Photo Objects Vol. 2

By Gary Coyne Wednesday, February 21, 2001.
Tags: Reviews � Graphics/Design �

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4250

Provides: Photo clip-art
Developer: Hemera Software
Requirments: Mac (OS 8.1) or Windows (486)
Retail Price: $99.99
Availability: Out now

Just in case 50,000 images were not enough, here's 50,000 more. But, just as in the last collection (see past review), there is just as much redundancy as there are items left out. More on that later...

Photo Objects (Vol I & II) is a new kind of clip-art. Here, you have a collection of actual photos, at typically 600x600 dpi placed on transparent backgrounds that can be used in any kind of media such as a school paper or web sites.

One of the great powers of this (and the previous) collection is that a complete database of all the files (thumbnails of all the images may be placed on your hard drive as well). The database is VERY fast and as you type in your search words, thumbnail images start coming up immediately. As any good database, it is better to search partial words than whole words. That is, "dog" brings up 873 items, whereas "dogs" brings up only 105. If you type in "dog" and "boy," you get 2 items.

As mentioned, all images are placed on transparent backgrounds. The advantage this is that if the application you are using supports transparent backgrounds, one can obtain true wrap around that one often sees in magazines. However, to do this, you either have the choice of creating the image as a GIF with transparency (and thereby be restricted to 256 colors) or create a TIFF with transparency. (Be advised that to use this one must go into a program like Photoshop (version 4 and higher), and select the Alpha Channel. Without a program like Photoshop, this ability is unavailable. This is not the fault of Photo Objects, but rather a limitation of (say) MS Word) One of the very cool issues here is that since these are pre-selected items, one can obtain a perfect selection of the Photo Object without having to create the selection yourself within Photoshop.

Fortunately, many of the objects survive being saved as a GIF fairly well. Below are two soccer balls placed in a MS Word document. The one on the right is a GIF with transparency while the ball on the left is a TIFF processed through Photoshop and then placed in Word. While I did not print this example, on the screen I cannot see any difference.

Because not all programs can deal with alpha channels and do proper transparencies, Photo Objects also provide for proper anti-aliasing with what ever color background you want via the Export Assistant. Through the Export Assistant, one can size an object visually or via entering the size desired, background (if necessary), and then plan on how the object will be used. There are a variety of saving options (see below).

The Export Assistant is very flexible, and one can go back and forth at any point. Thus, if you want to place a soccer ball on a white and green background, one simply creates the white background version, backs up, creates a green background version, and continues. Seen in the images below are the results of the two soccer balls mentioned and a blowup of the upper right sections showing the anti-aliasing so the ball can properly blend in with that background.

Image	zoom showing anti-aliasing

Also, just like in Volume I, this new version provides PhotoFonts. This allows one to fill any text with any of the over 200 provided photographic fills, and you can add as many as you'd like.

One of the things done very well with the new addition is that you can combine the two databases of thumbnail images and can thus search across all 100,000 images at one time.

While there is no duplication of images from the first volume to this one, Hemera claims that the 2nd volume is oriented more toward the professional instead of the home user. That is, Hemera claims that professionals wanted more people images and thus, in Volume II there are more images of people.

My problem with Volume II is the same as with the first Volume. If you type in "dog" into the database, you get 873 images that have dog as one of the keywords. [All counts here represent the collective database of both volumes I & II.] Yet, there are (relatively) very few dog breeds represented. Consider that you get 8 different photos of the same two dogs playing around the same giftwrapped box, and you also get 20 different images of the same young man petting the same dog. While it can be argued that having this amount of variation is desired for people to find just the photo they want to use, what is the justification for having only 20 images of quilts (from both volumes), none of which show an entire bedspread quilt, but rather a few individual squares, a few quilt pillows, and 12 of which have a Christmas theme. Similarly, there are (apparently) all the flags of all the countries. Yet, there are no State flags for the US or Province flags for any of the Provinces of Canada (Hemera is a Canadian company). I suppose that part of what is disappointing about this is that of the 1,716 images a "flag" search brings up, almost every image of a country flag is shown twice, one plain and one with a drop shadow. This not to mention the incredible number of people with face-painted flags.

The first Volume provided the 8 CDs in an ever-expanding foldout that made getting to any of the CDs somewhat of a challenge. In Volume II, Hemera chose to KISS, and thankfully placed the 8 CDs in simple CD envelopes. The best way to store these CDs if you plan on using them often is to get one of the CD caddies that store some 50 CDs, and the selected CD sort of "pops out" at you. This collection, as does the first, comes with a book of all the images. Thus, one can sit on the couch and "explore" just as well as make specific database searches. This is very important as not all images may have just the same keywords as you might have considered and might otherwise be lost.
My one other complaint is the pricing. The first Volume was $84.99. This second one is $99.99, and there is no bundling option, nor is there any discount for those who have already purchased Vol. I. Hemera does provide that "those that purchase Vol II receive a $100.00 credit towards downloadable, high-resolution, royalty-free stock images, vector-art, and Photo-Objects at http://www.hemerastudio.com." While any such offer should never be looked down at, it still doesn't alleviate the void of bundling.

In short, this is a great collection and a disappointing collection: too much repetition of some selections and not enough variety of those selections. It's too bad the implementation is much better than the materials being implemented.

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___________ Gary Coyne has been a scientific glassblower for over 30 years. He's been using Macs since 1985 (his first was a fat Mac) and has been writing reviews of Mac software and hardware since 1995.