Software News

The Paris, France-based imaging company DxO just announced the release of DxO PhotoLab 2, which is the latest iteration of its Raw image processing and editing software that had once been called DxO OpticsPro. 

DxO Optics Pro Version 7 is a Raw converter for Mac and Microsoft Windows with some nifty tricks up its sleeve. It offers its own brand of nondestructive image editing, with tonal, exposure, geometric, and optical corrections that make it stand apart from the crowd. As was true of Version 6.6, Optics Pro 7 supports the company’s new FilmPack 3 film emulator plug-in (see sidebar below). We will have a more complete review of the film emulator in a future issue.

Optics Pro Version 7 is a dramatic departure from earlier releases. The Select pane is gone, so you no longer have to deal with tedious Projects (unless you want to). Now you go straight to work after opening a folder. Double-click on an image and that takes you right to the nondestructive editing phase, in Customize. Beyond this point the Mac and Windows versions part ways in one key respect: the Windows version runs faster than the Mac version, which continues to be laborious.

DxO just released PhotoLab 4, a major update of their innovative photo-editing software. This latest version features DxO DeepPRIME, a game-changing technology you’re going to be hearing about over and over from now on. DxO DeepPRIME is a groundbreaking demosaicing and denoising engine based on artificial intelligence and trained with deep learning. And I'm not kidding when I say it will make old Raw files from your 10+ years old camera look like they were shot with the best and latest camera model on the market.

Ever since DxO acquired the popular Nik Collection of image-editing software from Google last October, photographers have eagerly awaited an update to the powerful free suite of Photoshop and Lightroom plugins. The good news is that Nik Collection 2018 is now available on the DxO website, although the download is no longer free.

The Nik Collection of eight uber-creative plugins has been updated to version 5 with significant enhancements to Nik Color Efex and Nik Analog Efex, plus the addition of DxO ClearView, in a sweeping upgrade that now includes DxO PhotoLab 5 ESSENTIAL Edition and is available from DxO Labs starting today for the inflation-fighting price of $149.

Create more compelling product images using the powerful Harmonize feature in Photoshop. Whether you're a product reviewer, content creator or just want to add more excitement to you social posts, this easy how-to tip takes less than five minutes.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a budget-friendly image editing package that’s designed for casual users and amateurs. Under the hood, however, there are dozens of advanced features and hidden capabilities that are accessible via plug-ins. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could unlock, say, 130 of those features with one add-on product that costs less than fifty bucks? Then here’s good news: you can.