AfterShot Pro 2.0 Research

[Rick Champagne]

Hi Everyone,

The AfterShot Pro Team hit a couple of important milestones last week that I wanted to share with you...

As you know, we released AfterShot Pro 1.2.0.7 which introduced support for 37 new cameras. As part of this effort, Jeff also worked with some of our Developers to help them learn the secrets of AfterShot Pro camera profiling. This effort has put us in a great position to be able to start delivering profiles on a more regular basis. We're very grateful to Jeff for his major contribution with this release and for the extra effort he put in with the Team.

The ASP Team also spent the week together working on our plans for AfterShot Pro 2.0 and interim releases. Some of the early development work has already started on 2.0, but we will also be conducting some user research to firm up our development plans for the next version. We will have a survey ready to send out to you in August. We'll also be calling random survey participants who opted in to further communication from us to learn more about your workflows. If any of you would like to participate in our Beta program, you will also have a chance to join via the survey. In the meantime, we're consolidating the wishlist items from the 27-page thread found here in the forums. Our goal in all of this research is to ensure that what we are working on your top priorities and that the release is meaningful to you in some way. At present time, we are aiming for a spring launch. I'll be happy to share some of the survey insights with you in aggregate form once it's completed.

Aside from that, I hope you're all enjoying your summer!

Rick

[tomsi42]

Thanks for the update. The 1.2.0.7 release works fine for me.

It is good news that you are asking for volunteers for the 2.0 beta team. Count me in.

For me; there aren't that many things I need. But the stuff that is missing; I miss sorely.

1. A few more controls, like clarity.

2. Add some of the plugins as default features - like vignetting,

3. Generic DNG support.

[brucet]

Thanks for the update Rick. Communications is key and it seems that message has finally gotten through to Corel thanks to your efforts.

I'm happy to be a part of any efforts to improve ASP. Count me in if needed.

Regards

[Denis de Gannes]

This post is very encouraging. Will there be a request for interested users to participate in the beta testing process. I believe I would be willing to have a go. I participated with Rawshooter Pro before it was purchased by Adobe in 2006.

[gareth]

Good news!
While I am not a pro, and couldn't help with the deep stuff, I am a computer systems tester by trade and would be willing to do a bit to help...
I have liked Bibble/ASP for some time now, and anything to help keep it alive (and better) would be good !

[coolrat]

Very good news indeed.
I had nearly totally given up on ASP, but after trying Lightroom and seeing how Adobe is moving toward a pay-by-the-month Creative Cloud method of squeezing money out of consumers, I'll certainly not be using any Adobe products. Ever. Now with Corel's commitment to Aftershot Pro 2, I'm likely going to buy Corel Paintshop Pro for photo editing. I really liked ASP's workflow and am very pleased to hear about version 2. I do hope Corel will provide us with a substantial discount after their severe bungle in basically providing no support or improvements to ASP for a year.

In Aftershot Pro 2, I'd like to see
- continued support for Linux. Corel should realize that ASP's cross-platform potential is enough to drive many sales. Although I am using Windows now, the main reason I bought ASP is because it can run on Linux.
- highlight recovery tool that actually works,
- better automatic adjustment profiles (right now, ASP seems pretty weak compared to Photo Ninja),
- greatly improved noise reduction, and
- greatly improved cataloguing/DAM features.
- tight integration with Paintshop Pro.

[spoilerhead]

* Proper multi monitor support (at least 2, better 3 screens), library one one screen, tools on an other, and the image itself on a third. It would probably be enough if all the panes where just undockable and could be moved freely.
* Consistent profiles. The same scene captured by different cameras, but with identical settings, should yield identical results imho (safe for dynamic range, but colors should be consistent, that's the whole point of actually having color profiles)
* better/easier keywording. Really, typing everything manually isn't really all that user friendly.
* Fixes for all the annoying little glitches. (i.e. colored border with CA correction) This would generally improve the workflow a lot.
* Listen to real pro photographers using Bibble/ASP since years for their work. They're the ones that actually need a fast workflow, and usually they're evangelists.

[Hobgoblin]

* Proper multi monitor support (at least 2, better 3 screens), library one one screen, tools on an other, and the image itself on a third. It would probably be enough if all the panes where just undockable and could be moved freely.
* Consistent profiles. The same scene captured by different cameras, but with identical settings, should yield identical results imho (safe for dynamic range, but colors should be consistent, that's the whole point of actually having color profiles)
* better/easier keywording. Really, typing everything manually isn't really all that user friendly.
* Fixes for all the annoying little glitches. (i.e. colored border with CA correction) This would generally improve the workflow a lot.
* Listen to real pro photographers using Bibble/ASP since years for their work. They're the ones that actually need a fast workflow, and usually they're evangelists.

+1
and of course support for and/or integration of the current plugins.

[albernier]

++1
please integration of current plugins that contribute very very much to the efficacy of ASP and dynamize its development

albernier

[jknights]

* Proper multi monitor support (at least 2, better 3 screens), library one one screen, tools on an other, and the image itself on a third. It would probably be enough if all the panes where just undockable and could be moved freely.
* Consistent profiles. The same scene captured by different cameras, but with identical settings, should yield identical results imho (safe for dynamic range, but colors should be consistent, that's the whole point of actually having color profiles)
* better/easier keywording. Really, typing everything manually isn't really all that user friendly.
* Fixes for all the annoying little glitches. (i.e. colored border with CA correction) This would generally improve the workflow a lot.
* Listen to real pro photographers using Bibble/ASP since years for their work. They're the ones that actually need a fast workflow, and usually they're evangelists.

Agree +1

* Need to fix the SDK (bugged items defined by tintin) to allow the developers to do some really great things that will aid ASP.


Happy to continue in Beta Team for feedback and testing.

[Dutchmm]

++1
please integration of current plugins that contribute very very much to the efficacy of ASP and dynamize its development

albernier

only ++1? I would say ++1024 - the plugins add so much functionality to AS ... I don't have a problem if Corel decides to compete with the plugin writers - au contraire! The more options we have, as none of them are what IBM used to call "mandatory options", the better - competition breeds improvement. But I'd hate to lose them, not least because they would oblige me to keep multiple versions of AS active on my computer; rather as one already has to keep a copy of B5, in case one needs to reprocess any of the RAWs one developed with it.

[brucet]

A reality check is need about here I recon! Rick/Corel asked for some feedback. But does that feedback involve 'fixes/updates' to ASP. Or is the feedback intended to involve a complete rewrite? A wish list as long as a gorillas arm is not 'realist' in my opinion. Otherwise the time taken will once again have everyone screaming ASP is dead. Again!
As long as Corel is working on ASP with the future looking bright for new feature/improvements is about all we can really hope for. I to would like many features. But the reality is that Corel is in business. My guess that business is to capture as much market share as possible and make a few dollars in doing so. Delaying a release so that features can be included for a very small minority of users I imagine is not on their radar.
I appreciate the wish lists above but is that really what the bulk of users and potential user want? How many want, need, use or even own 3 monitors? Things like that are all well and good. But I for one would rather see Corell chip away at new releases and updates on a regular basis rather than bog them down now on a bloated program with a host of features all that bring with them potential bugs and issues.

regards

[mikmak]

Agree +1

ASP team need to fix the SDK (bugged items defined by tintin) to allow the developers to do some really great things, and make the existing plugins' actually work with the new versions again. Some plugins stops and locks the program if used as a preset and also if the preset is used in the output batch. All this works fine in the old version 1.0.1.10.

Regards and keep up the good work
Per

[tstoddard]

I have seen some people ask for improved cataloging/DAM features but I don't see enough emphasis placed on this. My experience has taught me that using multiple applications to handle photo editing and cataloging almost always creates problems that lead to tradeoffs somewhere in my workflow. What I would love to have is a product that offers good raw processing AND good cataloging functionality. Lightroom attempts to do that but I don't care for their solution and end up using different programs for cataloging and raw processing. There are a multitude of problems this creates.

What I'm trying to say is that I like Aftershot's workflow a lot and would love to be able to take advantage of it but I can't unless it provides me with the cataloging functionality I've grown accustomed to. With a little effort, I'm sure that the Aftershot development team could improve the cataloging functionality of Aftershot Pro enough to satisfy the average photographer's needs. This would create a product with a tremendous advantage of others in the marketplace and would most like result in much greater customer loyalty and a larger market share of Corel.

[gareth]

On cataloguing, I would love to have something simpler. I work with folders, and I get confused by xmps stored in the catalogue.
I would like the image processing xmp to be stored with the raw image ... and just the keyword searches handled by the catalogue - even though it would have to do a refresh if I moved things outside ASP.
I intend to write an indexer to extract the keywords from the xmps but it won't be wonderful as I am not clever enough.
In the mean time I stick with folders and forget the catalogue