet prints work soooo much better than with Bibble.
- Active forum (forum.corel.com)
- Very CPU and memory efficient.
- ASP provides "Perfectly Clear" optimization, which is frequently the major adjustment that I use (not always, sometimes it goes to far, and other times, there is a lot more work to be done).
- Lots of lenses are supported

Things that I'd like to see added:

- Some HDR capability. There are lots of good programs available for amazing HDR, but having the capability to do some basic blending is important.
- Better print integration (if you are a Linux user, then look at Turboprint)

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good, Less Expensive Alternative to Lightroom April 7, 2012

By Harry Hackett

Platform for Display:PC/Mac|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I've long been an Adobe Lightroom user, but one of the things I don't like about the program is the way it insists on cataloging my photos. Oftentimes I wish I could just drag one photo into the program and edit it. But no, the program wants to load every single photo in whatever folder the photo is in, so to get around that I make a folder just for the single photo.

I don't have to do that with Aftershot Pro. The program is happy as can be to let me drag a single photo into it and edit it.

Lightroom has fantastic noise reduction built into it and so does Aftershot Pro, using Noise Ninja. Lightroom has loads of presets that come with the program and more you can upload from OnOne or a lot of other place. AfterShot Pro lags here, coming with just a few presets and currently none online, but I suspect there will be more soon. Lightroom costs more than twice as much as AfterShot Pro.

So there are a few of the comparisons. I don't use presets a lot, preferring to do that kind of work with Photoshop Filters after I've done my RAW editing, so not having them doesn't bother me all that much. I've been using AfterShot Pro exclusively for the last month, haven't opened Lightroom once, just because I wanted to see if AfterShot Pro could be a less expensive alternative to Lightroom and based on my experience it can.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes My Photos Better April 15, 2012

By Ruthie Ramirez VINE™ VOICE

Platform for Display:PC/Mac|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I consider myself a pretty good photographer. I've got and have read several books on the subject. But I'm not a professional and never will be, still it's a hobby I love and I'm always trying to make my photos better. That being said, I've never shot in RAW, because I thought high quality Jpegs were good enough and for the most part, they were.

However, now that I have this software and even though you can use it to process Jpegs, I decided to set my camera on RAW large and wow, it opened up a whole new world for me. There is so much more dynamic range in a RAW photo and that lets you do so much more with your photos, especially the ones you might have thought weren't good enough to save.

For example you can sometimes get back blown out parts of your photo if you haven't blown them out too much. And you can shoot at higher ISOs because of the Noise Ninja noise reduction that is part of AfterShot Pro. You can sharpen you image and correct the light balance and so much more.

AfterShot Pro has completely changed the way I process my photos. I take more time with them now and they look better.