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StudioLine Photo 2

A lot of software for not a lot

StudioLine Photo 2 from H&M Software could well be just what the doctor ordered for budding digital photographers. Within the one program it offers image archiving, editing and presentation tools each with a range of options and features.

It does have a somewhat unusual interface which is initially odd but you soon get used to it. Whilst I found the alternative Windows interface added little to the program and possibly detracted from it, one feature was interesting. There is almost nowhere where you’ll find OK/Cancel buttons. Whatever you select just happens. After a while I found myself wondering why all programs don’t start going down this route. I also felt that it wasn’t always designed with normal users in mind. For instance when entering information you are sometimes asked to enter an argument which is programmer-speak for an option.

Safety First

Unlike many similar products, StudioLine Photo 2 goes out of its way to preserve the original photos. To begin with, you are required to import your photos from their current location in to the program’s database. You have various options with the default being to copy the images, leaving your originals safe. Of course you could delete them afterwards if disk space is at a premium. The second feature which I was particularly impressed with was that all editing and filtering is made non-destructively. The original image is preserved with the changes recorded as a series of processing steps.  If you ever decide you don’t like the way a photo has ended up, you can delete one or more of the processes you have used. You can even re-order them to create different effects.

When you do start to get low on space, the program allows you to archive images to CD or DVD. Again, everything is preserved with the images and edits being recorded to the CD/DVD. You can then opt to remove the images from your hard disk once you know they are safely recorded elsewhere.

The database also lets you to add descriptions to the images allowing you to sort them in various ways as well as employ complex searches.

Processing

Once your images are loaded in to the database, you can start to process them. This can be done individually or in batches. All the usual suspects are present including red-eye removal, blurring, sharpening and colour balancing. This is one area where StudioLine Photo 2 falls behind such programs as PhotoShop Elements 2 though. You can only apply changes to the whole image and the range of filters and processing is limited compared to some programs. That said, what is here will be enough for the vast majority of users.  Furthermore, you can easily copy filter settings from one image to another.

Sharing your Images

Once you have your images catalogued and processed, you can start to think about sharing them with your friends and family. While the program offers a basic slide show option, one of its strengths is in the area of automatic generation of web pages. Simply choose a selection of photos and a template and the program will generate all the web pages for you complete with suitably scaled thumbnails. The range of templates isn’t vast but those that are there are very attractive and feature nice rollover effects.

You can email pictures using a variety of modem friendly options to minimise the size of the files being sent. The printing options are also reasonably thorough offering different sizes and layouts. You can mix and match different image sizes and StudioLine Photo 2 will fit them as best as it can on to each page.

Conclusion

Whilst there are better programs for image processing, if you want a way to organize and archive your images whilst tidying up and enhancing them then StudioLine Photo 2 is well worth checking out. It’s a little sluggish in places although it does do a lot of background processing to allow you to continue working whilst it gets on with other things.  It also features a wealth of hand holding in the form of tutorials, a printed manual and lots of on screen hints and tips. The latter can be switched off individually once you’ve got to know your way around each area. Overall, for the money this is an awful lot of program and should prove useful for anyone with an interest in digital photography.

Iain Laskey

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