Software News

We’ve always felt that Adobe’s Bridge image management application has been an unsung (or under-sung) application in the company’s Creative Cloud (CC) software set. Well, this morning, Bridge took center stage as the company has finally updated the application with Adobe Bridge CC version 6.2. (The last major release of Bridge came more than two years ago.)

One of the easiest ways to capture that classic black and white look when shooting an IR- converted SLR is to shoot in Monochrome mode. If your camera doesn’t offer that option, you’ll have to convert the image into black and white after the fact. That may be the better of the 2 choices because that approach will give you more control over how the final image looks.

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.

Phase One released its new Capture One Pro 9 imaging software this morning. The updated software, which is known for its tethered shooting capability, its quality Raw imaging conversion, and advanced image editing tools, is the follow up to Capture One Pro 8 from 2014.

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.

At Adobe MAX 2015 Adobe will reveal its vision for Creative Cloud—a “connected creative canvas” where people can create/share their work from anywhere. With millions of members around the world, Creative Cloud brings together essential desktop and mobile apps—a growing marketplace for content, assets and talent—and a community where creatives can showcase their work and find inspiration. 

Anthropics Technology Ltd recently launched PortraitPro v15—a major release of its fast and easy-to-use pro portrait retouching software. PortraitPro 15 offers a wide variety of new features (many requested by photographers) including: realistic makeup controls, wide angle (selfie) lens distortion correction, enhanced Child mode, advanced skin coloring and tone correction, improved feature detection, and support for ultra-high resolution displays. PortraitPro 15’s technology allows for expanded creativity and retouching efficiency, while preserving natural-looking results and ease of use.