Software Reviews

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Seth Shostak  |  May 31, 2016  |  0 comments

Panoramas are easy to wish for, but, until recently, were not easy to get. To shoot high-quality panos often required special cameras that could rotate their lens while simultaneously advancing an aperture slit across a curved film plane.

Howard Millard  |  Apr 15, 2016  |  0 comments

HDR, as most photographers know, stands for High Dynamic Range, allowing you to capture a wider range of highlight and shadow detail than you could in a single frame. You create an HDR image by shooting several identically framed shots of the same scene at different exposures, often with three brackets such as -2, 0, and +2 EV. The newest kid on the HDR block is Aurora HDR Pro from Macphun, currently for Mac only, but with a Windows version in the works.

Steve Bedell  |  Mar 11, 2016  |  0 comments

The first thing I thought when I saw this new update to PortraitPro was “What happened to Versions 13 and 14? I’m still on Version 12 and never saw anything about any other updates.” That’s because there aren’t any. Maybe Anthropics Software is superstitious about the number 13 and just decided to skip 14 as well. Who knows! We’re on to PortraitPro 15 now.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Dec 11, 2015  |  0 comments

Just in time to add some nostalgic film effects to our holiday photos, Alien Skin has released Exposure X, a greatly enhanced refinement of its popular imaging software package. In its latest incarnation, Exposure X is designed to deliver image organization and editing—and it does an elegant job of both. But its greatest strength, as I see it, still lies in accurately emulating the look of film of all types, vintage and modern. Here is a close up view of how that works.

Joe Farace  |  Nov 06, 2015  |  0 comments

There’s more to black-and-white photography than simply a lack of color. Maybe we wouldn’t feel this way if the first photographs were made in color but that didn’t happen and I grew up admiring the works of W. Eugene Smith and other photojournalists who photographed people at work, play, or being themselves in glorious black and white.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Oct 29, 2015  |  0 comments

Adobe has released version 14 of Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements. Both are exciting and easy-to-use, and offer enough editing horsepower for most photo and video enthusiasts. Although Premier 14 is chock full of improvements, including some cool new things you can do with 4K video, I found the enhancements in Photoshop Elements to be more groundbreaking and fun. So that’s what we’ll focus on today. 

George Schaub  |  Oct 26, 2015  |  0 comments

Software programs for imaging can be simple or complex. The complex ones offer a steep learning curve and allow you to refine images to your heart’s content. Simple programs, although complex under the hood, allow you to make quick choices to create a wide variety of looks. And while they can be used for “instant” art, they also allow for nuances that multiply your options a thousand fold, using sliders that modify each look from the menu. One such “simple” program is Alien Skin’s Snap Art 3 (www.alienskin.com, $199 or $99 for an upgrade from previous versions). This is a plug-in and a standalone program, which means it works within the architecture of Adobe’s Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements as well as other image processing programs so you can create Layers from the work that can be further refined (leading to many more options) or within Snap Art 3 alone.

George Schaub  |  Sep 25, 2015  |  0 comments

The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) member magazines recently convened for their General Assembly to vote for the best photo and imaging products launched by the industry in the last 12 months. The voting took place during the General Assembly that was held in spring 2015 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Jack Neubart  |  Jul 22, 2015  |  0 comments

I’ve worked with Adobe Photoshop since it was first introduced. While it wasn’t my favorite image editing software initially, Photoshop grew on me as its capabilities grew, and it has become my go-to editor outside Lightroom.

Jack Neubart  |  Jul 07, 2015  |  0 comments

Lightroom has been always available as retail standalone software that you buy, install, update, and pay to upgrade when applicable. Well, that has changed, in part, thanks to the Adobe Creative Cloud, which unleashed a torrent of cloud-integrated apps, among them Lightroom CC.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Jun 04, 2015  |  0 comments

Before you get any ideas about drafting a posse and coming after me with tar and feathers because of my computer platform preferences, let me explain—please. Because I write about digital photography I must use both PCs and Macs so that I can deliver balanced stories and explain computer functions to our entire audience, not just one group or the other.

Jon Canfield  |  May 26, 2015  |  0 comments

Sometimes a straight photograph isn’t the goal when we capture images. Thanks to a number of programs, you can take your photograph beyond the ordinary and turn it into a work of art with a few clicks of the mouse. One such program is Topaz Simplify (www.topazlabs.com, $39.99). Running standalone or as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom or Apple’s Aperture, Simplify has a number of presets ranging from cartoon look to wood carvings to help you get started. Additionally, if you create your own look, you can save it as a preset and share those presets with other users.

Steve Bedell  |  Feb 06, 2015  |  1 comments

I’ve been using PortraitPro since the first edition and now the company behind this popular retouching software, Anthropics Technology, has released Version 12, which includes a variety of updates, both major and minor. PortraitPro 12 can operate as a stand-alone and a Photoshop/Lightroom/Aperture plug-in. To get started in PortraitPro 12 (PP12), you open an image with one or several people in it and the software automatically analyzes and outlines each face. The software then magically goes about retouching the faces one at a time.

Jon Sienkiewicz  |  Feb 05, 2015  |  0 comments

Wouldn’t it be great if you could resize a batch of images simply by right-clicking them and selecting their new dimensions from a menu? Windows users now can—even on 64-bit machines running Windows 8.1.

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