Being without my primary PC for a few days has given me the opportunity to really get to know some of the photo editing software on my Chromebook. Adobe Lightroom is workable though cumbersome, especially if an image only needs basic edits. The biggest issue is trying to select anything with this damn touchpad that’s overly sensitive. I also don’t like how it saves images tucked away in its own little folder that’s difficult to find and navigate.
The images you see on this page, though, were edited in PS Express. Dear Adobe: WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS EVEN EXIST? It doesn’t remove backgrounds or select objects as well as Lightroom. It doesn’t create layers that can be manipulated. It has no function for smoothing skin. Its “healing” tool is ridiculously inadequate. And what the fuck is anyone supposed to do with those overlays? I’m sorry, the “stickers” function is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen.
Take the image above for example. This was shot in a friend’s studio and I knew when I shot it that I would have to replace the background. I was able to successfully do that back in 2021 using the full version of Photoshop. But sitting here on the Chromebook, I don’t have access to those finished images. I took a look and thought maybe I could at least get rid of the “backstage” elements on the right-hand side of the picture. Nope. I tried every method that is suggested and all I got was a fucking mess.
So, I tried this one:
This time, I was able to largely eliminate the unsightly “backstage” elements, but skin smoothing would have been a lot of help, and every time I tried the “healing” function it failed to the point of putting body parts where body parts aren’t supposed to be. I ended up adding a white bokeh overlay just to break up the monotony of a badly processed image.
Images shot on black backgrounds fared a lot better, but the inability to control layers, setting exactly how the overlay should relate to the base image, was a problem. With this one, we reduced the opacity of the smoke and then raised the contrast of the whole image, because you can’t separate the fucking layers. Layers are a basic function of Photoshop and to use the Photoshop name on this software and not include layers is one of the stupidest moves I’ve seen Adobe make.
I just… adding a lens flare is a basic Photoshop technique, but to do it correctly requires adjusting the blending qualities of the fucking layer! No one in their right mind just plops a lens flare over the top of an image and calls it a day! I spent well over an hour playing around with different adjustment settings trying to get this to look decent and what you see here is as close as I could get. It’s pathetic.
What I’d like to know is how much of the functionality is removed in order to get the software to work on the ChromeOS system. Something tells me that if I were on an AppleOS laptop the results would be considerably different.
Of course, if I were on a Windows system, I’d just use PS. The real one. This “Express” shit is a lousy substitute.