Software of the year

Not that many choices.

I suppose this really has to be divided into two sections.

Desktop and Laptop:

These are the ‘serious’ platforms photographers use to process pictures and not a lot has happened here in 2011.

It’s as well to start with the worst new software for desktops by awarding that dubious distinction to OS X Lion which, in one fell swoop, dumbed down a robust predecessor, OS Snow Leopard and destroyed all PPC functionality. Apple accomplished this by deleting the 32-bit kernel in earlier OSs and the wonderful Rosetta code which made it possible to run Power PC apps from the G3/4/5 CPU days on a modern Intel Mac. Given that including this functionality would have been trivial, you really have to wonder what Apple was thinking of. Millions of users of Intuit’s Quicken through 2007 were left dead in the water, scrambling for an alternative, and jumping through hoops to convert their data files and hundreds of thousands of photographers had to run a parallel Snow Leopard machine to allow them to use their xRite display profiling software. xRite finally fixed that, and no prizes for taking so long, Intuit never will. So why even upgrade to Lion with it’s childish UI? Well, if they dropped Rosetta/PPC support, Snow Leopard will be next. Mercifully, much of the dumbing down can be reversed and much of the Snow Leopard experience reclaimed, though much tinkering and wasted time is involved.

The dumb-as-a-brick LaunchPad, confusing touch screens with desktops, one of the ‘features’ of Lion.

Not satisfied with kicking millions of its loyal users in the nuts, Apple went one better and ceased shipping software on physical media. You want an application in the AppStore? You had better have high speed broadband working. And the poor vendors who cave to this extortion have to hand over 30% of their revenues to Apple for the privilege. No wonder the smarter ones continue to sell direct through physical distribution. How long before Apple prevents any app not downloaded from the AppStore from working?

For this photographer the Wow! application of 2011 was the addition of Content Aware Fill by Adobe in Photoshop CS5. It’s now simple to remove clutter. Where agonizing hours were needed with the clone stamp to remove clutter, it can now be done in seconds.

Before CAF – original.

After CAF. Click the picture to download the video.

If nothing else, the video will show you just how speedy this technique is in practice.

Combine CAF with the ability to easily select and blur backgrounds using the Magic Lasso tool, and you have the perfect pair of tools for making vibrant street snaps where, as often as not, clutter and ‘everything sharp’ backgrounds detract from a dramatic photograph.

Other than that, looking through my Applications directory I see little else to raise the pulse of the desktop user.

iDevices – iPad and iPhone:

When the iPad came out I was one of the first to write that this would become a compelling creative tool, when all the pundits were saying this is purely a consumption-only, couch potato device. This is gradually happening as programers are coming to grips with the touch interface and arguably none has done it better for photographers than Snapseed.

Maybe for the first time for this worker, processing as picture is actually fun.

The above image being processed in Snapseed on the iPad.

Snapseed is ridiculously cheap, intuitive, a blast to use and very much my iOS Software of the Year.