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CyberLink PhotoDirector Review

Full photo workflow, correction, and editing at a low price

4.0
Excellent
By Michael Muchmore
Updated January 17, 2024

The Bottom Line

CyberLink PhotoDirector is a photo workflow and editing program with a host of powerful image editing tools. An interface refresh and new generative AI features and effects are among the many additions in the latest version to this highly recommended application.

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Pros

  • Friendly yet powerful interface
  • Many advanced effects
  • Body shaper and other impressive editing tools
  • Extensive layer support
  • Painterly AI styles
  • Tethered shooting

Cons

  • No geotag maps
  • Weak chromatic aberration and noise corrections
  • Not enough lens profiles
  • Some menus occasionally slow

CyberLink PhotoDirector Specs

Keyword Tagging
Face Recognition
Layer Editing
Lens Profile Corrections
Content-Aware Edits

CyberLink's PhotoDirector combines the workflow features of Adobe Lightroom with functions found in Photoshop and adds the kind of hand-holding you get in Photoshop Elements, making it an all-in-one photo-editing software application for photo enthusiasts. It gives Adobe a run for its money with Photoshop-like tools such as adjustment layers, masks, text kerning, and guided edits, though its interface isn't as polished. Overall, PhotoDirector is easy to recommend, but Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements remain our Editors' Choice winners.


How Much Does PhotoDirector Cost?

The non-subscription version of CyberLink PhotoDirector is called PhotoDirector 2024 Ultra, and it has a list price of $99.99. You can bundle PhotoDirector together with PowerDirector, an Editors' Choice winner for consumer video-editing apps, for $169.99.

The subscription options are a little different. A $59.99-per-year (often deeply discounted) subscription called PhotoDirector 365 gets you the photo program along with frequent updates, content packs, and 50GB of online storage. Another subscription option is to get the full Director Suite 365. It's a $135.99-per-year plan that includes all of CyberLink's media software along with plug-ins, content packs, and 100GB of cloud storage.

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By comparison, Photoshop Elements costs a one-time fee of $99.99. For Adobe Lightroom, you pay $9.99 per month as long as you want to keep using it. ACDSee Photo Studio also costs $99.99 once, and Corel PaintShop Pro lists for a one-time price of $79.99. The more professional-targeted DxO PhotoLab and Capture One Pro cost $219 and $299, respectively. Most of the higher-end photo software is following Adobe's lead in trying to get customers to sign up for a subscription, and they often offer a subscription alongside the perpetual-license option.

CyberLink PhotoDirector interface
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

A fully functioning 30-day free trial of PhotoDirector is yours for the price of your email address. After that time period, it converts into a limited version of the program that lacks premium effects. It requires about 700GB on disk, less than much of the competition. Note that the trial is not upgradable to the licensed version, so you must reinstall it if you decide to buy.


System Requirements and Getting Started

PhotoDirector is available for Windows 10, Windows 11, and macOS (10.14 and later). Both Mac and Windows versions require a 64-bit processor and at least 4GB of RAM.

You get started with PhotoDirector by installing the CyberLink Download Manager if you're using the trial or single-payment version, and the CyberLink Application Manager if you're using the subscription version. As with Adobe's software, the Application Manager makes updating easier. Once it's installed, you see the new Launcher, which I cover below.


What's New in PhotoDirector?

CyberLink is continually updating PhotoDirector, and subscribers receive new effects, fonts, templates, and editing tools as they're available. You can see every one of them on the company's handy What's New in PhotoDirector page. Since my last review, here are some highlights of what's new in PhotoDirector:

  • New launcher and UI updates that demo new features for you and give you access to tools you frequently use

  • New tabs for Guided and Expert modes

  • Improved Face and Body Tools, such as Wrinkle Remover, Skin Plumpness, Concealer, Eyebrow Shaper, and Auto Body Reshaping that adjusts proportion and symmetry

  • AI Image Generator that creates whatever you tell it to, similar to other image generators such as Microsoft Copilot, Midjourney, and Dall-E

  • AI Image Enhancer for restoring old photos

  • Background Remover and effects for removing the background behind a subject or applying blur or another effect to it, similar to what Adobe Firefly can do

  • AI Image Enlarger for removing pixelation from low-resolution shots when upscaling them

  • AI Deblur for sharpening and adding details to soft shots

  • AI Art and Sticker Maker, which uses text prompts to create graphics and images for use in your photo projects

In previous updates, CyberLink added AI Denoise, Content-Aware object removal, color gradient presets, Getty and Shutterstock content, LUT support, and AI sky replacement.


The PhotoDirector Interface

PhotoDirector's interface is in general clear, functional, and attractive. New Guided and Expert mode buttons don't appear until you're in Edit view, which you have to switch to using a dropdown option all the way on the top right side, far from the other mode buttons. After initial puzzlement, I got used to switching to Edit view quickly. PhotoDirector lets you import, organize, edit, and export photos inside the main PhotoDirector application, which is simpler than the way Photoshop Elements does it.

Launcher in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

The Launcher highlights new tools with sample images along the top. Below are buttons for more than a dozen other tools. In bright orange highlight are the two buttons you're most likely to click: Organize and Edit and Adjust. You can customize the array of buttons to taste. By default, the Launcher appears on initial start up and, illogically, after you close the program (you can turn off that behavior with a check box).

The program starts up quickly and most editing operations are snappy, but occasionally it pauses on my PC before the main menu appears. On first run, you see a helpful Quick Start tutorial window to familiarize you with the program's features, with links to online tutorials.

PhotoDirector Modes

As is common among pro- and near-pro-level photo workflow apps, PhotoDirector uses modes. That means you see global tabs or buttons that switch the interface among different functions, usually organizing, editing, and sharing. PhotoDirector has five modes: Library, Adjust, Create, Edit Guided, and Edit Expert. You have to switch to the Edit modes with a dropdown at top right. I'd prefer just having all the mode buttons along the top. Export gets its own always-present blue button at the top, rather than a mode.

Within each of PhotoDirector's modes, a left-side panel has mode-appropriate options. In the Library and Adjustment modes, the panel is further broken down into two tabs, Project and Metadata for the first, and Manual and Presets for the second.

The main viewing area is flexible, with a few options of its own. In Library mode, a large view of the photo sits above a filmstrip-style look at other pictures in the folder. Alternatively, buttons at the top let you see just the photo, a gallery browser of thumbnails or filenames, or a full-screen view of just the current photo. In addition to viewing one large image, you can also compare two or several in Library mode.

Filter options in Grid View in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

You can filter the Grid view by photos you've flagged or color-labeled, or those you've edited. I'm happy to see that you can also filter by camera model and lens, as you can in Lightroom Classic. Hover the mouse over a thumbnail in Gallery view, and you see star rating and flagging buttons for easy rating and selecting. When you're viewing one large image, the same choices appear along the bottom with color labeling added. You also have the option to enter a search term in a box at top right.

In Adjust mode, you can pull up a before-and-after split view. Like Lightroom, PhotoDirector lets you zoom only to preset sizes—25%, 33%, 50%, and so on—rather than having a full-range slider like the one in ACDSee Pro. But a single click switches between zoomed and unzoomed, which is convenient.

Nice Detail for Adjustments, Undo, and History

I like the way adjustments are grouped into Regional and Local groups, and the adjustment panel is topped with Manual and Presets tabs. I also particularly like that double-clicking on a slider returns it to the default position and that you can adjust them with the mouse wheel—Lightroom is inconsistent about the latter. And I appreciate that (like in Lightroom) arrows let you collapse the side panels in Adjust and Expert Edit modes, though I'd like to see it in Library mode as well.

Undo is well implemented, and an excellent adjustment history panel shows not only all previous tweaks but also a thumbnail at the top with a mini view of those tweaks' effects. Clicking on any history entry applies that point to the full image view. Keyboard shortcuts are done well, too, and customizable. Export is a simple Ctrl-E, compared with Photoshop's convoluted Shift-Ctrl-Alt-W. In all, CyberLink PhotoDirector gets high marks for its interface. You can't detach the program's panels to float anywhere on screen, as you can in ACDSee Pro, but I suspect that's not something everyone wants to do.


Importing Photos in PhotoDirector

The photo import dialog groups zoomable thumbnails of images on the card by date. As with Lightroom, you can select photos for import from these thumbnails. You can apply Auto-tone, Auto-Denoise, and even effect presets, such as B&W Cool, Faux HDR, or Fantasy Pink during import. You can also add keyword tags and a copyright notice.

Import photos in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

The program can import raw camera files in formats such as Canon's CR2 and Nikon's NEF. Raw conversion detail and color are good, though Capture One and Lightroom brought out more detail and truer colors in initial raw import on test images. PhotoDirector is somewhat behind Lightroom in support for new camera bodies. For example, it can't yet work with raw image from a Nikon Z 8, but it does now support Canon's newish CR3 file format, and I was impressed that it let me import RAF raw shots from a Fujifilm X-T4 and a Nikon Z fc. PhotoDirector is on the left below, Lightroom on the right.

Initial raw import in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/Adobe/PCMag)

The program includes all the expected organizational tools with easily accessible ratings, color coding, and flagging tools in the Library interface. And, as I'll show in the next section, it even has face tagging, a powerful organization tool that's been available in Photoshop Elements for several years. Geotagging and maps, however, are still absent.

Import Performance

Cyberlink PhotoDirector imports swiftly, compared with the competition. I tested import speed with 200 raw images (a total of 5GB) from a Canon EOS 80D. My test computer was a 64-bit Windows 10 PC with 16GB RAM, a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-12700K CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti discrete graphics card. I import from a Class 4 SD card to a fast SSD on the PC. The application took just 1:10 (minutes:seconds) for the import compared with 1:16 for Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Another type of importing, tethered shooting, is finally supported by PhotoDirector. The feature now works with a large number of models from Canon, FujiFilm, Nikon, and more. You get a shutter button on-screen, along with the ability to change shooting settings like f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO.


Shutterstock and Getty Images Included

Stock photos available in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

If you don’t have a suitable photo of your own, a PhotoDirector subscription lets you use stock photography from two of the biggest names in the game. A Shock Photos button at the bottom of the left sidebar opens a window full of evocative photos. You can search for topics, select multiple thumbnails, and then hit Import. A test sample was 16 megapixels, and it was simply in my Library to edit and export at will. Subscribers also now get iStock by Getty images. You don't get the full catalog of either stock service, but at more than 4 million images combined, you'll probably find something that works for you.


Basic Photo Adjustments and Edits in PhotoDirector

PhotoDirector includes all the basic adjustments you expect, including exposure, contrast, white balance, and sharpness. Ubiquitous fixers (red eye and blemish removers) are added to the local adjustment brushes. Cropping and rotating follow the brilliant approach of Lightroom and Photoshop, showing you the result rather than an outline of your intended crop.

PhotoDirector also has pro image-editing tools, such as curves and levels. The latter lets you manipulate highs, lows, and midtones with controls on a three-color histogram, with optional quarter-tone controls. The tone curves tool gives only three control points if you have the Tonal region box checked, but if you uncheck it, you can add lots of control points. Another very nifty tool here is one that lets you adjust the tone by dragging on the place in your image you want to change.

When it comes to pumping up or cutting down on overly dark or bright areas, PhotoDirector adds a couple of levels in between the standard brights, midtones, and darks. You get five sliders—Brightest, Bright, Midtone, Dark, and Darkest. This setup lets you use the histogram's Show Over/Underexposed Areas tool and then correct these areas with a more appropriate slider. PhotoDirector's Auto-tone magic wand button, like similar tools in every photo app, worked beautifully for some photos, but not so well for others.

Another image-correction tool that worked well in testing was Dehaze. I found that this did a better job than Lightroom, which tends to add a color cast, usually blue. PhotoDirector's Dehaze was nearly as good as DxO PhotoLab's best-in-class ClearView tool.

Auto Keystone correction in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

The program's geometry adjustment tools let you fix the barrel and pincushion distortion of telephoto and wide lenses. The Keystone correction tool's vertical and horizontal controls let me straighten distorted lines at the sides of photos of buildings. The Auto Keystone option does a good job straightening out buildings shot from below, and it cropped the unusable sides of the photo. A fisheye shot stumped it, however, with its added distortion. There is a Fisheye Distortion adjustment, but it wasn't strong enough to convincingly correct my 8mm shots.

CyberLink has a couple of nifty color adjustment tools. The AI-powered Auto Color Enhancement option and Three-Way Split Toning. The former opens a dialog box with a slider for the strength of the correction and then applies it when you close the dialog. An unfortunate side effect is that you can't use the Before-and-After split screen to see the effect unless you make a copy of the image.

For the ultimate color control, three-way split-tone color adjustment lets you change the hue, saturation, and lightness for highlights, midtones, and shadows. You move the cross cursor around the color wheel for the three tone levels to adjust their color settings independently. It's very similar to the Color Grading panel that Adobe introduced in a 2020 Lightroom update. Use these tools sparingly unless you're going for a heavily tinted effect.

Split-Toning Color Wheels in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Guided Mode

Guided mode creates a copy of your image so that the original remains unscathed. In Guided mode, you find the People Beautifier, Photos Effects, Improve or Remove, Extract or Compose, Photo Merge, Frames and Watermarks, and 360° Photo Editor. It's a good collection of tools. Featured in the mode are Sky Replacement, Glitch, Dispersion, Sparkle, and Light Rays.

Deblur in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

The Guided Deblur (above) didn't turn a blurry photo into a perfectly focused one, but it did improve it. A slightly blurry photo was improved even more.

Image Enhancer in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag/Flickr/simpleinsomnia)

A new tool in Guided Mode is Image Enhancer (shown above). CyberLink bills this as a tool for restoring old photos, but it only does part of the job by improving image clarity. It doesn't fix scratches or spots the way Photoshop's Image Restoration tool does. But if you use Image Enhancer knowing these limitations, you may appreciate how it does improve old images, even using face recognition. But Adobe's Photo Restoration neural filter lets you choose the amount of image enhancement face improvement with sliders, while PhotoDirector's tool is a one-click affair.

AI Image Generator

If your own photos and all the stock to choose from aren't enough, CyberLink PhotoDirector now includes a beta AI image Generator, which you find in both Guided and Expert edit modes. As with any generative AI tool, you enter descriptive text and the program produces images that don't look quite like what you had in mind. I like that PhotoDirector's AI Image Generator gives you style choices such as Realistic, Vibrant, and 3D, but you keep refining the prompt text until you get something usable. The image below shows what I got when I asked for a picture of a hawk devouring a small bird.

AI Image Generator in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Glitches typical of these tools occur, such as the hawk having three wings, and the small bird having a snakelike tail, or the bird being as small as a mosquito. You can ask to regenerate to see if you have better luck on a subsequent attempt, even without changing the prompt. Prompts with people in them tend to do better. Here's a take on a family around the hearth in winter, with the Pure style:

AI Image Generator with People in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Picture to Painting

If you've seen the Prisma mobile app, you know how fun it can be to turn prosaic smartphone shots into artsy, painted-looking images. PhotoDirector's Picture to Painting (formerly called AI Style Transfer), available in Guided Edit mode, does the same thing for your DSLR photos. You only get 18 styles included with the program unless you subscribe to Director Suite 365, which gets you dozens more.

Picture to Painting in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

You can adjust the strength of these effects and erase it for select areas of the image with a brush. Better yet, the Auto Select button lets you easily apply the art effect to everything but a person or main subject of the photo. It worked instantly and flawlessly in my testing, producing a striking image.

Another option is Apply Original Color. It creates a color palette for the painting effect using your image, rather than using the palette included with the effect. I found that using the template color scheme produces a more drastic, artsy result. I would like more controls, and remixing capabilities. For example, the canvas creases in the example above aren't adjustable, and applying the effect a second time produced the exact same effect, meaning it doesn't recalculate the effect. A Reapply tool would be nice here.

Anime Cartoon Styles

Cartoonize Portrait in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

This one is for anime fans. From Guided Edits > Generative AI/Effects > Cartoonize Portrait, you will find 21 styles to choose from. The one used above is called Cartoon 2, but there are some in Anime style. It's a one-click effect, so it's easy to use, but it can take 10 to 20 seconds to complete.

Sky Replacement

Sky Replacement in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

In Guided mode, the Sky Replacement option lets you instantly apply a more dramatic sky than the drab one in your photo. It found the obelisk in my test shot of the Vatican easily. A dozen preloaded skies are available within the app, and you can download more. Some even feature moving clouds for use in GIFs or video files. You can adjust the feather and horizon for the effect and change the color cast of the land or the exposure of the sky.

Photo Animation

Photo Animation in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Adobe Photoshop Elements pioneered the photo animation tool that uses AI to determine a photo’s subject to animate the background. PhotoDirector's photo animation tool (on the Guided tab) gives you a lot more control, though it’s less automatic. To get started, simply draw an arrow on an object in your photo in the direction you want it to move. You can control the speed, as well as pin areas that you don’t want to move.

You can add background music that pulses to the beat of the animation, although that requires exporting it as a video file. This effect is especially successful with sports images, and I can see good use cases for it in social posts. You can save your result not only as an animated GIF, but also as MPEG-4 or WMV.

Dispersion effect in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Another cool animation is called the Dispersion effect, on the Guided tab. It lets you select an object in your photo that will peel off and away into particles. You simply mark the area you want to disperse, choose a shape for the particles (circle, square, and so on), a size, and direction. You can use this for either still or animated images.

A third animation type is Motion Stills, available from the Library mode's Create tab (not the Guided tab). I had a little trouble figuring out what effect this was supposed to do until I watched a video. You select an area to animate with a brush. The selected area switches among the other photos in the animation. The trick is that your source media needs to be all shot from the same viewpoint. Alternatively, you can start with a video (for more ways to do this, see Video-to-Photo, below). If you move the camera at all either during video or still shooting, the result is unconvincing.

Multiple Exposure Effect

Multiple Exposure effect in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Multiple Exposure Effect is one of PhotoDirector's coolest features. Take a group of up to 10 action shots while keeping the camera still, and CyberLink PhotoDirector can automatically produce a multiple exposure like the one above. Doing the same thing in Photoshop would involve selecting the person in all six images and creating multiple masks and layers. PhotoDirector even lets you apply a fade-in or fade-out effect to the sequence. It also lets you reduce the number of exposures from a drop-down, rather than making you recreate the merge.


Layers in Edit Mode

Showing its ambitions to be more than just a photo workflow application competing with Lightroom, PhotoDirector includes layer editing—Photoshop's forte. I was initially leery about this kind of tool cluttering a program that's designed for efficient photo workflow. There's a reason Lightroom doesn't require photographers to mess with layer editing. PhotoDirector's tool doesn't clutter things up, though, unless you consider a mode button atop the interface to be clutter. If you don't want to spring for Photoshop itself, here are your layers.

You see layers when you switch to Edit > Expert mode. When you enter the mode, a Photoshop-lite appearance takes hold, except the layer controls are on the left and the tools (Text, drawing brushes, gradient, fill, shape, blur) are on the right.

As mentioned above, the text controls are fine-detailed, letting you adjust not just font and size, but also kerning, shadow, and border effects. Emboss and bevel options bring the program that much closer to Photoshopping capabilities. Work with layers is saved in PhotoDirector Layer File format (.PHI), not in the more standard PSD.

A dialog tells you it's best to complete all overall photo adjustments (lighting, white balance, and the like) prior to working with layers.

Layers in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

You can create empty layers, apply prefab project layers, edit with layer masks, group layers, add adjustment layers, and create clipping masks. These techniques will be familiar to Photoshop users, who now have fewer reasons to pay that subscription.

PhotoDirector now has 27 blending modes, the same number as Photoshop, which gives you a lot of creative options. I like how you can solo and edit a layer by double-clicking on its thumbnail image. But Photoshop's right-click options are a bit more helpful.

Layer Properties with blending modes
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

You can have multiple borders and border gradients on layers, set the blending mode for each layer property, and copy and paste layer properties. These are particularly useful when you're working with text overlays, but you can add the effects to any layer with transparency. The copy-and-paste capability means you don't have to reinvent the wheel if you want consistency in multiple layer objects.

Auto multiple object selection in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

As in Photoshop, PhotoDirector's layer-boasting Edit mode gives you ways to select and mask parts of an image. Auto Object Selection is an option under the Select Area tool, it can automatically identify people and animals in a picture, similar to Adobe's Subject Select tool. For well-set-off subjects, it did an excellent job identifying subject, and you can adjust the size and feather for the tool. Also excellent is PhotoDirector's Smart Brush selection tool, which also auto-selects objects as you brush on the screen.

These tools let you draw on top of your images and superimpose text, as well as add shapes, fills, and gradients. You select areas with a lasso and a smart lasso, but PhotoDirector's selection tools are not as smart as Adobe's. This program offers a lot of the layer-blending modes found in Photoshop, including Darken, Multiply, Difference, and Exclusion—14 in all. You can drag layer entries to change their order. Adjust any layer separately with the standard lighting, color, and detail tools.


Video-to-Photo and Panorama

CyberLink PhotoDirector's Video-to-Photo set of tools has more than its name suggests. You can use it to create a panorama from a video clip, a group photo from a video with everyone making an acceptable expression, or a multiple-exposure image. You start from the Video-to-Photo button right above the Import button. The feature does let you make still photos from video, but in my testing, it couldn't sharpen a moving subject. The same problem made multiple-exposure shots from video a lot less appealing than those created from stills.

Video-to-Photo in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

I had better luck with the Panorama feature this time around. I took a video of Niagara Falls in which I'd panned from side to side and impressively created one wide image, which I could then crop to remove areas with no photo content. The tool alternatively lets you auto-fill these areas—a nice content-aware feature.


Content-Aware Tools

Object Removal AI in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

CyberLink PhotoDirector has Content-Aware Clone, Remove, and Move tools. The Remove tool has been updated with AI smarts and works surprisingly well, as you can see from the photo above. As you might expect, removing objects with complex backgrounds, especially when the object intersects with those, is less successful.

The Content-Aware Clone feature produced some unwanted transparency in the object I was cloning. But note the fun trick of resizing or even rotating the cloned objects.

Content-Aware Clone in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Going the other way, a new AI tool lets you remove the background automatically. Not only that, but you get a good choice of replacement backgrounds for different activities, such as skiing, as shown below.

Background removal and replacement in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

The program does an impressive job of automatically selecting the subject, though it missed some fine hair. It does include tools for refining the selection with a brush and eraser, but those don't have feathering or edge detection, so you can't get those fine locks.


People Beautifier

PhotoDirector's People Beautifier tool has three subsets: face tools, skin tools, and body tools. The first includes sliders to resize each part of the face in the Face Shaper, along with Face Smoother, Concealer, Plumpness (new), Blemish Remover, Shine Remover, Skin Tone, Eye Brightener, Wrinkle Remover, and Teeth Whitener. Note that anything you do here can be undone, since a working copy is created. On my test image, the Face Shaper let me tuck in some jowls.

Face Tools in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

Body Shaper also uses AI to detect body areas for you to reshape—something not available in Photoshop, so if you need these tools, PhotoDirector is the app for you. It lets you reshape body width, shoulder width, breasts, arm thickness, waist thickness, hips width, leg length, and leg width. And if none of these hits the area you need to change, you can turn to the Distortion tools, which are similar to Photoshop's Liquefy tool.


Blur Tools and Noise Reduction

The Blur Tools section in Editing mode makes it easy to add not only blur but also bokeh, zoom focus, and tilt-shift effects. It's as fun, powerful, and interesting as the Motion Blur tool in Photoshop Elements.

Bokeh effect in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

But a more fun way to add bokeh, or narrow focus depth with lens light distortions is through Guided Mode > Light Effects > Bokeh (example above). This lets you choose an aperture shape and focus shape, along with a gaggle of other settings, and even lets you create an animation of the effect. This tool can detect the subject automatically, saving you the trouble of drawing around it or sizing a circle to it.

Another tool, Focus, also found among the Guided options, lets you choose whether to blur near or far objects.

Focus blur in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

CyberLink has updated PhotoDirector's Denoise tool with AI machine-learning smarts. It's separate from the Noise Reduction tool in the Adjustment menu and is found in the Guided mode. It takes longer to work its magic than the standard—45 seconds for a 24-megapixel shot. But its results are notably superior to those of the standard tool, which produces results that look a tad blurred.

CyberLink Photodirector Denoise AI
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

You can do better with a couple of standalone denoising applications. Below, you can see the results from Topaz Denoise, DxO PureRAW, and CyberLink PhotoDirector, from left to right. The first two preserve more detail than the CyberLink tool. All started with the noisy image at left above, so all are improvements on the original. Note that when I tried reducing noise in Adobe Lightroom, I couldn't get results as good as any of these.

Denoising from Topaz, DxO, and CyberLink
(Credit: Topaz/DxO/CyberLink/PCMag)

Bracket HDR

I've long been impressed with PhotoDirector's single-shot HDR (high dynamic range) effect, but this true HDR tool, Bracket HDR, is no less remarkable. It's accessible in Edit mode, and you can drag up to five photos shot at different exposures of the same subject from the tray to the main editing area. A merge button combines all the images, which took about 15 seconds on my five-shot test.

The merge lined up the images well, and a checkbox let me remove "ghosting"—in the case of my shot, traffic that differed from shot to shot. The result is pleasing, and you can tinker with it even further by adjusting Glow, Edge, Detail, and Tone, or by choosing a preset look. These include Colorful, Detail, Light, Natural, and Surrealistic. It's fun to see the dazzling artistic effects all these choices enable.


Lens Profile Correction

This kind of tool has been a feather in the cap of programs including Adobe Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab for a while. The idea is to fix issues introduced by the lens the photo was shot with, such as warped perspectives and darkness around the edges, known as vignetting. The technique, as with most photo adjustments, works best with raw camera files.

Lens Profile Correction in PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

For lens-profile-based correction to be useful, it needs to support a lot of lenses. CyberLink's library of profiles is limited compared with Lightroom's but you can manually adjust the distortion, and CyberLink users can create their own profiles and make them downloadable from DirectorZone.com. PhotoDirector still doesn't have my Sigma 150-600mm zoom lens in its database when I tested it, but it does have one for my Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM.

Tapping a globe icon in the Lens Correction option group takes you to CyberLink's profile download page, where you can see all profiled lenses. DxO makes the process more efficient by automatically popping up a dialog that asks you to download the appropriate profiles whenever you load a photo. For supported lenses, the program automatically chooses the correct model, and those I tested did improve barrel distortion and vignetting.

I'm disappointed to see that chromatic aberration (CA) wasn't improved when applying profiles. PhotoDirector gives you sliders for CA correction that let me remove some color fringing, and the program's Defringe tool, though manual, does a great job of removing color strokes from object edges. For excellent automatic results, though, try DxO PhotoLab. Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab are still way ahead of PhotoDirector when it comes to lens profile corrections, for both geometric distortion and CA.


Face Tagging

To get started with face tagging, select some photos in Library mode, and hit the Tag Faces button above the thumbnail grid. This starts an Analyzing dialog, which goes through each photo one at a time. Processing 129 photos took just under 3 minutes. As with all face-recognition software, there were a few false positives. A bush was identified as a face, for example. But I'm impressed that it picked up profiles as well as full faces.

Face Recognition in CyberLink PhotoDirector
(Credit: CyberLink/PCMag)

The interface for assigning names to faces is, as with much of PhotoDirecter, clear and simple. Once you assign one name, it becomes a button for one-click assignment to other photos with faces. After that, you can click Faces on the Library's left panel Project tab and then select a name to display photos only of that individual. There's an option to find more faces of a given person in selected photos, but the program doesn't do as good a job of suggesting names that belong to a face as competitors do.


Output and Help

PhotoDirector no longer has direct exporting to social photo sites, but it lets you share to CyberLink's own cloud galleries. You can generate slideshows for instant viewing, saving to an MPEG-4 video file. Lightroom goes beyond this, though, with some actual video editing capabilities.

PhotoDirector's dedicated Print mode supports every imaginable paper size, custom grid settings, and watermarking, but it has no presets for standard sizes. The company has added a soft proofing feature, which will please pros who print their pictures. There's also a Watermarks feature.

One final note about help: PhotoDirector includes a comprehensive, organized, searchable help system, along with video tutorials, both accessible from clear buttons in the interface. The help is now on the web rather than via a local file, however. Adobe's software also takes you to the web for help, but you usually have to hunt through info on other programs than the one you're using and even through user comments before you possibly find what you're looking for. CyberLink wins on this count, and you can download its User Guide, in case you're editing on the road with no connectivity. Wildlife photographers can relate to that situation.

A mobile version of PhotoDirector for iOS and Android is pretty powerful, with a lot of fun effects and editing tools. The app is ad-supported, or you can pay $19.99 per year or $5.99 per month to remove the ads and allow higher output resolution.


PhotoDirector for macOS 

Since people into the arts and creative media editing often prefer Mac computers, CyberLink has produced a macOS version of PhotoDirector from the start. The macOS version of PhotoDirector has everything discussed here except for three capabilities: integration with PowerDirector, uploading and downloading content from CyberLink Cloud, and AI Facial Recognition. That still leaves a ton of features.

PhotoDirector for Mac currently requires macOS 10.14 or later. Apple Silicon CPUs are supported, though the product website only mentions Intel and AMD processors.


A Good Direction for Photos

You can have a lot of fun at a reasonable price with CyberLink PhotoDirector. Its interface is friendly and it has all the standard photo editing tools, along with many cool extras. Adobe Lightroom Classic, our top pick for pro photo workflow, continues to drive the state of the art in raw file interpretation and correction features. Pro-level photographers will still want Photoshop, and hobbyists should check out Photoshop Elements, which has many Photoshop tools but more hand-holding. That said, CyberLink PhotoDirector is a capable and low-cost alternative to all three, and it throws in valuable photo stock libraries.

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About Michael Muchmore

Lead Software Analyst

PC hardware is nice, but itā€™s not much use without innovative software. Iā€™ve been reviewing software for PCMag since 2008, and I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time.Ā I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and Iā€™ve witnessed every Microsoft win and misstep up to the latest Windows 11.

Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech, and before that I headed up PCMagā€™s enterprise software team, but Iā€™m happy to be back in the more accessible realm of consumer software. Iā€™ve attended trade shows of Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products.

Iā€™m an avid bird photographer and travelerā€”Iā€™ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds! Because Iā€™m also a classical fan and former performer, Iā€™ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music.

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CyberLink PhotoDirector $54.99 Per Year at CyberLink
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