We are essentially dealing with a product that is closely related (in functionality and price) to ­something like Adobe Photoshop Elements. ­

PhotoPlus has a very similar look to the older ­versions of Elements, ­utilising a nice clean layout, where most of the controls and buttons are in the same places as the ­industry ­standard software. You can move all the controls and tabs around the workspace to suit your way of doing things.

The new PhotoPlus X2 has a whole hoard of features that you won’t find anywhere else. With ‘Makeover Studio’ you can fix ­common errors on your thousands of holiday snaps and party ­pictures. It allows you to ­automatically fix red eye, remove blemishes, smooth skin, brighten teeth and eyes, remove bright hotspots and more. ‘QuickFix Studio’ is a one-stop image fixer that allows you to easily make several photo adjustments in one fell swoop. The new ‘Blemish’ and ‘Patch’ tools remove spots and marks with very little effort.

There are also other new tools in the improved PhotoPlus X2, including the ‘Filter Effects Gallery’, with over 45 effects and the ‘Black and White Film’ tool.

One area in which PhotoPlus X2 is a bit behind Photoshop Elements, is in the ­application of ­levels to images. In ­Elements whenever you apply ­levels or changes to an image, you can see the results dynamically ­update in the preview window. This is not the case with PhotoPlus, but the end result is much the same, assuming you can tolerate this slight inconvenience.

Get PhotoPlus X2 for R920 from Holton & Associates on 011-789-6181 or ­purchase online from www.holton.co.za.