Software News

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.

Adobe announced Photoshop Elements 13 and Premiere Elements 13. Both have cool new features. If you’re a user of version 12, should you upgrade? The answer is: it all depends. Here’s the advice I give my friends.

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. 

Zoner has updated Zoner Photo Studio X and the watchword is SPEED. The updates significantly enhance performance by utilizing your graphics card, enriching the experience on lower-powered PCs, improving ease of navigation, and much more. Already established as a top features-for-dollar photo and video editor, Zoner Photo Studio X continues to get better and better with every upgrade. Plus you get a ton of extras and all for the same very affordable price.

I have always had mixed feelings about so-called “film simulation” software, programs that offer one-click presets that add effects and options for manipulating digital images. On one side, I am unsure why the designers use visual references to types of film for their preset IDs. It strikes me that an increasingly small proportion of folks relate to them. On the other side, I admire their offering programs that open up a raft of image expressions in easy to attain fashion. I will not revisit that discussion here, although the near concomitant release of two such programs, Alien Skin’s Exposure 5 and DxO’s FilmPack 4, makes it tempting to do so.

The new Flic app from Lifehack Labs gives you a quick and easy way to get rid of unwanted iPhone photos with just a swipe of your finger. Swipe to the left and an image is deleted. Swipe to the right and it's saved to your phone's camera roll.

Do you want to learn more about Photoshop but don’t have a lot of money to do it? Well, how does "free" sound? That’s the price for over four dozen online Photoshop and Lightroom classes being offered free-of-charge at CreativeLive next week.