This is a photo from 1993 which I scanned on a flatbed at about 300 dpi and as you can see, the slider is evident, before and after. This can be set to horizontal or vertical and the optimisation is immediate, i.e., on the fly.

What I like most about Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 9 is the before and after slider which literally shows you how your photo will look when the effect has been applied. In this example, I simply reduced the temperature and increased the contrast for a richer photo and I think the result looks much better. For the purpose of this review, I’ve chosen a photo of a cornfield that has too much sunlight so the scene looks overexposed, with before and after images. When opening the program you can add a folder or a single file for optimising and then choose the various options to improve the photo. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 9 is just that – a photo optimiser for bringing out the best in your photos and it’s a very simple program to use. Sometimes those photos need a little help, perhaps because of the light, the horizon may be off or the picture simply needs optimising to bring out the best in it. I take a lot of photos when I’m out and about in Buenos Aires, mainly for adding to Google Maps, but they also serve as a useful diary reminder when I want to look back on times past. However, optimising images even further is more for the enthusiast, which is where Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 9 comes in. Those of us who write for DCT use a lot of images and usually, those images need to be resized or even touched up for the best presentation.

Ashampoo photo optimizer 6