Corel AfterShot Pro 3 | RAW Photo Editing Software [PC/Mac Key Card]

I bought AfterShot Pro 3 when Corel PaintShop Pro 2019 displayed an automated sales pitch while I was trying to edit a RAW file (basically, it said that I could do more with AfterShot Pro 3 in terms of RAW file editing). So, I bought the upgrade directly from Corel and the application absolutely does not recognized RAW files from Panasonic cameras. There is proposed fix on the Corel website but the fix does not help at all. I have asked for my money back and has also sent a request for technical help (so far, no response). Further, I dont see what this application offers beyond Corel PaintShop Pro 2019 (which is fine, with a few bugs here and there).

I am a lllooonnnggg time user of PaintShop, so AfterShot Pro 3 seemed like a logical companion purchase. I noticed almost immediately that my Panasonic LUMIX ZS-80 is not supported. I went to Corel website and filled out the camera support request form. I received a form letter from Corel. I then called Corel thinking it would be faster. After the call, I received another form letter from Corel, asking me to fill out the same form. I responded that I had already completed the form several days ago. I got another form letter thanking me for my letter! I then received an email asking if Corel could close my request!! Today I called Corel again, and the guy told me not to worry (about 100 times), although he couldn’t tell me the status of my case, he assured me that tech support would call me within two hours. Never heard from anyone. My point is that Corel support has declined and it may appear that Corel is willing to add new cameras but I’m thinking that is not the case.

Even though Im an amateur, I take my photography seriously, and I was interested in seeing what AfterShot Pro 3 could do. Most of my serious shots are of birds and nature, but I also take urban shots and people. Im not interested in special effects as much as I am in correcting small issues that I failed to see when taking the photos. While this software is designed for professional photographers who take hundreds, even thousands, of photographs in a day, it works well for those of us who want to touch up a single shot or to process hundreds of photographs after a trip.

I am a casual photographer but one who enjoys refining and playing with my images. Im a Mac user and take most of my shots with an iPhone 6+. So what does AfterShot offer the casual photographer compared to other products?

Before purchase, make sure your camera is listed as supported on the Corels website. If its not, do not buy the software.

I have been a photoshop user for years and while this is NOT a full blown replacement, it does exactly what I need it to do. Corel Aftershot Pro3 is a tool that requires a little learning curve to master, but it isnt difficult. You can load your pictures and then manually or automatically apply a number of filters. Want to fix a blemish? 2 clicks and I was able to erase some scratches in an old photo that I had scanned in. Some of the enhancements this tool does I have a hard time distinguishing from the original photo they are so subtle, but many of them really make your picture something different. My favorite feature of this is the auto watermark option to apply a watermark to all of your photos. In our digital world its important that you mark your photos to protect them and this tool makes that process so simple with a single or batch mode automatic process. Overall I really like this software and frankly it does enough of what I do in photoshop it is making me question if I need to continue with my monthly subscription to adobe since all I do is minor photo tweaks. This app works perfect for this.

Not only will this not open RAW files from your camera phone, but it wont even open RAW files saved from its sister product PaintShop Pro 2019. It doesnt even support the open standard DNG file format (it says it supports DNG, but that is only DNG from specified camera models).

I was excited about this program because I need a program for my Photoshops incompatibility with the new Nikon NEF raw files. If you have a small monitor, this may be ok. I have a large high resolution monitor (because I do high quality photography) and this program is low resolution only. After several emails to tech support, there is just no solution to it. Unfortunate, see photos attached.

A lot of reviews compare this product to lightroom, because light room is pretty much the gold standard in video editing, but it now has some major competition.

When I ordered this it was listed as Photo Editing Software with a description emphasizing the ways it can fix your images. After watching Corels introductory video and trying the software, I would classify it as a file management tool that happens to perform editing tasks. In that repect, it is similar to Lightroom. It is not as powerful as Lightroom but it is affordable and does not require a subscription.