Corel AfterShot Pro 3 | RAW Photo Editing Software [PC/Mac Key Card]

I am a total amateur when it comes to editing, but needed to try something for editing the photos I take for my business.

Before purchase, make sure your camera is listed as supported on the Corels website. If its not, do not buy the software.

This is great for someone who needs to edit a LOT of photos, like from a wedding or a family reunion. The blemish remover is seriously wonderful and the watermarking is a a neat feature. Its relatively easy to install and use, though I did consult online resources a couple of times, more because this is my first type of program like this rather than because it was hard to use. Im sure there are even more features that I havent taken advantage of yet and will update the review as I do!

One of the main applications for the program like this is to edit raw image files. This one does not support newer Panasonic camera models. So it is useless for those camera owners, as it would not open their raw files. I would not be surprised if AfterShot Pro3 was not current on other camera brands either.

Not easy to use.

I was not very familiar with AfterShot Pro. I am a huge fan of PaintShop Pro and have been using it for years. So I was curious to see if this might be a replacement to PaintShop Pro (PSP) or a useful addition to it for my needs. I am not a professional photographer, but I am a bit of an enthusiast. I own several DSLR cameras and quality lenses and have taken some photos that have been used in professional magazines and other professional venues. But it is a hobby for me and certainly not my day job.

The most current version of AfterShot 3, as of July 16 2016, has a bug that causes the preview pane to display Image Not Available. If you cannot preview an image it renders the software useless. Corel has issued a workaround for the problem, but unfortunately it does not work. If you go to the Corel Forum you will notice that quite a few users have been complaining of this issue for a long time, yet the issue has not been resolved as of this date. At this point if Corel does not fix this grave problem, I and lot of others will be forced to look at other raw image processing software.

I finally upgraded from a very old version of another companys photo editing software to this Corel Aftershot Pro 3. I regret waiting so long. This software is among the most intuitive softwares of any kind Ive used in a very long time. The icons and features are easy to recognize, master and employ with minimal time and effort, something that was far from the case with my previous editing software that seemed designed more for the computer engineers that created it than for the general user just might not have advanced degrees in computer science. It has an array of features and functions that can accomplish virtually everything I can image doing with my digital photos short of turning them into a hallow-deck. Ive just begun using this Corel product to enhance and edit scans of old Polaroid and Kodak family snap-shots as well to great effect, something I gave up on a while ago when trying to do so with other editing software that proved inadequate in my view in correcting damage, fading, poor lighting or any number of other problems. Once I learned my way around it, this Corel took care of all those issues to my satisfaction. Theres not much I can think of in way of negatives about on this product. And while Im very much an enthusiastic amateur photographer projects, I willing to bet that even professional or more advanced amateurs than I could find anything they need by way of photo-editing with this.

Ive been using Lightroom since Version 2 to manage my photo workflow and edit photos, and Ive been pretty happy with it. But Adobes starting to push users how bought it outright to switch over to the Creative Cloud at $9.95 a month, and I wondered if Corels AfterShot Pro could replace it. At only $79.99 (or, to be honest, free, to Vine reviewers) it was certainly worth checking out. Two days ago I received a padded envelope from Amazon that contained what looked like a cardboard CD envelope. The envelope contained not a CD, but a slip of paper with a registration number. As with Adobes products, to install AfterImage you download the software and enter the code to convert a 30-day trial package into a permanent install. And as with Adobe products, you can create a Corel usr ID at installation (or after) in order to manage your Corel products.

The software installed and worked without problems on both a OS X 10.11 and a Win 10 system. Overall the software worked really smoothly and I felt the learning curve was not very steep. Past experience with Corel software has been very positive and I have found they provide really good support if a problem arises.