Adobe launches photo sharing site
Adobe Systems entered the photo sharing arena today with the launch of Photoshop Express. Membership in the site is free and includes 2GB of storage space for your photos. What's more, there's a Flash-based editing program at the cyberpost that lets you massage your images online from any computer with a Web browser.
The main interface for an account at the site is intuitive to learn. On the left side of the main window is a navigation well that gives you access to your photo library, any albums you may have created and a direct connection to some other popular sites--Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa.
A menu bar at the top of the window permits you to upload pics, zoom in and out of a photo and display images either individually, as a grid or as a table of information.
At the bottom of the window are controls for sharing albums, displaying them as slideshows, e-mailing and reviewing photos and editing them.
The editor in the application covers all the basics. Little sweat equity need be invested in learning how to use it, and I found it to be very responsive with a cable modem broadband connection.
Most of the tools for the editor are in a vertical band on the left side of an editing window. The tools are divided into three groups. In the Basic group are tools for cropping and rotating images, auto correcting them, altering their exposure, removing red-eye, erasing blemishes and scratches and modifying saturation. Tools in the Tuning group let you fiddle with the white balance in a shot, change the highlights in it, add fill light and sharpen or soften its focus. The Effects group allows you to have some fun with a picture by "popping" its colors, modifying its tint and hue, turning it into pseudo art or distorting it.
With the launch of Photoshop Express, Adobe is entering a crowded market, but the immeasurable cachet of the Photoshop brand should attract a fair number of gawkers who, once they get a taste of this nimble application, may decide to make the site a permanent home for their photos.
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I hear Adobe gets the rights to use any and all subject matter entered to this "free" program; would we be providing a Stock photo library for them?
Adobe is aware of this problem and is working on new language to resolve the issue. The company issued the following yesterday:
"We've heard your concerns about the terms of service for Photoshop Express beta. We reviewed the terms in context of your comments - and we agree that it currently implies things we would never do with the content. Therefore, our legal team is making it a priority to post revised terms that are more appropriate for Photoshop Express users. We will alert you once we have posted new terms."
I guess that's what happens when you use legal boilerplate for this stuff.