Software News

The folks at MacPhun are really excited about the launch of their new all-in-one desktop image-editing program for Mac users, calling Luminar, “The most fantastic piece of software we’ve ever created.” This robust program was designed to deliver both simplicity and creativity for photographers who desire a less-expensive alternative to Photoshop.

Creating a web page for your images these days is fairly easy, and there are numerous web apps available that offer a wide variety of colors and backgrounds. But organizing your images before you even consider the template (or “skin” as it is called in the trade) is perhaps the biggest challenge, given the proliferation of images we all have made with various cameras and mobile devices stored on flash drives, hard drives, and even memory cards.

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 2016 in San Francisco, California.

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. 

Plotagraph Pro is an amazing web app that brings life to your still images by quickly converting a JPEG into a looping animated GIF or video file that’s viewable on virtually any computer screen or mobile device. Initially used for commercial purposes by companies like Coca-Cola, Chevrolet and others, this subscription-based online service is now available to everyone.

Despite the nearly universal acceptance of Photoshop as the editing program of choice for serious photographers, we’ve been keeping our eye on Affinity Photo—an award winning, $49 software alternative that Apple named the Best Mac App of 2015. Parent company Serif Labs has just upped the ante with version 1.5 that includes an array of new feature for both Mac and Windows users.

The folks who brought you PortraitPro, the software that turns average looking men and women into superstars (or as John Oliver might say, “Turns ones into tens faster than a South American counterfeiter”) now brings you LandscapePro, a similar application you should think of as “cosmetic surgery for Mother Nature.” But is this a case of “liking what you get,” or “getting exactly what you like?” That, my friends, is the $59 question