CameraBag 2 Image Editor And Special Effects App – ‘Book Mystique Review
CameraBag 2 is a photo-editing and special effects application for Mac and Windows PC that’s been around for a while, but has been redesigned from the ground up.
Initially released for the iPhone, CameraBag climbed to #2 ranking in paid apps. CameraBag Desktop followed,scaling the technology scaled to high res photos. CameraBag 2 is a major advance from both CameraBag iPhone and CameraBag Desktop, designed specifically for desktop computers, and now including a full suite of photo adjustment and correction tools, a whole new interface for finding and creating filters, nearly 10 times as many built-in looks, and a rewritten engine under the hood.
CameraBag 2’s Analog Engine pairs a full suite of photographic tools with high quality effects filters and vintage simulations. However the updated app’s key innovation is its extraordinarily straightforward and user-friendly approach to editing tasks like layering, rearranging, and tweaking the vast array of adjustments and effects it offers in real time. CameraBag 2’s 100+ fully-adjustable filters and 25+ professional controls forming the palette from which you can find, and create, your own styles.
“The most common feedback we got from previous versions was that the user wanted greater control, without sacrificing CameraBag’s straightforward, accessible nature, says Nevercenter’s president Tom Plewe. “We came up with a simple tile-based system which presents all the additional control from the new Analog Engine in a quick, intuitive way. Then we added full-screen Quicklooks and instant previews to emphasize a visual decision-making process. Instead of starting from scratch with a photo, you can compare a lot of great options, choose the very best one, and then start tweaking. And you never have to do the same work twice; once you create a new look or workflow, you just add it to the menu for next time.”
CameraBag 2 starts up with reasonable dispatch — about the same as for Pixelmator, but a lot faster than it takes for lumbering Photohop Elements to get itself up and running. You can load an image by simply dragging it into the interface window, or use an Open dialog if you prefer. With the Adjust mode selected, you can mouse over the various tool links in the right-hand panel and get an instant thumbnail preview with a brief explanation of its function.
One somewhat disconcerting behavior, at least to veteran Mac users, is that CameraBag 2 unceremoniously quits when you close its last open interface window, making to necessary to reopen the program.
With CameraBag 2, you dont have to know up front what look you want, since the program lets you preview and compare all the various possibilities. Old-school instant film or modern high-contrast portrait; subtle color adjustment or complete artistic overhaul. You can choose from side-by-side comparisons with the fullscreen Quicklooks, and also ge instant previews on mouseover
Once you’ve chosen a filter, its components are displayed the tray allowing you tweak and adjust the image non-destructively using CameraBag 2’s large, interactive sliders. CameraBag features a reasonably comprehensive suite of photographic tools, ranging from simple exposure and cropping, to advanced vignetting, color correction, and my personal favorite correction tool — curves. Because every adjustment appears as a tile in the tray, its easy to see everything affecting the image at once. Adjustments and styles can also be freely layered to create new looks, which can be saved into the interface as custom filters.
Here’s a shot that definitely needed some help, shot in high contrast conditions.
And here’s the same photo after being doctored with CameraBag 2’s adjustment tools.
A MultiTool mode combining Exposure, Contrast, and Saturation adjustments is especially handy when you’re in a rush.
I generally like the simple and straightforward CameraBag 2 user interface, which doesn’t take over the entire screen area like Photoshop Elements does (I’m not a fan of full screen mode for anything), but is more integrated and convenient than Pixelmator’s everything in separate floating palettes motif. However, while CameraBag 2’s piano black interface theme is attractive enough, I do find that there isn’t quite enough contrast among the background, the (iOS-style minimalist) scrollbar, and the dark gray tool selector buttons. I also found that while adjustments and corrections are applied quickly enough in near real time, the action of the adjustment sliders is a bit rough compared with those of either PSE or Pixelmator, and could use some refinement.
CameraBag always works in 32-bits-per-component color depth, which is higher than the default in Photoshop and matches the highest precision you can work with in Photoshop.
The Styles tab is one of CameraBag 2’s marquee features. By default, the various styles appear as a single tile in the tray. You can mouse over the names in the right hand column to see thumbnail previews of the respective effect. Click on one that takes your fancy to apply it to your photo. You can then slide that Style’s infinite “Remix” slider to see its variations.
While in the Styles tab, clicking the Quicklook button will give you a scrolling multi thumbnail preview of the assorted effects using the current image.Mousing over another style and clicking the plus icon on the right side of its button will apply both it and the original style you selected will be applied at once, with adjustment sliders for both styles displayed. The possibilities are virtually endless, and if you find a look you like, just press the + key to save it to the Favorites tab as a custom style (or click the Add Current… button at the top of the Favorites tab). If you’re suffering from creative block, you can get inspiration when you’re having trouble deciding what look you want by pressing the spacebar, which will call up the Random Remixed Filter command from the Edit menu. This will choose a random filter from the built-in styles or from your saved favorites and randomly set the Remix value for any tile that has a Remix slider. You can keep pressing it until you find a look you like.
Clicking on the Adjust tab brings CameraBag 2’s suite of photographic adjustment tools forward. If you’ve used image editing software before, employing CameraBag 2’s should be pretty intuitive. Look especially at the various Curves tools — my personal faves for image adjustments. Most image editors oblige you to use just one at a time. CameraBag allows you to combine adjustment tools side-by-side, including Tint, Color Balance, Colorize, Color Filter, and Dye. The Color Corrector tool offers targeted color adjustment, and it’s curve-based, so you can target different brightness ranges using all of CameraBag’s built-in color adjustments.
Under the Borders tab, you’ll find a collection of Image Borders inspired by classic film photography. When you apply a border your photo will be cropped to fit inside them. Dynamic Borders are fully customizable and follow your photo’s dimensions.
At the bottom left of the CameraBag 2 interface window are three small buttons. Click on the Arrow button icon to show or hide the adjustment tray. Click the Power icon to temporarily disable all tiles. Click the X icon to delete the tiles in the tray — once to delete the pure image editing tiles, a second click to delete ALL tiles.
Arrow key navigation makes it easy to quickly view lots of photos with different filters. Use left and right to go between files, and up and down to switch filters.
Finally, there’s the Favorites tab containing all filters built from the building blocks in the other tabs.
You may also view a special trailer for a look at CameraBag 2s editing process in action by visiting:
http://youtu.be/4jIyEtcaiyo
In summary, I really like CameraBag 2. It’s handy and pleasant to use, and has proved stable and robust during my tests, as well as offering features not found in other image editors. It’s the same price as Pixelmator (or five bucks less if you go for the Mac-only version from the App Store) and costs substantially less than Photoshop Elements. It’s more consumer oriented and user-friendly than either of those programs, and offers a less-comprehensive range of adjustment and correction tools, especially for advanced image editing functions, but it’s definitely no slouch power-wise, and it may be all the image editor you need.
System Requirements:
OSX
• Intel-based Mac
• OSX 10.5 or higher
• 70MB hard drive space.
Windows
• Any Windows OS newer than (or including) Windows XP Service Pack 3.
• 70MB hard drive space.
Import formats:
• JPG, PNG, TIFF, most RAW formats. With RAW images, it uses the extra data while editing, then exports to JPG, PNG, or TIFF.
Export formats:
• JPG, PNG, TIFF, including metadata
The application can be downloaded from http://nevercenter.com or the Mac App Store.
CameraBag 2 is available now for Mac and PC. A single cross-platform license is available at www.nevercenter.com for $29, and a Mac-only version is available via the Mac App Store for $24. A free, fully-functional 30-day demo is included in the download from http://www.nevercenter.com
Homepage:
http://www.nevercenter.com/camerabag
CameraBag Tutorial videos:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC10340B14C0E1BB5
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/CameraBag.Nevercenter
Twitter: @camerabag
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Appendix: Available Effects in CameraBag 2
Styles
1962: Dynamic,high-contrast black and whites
Lightleak: Discolors your film in oranges — from the photojournalism of a bygone era
1958: Nostalgic maroon hues from Christmases decked with cowboy hats and BB guns
1974: Dads old camera. Faded, tinted and hip
1983: Think underground break-dance competition
Autochrome: Simulates one of the first color photo processes from the early 1900s
Colorcross: Chemical color-swapping straight from the darkroom
Helga: Toy camera feel with washed-out highlights and old-school vignetting
Hipster: From Brooklyn, with love
Instant: No need to shake this instant-developing film
Italiano: Shades of coffee for Tuscan landscapes
Lightleak: Discolors your film in oranges and purples, recreating the look of poorly made cameras that accidentally let light in
Lolo: Colorful, vibrant photos shot from the hip Magazine: Rich tones and contrast perfect for glossy pages
Matte: Not so glossy
Mono: Smoothly filtered black and white, for those times when less is more
Plastic: The cheapest color camera we could find
Poolside: Lazy days of summer made hazier and softer
Saloon: Old-timey fun with a white vignette
Silver: Not color, but not quite monochromatic either
Skater: Skinned knees and noisy photos
Wedding: The perfect SLR look
Adjustments
Basic
• Crop/Straighten
• Exposure
• Contrast
• Saturation
• Multi Tool
Photographic
• Vignette
• Grain
• Discolor
Color
• Color Corrector
• RGB Curves
• Selective Saturation
• RGB Swap
• Split Tone
• Color Balance
• Tint
• Colorize
• Color Filter
• Dye
Borders
• 47mm Square
• 35mm Bleed
• Eroded
• Cut
• Infini 50
• Insta
• Vinyl
• 75mm Strip
• White Slide
• Notched Safety Film
• Paper
• Custom Straight
• Custom Rounded
Light
• RGB Curve
• Luminance Curve
• Luminance Contrast
• Brightness
• Shadows
• Highlights
Utility
• Output Size
Favorites
• CameraBag ships with over 70+ filters in the Favorites tab, but the list evolves over time as you add your own. See the app for details.