Introducing Alex Brazeau, Corel Photo Group- Aftershot forum

[damonlynch]

Hi Alex, just a quick note to suggest you may like to add the Canon 1D X to the list of supported cameras on the website. Best of luck, Damon.

[brucet]

Hi Alex.

I was once both a dedicated PSP/Jasc user and a Bibble/ASP user. Now I've abandoned ASP as I feel it no longer outputs what I'm looking for. For me with Nikon cameras I tired of continually having to work on poor white balance results. Now I work with Nikon's excellent NX-D. (NX-D reading Nikon camera settings is a huge bonus. Hint! Buy the secret formula from Nikon). Not very sophisticated but it does an excellent job out outputting a file that I can work on in PSP.

I keep watching the ASP forum in hope of having all Corel products that can work seamlessly together at some time in the future.

Wish list? Well for me I want a simple high quality program that gives me a high quality output. I don't want something that is burdened with bells and whistles that complicates the program and introduces complexity that comes with 'bugs'. In an ideal world ASP Pro and PSP would work hand in hand with the ability to jump from one program to another.

Best wishes.

[Hobgoblin]

Hi Alex,
Welcome to Aftershot Pro!

May I encourage you to look at the thread http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=55023, the Plugins section of the Forum.
As a communication specialist I think you will see that there is an issue to resolve between your team and the plugin developers.

Kind Regards,
R.

[Alex Brazeau]

May I encourage you to look at the thread http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=55023, the Plugins section of the Forum.

Thanks, I'm on it! I saw we had some new plugins posted for all platforms by spoilerhead (and others), so referred them for testing before releasing them on our site. I'll circle back with the team to review.

Cheers,
Alex

[spoilerhead]

Thanks, I'm on it! I saw we had some new plugins posted for all platforms by spoilerhead (and others), so referred them for testing before releasing them on our site. I'll circle back with the team to review.

Back in the Bibble days we had a own dedicated forum for plugin developers, where we could discuss about problems, post test version and get feedback and help from the developers. I'd love to see that reestablished.

[hannes_hab]

discuss about problems, post test version and get feedback and help from the developers. I'd love to see that reestablished.

+1
So many essential plugins - that was the big advantage of Bibble/ASP ...
Thanks to Spoilerhead and tintin for updating their plugins!
Where ASP tried to integrate the functionality in the product they did not do a job (red eye removal).
I would like to use ASP 2 64 bit - but in reality I have to switch - even back to ASP 1 (for Noise Reduction). For many picture ASP 1 with noise ninja is much better than PC NR - if PC NR is working at all ...

[ferdinand-paris]

Thanks, I'm on it! I saw we had some new plugins posted for all platforms by spoilerhead (and others), so referred them for testing before releasing them on our site. I'll circle back with the team to review.

Back in the Bibble days we had a own dedicated forum for plugin developers, where we could discuss about problems, post test version and get feedback and help from the developers. I'd love to see that reestablished.

+2

[Hobgoblin]

May I encourage you to look at the thread http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=55023, the Plugins section of the Forum.

Thanks, I'm on it! I saw we had some new plugins posted for all platforms by spoilerhead (and others), so referred them for testing before releasing them on our site. I'll circle back with the team to review.

Cheers,
Alex

Thanks for the positive response to my 'stirring'.
You will see from the subsequent posts that there are plugin authors who wish to be involved.
The ball is in your court ....

[kumsa]

Nice to see the focus from Corel, Alex.

Two things:
- tracking bugfixes
- beta testing

BUGS
It would be useful to know if ASP2 has an item listed for a bugfix, or not.
For instance, when ASP2 included HDR for Linux (a revision after Windows and Mac), the quality was not good. Turns out that there is an export feature that was not included. I posted it in the forum, with examples and different outputs. There was no response or acknowledgement from Corel. It occurred to me to open a support ticket, but support tickets require a purchase code. When I paid for my most recent upgrade to ASP2, a purchase code wasn't sent. So, I opened a chat session, and the online support verified that I had a valid code to use. I created a support ticket, and received terrific support which concluded with a satisfactory resolution.

I'm now outside of the warranty coverage, so I can't open any more support tickets, and I've discovered a new problem with deletions in the catalog (http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=55440). I've posted it, and had no responses. For my workflow, it's not feasible to manage photos through a catalog, if deletions don't remove the image from the file system.

Marking a noted feature failure for a bug fix would be very helpful.

BETA TESTING
It's pretty normal in the software industry to encourage beta testers, before running a commercial release (just need an NDA). The mistakes I'm seeing would normally have been identified during testing, so I'm guessing that the corp of testers should be widened. Beta testers could also verify report bugs, and post as a bugfix.

Thanks Alex

[jknights]

Hi Alex,
Welcome and I hope you dont find the comments and requests overwhelming.

I think that these request/comments show the strength of interest and support for the ASP product.
My biggest issue at present is that we now have a version of AfterShopt Pro that can nearly compete on level terms with the likes of Lightroom and Capture One Pro but there is one link missing.
We need a guarantee of future multi-platorm (Mac, Windows and Linux) support and that every attempt will be made to keep the RAW support current with camera releases. I realise that you dont have access to all cameras before the event but RAW support within two months should be an achievable goal!

Following on from the above I would really like PaintShop Pro to also become available on Mac and Linux. This would really strengthen the Corel portfolio and also make for an integrated photo editing suite.

There are many promising aspects about the Corel product set but they just need investment and refinement to be truly first class products.

I wish you a less than politically correct (a spade, is a spade) Happy Christmas and may the new year of 2015 be very successful for you.

[Arnfinn]

Yes, we all like ASP. That's why we all still hang in here and try to point out where we feel there's room for improvements. It's a great product with it's strengths surpassing the competition, but unfortunately in other fields is unecessary behind. I really love how I can browse through a large amount of images and compare several at a time. Workflow wise this is a clear winner. For this reason ASP is my first line of defense. Sometimes it produces great images as well, but very often I find that it's shortcomings makes me open my raw files in other programs to get the desired results. This didn't need to be this way if more resources had been put into the software and into better supporting the resourceful individuals that enhances the functionality in genious ways by developing plugins.

Hope I don't sound too negative. I really do love what's working with the software, and do hope I can find reasons to love it more. I know it's been a struggle to keep everything afloat with limited resources, but thanks for stepping up and improving the communication between the development team and this forum. It's also comforting to know that ASP now finally is in the same boat as Paint Shop Pro, which up until now seems to have had more resources for development. This concludes this year and bring hope for the new year.

To Alex and everyone in the development team; Have your well deserved time with your families during the Christmas holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

[rondo]

This isn't a very busy forum anymore- let's face it, when Corel let ASP 1 languish for nearly two years before releasing ASP 2, most of the interest died off. Initially there were many plugins being written and posted for ASP 1 too- now, no one wants to bother and the 64 bit plugin selection has gone nowhere.
I still have hope for the program but there is a long road to travel yet to reach a competitive status with other RAW software.

[Alex Brazeau]

Hi everyone:

I hope you had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holiday season with friends and family. I just wanted to drop in to again thank you all for sharing your good wishes and your ideas/feedback--all of this is helpful as we head into 2015 and I will be working with Greg and Joseph to integrate your feedback into our plans. It's shaping up to be a big year!

To address a couple of the themes posted here:

We agree that RAW profile development needs to be a priority and in fact is at the top of our list. Your input plays a big role, since there are tons of cameras and lenses coming out all the time, it’s good for us to know what gear you’re using and what you want to see supported. I’ll soon be looking at new and more efficient ways to report the camera models and lens corrections you want to see supported.

I hear your feedback re: plugin development. We're currently working to better empower plugin devs and we'll have an update in this area in the New Year—so stay tuned.

We've got lots more on the go, and much of that activity is guided by what we're hearing here in the forum. Your ideas matter to us—thanks again for the feedback and words of support. This is a really great community and it makes me excited about our plans ahead and working with many of you as we continue to improve AfterShot Pro.

[ferdinand-paris]

There were two major impediments to me making more use of ASP2. One was Fuji x-trans support and that seems to have been solved, although I haven't really tested it exhaustively because of the other impediment - noise reduction. See for example this thread.

Perfectly Clear Noise Reduction is very poor. Other software has made considerable progress in this area. Anyone who shoots in low light will have considerably difficulty using ASP2. I think that this needs to be a priority as well.

[Arnfinn]

Glad to hear that you believe it to be a big year for ASP. I really hope that you can pull some nice rabbits out of your hat. ASP really needs it, and I really hope that a searious noice reduction solution will be one of those rabbits.

In my photography (mostly nature and wildlife) I'm constantly pushing everything to it's limits. Noise and contrast (dynamic range) is an everyday challenge. ASP is my first line of defence where I can compare and sort large number of images. For many of my images I really like the colors and dynamic range, but it can't handle noise without completely ruining details. It's like using an elephant to tend your garden. It may look more smooth afterwards, but most of your flowers and vegetables might have become flat in the process. This is my biggest obstacle for using ASP for many of my images, as noise reduction is best when you do it in the raw conversion process. Doing noise reduction in other softwares isn't a good solution for this reason. Corel's #1 priority should, besides the camera profiles, be to get a good working solution for this. A really good noise reduction software has different setings for preserving details and can apply different settings to different parts of an image. Usually there's more visible and coarse noise in deep shadow areas than in the lighter areas. If you only have one setting for the noise reduction you will most likely ruin the details in the rest of the image when you are satisfied with the noise work in the shadows. Other images will show visible noise in a blue sky, where the noise in the rest of the image is acceptable. A one-size-fits-all solution isn't what's needed for ASP.

The other thing that's needed is a gradient selection tool for layers. The gradient plugin is limited to only applying a dark, light or colored gradient. No exposure or contrast ajustment or what would have been possible with a layer selection tool. It seems to have been discontinued by the developer and not ported to 64 bit. Adobe has had this functionality in Lightroom for ages, why not Corel. ASP has many other good selection tools for layers, so why not one for gradient selections? I guess that almost every photographer will need a gradient selection/ajustment tool for many of their images. I can't believe it could be so much more difficult to implement than the tools already present for selections in layers...

Yesterday I finished and uploaded several images to a major nature photo competition. For many of the images I had converted previousely in ASP, I had to redo with other raw converters to get a decent noise reduction, even though I did like the colors from the ASP version better. Hope to see a good solution or progress timeline for this soon...