The positive is that PhotoDirector 13 has a non-destructive workflow. I tested the app on a pretty powerful iMac and found it to be pretty snappy overall. I found the app stable and well behaved, although it re-renders quite a lot to keep all your versions.

It also has animation effects, like easily getting water to move in a waterfall image. PhotoDirector 13 has LUTs and a barrel full of useful presets. It's a close match to the LuminarAI tools. And you can adjust the selection if it's not quite right.īokeh is also well done and easy to run. It's as well done as I've seen in other editors. I liked its ability to separate a subject from the background.

PhotoDirector 13 lets you flip the sky and further adjust image parameters. I also tried sky replacement on some landscape images, and I think PhotoDirector 13 is on par with what LuminarAI and Adobe provide, although, unlike LuminarAI, this app doesn't offer features like reflections in the water. I found I could get perfectly good images using this app. It has more features than any photo editor I have ever seen, including popular options like bokeh and sky replacement, features first offered by Skylum in Luminar AI and now cropping up everywhere, including Adobe apps.Īs a raw editor, PhotoDirector 13 has pretty much every slider a photographer would want, matching closely what Lightroom offers. PhotoDirector 13 is what I would call 'kitchen sink' software. As a useful feature, the software adds a guided mode that pretty much tells you what your options are and what to do next. The app doesn't act like the other photo editors you may be used to, but it is well organized. Still, I'd be happy to enter a username and serial number and be done with it.

I found the process overly cumbersome but no more so than what Adobe does with its Creative Cloud app that manages your Adobe purchases. To install it, you first need the CyberLink application manager, then it will launch and install any software you are entitled to. PhotoDirector 13 is offered as a subscription and as a one-time buy option. They haven't made much of a mark in the pro and semi-pro venues, but I wanted to try the feature-rich software and see how it worked. CyberLink has been around for more than 20 years, with a variety of tools for image and video editing.

Photodirector 13