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Capture One has released a new beta version of the software, that adds a much requested feature. The new release adds AI noise reduction to the photo editing application, and while currently only in Beta, it looks promising.
Last week, Blackmagic Design announced the release of the beta version of DaVinci Resolve 21. One of the new features of that release took everyone by surprise: the software would now support photo editing. Resolve 21 now has a photo page which lets you work with RAW and non-RAW photos, with RAW support from a variety of manufacturers. Not only that, but you can use the full (almost) colour and Fusion pages with your still photos for complex colour grading and image editing. It’s a pretty big deal, although there are still quite a few limitations in the current version.
DXO has just released the latest version of their venerable photography plug-in suite. Nik Collection 9 adds a whole host of new features, including some across-the-suite changes and some new filters within the individual applications. There are some very useful new changes, including AI and depth masking, as well as blend modes in some of the applications. I had access to the beta version for a few days, and here is my first look at the new suite. There is actually quite a lot going on in this, so I’ll do my best to cover everything, but I may have missed a few things.
When you’ve been using software for a long time you often pick up tricks and techniques and they become habits and you forget how you heard about them in the first place. I was recently editing an image for a friend in Lightroom as they watched, and when I did the technique in this video, they were surprised as they had no idea you could do that. I then realised that perhaps there is quite a few people out there who don’t know that you can do this either. That technique is editing by dragging the histogram.
Back at the end of April I was in London for a few days, so as always I took the opportunity to get a few photos and some video while I was there. I didn’t really go very far from our hotel in Southwark, pretty much staying to the south bank, but even here there is plenty to see just walking up and down the Thames. So Join me for a walk along the Thames in London taking in bridges, river traffic, and life by the water, capturing both video and stills with the Canon R6 Mark II.
I recently set about testing my new(ish) Sony 16-70 mm lens out for street photography, and I decided to film it for another episode of Street Photo Diary. I was also trying out a new GoPro to film the POV shots. I had previously used an old GoPro Hero Session to do these, but the quality wasn’t great and the battery, which can’t be replaced, would only last about a half an hour (after a few years of use).
I first visited Cambridge a couple of years ago and I absolutely loved it. This was my third visit since then and my first visit post lockdowns. There is something really nice about the city. It’s small, like a big town, and it has a combination of history and grandeur as well as the peaceful parks and riverside. It also has great cafes and great food.
Some people prefer posting their photos to instagram using a frame, with white borders surrounding the image, n order to preserve the original aspect ratio. People are quite divided as to whether or not this is a good thing to do or not, but if you want to do it, there are lots of ways to go about it. If you use Lightroom, there’s actually a pretty easy way to get the white border effect inside of Lightroom, without having to use plug-ins or go to Photoshop.
Lightroom Classic used to have a terrible reputation for performance. Certainly, older versions of the software had some serious speed issues, but over the past few years, Adobe has worked to improve the responsiveness of the application. It’s now it’s a far cry from the way it used to be. However, If you have a modern computer, and you’re still experiencing a slowdown with Lightroom, there are a handful of common issues that could be causing it.
Adobe has released the latest round of Lightroom and Camera RAW updates, and in this article we’re going to concentrate on Lightroom Classic. Aside from the usual under-the-hood tweaks and bug fixes, Lightroom Classic 15.5 adds three new key features, one of which I’ve been asking for for a long time!
On a recent trip to London, I took quite a few photos and some video at the top of the Shard, one of London’s most famous buildings. I have already posted a few of these, and there are a lot more to come. However, in this post, I wanted to talk about the challenges I faced editing a subset of the images I took and how I addressed them. I ended up using both Lightroom and DaVinci Resolve’s new photo editing mode for these. The latter is something I particularly want to talk about, as it has some interesting abilities, as well as some quirks that those not familiar with the software should be aware of.
I know it’s kind of a cliché, but I really do love the whole fake tilt-shift miniature thing. It’s even better with a time-lapse, but it works great on stills too. However, to get the best out of the trick, you really need photos taken from the right angle and elevation. In other words, from a tall building (or plane or drone). Luckily, I was recently in such a position, thanks to an impromptu trip up the Shard in London. I was just processing these normally, and then I thought to make a few as miniatures too.
I wrote a while ago about the issues I was having with my Canon RF24-105mm F4L. I noted that for some bizarre reason, the lens got softer at 24mm as you stopped down from f4. This is the opposite of what normally happens with a lens. I went through significant testing to make sure I wasn’t doing something stupid and to try to identify the problem. I also contacted Canon, and they said this was not normal behaviour and that I should send it in for service, as it was still under warranty. So I did that, and last week, after it took a month, I got the lens back. The results, unfortunately, were disappointing.
We were recently heading to Belfast for a meeting, and because the road from Dublin to Belfast can be a bit boring and monotonous (it’s just one long motorway), my wife and I decided to take the coastal route instead. So, we turned off at Newry and first stopped at Warrenpoint for Lunch, before heading on to Newcastle. I had never taken this route before, and I was quite impressed by the scenery. But it was coming into Newcastle that really blew me away.
With Adobe recently adding lots of new features to Camera RAW that so far aren’t in Lightroom, users of Lightroom may be wondering how to get access to some of those new tools. Well, it’s actually very straightforward, and you can use Camera RAW from Lightroom entirely non-destructively. You just need to follow the simple workflow below.
The news that Adobe has agreed to acquire Topaz Labs has hit the creative community with a collective “what the f….”. For anyone who relies on tools like Gigapixel, Photo AI, and Video AI, I’m sure this news is a bit of a worrying development, especially if you’re one of those creators who had exited the Adobe ecosystem (”you fool … there is no escape!”).
After a rather bleak and dull start to the year, it’s always nice when the grey world of winter springs to life. And while Spring has its own charms, things really explode into vividness once summer hits. I have always been fascinated by flowers and plants, not necessarily from a “nature” point of view, but by the wonderful colours and textures of the natural world. I guess the designer and artist in me just won’t quit.
With the last few Photoshop releases, Adobe has kept adding new features to Camera RAW. Usually, these would be added to Lightroom either at the same time or with the following release, but so recently, this hasn’t been the case. And these haven’t been minor features either, we’re talking some big, long-sought-after tools, including the colour corrector in masks, and the ability to adjust the edges and feathering of AI masks. Are we seeing a different strategy emerging from Adobe regarding its photography applications?
I’ve finally upgraded the site to Squarespace 7.1 and used the opportunity to redesign the layout and try out a few new features. It’s not perfect yet, but it already feels cleaner and more modern, with changes like removing the old sidebar and adding a new “Featured Posts” section on the home page. There are still some quirks to fix, like featured images no longer appearing automatically, plus a few spacing and menu tweaks still on the list. Read on for more details.
DXO is running a special Father’s Day promotion, and my readers can get 20% off with the code THOMAS_FD26. That’s pretty much it, really! The offer runs until June 28th, and it’s only valid for new customers, I’m afraid.
A set of June updates to Adobe’s Photography applications will be released later this week. This will include Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, Photoshop and so on. For the most part, these will be bug fixes and new camera support, but there are a couple of things worth noting.
This year’s been odd for my photography. It’s mid‑June and I’ve shot far less than usual. Relentless weather, mental fog, distractions, self‑doubt and a persistent gear problem eroded my urge to go out and shoot. I touch on wider cultural issues — including AI’s uneasy role — but return to why photography matters now. It’s honest, a bit philosophical, and there are some photos too.
The start of this year has been a bit weird for me, photographically speaking. I haven’t taken a large number of photographs for various reasons. The terrible weather being one of them. However, over the first six months, I have taken a few street photos, and while there aren’t many, I thought I would share them here.
With the number of software and service subscriptions at an all-time high, and the loathing of software subscriptions even higher, maybe it’s time for governments to admit that there is a serious problem here. Companies will never regulate themselves, so maybe it’s time to consider legislation to address the issue. I’m not talking about banning subscriptions or anything, but rather regulating them so that they are a little more consumer-friendly, and a little less corporate-evil.
I’ve been publishing this website in one form or another since back in 2011. That’s fourteen years ago! Over that time, I have changed a lot, the world has changed a lot, and this website has…well, changed a bit, but frankly not enough. The amount of time I’ve spent posting here has consistently dropped off recently, and I realise that at least part of the reason is that I kind of hate this website now. I know that’s quite a strong response, but it’s true. Well, mostly.
I was playing around in Lightroom and Photoshop the other day, and I was trying to do something totally different, but in the process of experimenting, a brainwave hit me. I was thinking about the new Chromatic Shift effect in the recent Nik 9 release, and wondered what it would be like through 3d glasses. Then it occurred to me, what would happen if I combined it with the depth map? So I went on to Amazon, ordered some 3d glasses, and when they arrived 2 days later, I set out to try this technique out. It actually worked - sort of. And so, of course, I made a video!
I was chatting online with fellow Irish photographer David Cleland, and he told me of a rather unfortunate situation that has happened to him. I’ve been following David for a long time. He was one of the first people I knew who was embracing the Fujifilm ecosystem in the early days. He is actually a former Fujifilm X-Photographer, and you may know him through his website, FlixelPix. Unfortunately, through a series of unfortunate events, David has lost control of that domain, and now has a new website where you can find his work.
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On a recent trip to London, I took quite a few photos and some video at the top of the Shard, one of London’s most famous buildings. I have already posted a few of these, and there are a lot more to come. However, in this post, I wanted to talk about the challenges I faced editing a subset of the images I took and how I addressed them. I ended up using both Lightroom and DaVinci Resolve’s new photo editing mode for these. The latter is something I particularly want to talk about, as it has some interesting abilities, as well as some quirks that those not familiar with the software should be aware of.