Test reports
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Test reports
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»Photogenics 4.1 - Back To The Future
With Photogenics revision 4.1 an old friedn comes with new clothes and promisses to help you to create pixel art nearly from the void or to manipulate already existing pictures. The program author Paul Nolen [2] has been developping his combined picture editing and 24bit painting program for 4 years. Even the first program revisions of Photogenics in 1995 braught the attention of the Amiga users to the painting sector. As it was in the past it is today. Photogenics stands off other similar programs due to its handling philosophy. Photogenics wants to support the Amiga user with easy picture conversions as well as with intense picture manipulation and touch ups. For this purpose the program got very realistic and extensive manipulation functions.
The product description, e.g. found on [3] there is an impressive feature lists. Photogenics offers e.g.
The 52 and 57 GIF and TIFF modules of Photogenics 4.1, which was used for this test, are not included due to not finished negoatiations with UNISYS for their LZW patents. But this does not really mean a limitation, because there are Datatypes in the Aminet, so Photogenics can load and process GIF and TIFF file formats.
The saving of GIF and TIFF formats is (currently) not possible.
In the program documentation they list the minimum requirements as
With this configuration Photogenics can really be started. But really working with it is not possible under these circumstances. The 68020-CPU is just too weak and makes only a really slow working with the pictures possible and 8 MB RAM bring the Amiga soon to the limits when editing large pictures.
Even a 68040 CPU will find its limits with many program functions. The more powerful the processor and the more RAM the more fun you get.
This is why Paul Nolan recommends a 68060 processor, a graphics board with 16 or 24bit display and 16 MB RAM for useful working.
Completely without problems is the installation of the program. You just take the Photogenics drawer from the CD and drop it on any position of you hard disk. When starting Photogenics any necessary assign is made completely automatically.
Some more work requires the configuration of the online help. Because it is in HTML format a web browser is used for displaying. Basically any Web browser can be used. For nearly any browser there are two a bit limited revisions of IBrowse and AWeb in the directory "Browsers".After starting Photogenics for the first time you can choose the browser to present the online help. Usefully the browser settings should ensure, that the browser window opens on the photogenics screen. For IBrowse you can call the MUI settings ("Settings/MUI...") and select the Photogenics screen under "System/Screen". To get the online help to appear on the Photogenics screen, if you want to use AWeb, start AWeb and choose "Settings/Program settings", click on "Open on" until "Namednbsp;public&nsp;screen" shows up and type PHOTOGENICS into the Screen name text field.
Of course, you can also use Voyager or any other browser for displaying the online help.
For creation and manipulation of pictures Photogenics uses some interesting concepts.
One one hand there are LAYERS used.
Imagine, that the picture itself is put on one or as many transparent plastic layers and on these plastic layers you can work with colours and painting technics as you like without being afraid to make the original picture bad. So you can lay layer over layer and create art step by step. If the reults are not the ones you wished you just fade out the layers or delete them and give it a new try.
The next concept of the PAINT LAYER works similar. Basically the painting over an existing picture does not change it as long as you fix this by expression.
Colour creation, which are not as fine as you wanted them to be, can be erased without problems by painting over the desired areas with the right mouse button. The rubbering with the right mouse button shows as a very helpful, well phantastic tool and you wonn't want to miss it, after a short time.
The PAINTMODES concept allows a very creative work of pictures. This concept makes you able to put certain effects (like e.g. colour to gray, emboss...) to areas without previous masking. So you can concentrate on the important things. With the different PAINT MODES many effect parameters can be tested easily and in real-time. And a fourth concept helps the artist quite fine: the EXPERIMENTAL MODE. If you chose this mode you can, as the name already says, experiment within a wide range with the paint modes and colours in real-time. If e.g. the colours of the just created art are not that way you want them the changing of a colour or its brightness are just some mouse clicks away.
If you waked up Photogenics from its hard disk sleep by a double click the GUI will be presented after a short time for loading. On the top boarder you will find a tools bar and left hand of the screen an option window. To get the tools bar and the option window completely on the screen a screen resolution of at least 800 x 600 pixels is required. In case of emergency a font with a height less than 10 dots cam be used on smaller screens.
Because Photogenics offers many easy overseeable functions by various plug-ins the option window is divided in 5 pages. The unique pages can be chosen via "index card tab" in the upper window area. The first page is for the picture control and media plug-in. The "picture control" allows loading, aving and swapping of different pictures as the manipulation of layers, alpha channel and a second picture. The media plug-in offers by mouse click the paint media as spray can, smearing, chalk, water colour and an own fire group and on the other hand the manipulation of their properties like size, pressure and transparency. With the sliders the properties of the chosen medium can be adjusted in size nearly infinitely variable and very intuitive.
The second page is for the colour selection plug-in, on the third page is the tools option plug-in and on the fourth page is the plug-in for the paint mode options. The fifth and last page is for the NGIO module, which means that the important settings for loading, saving and printing of pictures are made there.
The layout, which is presented on the first start can be adjusted to the personal needs at any time. After clicking the title bar of a plug-in it can moved into an own window or into any section of the option window, if the mouse button is being pressed. If you want an own window for the plug-in moving to the screen background is enough. But it is wise to save your pictures before doing that, because Photogenics release 52 as well as 57 crashed more than once.
From time to time it happened, that Photogenics was unable to scale a changed option window correctly, so the window contents were larger than the window itself and could not reached anymore in release 52. This problem no longer occurred with release 57. But Photogenics resigns, if very many plug-ins are moved into a window. In addition there were remains of the option window, which could not be closed anymore.
Using a little arrow next to the "index card tabs" you have got additional control about any plug-in and the layout fixing of the option window.
Similar in load is the tools bar, which includes some nice Photogenics functions, which reside near the standard tools.
So the Fill function offers in addition to coloured "filling", which can be adjusted in tolerance and softness of picture areas the removing of the set colours by using the right mouse button.
Signalized by a hand the tools bar offers a function, which allos to move layers and the alpha channel. Using the setting option, which are shown automatically in the option window additional manipulations can be made.
A zoom function allows a infinitely variable zooming up to 800 % and scaling down of the picture (section) to 5 % of its original size. With the plus and minus zoom icon the function should also be able to be used. In release 52 it was not useable, but in release 57 this bug has been gone.
Symbolized by a lamp the experimental mode awaits its use. If this mode is active and you select e.g. a new colour while painting, the previously painted will be fixed. Of course, this can be undone by the UNDO function, but the colour cannot be re-defined. Help is offered by the activated experimental mode. If you select a new colour, now, the previously drawn is shown in the selected colour. In a similar way the experimental mode can be used for testing the painting modes with the greatest ease.
In the tools bar the already mentioned paint modes, which are ordered in groups can be selected by the name or by browsing using the arrow symbols.(Remark of the translator: The next sentences, which are italic might just be true for the German version of Photogenics:There is another curiousity with Photogenics. In the submenu "Touch ups" the option "Brighten" can be found twice. But both option differ, even if their name does not implement that. This results in confusion.
The first brighten option is equal to the function "Dodge", the second brighten is equal to "Lighten". There should be to more different (German) words, which should have been chosen.
With the update to release 57 the German names of the painting modes have been reset to English. Without wanting it, this bug ensures, that the English names Dodge and Lighten are used, but you have to learn the names of the other paining modes in the English language.
Each try to select "Mode/(Alphabetical)" resp. "Mode(Uncategorized)" resulted in the error message "Not enough video RAM", even if 1945 KB Chip-RAM and many MBs of Fast-RAM were free.
Many paint modes allow impressive effects with little work to be done. In addition to the colour manipulation a picture can be touched up, silized, changed in focus and transformed quite differently. The extensive fire effects got an own chapter in the online help. From a video source digitized pictures can be un-interlaced, picture areas can be cloned. Listing all of the manipulation methods would be too much for this test report, so I give you just one more example: Photogenics offers a very nice possibility to attach pictures. The first picture is loaded by "Picture/Open", the second one as second picture by "Second picture/Open".
Then you choose the mode for "Rubbing" and you can really rub the second picture to the first one. The stronger/longer you rub on a position, the stronger the second picture will shine through or cover the first one completely. With this method you can easily get phantastic picture compositions on any area of the picture.
And as it is as with any (paint) modes you are able to undo quite fine unwanted changes partially or completely. So picture manipulation is fun.
Texts in the tools bar and in the option window are basically font sensitive. But in practical use there are problems within this release. So the name of the paint mode overwrites the defined area in many cases and cannot be read clearly or not at all.
In the Photogenics presets there is no font settings for the programs interface possible, because the program always takes the fonts, defined in the Workbench preferences. If there are display problems with these fonts, you should select a better (smaller) font size with the Workbench preferences.
It needs time, until you get use to the big numer of manipulation possibilities. If there is interest in such a workshop about Photogenics, we could examine this interesting program in one of the next editions of Amiga aktuell, again.
Basically the work with Photogenics is fun. But it is a pity, that there are some problems. From time to time I was unable of trying to find out the programs' abilities, because Photogenics stopped its activities and convinced the operating system to mutiny.
It is also disturbing, that there is no progress bar when executing some functions. Even in the test computer with a 040/40 CPU there was silence on the Photogenics screen when slowly executing certain functions (e.g. fill and UNDO functions) for seconds. Unfortunately without any message for the user. Even a busy pointer would be very helpful.
With the update on release 57 many program functions seemed to have gotten an intense incresement in speed. Work is done much better. Even the likes of modules to crash seemes to be reduced remarkable.
The German Online help can be used fine while working with the program. Unfortunately the text are too easy and sometimes it does not describe program functions clearly enough, from my point of view. If you try to follow the examples of those functions (e.g. the descriptions regarding cloning and moving) this becomes a puzzle and will result in anger, if you are an unpatient person. In addition there are, in opposition to the text, the screenshots of the online help not in German and can lead to confusion. The description of the mode "Rubbing" shows a screenshot of the mode "BasRelief", which is wrong.
Well done is the "Fire tutorial". An expansion of such tutorials on as many program functions as possible would be enjoyed and would result in a smaller settling-in period.
In the option window of the &qout;NGIO-PlugIns" TurboPrint and StudioPrint are listed as supported printer interfaces. The printer output using TurboPrint did not work during the test phase with this release. Photogenics opens a "Saving TurboPrint" window - that's it. The window cannot be closed again, other programs are blocked as well as the plug-ins in the options window are no longer useable.
Due to the fact that I have got just the "little brother" of StudioPrint, CanonStudio, the StudioPrint interface could not tested completely. At least Photogenics saved the picture to print as temporary file before trying to execute the Studio software.
Photogenics is an interesting picture editing software. It helps the ready-to-settle-in artist with its additional modules, which gives the artist and its creativity a big range.
The modular program structure is a good base for a future extension of the program abilities by additional modules. Some program bugs disturb the good impression. But Paul Nolan works continously to get Photogenics perfect. During the test period the published release 57 [4] with many bug fixes was installed, considered in this test report and brings a much higher program stability.
Even with the still present program bugs Photogenics is worth thinking about buying it, if you consider the number of functions and the quite fair price.
Photogenics can be purchased e.g. from [3]. The recommended price is 179.00 DEM (approx. 91.33 Euros). For 119.00 DEM (approx. 60.71 Euros) you can update from an earlier revision, if you give the serial number to them.
Photogenics 4.1 was tested on an A3000D with 36 MB RAM, 68040/40 processor, graphics board RetinaBLT Z3 using AmigaOS 3.1 and CyberGfx V3.
[1] http://www.paulnolan.com
[2] eMail: pnolan@cix.co.uk
[3] http://www.schatztruhe.de
[4] http://www.paulnolan.com/Updates/Update57.lha
Uwe Pannecke <Uwe.Pannecke@t-online.de>«
