Software News

A couple months ago we reported that DXO Labs had acquired the very popular Nik Collection of imaging-editing software from Google. That news was greeting enthusiastically by users of the popular Nik plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom, because Google had earlier said they no longer planned to support or update the seven-plugin package.

I have been using Epson’s Advanced B&W Photo printing mode for many years in a series of the company’s desktop printers but always wished the print software offered a way to see my image adjustments in real time. So, when Epson announced their new Print Layout software, which offers a “live preview” (among other controls) in Advanced B&W Photo mode, I contacted them to give it a whirl. 

Back in June, photographers were dismayed to learn that Google was no longer planning to support or update their popular Nik Collection of free image-editing software. This morning, however, DXO Labs announced they have acquired the widely used suite of Photoshop and Lightroom plugins, with an update to be forthcoming in mid-2018.

Adobe is hoping you’ll take the latest version of its popular Lightroom photography software everywhere. Called, simply, Lightroom CC, the new cloud-based app is designed to let you edit and organize full resolution versions of your images from your mobile phone to your iPad, laptop and desktop computers. (And, if you’re like most photographers these days, you probably have all those devices.)

Many photographers use visible watermarks on the images they post online or license through stock photo agencies as a means of protecting their copyrights and preventing the unauthorized use of their work. Yet in a newly released blog post, researchers at Google say that automated algorithms can erase this protection and provide unfettered access to watermarked images.

This morning Adobe announced an update to their popular Lightroom Mobile app that lets your smartphone do things previously possible only with a true digital camera. Key to the update is a new HDR Raw capture mode enabling mobile photographers to achieve dynamic range on their mobile device rivaling that of a DSLR or mirrorless camera.

I’ve worked with all the popular film emulators and black-and-white conversion plug-ins, looking for the one that met my workflow and esthetic requirements. After countless hours, I’m still not fully convinced of their efficacy as such. Still, they are fun to use and do fill a niche. So far, I’ve found Alien Skin’s Exposure X2 does the most convincing job so that I feel comfortable enough within my own alien skin—see what I did there?—that I’ll continue to use it, so to speak.