Every once in a while a product comes along that makes you smile.

You smile because either the product does a lot more than you expected, because it addresses a need that no other one has, or just because it has some features that work in totally unexpected and often thrilling ways.

The first time I saw binuscan’s PhotoRetouch Pro demonstrated, I actually laughed because it seemed so right. I was eager to get my hands on a working copy, even if only alpha distributions are available at the moment.

The paint process tool is used to make a filter selection. After a selection is made, the process is “painted” on the image using variable-size brushes.
Photo courtesy of binuscan

I installed the system on my Apple iMac running OS 9.1; 350 MHz with 128 MB physical RAM. Though PhotoRetouch Pro is fully carbonized (optimized for Mac OS X), I don’t have a machine running it at the moment, simply due to the lack of applications available to this point. So, the interface I was using didn’t have the slick look and feel that I saw on the demo version at Nexpo in New Orleans, but the core functionality was the same.

It should be noted that this alpha does not have virtual memory features enabled yet, so I was constrained on the size of the images I could use for testing purposes. Larger images in the 30 MB range would simply crash the application. I used CMYK and RGB TIFFs with a maximum size of 10 MB for my tests. PhotoRetouch Pro currently supports the following formats: TIFF, JPEG, EPS, DCS, DCS2 and PICT.

A common question I can imagine being asked about this application is — is this a replacement for Photoshop? The answer is — it depends on what you’re using Photoshop for.

If you’re using it primarily to modify existing images in terms of warping, scaling, adding filters, text and so on, then my answer would be no. If you’re using Photoshop mainly to make global changes such as contrast, sharpness, changing color profiles, etc., then once this product matures a bit, you may have a decision to make. If my task involved preparing scanned images for print and at a fairly high volume, PhotoRetouch Pro would definitely be on my list.

If there is a basic thematic mentality of PhotoRetouch Pro, it’s that of painting. A lot of applications promise this, but then make the user do complicated selection masks in order to modify areas, which is counter-intuitive to an actual physical paint process. With PhotoRetouch Pro, you select a modification to make, select the brush size and then go to work, “painting” your modification on the image.

For example, the woman in my example image was wearing a blue shirt, and I wanted to change the color to a slightly deeper blue. I selected the Paint Process tool, held down CNTRL and clicked on the image, and was presented with a dialogue box where I could pick via eyedropper the color of the shirt, as well as the color I wanted it changed to. After accepting the choice, the full-size image returned, and I simply “painted” on the shirt and watched the color instantly change. Since the tool is sensitive only to the color selected, you don’t have to worry about “coloring outside the lines.” Simply paint in broad strokes and the change will take effect. How generous the selection criteria are in terms of color matching is selected in the initial dialogue boxes.

Want to sharpen just a portion of the image, say the edge of a sleeve? The process is the same — select the filter to use, and just paint it on. No masks, no tedious outlining, just painting. A checkbox determines whether your painting is cumulative. In other words, the effect gets more and more pronounced the more times you paint over the same area. PhotoRetouch Pro comes with a generous selection of filters, and offers you the option of using most Photoshop filters as well — just show the application where to find the plug-ins folder if you have Photoshop installed on the computer.

Another one of PhotoRetouch Pro’s powerful features is the ability to create and use International Color Consortium scanner and printer profiles. This allows you to take a reference scan from, say, a high-resolution drum scanner and electronically match your own lower-end scanner to it. The scanner will function identically, but PhotoRetouch Pro will then apply a series of electronic corrections to make the image as close as it can to the reference that was obtained earlier. Obviously, the better the scanner the closer the match, but the degree of correction that can be processed is quite wide because the target is entirely electronic in nature. In the case of a printer profile, such extensive corrections might not be possible due to the printer being limited by real physical constraints: resolution, ink distribution, etc.

CDC4x is a rather interesting feature that allows enlargement of an image by four times with very little loss in apparent resolution. Binuscan, in their documentation, admits that it’s not a “miracle tool,” but the results I obtained were quite amazing, particularly with images that were small in size but fairly high in resolution, like a 3-by-5 scanned 35 mm positive. It’s recommended having the image (if from a scan) as physically clean as possible, since specks and dust are enlarged as well.

Super Crop is a supplied cropping tool that will compensate for slightly off-kilter scans by straightening up images to the required dimensions. This tool works great for a very specific task as well: getting calibration grids perfectly horizontal when you want to make an ICC profile. You just click on the four anchor points and then click inside the crop area (a little “OK?” lights up), and the image is cropped and straightened up to form a perfect rectangle.

ReCo attempts in one fell swoop to correct for typical defects acquired during the scanning process. Histogram levels that were not captured at the time of acquisition are artificially created during the ReCo process. What these excess pixels do is create a smoother transition between levels, which makes for a more visually pleasing picture.

With most traditional imaging software, corrections and filters are stacked: that is, performed one after the other in sequence, such as >increase contrast>despeckle>unsharp mask. The disadvantage to this is that any mathematical errors introduced by a filter set are compounded when they are stacked. Ultimately this degrades the image: even if the degradation is masked by the actual effect of the filters, often the image will lose a subtle bit of reality and pleasing quality.

PhotoRetouch Pro performs all ReCo operations at once, folding the filters into a simultaneous process. Realistically, the process worked well. Most of the time, operators are going to want to come up with corrections on their own, but in the case of meeting tight deadlines and having to push through work quickly, the “default” ReCo settings were more than acceptable, at least with my HP 5100C scanner. In addition, most of the ReCo characteristics are individually adjustable as well, and can be saved into a module.

Binuscan expects to have a virtual memory-enabled beta preview of PhotoRetouch Pro available by the end of August, and intends to ship fully functional copies for both Mac and PC by the end of the year. Pricing is to be officially announced, but will be in the $995 range, according to Bruno Courbage, a product specialist at binuscan.