PhotoshopTM is the favorite photo manipulation program for many web designers. We prefer Capture NX of Nikon with U Point TM or Control Point Technology to develop Joomla websites.
If you are not a Nikon user, you may not have heard of Capture NX. The program sometimes ships with new high-end Nikon cameras (it came with our Nikon D300) and can be purchased separately. What makes the software so unique is called U Point TM and Control Point Technology. To see the technology, we recommend that you surf to the Nikon Capture NX demonstration site where you can download a free trial version.
Enhancements for hue, brightness and saturation of pictures for your Joomla website are as easy as placing a Color Control Point on photos and by adjusting the length of sliders. You just place a control point in the photo, the sky for example, and the software selects the sky automatically for you (no selection layers and/or masks are needed) and the color can be changed gradually and naturally.
Below is an example of a photo we took in the Netherlands that has been manipulated with U Point TM Technology. On the left is the original photo. On the right the photo is manipulated with control points. Please click on the thumbnail for a more detailed view.
The sky, the red lift and the traffic sign in the right photo were changed with just three clicks (we gave the colors a bit of a boost to demonstrate the technology). The objects are selected automatically by the program and all you need to do is slide the controls (visible on the right in the sky). This all can be done in Nikon's NEF RAW format. A plugin with the same technology is also available for Photoshop, Apeture and Lightroom. More information on the plugin can be found on the website of Nik Software, the developer of the technology.