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Corel AfterShot Pro 3 launches with new touchup tool, recovery algorithm

Published May 11, 2016 | Brittany Hillen

Corel has launched AfterShot Pro 3, the latest version of its photo editing software. The newest version brings several added features and updates, including a Lens Correction Development Kit for creating custom lens corrections, an in-app plugin manager, and a few new and improved tools for touching up photos.

AfterShot Pro 3 is equipped with a completely new Highlight Recovery algorithm, and as such Corel claims the Highlight Recovery Range slider can pull more tones and details from overexposed Raw photos. Joining the new algorithm is the addition of ‘comprehensive watermarking,’ including the ability to watermark in batches, rotate the watermark’s angle, adjust its size, and alter its transparency.

Another new editing tool is Blemish Removal & Correction, which aims to eliminate the need to use a separate app like Photoshop to remove blemishes and perform other touchups and small corrections. Photo presets can also be applied via the new in-app preset library; both premium and free presets are offered.

Finally, AfterShot Pro 3 features a new modular delivery system for providing updated and new Raw profiles more quickly than the previous software version. With this, new camera profiles are available to download in-app as soon as they’re released by the company’s development team.

Corel AfterShot Pro 3 is available in English, German and Japanese through the product's website; Windows, Mac and Linux are supported. The price for new customers is $79.99 USD/CAD, while existing customers can upgrade to the newest version for $59.99 USD/CAD.

Via: MarketWired

Tags: corel, software-news

Comments

Total comments: 89

ASP is nice app and great thing is Linux support. But Corel's attiude to clients and development is terrible.

0 upvotes

I just don't trust Corel's commitment to support. Will this get released and we won't hear anything from Corel for two - four years until V4 gets released?

0 upvotes

Corel has been releasing several service packs per year for ASP since Version 2 was launched in early 2014. Corel is good with upating PSP too. I think their updates occur more frequently than ACDSee's updates but not quite as frequently as C1Pro's .

0 upvotes

Now all they need to do is offer the ability to create custom camera profiles and they'll be gold!

Just realized this stuff works on Linux and Mac also! As soon as PSP supports Linux and Custom Camera Profiles, I'm definitely switching!

Edited 13 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

I don't see the supposed speed benefits over Lightroom at all. It may be that there is something on my system that is conflicting with ASP but trying to load from my hard drive around 2800 images was excruciatingly slow. I had to just cancel it as after about five minutes it was only up to about 600 images loaded with previews created for around 280.

I switched to another folder that only had 274 images so I could time it. It claimed it was building previews and got up to 100 in about a minute but no previews actually appeared in that time. It just kept hanging on loading images and crashed at image 145.

Although Lightroom can be slow compared to Photo Mechanic I never have issues with it like I just experienced when trying out ASP.

0 upvotes

Ligthroom is very slow. Another big limitation is that it is not multi-user. I cannot not find information about AfterShot being mutl-user.

0 upvotes

High ISO noise reduction is no good in this software unfortunately.

0 upvotes

I used version 1 and 2, just tried 3, when I crank up highlight recovery the recovered areas eventually turn purple. Lightroom 5.7.1 seems to work much better, I did love some of the features of Aftershot Pro but highlight recovery still doesn't seem that good

0 upvotes

Hi drsonic, thanks for checking out AfterShot Pro 3 and sharing your feedback. Our dev team is aware of this pink/purple highlights issue in some extreme cases and we're working on a fix. Thanks again.

0 upvotes

I think Coral have timed this very well. With On1 making their recent announcement for their On1 RAW app that is due later this year, and one of their biggest boasting features appears to be "not needing catalogs", well Aftershot (3) doesn't either. ASP has always been much faster than LR at processing and it amazes me that even today, 2016, LR still doesn't support layers. Whats really exciting for IT dev's is the opened SDK to support plugins for ASP, rather than just being 'external apps linked to LR'.
I used LR for years, currently in the process of dumping Capture One, and was waiting on On1 RAW until I saw this, I thought ASP was dead until today :)

2 upvotes

Longtime user of ASP since Bibble-cal times (just could not resist). ASP3 finally, finally, does a good job with recovering highlight detail. Tried it out on a tough image, last night. That's really been the only RAW feature that I coveted in other processors.

It does a very good job, and is fast. Nice to see that they are keeping with their updates.

7 upvotes

I was working with AfterShot 2.4 this morning.
Upon exiting the program, a pop-up message from Corel offered an upgrade to 3.0 for $44.99.

1 upvote

I've been a user since Bibble days. It'd be a fine program if:

1. It didn't crash. Stability is still a serious issue. I wish they invested in fixing bugs over feature development.
2. Camera support was more up-to-date.

I like that it's reasonably open. Cross-platform, including Linux. Metadata in XML files. Etc. It's very consumer-friendly that way.

2 upvotes

How long was it that you used Bibble/AfterShot? I went though all versions, and it has been a long time that I got a crash.
And what OS are you using?

1 upvote

It last crashed last time I used it earlier this week. I was under Linux.

0 upvotes

It would be interesting to document all parameters then.
I run Linux only since 1999. Went through Mandrake until it morphed into Mandriva and now Mageia since Mandriva forked.
I ran Bibble when it first became available, went through all versions, then followed them to AfterShot when BibbleLabs was bought by Corel.
I have two Nikon D200 and one Nikon D500.
AfterShot lists all Nikon cameras, except D5/D500.
Last time I used Aftershot 3 was this morning.

0 upvotes

It's Ubuntu 15.10. It's crashed in older versions of both AfterShot and Ubuntu, though.

The major time it crashes is doing bulk operations. If I load up a few hundred photos, and click on the folders, as it's loading thumbnails, it will crash. It will also sometimes crash during bulk exports.

I'll switch to private messages, since I'm not sure how broadly relevant this is otherwise.

0 upvotes

I to have been a user since the Bibble days however I purchased this version (version 2 works great) and every time I try opening any file it the programs aborts. I requested and received on refund. I will wait for On1.

Everyone should do the trial version first to make sure it works for you.

0 upvotes

It does still crash.
Mines on Win7 with serious hardware
and there's still a memory management problem.
If they'd fixed it, they would have been trumpeting it from the rooftops.
Totally agree, forget the fairy floss
and get it running right.
It's still got the best interface and workflow
of all the RAW packages.
Let's hope that upgrade price comes down to the real world soon, too; ambitious or what ?

0 upvotes

Mine is still stable, but I found a few things not as expected. For instance, there is supposed to be a "Get More" page in the Tools panel. I don't see it. I reported that. I guess they prioritize problems depending on the number of reports they get.

0 upvotes

It looks like Lightroom 5. I don't trust Corel and I've used Corel products since the early 1990s with Coreldraw 1 (still use Corel X7). Their recent developments have left me cold and from what I've gleaned of this product, it remains a cheaper (both in cost and feature set) competitor to Lightroom.

0 upvotes

To each their own, but I have used PaintShop pro since the early 1990s, long before Corel acquired it from JASC, and now on version X8 Ultimate.
I'm very happy with PSP, and would take it anytime over Adobe's products, which, I believe, are excessively overrated and overpriced.

6 upvotes

Photoshop had non-destructive adjustment layers, and nested layers in 2005. It was lightyears in advance of PSP.
Photoshop has had a lot of heavy duty development and I would give it a good go before rejecting it. The price is partly a function of the fact that it is the best by miles, so it has a quasi monopoly. But for your work it may save you so much time that it's worth it.

1 upvote

"but I have used PaintShop pro since the early 1990s"
Me too...it had a better more intuitive UI, then, as well. It isn't remotely a competitor to PS, these days, and if you need Photoshop, you know this.
I've had AP since 1.0, and have to agree with the original poster...it works about as well as the price would indicate. Lightroom works better for me.

1 upvote

Thanks for your input, Mr. Bond :)
Actually I have used both, extensively.
Of course I disagree on the "light years" thingy. They both got layers about the same time.
But regardless, it boils down to preference. I happen to prefer PSP, and to dislike "monopolies".
From its early versions, it had almost everything I needed, and Adobe's PS filters are compatible with PSP.
It got all I need, raster & vector graphics, layers, masks, countless filters, infinite undoes, ..., etc.
Usually my post processing is very minimal. Once in a while I find myself needing to work on a tough image extensively, but that is rare.
Besides, Corel has been appreciative of me being a long-term customer (since JASC days, early 90s), and they send me generous offers.
Last offer was not too long ago to upgrade from PSP X6 to PSP X8 Ultimate (which includes AfterShot, and a long list of other filters and extras, inc. the NIK filters before they became free) for just $9.99.
How could I turn that down!!!

3 upvotes

Layers, but not nested layers.

0 upvotes

If you Group your layers you can nest them as you like in PSP x8

1 upvote

I stand by my original statement: I don't trust Corel. It made me angry when I bought Corel X7 and I had to pay for "premium" content. Really? I just bought the thing and you want me to pay more? No, I am done with them.

1 upvote

"If you Group your layers you can nest them as you like in PSP x8"

Sure, but I was talking about the past feature set.

0 upvotes

Just tried AfterShot Pro 3. I had the original Bibble and I upgraded after they sold it to Corel. That being said I have LR6 but felt more comfortable with Bridge-PSCS5 workflow. I just got a D500 and Bridge CC would open an Camera RAW worked but not CS5. A work around was in Camera RAW 9.5.1 to save. LR6 just did not seem to work for me. I do have OnOne10 and that interface is fine I went back to Aftershot and tried the newest version. BAM! Processed my D500 NEF and opened in CS5. I'll play with it more as from CS5 I can use all my plugins.

1 upvote

Are you saying you can open D500 RAW files with AfterShotPro 3? It fails to see my files. I can see support for practically all Nikon DSLRs, but not the D5 and D500 ...

Edited 21 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

I was wrong pick the wrong image. When I tried it tonight I found its not supported yes. Sorry in my haste.

0 upvotes

I bought version 1 and tried version 2. Both are fast but the resulting quality is way behind DxO Optics Pro and even the free RawTherapee - my two favorites raw conversion tools. I think I'll stick to Corel only for PaintShop Pro (which I love).

0 upvotes

Neither V1 nor V2 is much behind DXO8.

But yes, there was a vast improvement with DXO9.

0 upvotes

That's not my experience. I've been using DxO since v7, and it's always been clearly ahead of ASP. The big changes that came later were PRIME NR and then PRIME NR with more reasonable speed, but both are irrelevant to conversion quality at low ISO.

0 upvotes

I have tried Aftershot PRO2 and would have stayed with it, but the support for new cameras are slow or not existing at all.

1 upvote

This is where Adobe leads. But you can always use the free Adobe DNG Converter to convert your raws to DNG raws, then edit in any number of tools...

2 upvotes

*faint sobbing from a Fuji user*

3 upvotes

no support for the X-Pro2 for a start, unlike virtually everything else out there. But the product is a joke. The "improved" highlight recovery is still almost non-existent, shadow pushing is often ghastly, and almost anything which requires any sort of correction or has difficult just falls flat. It is still fairly fast but you might as well shoot JPEG to save time rather than use this.

Many years ago, Bibble had a competitive product which I indeed used for a while. ASP 3 is a non-starter --indeed ACDSee in a fairly similar price band is a good deal better.

1 upvote

Ok, so I guess the fact that you can open and edit RAFs means they're "supported". And on paper you're right. But in reality...try coming back home with a full 16GB card, knowing that you won't be able to do some editing until the next day, because it will take LR 2 hours to import. The sluggish rendering has been the biggest problem since the X-Pro 1, much more than the artifacts which you will only see seldom if you don't shoot trees or bushes with a wideangle all day long.

Edited 38 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Just downloaded the trial and in the more tap is a free profile for the X-Pro-2 so that to me is pretty quick. If this prog works properley with the non-Bayer sensor arrangement on the Fujifilm cameras it'll suit me, One thing that doesn't work is the 'single-shot' HD thing with a Fujifilm RAW (X-Pro-1) - takes ages to upload a pic and then it's just a black box!! On1 has never supported Fuji 'array's' and so dfar they have not answered my query on their new RAW converter - so I suspect they are not interested. As for DNG conversions of Fujifilm RAW they are a complete no,no, Lightroom and the DNG converter just turn out 'mud'.

0 upvotes

Good to see a bit of competition for Adobe who seem to be getting very complacent. They have allowed Lightroom to diminish in performance and continue charging more for it than any other competitors. Corel need a little more development of this product but it is a pretty good first try and hopefully will get better....

10 upvotes

SilkyPixPro7 is, I think, the most expensive raw tool.

0 upvotes

Capture One is usually the most expensive. SP7 is a similar price to Lightroom, depending on what particular deal is going at the time of purchase.

0 upvotes

I think SP7Pro is twice the price of LR.

0 upvotes

the european price is €119 assuming that you have a product from one of the qualifying manufacturers --which most folk interested in this software will have. If not it's €159. Lightroom costs around €130 from Adobe. Where the twice the price comes from is rather a mystery!

0 upvotes

SP7Pro is 28080 yen which is €226.73 today (there is a very special deal on at the moment if you have a bundled version, but that seems to be a first).

0 upvotes

yes, you're technically right but the thing is, there's nearly always some sort of a deal on with SP and there have always been preferential updates for the likes of Fuji or Panasonic shooters among others so that's what I was basing my pricing on, not the official full price. So we're both right in a way!

I myself bought it a few months ago for €115 and find the software excellent in most respects for Fuji XTrans cameras. The "Studio" version incidentally removes relatively few features and is pretty good value in my book though I preferred to pay the extra.

0 upvotes

I'm actually playing with it at the moment due to the upgrade deal from my Panasonic SE product, although not impressed with moire or CA removal at all so far.

0 upvotes

CA removal is regarded as one of the best. The more common purple fringing removal is OK but a bit more effective in Lightroom. Moire may be better also in LR but I so rarely see it --guess it depends on what you shoot! The main strengths of SP are the colour and detail demosaicing with Fuji as well as high ISO noise reduction.

0 upvotes

Is the sharpening algorithm better and can the noise reduction tool remove luminance and chroma noise separately and more precisely?

0 upvotes

I'm not sure, but the Auto-image correct feature in PaintShopPro has been WAY better than Lightroom's for a while now.

1 upvote

re luminance & chroma noise, ASP3 doesn't handle then separately. But in the Get More tab, I could download Wavelet Denoise as a plug-in in a few seconds (amazingly fast), and it has separate luminance & chroma noise adjustments.

I also downloaded Wavelet Sharpen (both Wavelet plug-ins are free). It has more controls than ASP3's sharpen feature, but I don't have enough experience with it yet to say if it's better or not.

Edited 29 seconds after posting

1 upvote

More info in this post by the ASP product manager:

http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=59376&sid=566a42fb6e2e5b2ec25b99e24f354fc8

4 upvotes

I used Aftershot Pro (ver 1) for quite a while. It is very fast and has some nice features that is beyond image processing (swap color, heal photo, etc). However, support is non-existence. They would issue an update and screw up the white balance. From what I heard, all the original (Bibble) developers have left and the product have basically outsourced to the lowest bidder. Aftershot Pro 2 is basically a bug fix release for ver 1. Lens database is a joke. They would list a bunch of lenses but choosing them does absolutely no corrections.

Edited 2 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

You are basing your opinion on Version 1? Then your opinion is outdated. Corel has been good about periodic updates & fixes since version 2 came out two years ago.
Their new modular delivery system, downloading camera profiles in-app as they become available, sounds like a good idea.

1 upvote

I downloaded, installed and tried this Corel AfterShot Pro 3.
I have stock NEF (Nikon RAW) files purposedly underexposed, overexposed, blemished, slightly not focused that I use for testing.

Very impressive . . . and I never even read any "instructions".
The annotation (watermark) was very easy to use. Blemish removal and color control are better and easier to use than that of the Nikon Capture NX-2 . There are many handy features of the Capture NX-2, the Color Control Point, Black, White, and Neutral Control Points are every useful, The Double Threshold make recovery of Underexposed and Overexposed photo is unparalleled. But overall, I find the latest offering from Corel draw better.

Price is about 40% cheaper than the Capture NX-2. If Corel honor my 20 year old Corel Draw, I'll get another $20 off.

I'll do a few more test, but it is looking good!!!

Edited 2 times; latest 12 minutes since posting

2 upvotes

If your comparison is only to NX2, then I think you are going to be greatly impressed.

0 upvotes

That's not a problem. I USUALLY do not need to post process my shots. I Have full blown PhotoShop just occupying disk space on my Windows base comFuser.

At the price range, what would you recommend? I am aware of GIMP and other "Free" or almost "Free" PP products.

0 upvotes

MAC Version, at last?
I contacted Corel regarding a Mac version of their Paint Shop Pro, was told they only make Windows version.

I like to test their trial version.

0 upvotes

They've had a Mac version since version 1. Linux too.

0 upvotes

No they do not. They never had a PaintShop Pro version for any system other than Windows.

You are confusing PSP with AfterShot

Edited 49 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Interesting, the Mac installer is only 70MB???
But if the Linux versions work, that might be fun.

0 upvotes

Where are you getting a download link for the whole installer file?

The Windows 64 option, provides one of those awful tiny "online" installers.

0 upvotes

http://www.aftershotpro.com/en/products/aftershot/pro/trial-thank-you.html?dwn=thankyou-asp-mac64

I see that. Mac and Linux are full installers by comparison, it seems.

I installed the Mac version and the application is 162 MB.

0 upvotes

"The Windows 64 option, provides one of those awful tiny "online" installers."
Awful how? They always work fine for me.

1 upvote

EH:

Figure it out.

0 upvotes

No need.

0 upvotes

No support for the Panasonic GX8 that was released mid-2015.

2 upvotes

Panasonic GX8 is supported since aftershot 2.4 released in January.

1 upvote

Pity the company website omits it then.

1 upvote

Tested my GX8 with Aftershot pro 3 and I confirm it works.

1 upvote

Excellent. I suppose it is better that they omit cameras that it can process, than include cameras that it can't.

1 upvote

TN:

Have you tried converting GX8 files to DNG with Adobe DNG Converter 9.51? Oh right, not supported yet.

Yep, I tried just yesterday.

0 upvotes

TN,

Disregard my silliness, it's the GX85 that's not yet supported by even Adobe.

0 upvotes

Corel Paintshop Pro X7 & X8 are great for jpeg.....more intuitive and includes some direct adjustments lacking in PSE.....the weaklink in Corels suite is the built in x7/x8 RAW converter and Aftershot 2 RAW is limited.....so hopefully this fixes it.

1 upvote

A comparison of RAW processing apps would be awesome, in terms of camera/lens coverage, speed of updates, asset management, plug-in availability, integration with other apps like Photoshop, and even (gasp!) image quality.

17 upvotes

Looks nice, but still no support for either the Pentax K-3II or the Ricoh GRII. I guess that saves me some money.

3 upvotes

You mean the PEFs right?

Bet there's no Samsung NX1 support either.

1 upvote

Or, no colour profiles, no lens profiles - or perhaps none of any? FWIW, I don't see the K-S2 or K-S1 in that list, either (or the K-1, but perhaps it's too early to tell). If there was ever a time that graphics software makers might see a dent in revenue from not supporting Pentax, it's likely to be over the course of the next year, and perhaps thereafter.

1 upvote

Oh really no support for any PENTAX DSLR? Ask Core for add support?

2 upvotes

Don't hold your breath. Support for my Olympus E-PL5 was flawed in ASP2. white balance presets were so far off it made the converter unusable. I reported the bug and offered to help them FOR FREE back then to correct the issue, but it never happened.
So even if your camera is in the supported list, you simply can't trust Corel.

0 upvotes

Pentax K3 II has been supported since version 2.4

0 upvotes

Wow, DPR notes a release of Aftershot, version 2 was skipped.

0 upvotes

Yes, and now we're getting the 'long awaited D810 review'.
Things are looking up.

0 upvotes

The new Corel ACDsee looks a lot better,
version 9 ultimate has been improved quiet a bit
can you do a review on that

Tom G

Edited 21 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

ACDsee is not Corel, unless it's very new to Corel and hidden oddly on the website. (Pinnacle 19 is sort of hidden on the Corel website even though Corel has owed Pinnacle for years.)

Aftershot is Corel software, based on Bibble.

0 upvotes

ACD Systems is still its own company - at least as far as Wikipedia knows!

0 upvotes

Leandros:

I was trying to allow for something recently changed.

But no, it's nowhere on the Corel website, and Corel has owned Aftershot/Bibble for some years now.

0 upvotes

Total comments: 89

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