Photoshop Express blurs the cloud and local apps for image editing

Photoshopexpress

Digital image processing is still a challenge for my web-only effort, but it did lessen a bit today. While many folks understandably swear by Adobe Photoshop, don’t overlook the on-line version of Photoshop Express. Although I’m a novice photographer but not a Photoshop user currently, I did just sign up for a free Photoshop Express, which gets me 2 GB of storage to work with. I have to say that in just the first few minutes, I came away very impressed.

Photoshop Express doesn’t currently offer every single function of itsfull-client counterpart, but you’ve got the basics in terms of editing:crop, rotate, red eye reduction, sharpen, exposure and saturation. Itgets more interesting with the other effects: highlight, white balance,tint, hue, pop & color, and distort.

It’s amazing how much thisbehaves like an application that’s locally installed from what I cansee. I also like the ability to link my Flickr account to PhotoshopExpress, although I generally use Flickr as my final repository forcompleted images.

Photoshopflickr

True photo enthusiasts won’t move solely to Photoshop Express anytimesoon: it’s still somewhat limited in terms of functionality and doesn’timport RAW images. In fact, you can only work with JPG images that are10 MB in size or less and they can’t be larger then 4,000 pixels inheight or width. For mainstream consumers with digitalpoint-and-shoots, this free tool is definitely worth some exposure. Heck, I could see this being a nice, use-anywhere tool in a pinch, provided you have JPG source images to work with.

Thebeta service got an upgrade today as well: drag-and-drop image uploadsand support for image tagging are available. Sure makes it easy toupgrade an application when it’s in the cloud, no? Give it a try and show it to some one. Then ask them if they could tell you were using a cloud app. Like I said, I’m impressed in just a few short minutes. Think I’ll go kick the tires a little more.

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