CyberLink PhotoDirector 2011 review

Adjusting a slider prompts a real-time update in the photo, but we found it could take a second or two for it to update on a second monitor. Using the regional correction tools you can quickly remove red-eye, spots and blemishes. Lightroom’s gradient tool is present, allowing you to boost contrast in skies, like having a virtual ND grad filter. It isn’t quite as polished here as in Lightroom, but it gets the job done. Rotating and cropping images is also possible, but there’s no dedicated ‘straighten’ tool to quickly correct a wonky horizon.

As PhotoDirector is non-destructive, it’s merely the adjustments which are saved: your original photos are untouched. You can, of course, save your edited photos to new files and there’s an array of options to choose from when you click the Export… button. As well as the files’ location and filenames, you can also specify the output format, quality and size. You can prevent unedited images being re-compressed, resize images to specific dimensions (but prevent them being made larger than the original) and also sharpen them automatically. Since you can save the settings as profiles, it’s simple to create several sets of the same images, perhaps one for printing and one for Facebook. In fact, PhotoDirector allows you to upload directly to Facebook and Flickr and there’s a slideshow creator where you can produce an HD video for YouTube complete with background music.

PhotoDirector 2011 is a good budget option for anyone baulking at Lightroom’s price. There’s room for improvement, though. We’d like to see more keyboard shortcuts in the next version (a free upgrade is included in the license) and also the option to output a slideshow that can be embedded in your own website.

Another hitch is that the latest version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 costs a similar amount, has superior editing tools and supports layers. There’s also easy automatic photo fixes, plus the fun Guided Edit mode for some creative results. If you were considering Lightroom but couldn’t justify the expense, PhotoDirector is a fine choice. For those who want the option of working with layers and masks, Photoshop Elements is the better buy.