If you haven't come across it before, Affinity Photo is a Photoshop competitor from Serif labs, the same people who brought us the excellent Affinity Designer (an illustrator competitor). The software got a lot of attention when it was launched, and Apple named it the best Mac App of 2015. With this quick first look, I'm going to talk about my general impressions of using it, and I'm not going to go too in-depth, butI'll follow this up in a little while with a full review.

The recent Lightroom and Camera raw updates added support for the newly announced, but yet to be released, X-Pro 2. I was curious to see how the raw files looked given the history of Lightroom and X-Trans files, but as the camera isn’t out yet, I can’t exactly rent one. After doing a bit of searching however, I did come across a couple of sites with sample raw files you can download.

Adobe has just announced the latest upgrade for Lightroom. As well as bug fixes and new lens support, the CC version adds a new feature too. Called Boundary wrap, the new feature enhances the panorama feature in Lightroom. Unfortunately for those with the non subscription version, this new feature is only available for CC users.

I normally try to keep the topics on this blog as positive as possible. I try not to court controversy by objecting to anything too strongly, but there’s something that’s been bothering me for a little while now, and it’s Photoshop. With the most recent update, Adobe made some significant changes to the Photoshop interface, and in my opinion, they’re not very nice.

It's been a while since I've taken any night shots. It's not something I do that often, not for any particular reason (other than fear of getting mugged!) Anyway, over the weekend I had the chance to take some pictures of the Grand Canal area of Dublin City after dark. I had my Sony A6000 with me, along with a sigma 30mm and 19mm lens, and my somewhat ancient Manfrotto tripod. 

Welcome to my first street photography diary post of 2016. I've had a relatively productive start to the year, photography wise. I seem to be getting my groove back when it comes to street photography, well a little anyway. There's been some great light here in Dublin in January, and that always helps. The crazy roadworks continue too, but they're making things even more interesting, especially now that they've started laying tracks for the tram system upgrades.

I opened Capture One this morning to find a new update in the update notification panel. If you’re a Capture One Pro 9 user, 9.0.3 is now available.

I haven't really covered Iridient developer much since version 3 was released ( a good while ago now), which I must apologise for, as there's actually some cool features in the updated version. I actually don't use it as much as I used to any more, which is why I  haven't really written much about it, but there is one really good feature that I've been meaning to post about, and so here it goes. If you're using X-Trans files with Iridient Developer 3, there's a special demosaicing mode for black and white images, which maximises the quality of monochrome images from the camera, and it has a really nice look to it.

Last week I released my latest set of Lightroom Presets, “Coffee Tones”. The presets are a set of film like coffee coloured filters for use in Lightroom. I wanted to share some more examples that I’ve used the presets on, including some shots that I took this weekend. I also wanted to thank everyone who sent kind comments on the new set.

After months of rumours and speculation the long awaited X-Pro II from Fujifilm has finally launched, and from the looks of it, it was worth the wait. While the new model looks very similar to the original one, there are lots of changes. 

There will undoubtedly be lots of excitement surrounding the announcement of the new X-Pro 2 if it is announced as rumoured in a few hours time. However, if you're looking to get into the Fuji X system on the cheap, you should look at the second hand market. Certain Fuji cameras are going for very little on the second hand market right now. If you're on a tight budget and you are interested in becoming an X-Shooter it's certainly worth a look.

I’m happy to announce that my first new set of Lightroom Presets for 2016 is now available. Called “Coffee Tones” the set is, as the name suggests, inspired by the look of coffee. It has a number of looks in both colour and black and white. All have some variation of warm earthy coffee coloured tones.

While Nikon may have had the big photographic announcements at CES this year, in my opinion, the more exciting news came from Kodak. Yes, Kodak, remember them? Kodak announced that they’re creating a new super 8 film camera. The new camera and service will blend digital and film technologies, and seeks to capitalise on the analogue resurgence. As someone’s who’s shot Super 8 in the past, I for one am very excited about this.

Continuing on from Parts 1 and 2, This third part completes my review of the Sony A6000. In this part I look at using the camera for Street photography, do come comparisons, and finish off with some conclusions and more sample images.

Continuing on from part one of my Sony A6000 review, in this second part I look at image quality and shooting video on the Sony A6000