Thomas is a professional fine art photographer and writer specialising in photography related instructional books as well as travel writing and street photography.
All tagged Software
This is one of those things that you might only ever come across once in the blue moon, but when you do, it’s useful to know how to fix it. If you’re shooting with a wide-angle lens, something like a 24mm or wider, and you have people at the edge of the frame, they can be distorted. This is especially true when shooting in portrait orientation and looking up. Like I said, this is a very specific situation, and it’s only by chance that I knew how to fix this.
There’s been so many software updates for photography software over the last week that I almost can’t keep up. It was never really my intention to have this be a news site, but I’ve somehow ended up reporting on these things a lot. Anyway, I’m trying to get away from that because there are plenty of other places to get the news from, but as there are all applications that I use, or have interest in, I’ll do a quick overview of some of the things worth checking out.
DxO has announced the release of FilmPack 8, the latest version of its film emulation software for macOS and Windows. The update brings a range of new tools designed to expand creative options and improve workflow, including a new Time Warp mode, direct integration with Adobe Photoshop, and additional film renderings. It also adds features for working with scanned negatives, updates to FilmPack’s historical Time Machine archive, and higher resolution versions of its creative effects.
DxO has announced the release of Nik Collection 8.1, an incremental update to its suite of photo editing plugins. The update brings performance improvements and new usability features. From now until July 27, 2025, customers who purchase Nik Collection 8.1, either as a new license or an upgrade, can choose a free copy of either DxO PhotoLab 8 Essential Edition or DxO ViewPoint 5.
When PureRAW 5 was announced a couple of weeks ago, I had only briefly tried it and the initial release had an annoying bug in it, so I wasn’t able to test it properly. However, since that was quickly fixed, I have been trying it out properly to judge how much of an improvement it is over previous iterations. In particular, I have been looking at two main areas. Firstly, how good is the new X-Trans specific mode and secondly, does Deep Prime 3 address some of the issues of the previous version on non X-Trans images.
I haven’t been using Capture One as much over the past year, and it’s for one simple reason. The lens I have with my Canon R6II isn’t supported by the software. Now, I could get into how ridiculous that is as the lens in question, the Canon RF24-105 f4-7.1 is a kit lens on several of Canon’s Cameras, but instead I’ll focus on a solution. Based on some of the comments on Reddit and Capture One’s own forums (before they inexplicably closed them) I know this isn’t the only mainstream lens not supported. So if you still want to use Capture One, but you need lens corrections, there is a solution. It’s not ideal, but it does solve the problem. Enter DXO Pure Raw.
I think I can safely say that the internet and social media has made April Fool’s Day one of the most hated days of the year. Every time it rolls around, we have to put up with a deluge of stupid jokes and a few that are good enough to be fooled by. Then there’s the actual news that you just assume is a Jobe because it’s so out there. Yes, a fun time is had by all. Not. I only partook in this ritual once and something happened today that made me think of it, but more on that in a minute. It was years ago, and it was on my old “Aperture Blog” blog. It was towards the end of Aperture before it was discontinued, and I put out a fake screenshot that I made in Photoshop and claimed that Apple had finally released Aperture X. I didn’t think anyone would fall for it as it was so obviously a joke. I was wrong.
DxO has announced PureRAW 5, the latest version of its RAW processing software, set for release on April 15, 2025. The update introduces local adjustments for targeted noise reduction and sharpening, a redesigned interface, and the third generation of the DeepPRIME denoising engine. Fujifilm users also gain access to a new DeepPRIME XD3 X-Trans Beta mode for enhanced detail recovery.
Ever since it was announced that Apple was buying Pixelmator, I’ve been kind of obsessed with PhotoMator, the company’s Lightroom competitor. I actually had the software on my iPad for a long time but I never really used it that much. However, since the acquisition was announced I’ve been trying it more and more on my Mac, and I have to say it’s a really interesting application. It has some really nice features and its incredibly fast and responsive. Unfortunately, it is lacking some keys features which currently hold it back. Some of these you can work around but others are more problematic. But in my opinion it really has potential. In this post I’ll look at what you can do now to get around the shortcomings, and what Apple really needs to do to make the software more competitive.
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 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.
French software company DXO Labs celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, and to commemorate it they are offering 20% off all of their software for the next 20 days. The company’s first product: DXO Optics Pro, the precursor to DXO Photo Lab launched this month 20 years ago in June 2004. Since then the company has added to its portfolio of photography software, including DXO Pure Raw, the NIK Collection and DXO Film Pack.
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.
DXO labs have released an update to Pure Raw that brings their RAW pre-processing software to version 3.7. The latest version includes improved integration with Lightroom to better integrate the software into a Lightroom workflow.
