German software developer Ashampoo has released Ashampoo Photo Commander 10, a major new build of its photo management and editing tool for Windows. Version 10 introduces a number of new tools, features as well as performance improvements.

Ashampoo Photo Commander 10 adds two new photo tools – Repair Pen and Focus Effect Tool – alongside an Effect preview browser, plus adds support for directly uploading photos to three popular social networks.

The new photo tools are added to Ashampoo’s existing “quick-fix” selection. Repair Pen is designed for retouching facial impurities, while the new Focus Effect tool reduces the depth of field to allow professional portrait effects such as defocussing the background to be achieved within the program with existing images.

Ashampoo Photo Commander 10 creates striking effects with its new defocussing tool.

Ashampoo Photo Commander 10 also introduces new gradation curve and histogram tools for correcting lighting problems – the newly integrated histogram tool makes it easy to see critical data such as exposure time, focus and white balance.

The social networking tools work with YouTube, Facebook and Picasa, and allow users to add photos to existing albums as well as creating new ones from scratch. Uploaded files can be resized and all metadata stripped for privacy purposes if necessary.

A new Effect preview browser makes it easy to see how different effects will alter the currently selected photo, while version 10 also adds support for the new Google WebP image format as well as colour profiles in JPG files. It also claims improved support for importing RAW formats from digital cameras.

Despite these new features, Ashampoo claims Photo Commander 10 promises better performance and faster loading times thanks to more efficient memory usage, plus wraps everything up in a streamlined user interface with more intuitive navigation thanks to fewer symbols cluttering up the menu navigation structure.

Ashampoo Photo Commander 10 is available now as a free trial download for PCs running Windows XP or later. The full version retails for $49.99.