The internet has certainly helped democratise photography, as it has many other fields, but it also has its downsides, with misleading information and social issues ranging from the semi innocent to the extreme.... There's one unsavoury aspect that seems to be specific to photography, and I’m really sick of it. It’s about camera gear. In case you think you know where I’m going with this, you don’t. I’m not talking about people who like gear or are into gear, or like new technology. No, I’m talking about the people who constantly give out about the people who like gear.

Last weekend I went to one of my favourite spots in Ireland, the Glendalough National Park, which is home to some spectacular scenery and is a glacial valley in the Wicklow mountains. Along with the spectacular scenery, there was some spectacular light too. The weather was changeable, to say the least, and a continuous series of clouds and showers danced across the scenery.

The next version of AuroraHDR is now available to pre-order from MacPhun. Aurora2018 will be available for both Mac and PC and features a new interface among many other additions.

One of the first Fuji X-Trans guides that I had put out, is my “Workflow and Settings for Processing Fuji X-Trans Raw Files in Capture One”. This, while something of a mouthful, got the ball rolling. I have done my best to keep updating it with new versions as the software got updated, but at some point, it started to get messy. 

Among the several things announced by Fujifilm this morning, including the new XE-3, the company also revealed that they are working on some new software for converting raw files. The software, called “Fujifilm X Raw Studio” works in a somewhat unique way. Rather than processing your raw files on your computer, it connects to your Fuji camera and uses the cameras processor to do the conversion.

Pixelmator, which was one of the first new generation Photoshop competitors to come to the mac a few years ago (before Affinity Photo) have just announced a new version called “Pixelmator Pro” which is coming sometime this Autumn (Fall). The new version is a completely new application and it looks really interesting, for a number of reasons

Sometimes I just like to go for a walk with my camera, without intent or purpose. Just to see what one can see. This was one of those days. I set out with my Sony A6000 and Sigma 30mm lens. I didn’t really have any goals in mind. I just wanted to go for a walk and hopefully find some nice images.

Fuji Rumors has been detailing what they believe to be a major firmware update coming to the X-Pro2, possibly as soon as this week. The big feature slated to be announced is that Fuji will bring 4K video to the camera. I really hope this turns out to be true, and I will be delighted if it is the case. I do have a few other things that I would like to see along with the release too, so here is my relatively modest wish list.

I really like Capture One, but I do have one major issue with it which, has been driving me mad. It doesn’t render previews that fully represent what the final output will be like. What do I mean by this? If you are viewing an image set to fit the screen, certain things like sharpening are only approximated, and certain things like aberration correction and fringing aren’t rendered at all. In order to see these properly, you need to view the image at 1:1. There is a way around this, however, but more on that in a minute.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while now, you probably know that I’m a big fan of Macphun’s Luminar. It works great as a plug-in for Lightroom, but if you’re using Capture One it gets a bit more complicated. While you can use it as an external editor with Capture One, getting it to round-trip properly can be a bit tricky. There is however a simple solution to the problem and that is to use Photoshop as a intermediate.

When Nikon pre-announced the D850 a little while ago, I was filled with a mix of excitement and a sense of trying not to get my hopes up. I have long been an owner of the Nikon D700, which was Nikon’s first model in this style of full frame smaller body cameras. I love the D700 and I still use it all the time, but it’s starting to show its age. I really want a high resolution camera for landscape and nature work, but I also want one that does video. I had hoped when the rumours started of the D850, that Nikon would come out with something similar to the Sony A7RII. I was not disappointed.

I was recently discussing the original X100 with a friend on twitter, and we were talking about how it is still a really great camera, even though it does have a few limitations. With that in mind, I wanted to put together a little short retro review, so In this video, I take a look at the original “classic” Fujifilm X100. 

Last week I posted the latest issue of my on-going Street Photo Diary series to my PhotoJournal blog. I had taken those shots in a single session and I felt that they worked well together as a set, however, I have a few more images that I took recently too. They didn’t really fit into the narrative that I was going with, so I thought that I would share them here in a separate post, with a bit more info on how I shot them. 

I’ve said on my blog many times that Autumn is my favourite time of the year for photography. This isn’t just about the wonderful colours of the falling leaves. It’s also abut the Autumn light, and here in Ireland it’s already starting to be noticeable. In this issue of my on-going street photo diary series, I look at images shot on a sunny Autumn day in Dublin city, taken with a Fuji X-Pro 2 and  18-55mm lens.

The makers of Picktorial have just introduced a new add-on for the software specifically for Fuji X-Trans shooters. Called “X-Pack”, it brings a set of colour profiles to match the Film Simulation modes. It’s available now from the company’s store as a $15 add on. I’ve been lucky enough to get to test it and I’ve created a little video showing the profiles in action.