This is the best diet ever

Happy Friday! Just in time for a beautiful weekend here in San Francisco, we are giving away a free copy of Cyberlink PhotoDirector 4 that normally MSRPs for $99.99. You all know by now that I take gazillion photos of my baby everyday, but you should also know that I sometimes have to take fifty photos to get one awesome photo, especially when she's constantly on the move like she is now. So, having a great photo editing and sharing tools are important to me, so I can easily put together a collage or do a quick edit before I send them off to the grandparents.

I know that there are a lot of people out there like me, and that photo editing apps are one of the most popular and widely used apps on the mobile devices today. These mobile apps make photo editing so easy for users of all levels - novice or advanced, but when you ask many of these same people if they do any type of photo editing on their computers, they often say no. When asked why, they say that it's because it's too difficult, they don't know which software to use, or that they don't know Photoshop.

Well, you are not alone, and that's why I bring you this free giveaway of Cyberlink PhotoDirector 4, which is a great piece of a software that combines all the features you need for photography in a single workflow - efficient photo management, complete adjustment and creative photo editing - all in a few clicks. When you first open the program, you will find a number of photos you can immediately start to play around with, but if you want to add your own photos, you can do so by simply importing a photo or a folder, which you can then access via your PhotoDirector Library. Thereafter, the options are endless.

Cyberlink PhotoDirector 4 comes packed with a complete set of photo editing tools, so you can manually adjust the color, saturation, white balance, and more, but you'll also find that there are Preset options, so you can easily choose a theme, set it and share it - just like many of the mobile photo editing apps. If you are into landscape photography, the HDR effect is a nice feature that helps you create dramatic-looking HDR scenario from a single photo - check out my little project below that took me 2 seconds. Maybe five.

Before and After - HDR effect, manual editing

(Credit: Catherine Hwang Preisler)

If your photo albums are filled with people, then the unique people beautifier feature can actually make you change your body shape, enhance your skin tone, remove wrinkles, and even whiten your teeth - all in a few clicks. I found that you have to play around with a little bit, but it was fun to see my pictures transform so easily. Sure, natural beauty is the most beautiful, but this is all in fun, so why not? As long as you don't make yourself look like a completely different person - unless your goal is to look like a different person in pictures - then it should be harmless, right?

Another cool feature is the content-aware removal tool, where you can use the brush tool to select unwanted objects in your photo. Then the smart auto-refill algorithm refills the background, where the object once was, so you'll never even know that something or someone used to be in that spot. You can see it in my example here - can you tell what's different?

Before and After - Content-aware removal tool, Body shaper

(Credit: Catherine Hwang Preisler)

In order to get the freebie, you will need to follow these steps closely:

1. Go to this page
2. Enter in your name, email address, and this code - PHD4CNET. This is very important - you must enter this code in.
3. Once you enter in the code, your license keys for both Mac and Windows version will be provided to you. Not only do you get a key for your Windows machine, you can install one for your Mac too, or give it to a friend.
4. Once you go through the installation process, you will need to enter in the license key. Otherwise, you will not be able to access this software, so make a note of these license keys. You should also receive an email with the info, but just to be safe, I would screenshot it or save it.

There you have it! You now have a great piece of photo editing software that is easy and fun to use for free. The free giveaway promotion starts now and ends at 11:59pm PT on Sunday, March 16, 2014, or whenever we run out. You'll have a lot of fun with it, just like I did, and feel free to share your before and after photos with us, if you'd like. Have a wonderful weekend and edit away!