Picktorial 3 0 6 (384)
The last 2 MTD5 commands: In order to do the last 2 MTD5 commands you must be on Firmware 384.xxxxx or higher. 3.0.0.4.384.20308 (preferred because it is just before the change in firmware to hunt Cellspots) or the command will not be effective. Picktorial is one of these editors and I’ve had the pleasure of testing their 3.0 Beta version (and now final version) for a while. Despite still having some minor bugs, the Picktorial team is working hard and constantly searching for new ways to improve the performance. Picktorial is a powerful, smooth, and intuitive photo editor that provides tools for enhancing and retouching photos. Make local adjustments to RAW photos, retouch portraits, add filters, watermarks and more. It now integrates with OS X Photos, so you can enjoy the power of Picktorial right from Photos.
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posted Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 10:30 AM EDT
MacOS photo editor Picktorial launched in early 2016 before being updated to version 2 that summer. The affordable and powerful RAW editor has now reached a new milestone, version 3. For owners of the first two versions, the new update is totally free, by the way.
What’s new with Picktorial version 3? The major new features include customizable local adjustments, a new live histogram and tabbed panels.
Customizable local adjustments
Taking a look at the improved local adjustments features, they’re very impressive. The new tools are accessible through the Retouch > Tone menu and allow you to customize your selection for localized adjustment through the use of luminosity masks and color masks, which are both powerful and precise tools. You can select the blend mode for your selection as well, with options such as 'overlay' and 'multiply.'
Live histogram
The histogram has seen a lot of improvement with Picktorial 3. The new live histogram is always active, even when making local adjustments, gradients and brushes. It is highly detailed and responsive.
A new duo of clipping indicators, like you get in Lightroom, have been added to Picktorial. You can hide or show these indicators by clicking on the histogram.
User interface improvements
In my review of the first version of Picktorial, I remarked that I enjoyed the clean user interface. With Picktorial 3, the interface remains clean and offers users more functionality and information than ever before. There’s a new dedicated panel for presets, a dedicated panel for metadata and a new history panel. Considering Picktorial offers a non-destructive workflow, the addition of the history panel is fantastic.
Additional improvements and features
Picktorial 3 should also be of particular interest to Fujifilm shooters. X-Trans sensors historically have rather underwhelming support within third-party software, but Picktorial 3 supports X-Trans cameras including raw RAF files in addition to auto lens correction based on the embedded metadata.
Frequency separation is an oft-used tool by portrait retouchers for smoothing skin, but it can be daunting for beginners. Picktorial has frequency separation built in. By brushing the area you want to smooth, you can control the amount of separation using a slider in the adjustment panel.
Hands-on with Picktorial 3
I’ve had a pre-release version of Picktorial 3 for about a week now and have been experimenting with the software. It feels faster than previous versions of the software despite the addition of many new features and the new customized local adjustments work very well. The software already felt powerful for the price, but the development team continues to improve the functionality to compare favorably with the more expensive competition.
The addition of the history tab is one of my favorite improvements. While the software can sometimes be slow to go from history state to history state when working with large files, it adds a lot of flexibility to the software. Similarly, the new clipping indicators in the live histogram proved very useful.
In the roughly one year since Picktorial launched, the software has continually improved. It's not perfect -- no software is -- but it is priced well and offers a lot of functionality for photographers looking for a great, clean all-in-one photo editor. I look forward to seeing what additional improvements will be made to Picktorial down the road, because the ones added in version 3 are great.
Pricing and availability
If you want to try Picktorial 3 for yourself, you can download a free trial here. The software is also available for US$40 for a limited time, which is a savings of $30 off its regular price.
Note: I received a pre-release version of Picktorial 3 from the developer before its official release. No other compensation was received.
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Picktorial 3.5 was just released and you can read about some of the changes below like DAM, but it is also bringing a subscription model which might be controversial. I greatly enjoy a lot of these smaller RAW editors myself and I always find it disappointing when they turn to a subscription model like Adobe. I wish companies would stop doing this because it turns off a large portion of users.
Press Release
Free Buttery smooth Digital Asset Management (DAM)
Including flags and ratings, keywords, albums and other goodies. You can now manage your entire photo collection (on your Mac or an external drive/NAS) from inside Picktorial and throw away that ancient copy of Picasa you’ve been using.
Dazzlingly powerful Batch Editing Mode
Edit a single photo or its metadata and click a button to propagate the changes to 10 other photos – or 10,000! An addition that is certain to save you hundreds of hours, Batch Editing Mode also lets you export your photos in batch.
But that’s not all. We have a plethora of smaller changes coming. Here’s a small taste:
- Albums let you cull and curate your work dynamically.
- Saved searches find exactly what you need wherever you need it.
- High-res image support for files up to 100 megapixels in size.
- JPEG+RAW Stacks means you can stack JPEG and RAW photos and choose which format of the two will be used by default.
Picktorial 3.5 also has a new subscription-based business model. I wrote a standalone article enumerating the reasons we’re making this change, so I’ll just note our chief rationale – moving to subscription enables us to continue releasing shiny new versions of Picktorial for many years to come.
If you’ve never bought Picktorial before, now’s the time to do it. Picktorial is more robust than ever, and it’s now available for purchase for $60 per year – that’s $5 per month, less than it costs to develop a roll of film.
Bleach Vs Naruto 3.0
If you’ve bought Picktorial in the past, I’d love to offer a lifetime discount of 33% on an annual Picktorial subscription if you upgrade by February 28th. This means you’ll get immediate access to all the goodies described above, and you’ll automatically get bumped up to the newest version the minute it’s released – for a little over $3 per month. That’s a fine way to start the new year.