Adobe has finally released its entry into the Web or Online Photo Editing derby. Adobe is well behind some of the 5 major photo editing websites which I have reviewed in detail here. In fact one of those online photo editors, Splash-up, has emulated online the Photoshop interface with uncanny zeal. Splash up is one of the better online photo editors. So what will Adobe do ?
Well if Photoshop Express the beta is any sign – they are taking a completely different approach to online photo editing. First, Photoshop Express is actually two parts: 1)is a Adobe Bridge like image browser which is different than most of the other photo editors and quite useful; 2)instead of copying the features of Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Express takes a KISS approach. All of the major photo editing features use a simplifying approach of showing users 6-10 thumbnails of the kinds of changes they can make – and the user selects the desired change by clicking on the the thumbnail.
I don’t like this approach because in many cases like sharpening and subtle exposure or color corrections its darn hard to tell the difference among the thumbnails. True, if you select a thumbnail it is painted on the full image in reasonable time; but then why use the misleading thumbnails and not just use sliders or other GUI controls. Also there are very few settings and sliders in which the user can adjust the effects. It will be “interesting” to see what the feedback is in the Photoshop Express forums on this issue.
Of equal interest is the speed of the processing. I gave Photoshop Express some of the biggest files for online editing (easily double the size used by the other online photo editors). To my surprise Photoshop Express was able to load them in expected times and dynanmically edit them much more quickly than I expected. I have seen other online photo editors use AJAX scripts for these tasks and then were awfully slow on identically the same files. So kudos to Adobe and the Flash/Flex team for delivering software that can perform on line with real speed.