AutoEye 1.0 is Autof/x’s image enhancement (color correction) software. With so many of us working with photos today that we take with our various types of cameras (digital, 35mm, etc.) to create slide shows, web images, digital photo albums and CD collections, we are finding that we need to make color adjustments to our collections of old and new photos. Whether images are downloaded from digital cameras or scanned into the software, many are lacking in sharp clear colors and may be too light or too dark. The software can also be used on stock images, print and web images to improve their quality. Many imaging software packages offer some sort of color correction tools but they are not always easy to work with or some just don’t do the job that well. AutoEye uses a patented IVIT (Intelligent Visual Image Technology) process to reclaim the lost colors. This process looks at the image enhancement process differently than other imaging software.

AutoEye installs as either a standalone product or as a plug-in to Photoshop compatible programs such as Corel PhotoPaint or Jasc Paint Shop Pro. I use it as a plug-in with Paint Shop Pro version 7. I frequently use the color correction tools that come with Paint Shop Pro and they have done a pretty decent job considering my limited knowledge of how the color tools levels and settings work. Auto enhancement does a quick fix and helps those of us who don’t work with this type of image color correction on a regular basis. However some images just don’t turn out all that well no matter how much fiddling I do with them. AutoEye on the other hand, takes these images and picks up the colors that the other software tools seems to miss. I took a photo of my Pug with my digital camera. There was too much light and the photo was very washed out. I am limited to using greyscale images so I hope that you can see how the tools used to fix the washed out, over-bright photo was fixed. The first image is the original, the second image was auto enhanced with Paint Shop Pro’s color correction tools, the third image was fixed with AutoEye’s automatic enhancement, and the final image with AutoEye’s Manual color enhancement tools.

In the second image, you can see that some of the color in the afghan has deepened slightly but the patchwork quilt (which I made over 28 years ago and still has some very bright color in it) is very faded. Buka’s color is also a little better, she’s a black Pug. In the third photo auto enhanced with AutoEye, all the colors are very much better and the contrast has also improved greatly. Even the fabric detail on the sofa became clearer as did the pattern detail in the patchwork squares. In the last photo, I tried the manual adjustments and the color in the afghan, the sofa, and the quilt became deeper and a near perfect match to how the colors looked in real life. The vibrant colors were much more pronounced then they were in the original image. The instant improvement between the first image and the 3^rd is excellent. I found the same type of improvement with photos that were too dark. The photos became sharper and the colors all came to life instead of being washed out or so dark that the detail was missed.

Because of the ease of use, this product is excellent for a novice but also a great tool for those who are advanced users. Skill level will not hamper the new user from achieving outstanding results with their images.

Features of AutoEye 1.0 are:

AutoEye is Very Easy to Use

Connects Directly to Digital Cameras & Scanners for Fast and Easy Use

Automatically Enhances Image Details

Reclaims Lost Colors and Details

Balances Colors and Removes Casts

Sharpens and Enhances Contrast

Improves CMYK Color Reproduction

Batch Process Images in Photoshop

Drag & Drop Capability Application

Supports Photoshop Actions

User Defined Automatic Presets

Plug-in Version Works in Most Image Editing Applications

Installation was quick and very easy. The installation choices are Application Only, Plug-In -which requires that an imaging application already be installed (such as Paint Shop Pro), and Typical, which installs both the application and the plug-in version of AutoEye. Both Windows and Mac versions are available. System requirements are Windows 95/NT 3.0/1 or higher, 32 Meg of RAM with 64 Meg recommended, 100 Megs of space on startup drive for swap disk space.

The plug-in in version is located in the Effects Menu in Paint Shop Pro. When and image is open and AutoEye is selected from the Effects Menu the starting screen is launched:

If the automatic mode is selected, the image is enhanced without your doing another thing except click on the word "Automatic". You see the changes instantly on the open image. Automatic mode – click the arrow to add your own settings to this menu by going through manual mode and saving presets. After they are created, they will show up on this menu in Automatic mode. If the Manual setting is chosen a new screen opens with all the settings available and the image. As each setting is adjusted, you see the effect each adjustment has on the image and you can increase, decrease, or remove any of the changes you make immediately with the automatic preview. Below is an image of the Manual correction window. Automatic mode – click the arrow to add your own settings to this menu by going through manual mode and saving presets. After they are created, they will show up on this menu in Automatic mode.

You can see each of the sliders along side each of the color correction tools. Choices include:

Colors (Correction)

Saturation

Contrast

Sharpness

Anti-Noise

Brightness

Tonal Range

Red, Blue, or Green

Despeckle

Moire Pattern Removal

There is also an Enhance button that will turn off the enhancements, a Reset button that returns the image to the original format, and Enhance SubDetail, which will bring out detail and color from subdetail areas of the image.

In the Application Version there are more options to work with in the Drag and Drop Mode:

AutoSave

Automatic Drag and Drop

Automatic Overwrite

Manual Mode has some other options as well. The preview windows shows the enhanced image, to view the original image, hold down the Shift Key and the image will switch to the original image. Another option is to pause the preview option by holding down the Control Key, adjust multiple sliders, and when the Control Key is released the preview will update the changes.

You can also Zoom and Pan the images. An Online Help file, Online FAQ, links AutoF/X on the web are also available, as well as a small manual that explains each of the features of the software.

I found the software very easy to work with and tried it on photos that I took with my digital camera, photos that were taken with one of those disposable cameras and then saved to a Kodak CD, and some print images that I had. In each instance, the photos looked much better when I used AutoEye to enhance them.