Perfectly Clear 2.0 Review - December 2016

Athentech Perfectly Clear

While I enjoy editing photos, the sad reality is that it just takes too long to put my loving touch on every photo. As a result I have hundreds of thousands of photos that have never seen the light of day (much to my wife's chagrin) due to lack of time needed to make them look the way I want them to look before anyone else sees them. This self defeating practice of image hording is common amongst photographers, and despite great products like Lightroom which can greatly decrease the time required to make your images look great – the reality is that it always take longer than we admit to others.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a product that could do a very good job for a majority of our photos with as little as one click?

The day has arrived where you have a new tool to add to your editing arsenal that will make your unedited images look great while still giving your edited images that extra oomph to make them look better. That product is Perfectly Clear and it rocks!

Here's an example of one click awesomeness with the dehaze preset:

Dehaze preset gives images that "wow" look in one click

This preset and the details work well for most images which allows you plow trough tons of old images quickly to make them look great. In fact, Photoshop’s Ctrl+F / Cmd+F features lets you replay back the last filter you ran for zero click editing of images that can use your last preset settings. You can also select multiple photos in Lightroom and send them all at the same time to Perfectly Clear for fast editing. You can control the edit for each photo individually as shown here:

Easily navigate through multiple photos selected at once in Lightroom

The promise of one click greatness has been promised for a long time but before Perfectly Clear I’ve never seen any product deliver on it. What’s more, my images are my art. I want my finishing touches so how could any respectable photographer trust software to do this critical part of the creative process for them?

Here's a great example of a photo that I edited for hours in Photoshop that got even better with a single click of Perfectly Clear (pardon the artifacts caused by animated GIF file format):

Animated Gif / Before & After Beautify Preset (no sharpening)
NOTE: Some artifacts caused by 256 color GIF downrez

This is more than just a brightness adjustment, it's more like other products Pro Contrast filter on steroids, plus it does skin softening, teeth whitening, eye enhancement and much more. This taught me to give Perfectly Clear a try every photo I edit before calling it done.

Simply put, this is a game changer so I encourage you to check out my video and try it out. A free trial is available so if you don’t like it then you’ve lost nothing, but I suspect people who take the time to learn it will find they love it – a lot.

Have you tried it before and hated it? Me too - I hated version 1.0!!! It's way better no, so give it a try it again as this latest version is the one that finally got it right – and it is very good!

Video Demonstration on 8 Images

This product works so well so quickly that it is easier to just show you than to write a lot about what it does. If you have a minute at least watch the first couple minutes of this video to see Perfectly Clear in action:

As the demo shows, this is the fastest and easiest way to make your images look great in seconds. I highly recommend you try it out (at least via the Free Trial version).

User Interface

Athentech Imaging Perfectly Clear User Interface

This product is about as simple as it gets. You simply load it from Photoshop or Lightroom and choose a preset. The big squares are the ones provided with the product and the dropdown list below are these plus ones that you have optionally created by making changes on the Adjustment panel shown below:

Adjust Panel

Often times it is one click and you are done as you’ll see in the samples in the next section, but sometimes (as shown in my video) you need to make a few adjustments. You can make your adjustments and be done or you can take a moment to create a new preset with them, but either way you don’t spend much time in this UI.

Simply put, it just works!

More Before and After Samples

Landscape preset is great for sunset shots

Raccoon Eyes Preset

Multiple Adjustments via Perfectly Clear launched from Lightroom
from a super sharp Sigma 85mm Art lens shot

Here’s a common example of a shot that looks good straight out of the camera but it jumps off the screen (or print) when you do a one click edit with the details preset:

One click fix in seconds with the Details Preset

Conclusion

When I first heard about this product a few years back and tried to play around with it, I thought it was garbage. Its algorithms weren’t as mature as they are today so I felt like I needed more control over what it was doing. The product I’ve been using for the last month has worked on a large number of images I’ve thrown at it so I’ve began to trust it. In some cases it does make a mistake so I’ve learned to turn off settings which appear to have no effect as sometimes they can do something very unexpected (like red eye removal removing red from an area that isn’t an eye). It’s rare, but it does happen.

Aside from this one quirk, I’ve really become addicted to this product for those hundreds of thousands of images that I need to edit but will never get around to with my commercial photography workflow. I still need professional results as the edits represent my work to friends and family, but the ability to get great results quickly is pushing me harder than ever to get more things right in camera to speed up my workflow.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this product as it really has changed my life. I find that I even try it out as a last step on images that I’ve painstakingly edited because it does such a great job at final highlight and shadow detail adjustments. I do often skip the sharpening unless its for a private family photo, but other than that I trust it.

NOTE: In case you saw it already, yes I had a ronmartblog.com EXCLUSIVE flash sale recently that I got in advanced of the Black Friday deal, but the price is the same. If you missed it, now's your chance!

Where to order at a discount

Click here to learn more about Perfectly Clear, try the free demo or purchase your copy today. The Photoshop and Lightroom versions are sold separately so either pick the product you use the most or take advantage of the special bundle pricing for both versions.

Upgrades are also available for users of previous versions.

Special Offer

YOU MUST CLICK HERE to save 10% to get on the special landing page shown below:

Please note that coupon codes can change so visit my discount coupon code page or contact me if you have any problems with my code.

iOS Versions

While the best experience is on the desktop, while you are at for a few bucks more you can enjoy one click editing on your iOS Devices:

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• My Other Perfectly Clear 2 Review
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• Topaz Labs Impression 2 (new review 11/23/16)
• Topaz Labs Restyle 1.0
• Topaz Labs Texture Effects 2.0
• Things You Need AFTER You Buy Your New Camera - Must Have Photography Accessories
• Ron’s Recommendations 

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.