Nova Development US Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0

by Nova Development US

Product Features

• Improve your photos with one-click Smart Enhance
• Add unparalleled special effects
• Balance color and correct red eye
• Make use of huge variety of painting tools
• Get photos from digital cameras, camera phones, scanners, CD-ROM and online photo sharing services.
• NEW! Easily remove backgrounds withthe Extract Tool.
• NEW! Fix photo flaws in 1 click withQuickFix Studio.
• NEW! Make any portrait picture perfectwith Makeover Studio

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.1 x 5.2 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002N5TCY0
• Item model number: FKWT
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 28, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,655 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Photo Explosion Deluxe made history as the first software of its kind to deliver powerful editing features, spectacular special effects and professional-quality photo projects — all together in one program. Now Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 makes digital photography even easier. And it’s packed with exciting new features, all designed to let you get the most out of your digital camera.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More complicated, features taken out from 3.0, January 20, 2010

By 

M. Clowdus - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nova Development US Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 (DVD-ROM)

I used 3.0 all the time to open up a photo, add some quick text for a logo on top of my photo. I would then add a frame around the photo (there were several different options of cool effects), to block out some of the background stuff in the photo.

The new version, does not have a simple Insert Text feature like 3.0 did. 3.0 allowed you to insert text, and grab the selection bar windows to easily move it around, rotate it, make the text bigger, etc.
With 4.0, you first have to select the text tool, then increase your font (and change it if you wish). If you want to move the text, you have to then select the move tool (another step). If you want to rotate it, you then have to go to the menu, and go through a couple of steps before you manually have to put in what degree angle you want to rotate it. It was much simpler and easier in the old version because you could do it all from one place.

I used the magic effects and frame features all the time in 3.0, there was alot of cool black and white effects that you can make a pic look really elegant (I'm a cake decorator so I used it to block out the background so the cake would be focused better). In 4.0, you can't do it in the Image Editor.
The step in 4.O:
1. Create a new project in Project Studio
2. Add your photo.
3. Add your border (which are horrible,theres no magic effects anymore, and no elegant black and white effects to place around your pic).
4. If you find one you like, you then have to save your project.
5. Then you have to export it to a jpg.

I'm really surprised they took out some functionality of 3.0 and made everything more difficult. I'm now searching for a software that will allow me to quickly add text and some elegant photo effects around the edges.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as promised, November 12, 2009

By 

Gail Dehelian - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nova Development US Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 (DVD-ROM)

Photo Explosion Deluxe Review

Made a scrapbook page and that was fairly easy and straightforward. Had some nice features but nothing that blew me away or that other programs didn't have. Every page was different so you couldn't make a scrapbook album that matched just one page.

Working on pictures in albums - Once in the quick fix studio you couldn't go from picture to picture to fix. You had to go out to the home main screen and then pick another picture and go back into quick fix. Added time to an already time consuming task. Not so quick to fix.

Also there is a back and forward button at the top but they didn't have an apparent function. They did nothing for me. You would think that it would take you to the next picture in the album or back but it didn't do anything. Consulted that nice big manual and there was nothing there about it!

Manual spent chapter after chapter about organizing photos and very little on special features. Found that odd and frustrating.

Saving a finished fix photo took a bit of time which on other programs is relatively fast. It took 8 seconds to just crop a picture and to save to file took anywhere from 25 to 45 seconds. I have never waited that long on other programs and when you are trying to go through 400 photos in an album that is very slow going! I also had nothing else running on my pc and plenty of memory so it wasn't my pc with the issues.

Slide show could only have one transition and it was used for all frames. Wasn't easy to move pictures around into an order that you wanted. Since it took so long editting my pictures I never did finish a slide show - it was taken too long and I have other much better programs for that. Even some freeware and shareware slide show programs have more features.

Didn't like that even though the program comes in one disk it is broken up into 3 programs and requires you to go back and forth among them. Definately something I have never seen and a feature I didn't appreciated - why not keep it all together?

One feature I found very interesting and was ready to try out was the "slimmy" feature - to slim you down a bit on a photo. After reading everything on it and going to the help menu I still wasn't able to get this feature to work at all.

All in all this would not be a program that I would recommend or purchase - would give it 2-3 stars for making projects, scrapbook pages, fun text, etc... but not very useable for slide shows. I feel even a first timer would find it too frustrating to use and slow.

Thumbs down on this one!

Gail DeHelian

*This review was posted by a member of the Nova Development User Community (NDUC). NDUC members are real people who use Nova Development products and share relevant feedback about the products they use in order to help other users. More information about NDUC, its programs and members is available on the Nova Development website.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I hate it, May 10, 2010

By 

Cynthia A. Conrad - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nova Development US Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 (DVD-ROM)

Like many other customers I too had version 3 and loved it. When I purchased my new computer I was told by the salesman that the older version would probably not work with windows 7 so I purchased this new version. It is nothing like the older version and not at all an improvement. Who ever designed this made it way too complicated. It is a frustrating nightmare to use. Does not have the same wonderful features as the older version. Hard to navigate. I have tried numerous times to figure this program out and I get more frustrated each time. Don't buy this if you have expectations of it working as the older versions of photo explosion. Everyone that has purchased this product should let Nova know that they have let their customers down in a big way. What were they thinking?