AAUG Reviews

by Carlene Brown ,AAUG Member

Image Doctor 2 from Alien Skin Software is a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. Its purpose is to restore, retouch, remove and repair digital photos with ease.

I installed Image Doctor 2 on my G5 Power PC running Leopard OS X 10.5.3. I had recently installed the new Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and was a little hesitant about trying out Image Doctor 2 as I thought it would be a bit advanced for my photo editing skills. Then I read the electronic manual that comes with the software and found the instructions easy to understand and easy to follow.

Image Doctor 2 installs directly into your Photoshop program and is accessed by pulling down the Filter Menu.

Image Doctor 2 is a set of five filters:
• Smart Fill
• Dust and Scratch Remover
• Blemish Concealer
• Skin Softener
• JPEG Repair

SMART FILL
The first filter I tried was the Smart Fill. I took a photo that had a stranger in the background, used the Lasso Tool to circle the unwanted object. clicked on the Smart Fill filter, and quickly the person was removed and the space filled with the background texture, resulting in a perfect picture.

The editing was a bit more detailed and complex on my next trial. A wire fence had to be replaced in small steps and it took some experimenting with the various settings to get results that I wanted in removing a hand from the edge of the picture. But in a relatively short time I was successful in creating an acceptable image. There are several auto controls and manual controls to enable you to work with your photo and find the best application for the problem you are trying to fix. On complex backgrounds it takes several selections to successfully replace an object.

DUST AND SCRATCH REMOVAL
I have many old photos dating back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. I have scanned them into my computer despite the scratches, creases and blotches that some contain. It is really simple to remove these damaged areas using the Dust and Scratch Removal Filter. Once again you just circle the area to be corrected and apply the filter. You can choose the automatic or manual settings and experiment back and forth until you get the results you want.

BLEMISH CONCEALER
Blemish Concealer removes freckles, moles, shadows and blemishes from skin, and can also be used to remove various spots from smooth background textures. Just select the entire spot you want to remove and apply the filter. Start the removal strength on a low value and move it up until the blemish is gone. Its just that easy.

SKIN SOFTENER
Just as the name implies this filter softens large areas of skin. It generally improves the look of skin without making the face look unreal. It took me some time to experiment with this filter but it is easy to continue working with it till you achieve a natural look and texture to the skin.

JPEG REPAIR
I wasn’t really sure how to use this filter. It is designated for low quality JPEG images like those you might download from the web. I remembered that I have some photos of places where my ancestors lived that I downloaded and decided to try this filter on one of them. You can apply the JPEG Repair filter to the entire photo. It can’t restore the details that were lost in the compression process, but my photo has lost some of the blocky affect and is clearer and brighter then before the application of the JPEG Repair filter. This filter won’t make your picture perfect but does make it better.

SUMMARY
Image Doctor 2 does have a bit of a learning curve. Browsing through the manual and experimenting with the settings, all filters come with both automatic and manual settings, will get you on your way to creating perfect pictures.

I was impressed with the Smart Fill filter and the fast rendering process in Image Doctor 2., the changes are made and displayed in a matter of seconds. As with all the filters, if the results aren’t what you wanted you just change the settings and immediately a new rendered image appears.

Some may say they can perform all these things with Photoshop. That may be true, but it would take much longer and take more steps to achieve the results and then the results may not be as good as those you get with Image Doctor 2.

I could not find anything I didn’t like about this software. It is easy to understand, easy to use, quick, and makes the image repair process almost effortless. If you do image repair on a regular basis you really need Image Doctor 2. For the rest of us it is a tool well worth having.

Download an Image Doctor 2 demo and give it a try.

System Requirements:
Mac PowerPC G5 or Intel Processor
Mac OS X 10.4 or later works with Leopard
Windows Pentium 4 Processor
Windows XP or later
Monitor 1024X768 Resolution or greater

Host Requirements:
Adobe Photoshop CS2 or later
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 or later (Mac)
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 or later (Windows)
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Original Photo

Smart Fill