Thomas is a professional fine art photographer and writer specialising in photography related instructional books as well as travel writing and street photography.
All in Software
I’m a little late with this one, but in case you missed it, Apple has bought the popular Mac and iPadOS photography app, Pixelmator. Or more to the point, they bought the company that makes Pixelmator. This could be a big deal, depending on what Apple ends up doing with the company and its software. It immediately gives Apple a missing piece of its professional apps puzzle that it’s been lacking ever since the company killed Aperture: a more pro level photo application.
Well, almost.
Long-time readers of the blog will know that I have long been a proponent of Capture One, but lately, I haven’t talked about it much. That’s because, to be honest, I haven’t been using it that much lately. This is due to numerous reasons, which I’ll get into in a later post, but it’s mainly due to the performance issues on 4k displays, and the crazy licence changes from a while ago. That said, I still keep an eye on development and try any new versions when they come out. Recently, Capture One released version 16.5, and it has a few new features, one of which stands out above all others. That feature is the new “Match Look” tool.
As a photographer who has used and written about a variety of software tools over the years, I have often been asked about ON1 Photo RAW. It's been some time since I last explored it and I didn’t have a particularly good experience with it in the past. However, with the release of ON1 Photo RAW 2025, the company asked me to give it another shot, so I’ve been trying the previous version and I’m happy that it’s much improved since the early days. This latest version promises significant updates, particularly around the use of AI for enhancing the editing experience. When I have had enough time to try it properly I’ll try and do a full review, but for now, here’s a breakdown of what’s new in this release.
DxO Labs has announced the release of DxO ViewPoint 5, an updated version of their specialised photo editing software. This tool is designed for photographers who need precise control over image geometry, perspective correction, and the effects of wide-angle lenses.
Adobe has just held its annual adobe MAX conference, and as part of the event it announced a slew of new updates across its product lines. This, of course included its Photography products, and all versions of Lightroom, Camera Raw and Photoshop have been updated. In this blog post, I’m going to cover a few of the key new features across the lineup.
DxO has released DxO PhotoLab 8, the latest version of its RAW image processing and correction software. This update includes several new tools and refinements aimed at providing greater control over the editing process.
DXO Pure Raw is a very interesting application. It’s primary purpose is noise reduction, and if you’ve heard of the software, removing noise from an image is probably what you most associate with the software. However, with version 4 they opened up a very interesting alternative use of the application. By allowing you to change the way the algorithm works, you can actually turn the noise reduction down and the detail recovery up, and the result can be a pretty impressive level of detail recovery on the right kind of image. I’ve been trying this a lot recently, and when it works well, I’m really impressed by the results.
Ever since Adobe switched to a subscription model many years ago, people have loved to hate them. They often don’t do themselves any favours in the PR department, either. And hot off the heels of their recent PR disaster with the badly worded revisions to their Terms and Conditions, they’re now being sued for the way they handle subscriptions bye the US government.
DXO has just announced the latest release of its popular NIK software collection. The new version features a range of updates across all of its applications, with some interesting new workflow options and a speed increase across the collection.
DXO has just released a new update for its PhotoLab Raw editing software. Photo Lab 7.6 Includes new features, new included LUTS and for a limited time is available at a reduced cost. This months Optics Module release includes 1400 new camera and lens combinations and adds support for new cameras such as the Sony A9III and the Hasselblad CFV.
Today, DXO announced the release of the latest version of Pure RAW, the company’s RAW pre-processing software. Version 4 adds some welcome new features including a new version of Deep Prime, DXO’s noise reduction and demosaicing technology, improved lens softness correction, and new workflow improvements. One of the most requested new features is that you now have the ability to control the amount of noise reduction through new advanced settings options.
Capture One has announced that the company is discontinuing the free tier of its software, Capture One express. The software will no longer be available to download after January 31st, 2024.
All this week, DXO is offering up to 50% off new sales and upgrades for DxO PhotoLab, DxO PureRAW, Nik Collection, DxO FilmPack, and DxO ViewPoint. DxO’s photo editing software applications will be available at the best prices of the year from Monday, November 20 to November 27 (Cyber Monday). Click through for more details
DXO labs has today announced the release of the latest version of its Flagship Photo Processing software, DXO Phot Lab 7. This new version includes new colour calibration tools, LUT support, a new workflow for black and white images and some revisions to the way local adjustments work. Also announced today is a new version of DXO Film Pack, DXO’s film emulation software.
DXO labs today announced the release of the latest version of its popular Nik Collection software suite. While it might sound like a point release, it actually contains some significant updates and marks a milestone for the software.
DXO labs have released a new version of their noise reduction and raw preprocessing software, DXO PureRAW 3. Now in its third iteration, the software includes several new features and changes over the previous version.
In this post, I express my frustration with Capture One (the company, not the software), regarding recently announced changes to their licensing model for perpetual licences that will take effect in 2023. I express disappointment with this change, as I feel that it makes perpetual licences unattractive and forces customers to switch to a subscription, which I previously criticised for being overpriced. I also feel that the company's timing of the announcement, after the upgrade cycle for Capture One 23 had ended, left some customers feeling duped.
Just a quick note to update you on some updates from DXO labs. They have announced a special discount for the holidays and also the addition of new DxO Optics Modules for the company’s software range, and the release of Photo Lab 6.1
