Helicon Filter uploaded easily enough and I experimented with it a while. Then I noticed the stupid thing won't leave my task bar ~ also, I got so frustrated trying to stop it from re-appearing that I have attempted repeatedly to uninstall it ... no luck. Got a message that some components won't/can't uninstall. Any ideas or suggestions on how to deep-six this annoying programme? Thanks.

Installed told it not to share data, not to look for updates but after running and closing it tried to access the internet
Uninstalled

Like the ease of registration, intro screen, desktop icon and look of the program/interface.
Sadly, it stopped working seconds after I opened it. Restarted it without having to reboot and discovered I even like its preloaded sample photos. If it keeps working, I think I'm going to like it.

Sigh. Another giveaway with a Setup program which doesn't go any further than the "Successfully activated" step. Seems more quit there than going on to install successfully since the change in the format of the web page awhile back. Prior to that I successfully installed numerous programs from GotD over the past several years. Has anyone else had this or a similar problem? I'm trying to install these giveaways on 64-bit Win 7 Pro.

It's sort of like Chocolate & Vanilla. This program is perfect for someone just starting out and a lot less confusing than Photoshop, Picassa etc. While I use Elements as my main program, this one is great and a keeper

Installed on W10 X 64. I experimented with this program on a few jpgs and it did what it said but no more than some free editing programs especially considering it's hugh file size. A redo button would be really nice.

I've used a lot of image editing and processing programs, and this looks pretty much like any other (except the stereo functionality). It has some weaknesses, based on the product description page on the mfr's website, but it also has some nifty things that would be very handy to have in an inexpensive editing tool. So I will try it. But if it really has no "undo" function, that is a major concern. We'll see!

I have been using Helicon Filter in previous versions for years. So it seemed nice , being able to upgrade for free. I have installed software downloaded from GAoTD before, so I fell quite well aquainted with the procedure.

But after I have download today's Giveaway, extracted all files, clicked the Setup.exe, received the "Acivated" message , collected my personal license key - Helicon Filter just cannot be found anywhere on my computer. So obviously I cannot enter my license key, since I have nowhere to enter it.

I have tried restarting my computer, but to no avail. I run W 7, 64 bit.

Any idea why installation won't work?

.
It takes over my context menus and tries to be the default for opening everything -- so, I have to right click and select [ Explore ] in Windows File Explorer .... now hunt tools to restore context menu defaults.
.

I installed this last night on Win 10 Pro and the only problem I had was the activation I chose the offline approach first without success. Not to be out smarted I tried the other option and it was easy. I think I was asked to shut down and reopen the program for it to take effect. The email key affair took a couple minutes.

I went in and looked at some of their online how too info and went back and started working with some of my photos that were added to the UI. Tried several of the the filers and options and found they work quite well. Recommended this GOTD to my FB Friends. I like it.

Thanks GOTD

Rick Martin

The further that Adobe moves from the domestic user market to the professional -- and make no mistake, the company's decision to adopt rental pricing for its products is merely business-use leasing by another name -- the greater the opportunity there will be for image editing software that the customer can actually own to seize the audience Adobe has so senselessly abandoned.

There are, of course, a number of such commercial programs already out there, including Serif's offering (which I find over-rated) and DxO's (which I find under-rated: the French developer continues to be up there with the very best when it comes to camera-specific, even lens-specific, editing software.)

What, then, of today's giveaway? The verdict has to be that it's good -- and well on its way to being very, very good indeed. It's clear that a lot of thought and time and sheer hard work has gone into its development; it's also clear that here is developer which really cares about its customers: the help sections are as good a guide to understanding image management as it's possible to get without spending a fortune on specialist books. For that reason alone, I'd advise everyone to grab today's giveaway with both hands.

Software as thoughtfully developed and carefully evolved as this has obviously taken quite some time to get to where it is today. Equally, that imposes on any reviewer the obligation to spend quite some time with it before pronouncing yay or nay. A day simply isn't long enough, so I'll confine my own thoughts to the following:

1) If you shoot RAW, then the choice of conversion options here leaves Adobe and its DNG in the cold. It's actually better -- in my experience, as a LightRoom user -- than LR, and far more convenient, too, than using (in my case) Nikon's free NX converter for batching out to TIFF.

2) if you don't shoot RAW -- and to be honest, most people are not out to create exhibition murals -- then Helicon's jpeg handling is as fast as it's effective: go to presets on the right of the program screen, click on 'more', drop down to Quick Edit (rather than use the tool bar button) and click on the option which includes color, sharpening, and brightness . . . and you've arrived at an excellent starting point for further work.

3) Unfortunately, that further work is going to need the help of other image editors. I'm lucky in that I run everything here from Photoshop CS to LightRoom to SageLight to DxO Optics PRO, but not everyone gets 'em with their work and in any event, they're not indispensable: freeware backup editors like PhotoScape and paint.net are massively useful -- and will be useful where Helicon is concerned, because though there's an easy-to-use brightness control, no such ease of use obtains where Contrast is concerned. That really is something of an omission, the ability to add instant "punch" to an image; Helicon needs to address this sooner rather than later.

(4) The program is something of an all-or-nothing processor. Unlike, for instance, Photoshop, where all effects can be graduated by sliders on an easy, incremental percentage basis -- for example: hit de-saturate, and a color image will lose all its color, but color can then be faded back up or back down according to percentage choice -- Helicon's principal effects appear to be on or off. Fine tuning would be appreciated.

(5) The program is unintuitive in the way it treats user actions. I thought the green backwards and forwards arrows on the toolbar related to the undoing and re-doing of actions, but it doesn't. Instead, a history panel chronicles the effects applied in a check-box sequence; you untick an effect you decide you don't want and that's it, the effect is removed in its entirety. Again, the ability to actually graduate those effects -- the equivalent of 'fade' in Photoshop -- is considerably more desirable than wholesale deletion, whilst a simple "Undo" button would seem to be paramount in re-touching and cloning work seeing as how all such work involves a multiplicity of steps, not every one of which the user may wish to have cancelled out.

That said though, the riches here far outweigh the niggles. This is, as noted, a surprisingly good program, one backed by a commendable developer (and with a user forum, too: a real bonus.) Helicon may not yet be up there with the greats but it's well on its way; anyone looking for a quality image editing product really should capitalise on today's giveaway before the clock runs out.

Thanks, then, to GOTD and to Helicon (with just a tiny word of advice: a new name for this product wouldn't go amiss!)

Hi, I already have 'Helicon Photo Safe' (ver 3.70 release 01 March 2013, Registered to:giveawayoftheday) and Today's 'Helicon Filter 5' work very well together, as one can either edit images selected in Photo Sefe (quick edit), or open them in Filter 5. I always find that type of 'cooperation' very helpful, and in Programs that allow it - nothing better than on-bar buttons to switch between, like in this case.

Most of Presets/Effects in Filter 5 can be found in similar Photo Software, but naturally without them Helicon Filter 5 would be incomplete.
Personally, what I find most useful here is it's Section - 'Distortions Correcting', and without reaching for manual adjustments - Presets there are pretty intuitive, doing job on the spot quite well, so having them 'on tap' on the right side of a picture is really cool. Also, Saturating/Desaturating only some parts of picture (colours) to give an image more artistic look is a nice, handy effect to have and I'm glad to see it too in this Software.

In both Programs the only Feature I cannot figure out is Histogram in Expert Mode 'not doing anything' when sliding the mouse, so that remains puzzling.
In Frames, description on official website claims: 'Third-party vector frames, We offer a large number of free vector frames; you can change the colors for most of them.'.. Where are they to be found? When checking that Section the only 'frame' I could find was solid pink one with flowers around, not going anywhere on my picture. Is it a layer? Any clues?

Thanks for this Giveaway useful Tool! For me - worth keeping.

Took a good look at this one, & will keep it to give it a good tryout, adding it to my editing workflow to see how it works over time, with what sorts of images etc. Googling, I saw that Helicon Filter's original claim to fame was its Noise Reduction filtering, which seems good & well worth a shot... it will not *cure* a photo taken with a camera that always takes noisy pictures, but it looks like it'll help with images taken at a higher ISO where noise starts to creep in, as a more refined filter that resists the tendency to blur everything.

That's not all Helicon Filter Stereo is good for, but aside from the Stereo part of it, why you'd want to add it to your toolkit if you already use something like P/Shop &/or PaintShop Pro &/or the GIMP etc.

The program itself isn't hard to figure out, though it may be laid out differently from what you're used to, & the online Help file isn't bad, with an option to view & save it as a PDF file. There are no layers or objects, nor will you find the levels & curves controls you use in P/Shop & PSP. There is an image browser on the left, which can get covered up by the column showing thumbnails of images in the selected folder. Below that is the History window -- not as flexible as those other 2 apps mentioned, but workable, it takes the place of the usual prominent Undo. And like the column on the right side of the program's window, the whole thing can be collapsed to get out of your way.

The zoom control that's usually up top is at the bottom of the window on the right. Next to it are the controls for displaying your image in 2 windows, similar to many editors with before & after views. And on the far right, the column changes to reflect the tool you're using, with collapsible sections of controls. The preferences settings let you choose what appears on the toolbar at the top.

I'm picky about software installations, & a program's impact on both Windows & other installed software [good or bad that's just me]. I'm not thrilled with the installation routine of Helicon Filter Stereo, but the app itself has little impact on anything, adding a bit over 200MB. I can't complain about Helicon's developer(s) -- they're just adding Microsoft C/C++ runtimes that the app uses -- but adding those amounts to 500+ new registry entries, along with a bunch of files/folders [in the C:\Windows folder] that I don't need. Besides the Microsoft stuff, today's GOTD adds folders to Program Files or Program Files (x86), ProgramData, Users\ [UserName]\ AppData\ Local\, & Users\ [UserName]\ My Pictures\ -- I just copied all of those but the one in My Pictures from a VM where I had installed the app.

You add the key for activation under the Help menu, which itself can be hidden if the program's window is sized too small. If you click the About menu item [under Help] it shows a hardware ID. That of course varies with different devices or Windows installs -- I'm not sure if it varies by user, and you might want to check that if you have more than one user account set up in Windows.

Thanks GOTD & Helicon -- this is software I'd never heard of, & likely wouldn't have heard of if it wasn't on GOTD.

Help! I finally got setup.exe to work, activated it OK, but it doesn't install on my Vista. What is going wrong?

Someone please help.

I seem to be going round and round in a loop. By loop I mean that I've entered the data, the program asks if I want to over write the existing data, I'm told to restart the program - which I do, but no advice that the program is registered. So can someone please help?

I clicked on the help button, clicked on the register on line button and I've entered the "key" I received in my emal. How do I know if the product is registered?

Haven't had much chance to put this through its paces yet, but I have to agree with the person recommending that there be "undo" capability added. When I use an image editor, I set the "undo" function to unlimited, or if it does not allow that, I set it to the highest number of undos the software allows. Having to close the photo file, or worse yet, the software itself, for this purpose is just not practical. It wouldn't be acceptable in a free image editor, and certainly not in a shareware product.

Nice comments. No one mentions whether batch processing supported nor is it mentioned at the site under Features. Guess they figure Photoshop plug-in for that.
List of Features at site is quite a good one with several worthy correction tools & RAW.
But have to taste the cooking. Ahead for that. Thanks GOTD.

Granted, a very attractive piece of software today
Seems to wet your appetite for such software but the mimimum requirements can be a problem in some instances.
Now, I and practically the rest of the world know a company from Californi a
town of San Jo. First letter in the alphabet
where a registration server could not be maintained any more and instead a new download server had to fill the gap and setup had to be changed to generic keys.
Very comprehensive suite and to date people's failing to unterstand the words "only for..." have led to no more than one or two or quite a number in fact becoming addicted following the intentional? lure to upgrade.
To have an account with them is ever so nice. I log in, get greeted by first name,can sniff around a bit and in the end say to myself, must be joking, my cheap subscription does me fine. Your fault you got me hooked to say that free piece of chocolate a day. Those who are happy with the free morsel never get bothered.
I was weak and joined the Photography CC addicts out of my own free will.
Helicon I'm sure is good but the other one rocks.

This is a terrific package that installed and performed exactly as described. It even installed the plug-in for Photoshop. To activate, simply visit the website, type in your email address and preferred ID and it will quickly send you a password. Then open the application, go to Online Registration under the help tab in the upper left part of the screen, type in the password and you are done.

Installed on Windows 7 X64 OK, except it has installed in the Program Files x86, I thought that was for 32 bit software?

Anyway, thanks to other posts, I activated it fine, and to be honest I am very impressed.
At first glance you do not notice just how many features this has, only by going to the web site, (link further back in the thread), do you see what it can do.
I tested it on a few not so good test photos, and in auto brightness, contrast and sharpness it worked very well for me. It has Geo tagging what works with google maps, which I do use, and the straightening, which a lot of my pictures need, is quick and easy.
I do have a few other picture "fixers", including Corel PaintShop Pro X5, but I will be keeping this!

Not exactly sure about the updates wiping this off, so providing it was a good GOTD discount I would consider buying this, what about it Heliconsoft, any discounts?

Thanks either way, one of the best offers for a while for me :0)

Downloaded and installed on Win 10 machine. Played with it a bit and it looks quite nice. Filters do a great job of adding the effect you wish to your pictures. Haven't had a chance to try the rest but looks like I will keep this one. Thanks GOTD and Helicon!

Questions:

1.Can't find any info on 64 bit compatibility (windows 7).

2. Website says auto-update is active. (1) will this overwrite this install/version? [It is an older version of the program] and (2) is there a way to turn auto-update off right away?

Thanks.

Hey, you who have tried it out already - does it 'do' anything for out of focus images? I need that more than just adding effects. Trish

Finally registered after discovering the 'key' is not actually a key, but a password. And that confusion sums up this software : For a program that claims to be intuitive it's certainly not. Try adding text for example. The instructions are very superficial and after five minutes of trying I still haven't succeeded. No doubt it is possible, but why oh why make it so different to every other piece of graphic software. Likewise why on earth no undo button, yes you can undo, but again why defy convention. Some of the presets are quite nice, but that's it. Not a keeper for me as apart from the presets it doesn't seem to do anything any other editor does.

HELP!! yet again - because I request the registration key thru email - I get :

Greetings from Giveaway of the Day!

Here is your personal Facebook or

I click on "Facebook" (there is nothing else I can do, it seems) and end up, every time, with Apache Tomcat (Error) HTTP - Status 404.

At this point I have to abandon. Please can anyone help - I miss a lot of useful looking software this way.

Regards

Tony Jones

Thank you. Think I'm going to like this from what I've seen so far on their website and from checking out the program a bit.

Why is an image editor called stereo? I just don't get it! Stereo is audio, not visual.

If anyone else is having a problem where to find the 'on-line registration" button; it is under the help menu.
I must be getting old, took me forever to find it.
Teacher Michael

Existing in this version also photoshop-plugin?

Installed and runs fine on Windows 8.1. Activation a simple process. A very simple program to use with a basic set of operations and filters. Would seem to suit someone who just needs this simplicity and doesn't wish to learn programs like Photoshop and Gimp which I use as part of photography courses I teach and which can both do everything this does and more. The only negative comment I have is the price which is way to high for a program like this.

Not possible to install on my XP system, installed and registered without difficulty on my Win 7 test drive.
Yet again another mud coloured interface thankfully brightened up by the demo images rich colours.

Initially it appears to do very little crop, quick edit etc, one of these interfaces where psychic powers would be very useful *.

Obviously with such a huge download it has to do more than this and so I went to their help file.
It would appear it is a real powerhouse, according to their help file, the link below shows its capabilities, maybe worth reading before you download everything.

http://www.heliconsoft.com/filter/help/english/

One thing I really did like was when trying to import images it was possible to scan a whole of my system and put them into a page of thumbnails. This alone would make me want to keep it as my organisation of images is non-existent.

It looks like it has real potential somewhere in it many hidden features, and if it would run XP I could certainly make use of it.

*Really hate these minimalistic interfaces that’s only purpose in life appears to be to hide the programs functions.