CyberLink YouCam 10.1

Captures videos and pictures from the content filmed by your webcam. Adds filters, effects, and clip-art to recorded videos as well as to live streams.

CyberLink YouCam helps you make the most of your laptop webcam and your tablet camera by building an all-in-one live photo and video studio around them. From capturing video and taking snapshots to editing and enhancing them using any of the various sets of filters, effects, clip-arts, etc.; from adding live video to your dull PowerPoint presentations to applying the program’s video effects to your live chats, YouCam adds a new dimension to your webcam.

Not many dedicated photo editing tools can offer you the plethora of features and functions that you will find in YouCam. Certainly, only a few of them will offer you the possibility of creating panoramas out of your pictures, and even less will include HDR support as part of its functionality. Some video editors may let you record live video using your webcam, but only a few of them will let you add funny and creative effects and filters to it “on the fly”, and none will allow you to add it to your PowerPoint presentations and use it to enhance your Skype or Yahoo! Messenger conversations.

The easiest way of familiarizing yourself with YouCam’s functionality is by launching the program and opening its right-hand panel. Here you will find a long list of easy-to-use scenes, frames, particles, filters, distortions, emoticons, gadgets, stamps, brushes, avatars, etc., that you can apply to your image on the screen with just one click. You can record the entire process or take snapshots of the funniest or most creative results and share them with your family and friends. Both live video and whatever snapshots you take can be easily enhanced and “corrected” on the fly to guarantee the best quality possible. Alternatively, you can make use of the program’s wide selection of presets and correction tools to crop, rotate, add frames, “paint”, or apply dramatic effects to your best shots at post-processing. This new version 7 includes a set of new enhancing tools to beautify your portraits, remove any blemishes, smooth the skin and adjust its tone, whiten the teeth, or remove eye bags, among others.

But apart from more than 200 creative effects and its 50 animated emoticons, frames, and gadgets, CyberLink YouCam offers you a set of utilities that make this multi-purpose tool to stand out from the rest. Some are best enjoyed on your PC tablet, such as the already-mentioned panorama stitching tool, the HDR effect you can add to your photos, or the “Burst” function, which will allow you to take up to 10 photos with just one click. Finally, the dual-camera support will let you take a photo of your favorite spot while seeing yourself looking at it. Other extra utilities – suitable also for your laptop or desktop PC – offers you the possibility of logging in to your favorite sites using your face as the username and password, make a video of whatever action is taking place on your desktop, and turn your webcam into a security surveillance camera, which will record anyone who may decide to sit at your computer while you’re away.

Finally, YouCam is also a media organizer. The program’s library will show your photos organized by date and even by face! All you have to do is tag your portraits and the app’s organizer will put all photos belonging to the same person in the right group. There are more features that haven’t been listed in this short review, but those are for you to discover. You will be surely surprised to discover what YouCam can turn your webcam into.