virtualStudio for Windows

There are photo-editing programs that are designed for serious photographers, and then there are photo-editing programs that are designed for casual photographers who don't really know what they're doing. VirtualStudio somehow manages to be both; it offers a lot of single-click image enhancement features that novices will love, as well as more advanced features for users who are comfortable with more professional-level software.

The program's interface is attractive and intuitive, with its major features represented by large, well-labeled buttons and everything else tucked away in well-organized menus. All the typical features are here: cropping, rotation, adjustments for brightness and contrast, histograms, noise reduction, and so on. The program's color balance options are great; users can either adjust red, blue, and green manually with sliders, or just choose your favorite from a variety of image previews with different color balances. We also really liked the virtual photographer feature, which lets users apply a ton of different special effects to their images; there's a wide range of both color and black and white styles, and users can even simulate different types of cameras and speeds of film. VirtualStudio also makes it easy to add copyright information and frame-style borders to images. If the program has any drawbacks, it's that it doesn't seem to offer any retouching or cloning features. We also wish that the online Help file were a little more detailed. Overall, though, we were quite impressed with both the number of features and ease of use that virtualStudio offers, and we think it's a great choice for just about everyone.

VirtualStudio installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program to all users.