Thank you for this, for me, unknown software. My first impression is that it works very well with good results. Downloading and registration were flawless.

don’t works with windows 7 professionel

I like it for what it can do … to one … file … at … a … time.

But it’s missing critical usefulness functions, like an integrated on-screen file browser that lets me preview my DCIM folders and files while I see the file I’m working on still open, and see what’s before and after the current image so I can pick and choose in context, start with the best one, or fix the worst one, the one that need salvaging.

The tweaking features are nice, but endlessly disorganized across many settings so all settings controls can’t be seen at one all together, and they are imprecise, using a slider without numbers, so there’s no way to just type a preference or repeat a preference.

The tweaking features are flexible, beyond mere contrast, brightness, and saturation, going to luminance and vibrance so on.

There is an endless list of film type emulation, and that may be interesting to play with on occasion, especially if trying to match an existing old-time film scan.

Summary: capable tool, manually operated, one at a time, not a master program, not batchable ( as far as I could see ), and not easy to edit a group of images, or repeat settings again.

Compare to FREE Google Picasa and FREE IrfanView, which do include many features that I suggest Widsmob Retoucher is missing.

Perhaps like [ Franzis. de ], some programmers prefer to release one-trick programs rather than build an integrated suite, perhaps the one-tricks get better reviews, and suites get panned because, you know, Photoshop and Lightroom.

So find the FREE Adobe CS final license version that Adobe released before going to monthly subscription.

My problem is trying to remember what each one-trick program is good for that can’t be done anyway in FREE IrfanView, FREE Google Picasa, and or FREE Adobe Photoshop CS.

The competition is fierce, so programmers have to find niche marketing sideways, like SOS, and niche programs that folks don’t know are equal to the features already in the more complex suites ( Adobe’s been controlling vibrance and so on for a long time ).

Instead, I suggest that these programmers try to do BETTER than the existing suites, instead of less, but hey, it’s their decision on how they want to program, and market themselves.

[@noll] Worked in W7-64 Pro for me.

[@Nico] Registered immediately for me in the US.
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Registration failed (the program does nothing but give me an error beep when I click the Register button) on Mac for every one of the license keys.

After reading other’s comments that the program did not install on Windows 7, I decided to test it on a Win 7 Pro 64-bit OS to see what the issue was.

When the install is first executed, WidsMob prompted for UAC control. I do not have any idea why a photo editor should need that type of control over the user’s PC. Its a photo editor, no special security options should be needed.

WidsMob Photo Retoucher takes a long time to do all of its pre-install, which may be why others have reported that it does not install on Windows 7 Pro. After waiting long enough, the program did install. The activation also went smoothly.

I loaded a photo, then played around with the initial sliders (Saturation, Contrast, Brightness, Temperature, Tint). When testing programs with sliders, I want to make sure I can move it back to the same starting place WITHOUT using the Restore option. In WidsMob Retoucher, the only way to change the slider’s position is to use a mouse. I tried moving the slider away from its default position (0), then slide it back to the same starting place, but the end value is either -1 or +1, but never could I get it to zero again. Using the keyboard arrow keys would be a great help in fine-tuning slider positions.

The other problem with the sliders is that the value they produce cannot be manually set. I had rather be able to enter a value and have it be used instead of being limited to the mouse-controlled slider.

The sliders did each have an effect on the appearance, but I really didn’t want to make any changes permanent because I was only testing.

There is no way to save the settings to a file so that they can be used for other photos (or even the same photo) later on. That should be a standard capability of any photo tweaking program.

The program’s Portrait mode is supposed to recognize a portrait image judging on what I read online. The photo I loaded was a human whole body-shot but in a horizontal position (not a portrait). Regardless, I clicked on the Portrait mode with the intent of zooming in on the face of my photo. Instantly, the program crashed with the message:
WidsMob Retoucher has stopped working
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

To give the program another chance, I restarted from scratch but this time loaded a photo that was more of a portrait view, in the sense that the person in the photo is looking at the camera, however, the photo includes the person’s body down to the knees. At least this photo allowed me to get into Portrait mode. I used the Zoom feature to center the image a little more around the face. To my surprise, the result was that the left side of the image was repeated on the right side of the preview. I wondered if it was an artifact that would not be saved with the final image, but after saving the image, the saved result matched the odd preview. This problem has to be an issue with the Zoom feature.

The program did not crash with this second image, so I decided to reload the first image to see if it caused the program to crash again. I left the program in Portrait mode. The image opened just fine. I changed back to the original photo editing mode, moved the sliders similar to what I had done before, did the Restore, then clicked on the Portrait mode. The program instantly crashed with the same message as it had before. Regardless of whether the image loaded is a portrait or not, the program should not crash. If the program cannot detect a portrait, then it should inform the user, and provide additional information.

One other mention is regarding the program’s menu options that have the FAQs and the Online Help, both of which are online. Everyone should read the Online Help, which is displayed as the User Guide online. The reason I suggest this is the remote possibility that you might learn something if you are a Mac user, but for Windows users, to see that the entire User Guide is for a Mac edition of the program, but it is nowhere near what this Windows edition has for features. It is as if it is for an entirely different program. The menu options at the top of the program in the User’s Guide do not match what the Windows edition has. It looks like the Windows edition was rushed to production, does not have the same features, but they wanted some feedback to see how the current state is working out.

I did not locate a Changelog online, so to me that in itself is a failure. I cannot recommend any program that does not publish a Changelog that contains dates and version numbers, and detailed changes made for each release.

Thankfully, there are better options available in the marketplace than what WidsMob Retoucher does. Several “free” programs outshine WidsMob Retoucher. I hope WidsMob will improve on this program and be able to compete with similar programs in the future.

[@Gary] “… To my surprise, the result was that the left side of the image was repeated on the right side of the preview …”

Yeah, I noticed this, too ( rolled my eyes, and moved on, I got better programs to use ).

Your review echos my experience and preferences/criticisms exactly – what, no precision adjustments as a script?

I think there may be a whole bunch of programmer’s tool kits floating around China, and programmers just throw in whatever is hot on the current trade-for-trade on thumb drives at the local noodle place or programming school – where did they get settings for a gazillion films, like Ilford black and white, and in so many different versions?!?

These script kiddies never used Ilford black-and-white film, or a darkroom, or an enlarger, or a print dryer.

Or Photoshop, or Lightroom, or DxO, or … I don’t want to date myself, but remember Paintshop Pro by Jasc Software in the 1990s?

The programmers are definitely myopic, in their own little world, and have no idea what we do, and what we want, and what the competition does, out here in the real world.
Notice their energetic participation in this discussion thread?

Me neither.

On the one hand, I’m amazed when ANY programs works AT ALL, considering how complex they are.

On the other hand, other vendors seem to do it.

The “Wisdom of the Mob” at “WidsMob” apparently … means … nope, I have absolutely no idea.

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For Mac users … can you help each other out? I don’t even let my iPhone update it’s OS, so how do you all keep track of what works where? I’m in Windows 7-64 Pro myself, so, I got nuthin’.

– – – – –

[@jajk] – THANKS! I LOVE this stuff, and I’m happy to share, as I learn most when trying to format my experiences for others to take advantage of.

[@Bob] – no plugins, stand alone only ( as I say, the programmers probably never used a real image editor on their own images, this is not the brainchild of a photography-addicted-hobbyist, but the product of corporate marketplace scheme assigned to work-to-death young programmers fresh out of training ).
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Registration not. Why?