H&M StudioLine Photo 2

Having been an avid photographer for many years with a 35mm camera, I had 

accumulated a huge number of prints and slides and consequently had to spend 

many hours on many occasions locating, sorting, and filing all those mementoes.  

Now that I have a digital camera, I’m taking even more pictures than ever.  It 

seems much easier to get more great pictures than ever before.  One problem 

that remains, and now made much worse with the quantity of pictures taken, is 

the one of time: what’s the easiest way to file and keep track of them without 

spending an inordinate amount of time doing it.  StudioLine Photo 2 may be just 

the answer.  It seems to be a well thought out solution that not only can 

organize and archive all those precious images, but allows considerable editing, 

slideshow presentations, burning to CD’s or DVD’s, and even publishing 

high-resolution images to a web gallery.

The software came with a well-written 100 page printed manual, and installed 

on the hard drive (over 11MB) as well.  It also has a good on-screen introduction, 

a tour, and tutorials.  The tutorials are in Acrobat Reader .pdf format, which 

of course runs outside of the program.  That makes it very easy to read and 

implement the tutorial examples by just flipping back and forth between 

the two screens.  I had read the entire manual before installing the program, 

but found that the tutorials really helped to become more quickly familiar 

with all of the commands, even though they are quite logically laid out.  There 

are quite a few of them, since the program strives to allow a lot of flexibility 

and pays much attention to providing a wide range of choices.

The power of this program and all it can do impresses me.  An example is the 

ability to fully annotate the images in a database-type of procedure that 

then allows rapid searches and management of the images.  If a picture is to 

be emailed, not only can you pick the resolution and format, but you can also 

then pick from the descriptive database what information you want to be 

included with the image.  This can be easily done for just one or many with 

a batch command.

Pictures can be converted to all the common formats for use in other 

applications and you can save a lot of disk space by off-loading selected 

pictures to CD or DVD, leaving only a small proxy image with a symbol in case 

retrieval is desired.

Once StudioLine is installed, the initial startup produces a window that 

presents access to a number of documents to help become familiar with the 

commands.  These include Quick Tour: a slide show that highlights the many 

capabilities of this program.  Next, follow tutorials that give step-by-step 

instructions.  Spending a little time here in the beginning will pay off in 

being able to do more with photo management than you expected when you 

acquired this program.

StudioLine Photo 2 not only archives digital images, but also allows any one 

or group of images to be located quickly and efficiently with a powerful 

search engine that results in very easy photo management.  Thousands of 

pictures can be centrally managed this way.  User-defined categories give you 

absolute control.  I especially like that I can name or rename any picture 

with something that is more meaningful for me including the use of duplicate 

names.  Not only are you able to do thorough searches, you are also able to 

choose sort criteria to set up pictures in any desired sequence if you don’t 

care to do so manually.  To prevent loss of data in case the hard drive should 

fail, the entire image library can be backed up to a CD or DVD without 

additional software.

Once your pictures have been loaded from a digital camera, scanner, CD, DVD, 

memory card, or hard-drive, you are able to do quite an extensive editing 

procedure as you organize your photos.  Included in the software is the 

ability to rotate, crop, red-eye correct, auto-tone, and color correct.  

Filters may be applied that include colorizing, stained glass, embossing, and 

black and white.  Any effect or change can be reversed at any time, so there is 

no worry about making a mistake, since the original is always kept intact.  

All filters, effects, and settings are kept in a separate stack, which is 

readily monitored for all actions, and you no longer have to save the file 

each time after applying an editing step.  Batch processing can also save time 

if the same adjustments are required by a number of photos.

As if this is not enough to satisfy most people, here are a few more things 

that can be done without additional software: StudioLine will compile your 

images into an on-screen slide show.  Captions may be added, if desired.  

Nowadays, people also desire to e-mail a lot of their pictures.  You are able to 

define the best size and quality of an image to be sent, and you can also include 

descriptions.  The ability to burn a CD or DVD is not just for archiving: it’s also 

for the purpose of viewing pics on other computers, or as a slide show on a TV 

(assuming a JPEG-capable DVD player), or even to be taken to a photo store 

for prints to be made.  That is not to say that if you have a printer attached 

to the computer you cannot print them yourself.  In fact, you can save paper 

and money utilizing the print preview feature, optimizing the position of the 

print, using crop marks and even standard picture sizes.

The only function that I have not checked out is the ability to publish high-

resolution pictures to a web-gallery.  Apparently, if you have a website, 

StudioLine has ready-to-use templates, that will easily allow you to share your 

images with your friends and family who have Internet access.

I had been using iPhoto on a Mac, since I did not find anything that I liked 

on PCs that I liked for photo management.  Now I may just start using my PC 

more often for editing all my digital images.

StudioLine Photo 2

(now called StudioLine Photo Classic 3)

H&M Software

http://www.studioline.biz/EN/home/default.htm

StudioLine Photo Basic 3

   Free if downloaded and registered within 30 days

   CD-ROM boxed version w/ printed manual  $29

   CD-ROM version w/ PDF manual on the CD  $19

StudioLine Photo Classic 3

   CD-ROM Boxed version w/ printed manual $89

   CD-ROM only w/ PDF manual on the CD  $69

   Downloaded version  $59

http://www.studioline.biz/EN/online-shop/default.htm