Photolemur Review (April 2017)

Performance
The changes that Photolemur makes to each photo are reasonably substantial, and could potentially take somebody quite a while if they had to make each individual change. While the edits seem to be made quickly, when it comes to exporting a set of photos, that takes substantially longer. However, if you were to compare the adjustments made by Photolemur to how long it would take to make those edits in a program such as Photoshop, it still represents a significant time saving.
On the whole, the effect left is satisfying, giving extra punch to images, making them brighter, and just generally quite appealing. Of course, any editing is subjective, so any given person might not be entirely happy with how Photolemur decides to alter your images.
It’s also fair to say that for some images, it leaves them looking a little unrealistic. With the older version of the software, you had the option to make the editing more subtle if you weren’t quite so happy with how it looked, but this has been taken away with the new version.
There’s also now no option to crop your images, which means you’ll have to use another piece of software if you want to make any kind of other adjustments. In other words, by keeping it simple, choice has been extremely limited.
Conclusion
Photolemur says that it has processed over 900,000 photos while it has been developing its software. This is supposed to mean that it knows exactly how each photo should be edited and transformed, meaning it is fully automated and giving the user no control.
While it’s true that it does the job of adjusting your images very well, whether it leaves them “better” is a question of subjectivity and taste. A lot of images will benefit from the editing carried out by Photolemur, but equally, a lot of images will end up looking overcooked, and therefore unrealistic. It would be nice if the option to make edits a little more subtle had been kept somewhere in the program - even if it was hidden away to keep the interface simple.
It can also be a little slow to export images - however, you could argue that ten minutes to fully edit and export ten images is a lot quicker than it would be to manipulate each photo with individual layers and so on in a piece of software such as Photoshop.
The introduction of a subscription model means that the software can be continually updated, which is particularly useful if you want to use it with new proprietary raw formats. However, despite it being priced at $5.99 a month, you have to pay annually in one go, with no option to cancel once the initial 30 days has passed. That’s a fairly large amount of money to pay for something which gives you no control, and which you’ll probably find you have to use in conjunction with another piece of software.
If you’re the type of photographer who wants to concentrate on capturing great images, spending minimal time in front of the computer, Photolemur could be a good option for you. It’s ridiculously easy to use, and you won’t have to spend any time getting to know the software as it only has one function. However, you have to be happy with how each edit is carried out, as there’s no option to tweak anything.
Luckily, there’s a 30-day money back guarantee with the software, which means you can try it out and see if it works well with your imagery. With the new update, Photolemur has made the software super simple to use, and the edits made are genuinely quite impressive, but the lack of control is going to be off-putting for the average enthusiast photographer.
Ratings (out of 5) | |
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Design | 4 |
Features | 3.5 |
Ease-of-use | 5 |
Value for money | 3.5 |
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