New photo editing program has cool tricks for amateurs

A screenshot of a photograph being edited on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0. Provided by Adobe Systems Korea

As we live in the digital era and handle enormous amounts of digital data, including still images and video clips, it is only natural that new tools are being developed to improve the process of digital editing.
Thanks to image processing software, photography has reached new heights. Software programs such as Adobe Photoshop and painting programs devised by Corel and MetaCreations have opened up infinite possibilities. Photographs can be altered to enhance their realism and they can be manipulated because the software operates like a digital canvas on which art works can be created.
While digital image editing programs are used for a variety of purposes, the increasing usage of digital single lens reflex or DSLR cameras has opened up a new demand for programs that cater specifically to those who want to edit photographs at a higher level.
The developer of the famed Adobe Photoshop series has come up with a new tool that focuses on digital editing for people who want more professional editing for their photographs.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 is a program that enables photographers to process large quantities of high-resolution digital images. This program, after a test period, has now been launched in Korea.
Compared to previous programs, this Photoshop version imports digital images very quickly and comes with an embedded search engine that that allows users to find specific image files by typing in key words.
The program also supports a virtual copy tool, which creates multiple versions of the same image so that users don’t have to save separate physical versions.
The digital files can also be converted to digital negatives, which is a universal file format used by professionals because different computers and different systems sometimes do not support certain image files. In changing the format of the photograph, the configuration of the image is sometimes slightly altered, which is why professional photographers try to use digital negatives in order to avoid any misrepresentations.
A free download of a test version of the program is available at Adobe Korea’s Web site until April 30.

Editing programs are not confined to still images. SK Communications now has an upgraded video editing tool for its community portal site Cyworld. It is similar to Adobe Premier or Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker. Whereas the previous version could only upload video clips, this newer program comes with eight “effects” that the user can impose on the video ― such as making it slower in certain sections, or creating more noise for a fuzzier screen. The editing program also comes with 28 scene transition effects and functions that enable users to insert background music or voice.
This program is available as a free download and supports various types of video files, which can be exported to the Internet, DVD or VCR depending on the users’ needs.

By Wohn Dong-hee Staff Writer [wohn@joongang.co.kr]