Save Those Snapshots!

By: Frank Goad, Frank Communications

We want to know that we're covered in case we don't do things exactly right. We want our robot servant just like in the Jetsons. We'll settle for a little help, and that's what Jade gives you - a little help.

Jade can take a picture that's a bit blurry, under- or over-exposed, that has some contrast problems and perhaps has a bit too much backlight, and likely make it usable. I say "likely" because, like most packages, it has its limits. For instance, it won't repair that group shot in Mammoth Cave when your flash didn't fire.

It's available as a Photoshop plug-in or as a stand-alone package, and I used the plug-in. According to the website, they are identical in function and nearly identical in form. The stand-alone version has a batch processing function that the plug-in does not seem to have. Installation was quick and simple and it ran immediately.

If Photoshop is scary and intimidating to you, or you believe you need more technical skills, then you might want to invest in Jade; if you're a Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture pro, Jade might have limited use for you. It's good for broad fixes to photos that aren't too far gone and features a simple, non-intimidating interface, shown here:

The shot above is the default view upon startup and Contrast Enhancement (CE) is already checked. It's simple, straightforward and shows you what you're doing as you make the adjustments. The Intensity slider works with CE and with Color Correction, but there is no way to assign them individual slider values - you adjust them both or not at all. I can see the logic to that as chroma and contrast are dependent on one another. This points out (again) that simple, quick fixes are the key here. The preview window has radio buttons for zoom and the Default button lets you wipe out your changes and start over with only Contrast Enhancement checked.

Using the Photoshop plug-in, you can work on individual layers with the tool. That's pretty cool if you're applying masks or filters to other layers.

The Sharpness function uses edge detection (vs. things like unsharp mask), so sharpening takes some time to get it to a pleasing point and, if you're really picky like me, you'll spend a fair amount of time zooming in and out and scrolling around in the preview window to ensure that you haven't over-applied a control. The actual picture doesn't change until you click OK, but Ctrl/Cmd-Z reverts any changes if you don't like the results.

I tried Jade on a variety of photos, so let's start with a simple one first. This underexposed aerial shot was taken late afternoon in early September.

Here's what Jade did with only the Contrast Enhancement box checked:

And here's what it did with color and contrast checked:

Not a lot of difference in the second and third one, and it seemed to lighten up the shadows more than anything, but didn't' adjust for the blue color in the white shadow areas. I think that has more to do with the picture's contents, than Jade's abilities - there simply wasn't much to do with color correction and it seemed to rely on the Fill Light function for its color changes in this instance. The next one is a bit harder. The robin was munching on berries and paid me no mind when I sauntered up below him and snapped. Here's the original:

Here's what it looks like with the panel open in Photoshop. Note the difference in the preview window with only the default CE box checked - certainly better:

And here's what the final result was using the default CE only:

Here are the results with Contrast Enhancement, Color Correction and Fill Light checked:             

Not too shabby considering I shot straight up toward the sky. I had already opened up one stop, but this is much better. Next, I threw something really hard at it ... and I wasn't impressed. This shot is horribly overexposed. Note the red reflection of the shirt under the jaw on the right side, and the blue highlights on the shirt - way, way too bright:

Here's what Jade did with it:

Better, but still pretty much unusable. Next, I went into Photoshop and opened the original again. By using the Photoshop's Shadow/Highlight controls, I was able to get this:

Better, and then by lowering the saturation, the colors began to normalize and some overblown highlights came back some, too:

Tweaking the gamma helped and, in the end (not shown), it's a (barely) usable picture. Jade just didn't have the moxie to bring such a wayward pic back in line. After that, I tried it on the picture below at left, which is pretty much a mess, and Jade gave me the one on the right. While it's not bad (too contrasty), I wouldn't want to offer this to a client unless it was all I had and I was out of time. As a rescued snapshot, it's just fine:

In the end, for the casual/home/amateur user, there's a lot to like. It quickly cleans up a lot of "common sins" that your average point-and-shoot camera is often guilty of creating (not that people don't cause them, too). It will probably rescue many birthday and anniversary pictures, but when it comes to blur, there's only so much that a sharpening tool can do. For the aspiring photog, I'd say it's a good product. High-end image editors (Photoshop, etc.) will undoubtedly give better results and superior flexibility, but you'll be spending time to do so. If you're a photo enthusiast who is not an image editing power user, or want a little more control than Photoshop's Auto Color/Contrast/Levels commands, it's probably a very handy tool and a good buy.

The package goes for $49.99 on DataMind's website and, if you're using Elements or other packages, it looks like the stand-alone version is required.

Frank's Checklist:

Manufacturer: Datamind, http://products.datamind.biz

Pros: Easy correction for not-so-trashed pictures; simple, easy installation; straight-forward controls; seems to work on individual layers (I could be wrong)

Cons: One "Intensity" slider for both contrast and color correction; not a lot of control; sharpening lacks tools

Format: Plug-ins for Photoshop and Aperture, Beryl for Mac; Standalone for those mentioned and all others (see website for details), integrates with iPhoto as an external editor.

Installation: Simple, quick, glitch-free. (The stand-alone version might be different as it is untested.)

Interface: Clean, simple and straightforward. Limited controls.

Tools: Fill light, Sharpness, Contrast, Color Correction, Intensity slider, Zoom +/- buttons. Contrast and Color correction share the Intensity slider; Fill Light and Sharpness have their own sliders.

Availability: Download from products.datamind.biz. 30-day trial version available.

1-10 Ratings (10 is best):

Power - 5

Ease of Use - 10

Features - 6

Stability - 10

User rating: Pro (10) to Home (1) - 4

I gave it an overall rating of 4, but with this caveat: This is a tool for less technical users and, for them, it's a great thing to have. Pros might not rate it so well.