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Posts Tagged ‘Photo’

Canon is shutting down its cloud-based photo platform Irista

30 Oct

Canon has announced it’ll be shutting down its cloud-based photo storage platform, Irista, on January 31, 2020.

Launched back in 2014, Irista served as an online solution for managing, sharing and printing photos ‘without compromising on quality,’ in Canon’s own words. In addition to the browser, Irista was also accessible via Android and iOS apps.

The shutdown message on Irista’s homepage reads:

Sadly, we’ve decided to close Irista on January 31, 2020. You can continue to access to your photos until the service closes. Please sign in to download them before this date.

In a thorough FAQ page, Canon says all photos and personal data will be removed from its servers on January 31, 2020. Any photos hosted on Irista can be downloaded ahead of time using the ‘Download Your Photos’ link on the Irista homepage. Your photos will be compressed into a ZIP folder and downloaded to your computer, but Canon notes organization methods, such as tags, photo ratings, titles and albums won’t be included with the download, so that information will need to be re-applied afterwards.

Shared albums will still be viewable until the shutdown date, but no new users can be invited to the albums in the meantime. The Irista photo book service will still be in operation through the shutdown date as well.

You can find out more details and information by visiting the Canon Irista FAQ page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ilford Photo updates its Multigrade darkroom paper, introduces Ortho Plus film in smaller formats

26 Oct

Black and white film specialist Ilford Photo has announced the development of a new version of its resin-coated Multigrade black and white darkroom printing paper, and said that its existing orthochromatic emulsion will be available in 135 and 120 formats. The company plans to introduce Ilford Multigrade V RC Deluxe as stocks of the current version sell out, and Ilford Ortho Plus should go on sale at the end of November.

The new paper is said to offer deeper blacks and ‘improved’ spacing between the mid-tones, along with a slightly warmer base tint in the paper. Ilford says too that contrast is more consistent across the tonal range which will make printing more predictable.

A sample photo on Ilford Ortho Plus

Ilford has made an orthochromatic emulsion for some time, but it has only been available on sheet formats in the recent past. Cut sheets of 5x4in have been the smallest widely available size, so introducing it for 35mm and 120 medium format cameras will make the film accessible to a much wider audience. Ilford Ortho Plus is designed for copy work, but its color sensitivity also makes it suited to creative uses. Rated at ISO 80 in natural light and ISO 40 in tungsten conditions, the film is only sensitive to green and blue light, and thus darkens anything red in the scene.

It emphases blood stains in forensic work, but can also create interesting effects in portraiture as it darkens freckles and brings out skin texture. The film is very fine-grained and can produce punchy contrast and high resolution in flat copy work. Sensitivity drops off at around 570nm, so it can be processed ‘by eye’ under red safe-light conditions without the risk of fogging. It is suitable for processing with all of Ilford’s main-stream chemicals.

The company has also created a new film processor’s starter kit that includes a Paterson dev tank, two spirals, film clips, measuring cylinders, thermometer and pre-measured chemicals to fit the tank.

For more information see the Ilford Photo website.

Press release

NEW PRODUCTS ANNOUNCED PRODUCTS INCLUDING 5TH GENERATION ILFORD MULTIGRADE RC PAPER & ILFORD ORTHO FILM IN 135 AND 120 FORMATS

We are delighted to announce a number of exciting new products added to our range.

ILFORD MULTIGRADE RC DELUXE

ILFORD announced the world’s first variable contrast MULTIGRADE paper in 1940 and in 2019, as we celebrate our 140th anniversary, we are pleased to announce the 5th generation of our best-selling MULTIGRADE RC Papers.

MULTIGRADE IV RC papers (4th generation) were launched 25 years ago and have been hugely successful becoming the ‘go to’ black & white RC papers for discerning students, amateurs and professional darkroom users all over the world.

“Improving them was not going to be easy but we wanted to bring the manufacturing in line with the latest emulsion making technology used in our other RC and fibre papers and so we have redesigned the emulsion from the ground up. This project has been in development for 8 years and we are extremely pleased and excited with the final product.” Giles Branthwaite, Sales & Marketing Director.

These new papers have a slightly warmer base tint than their predecessor as well as better, deeper blacks, improved mid-grade spacing for easier printing and more consistent contrast throughout the tonal range.

Check your preferred stockist for availability and pricing of the new papers. MULTIGRADE IV RC papers will continue to be available while stocks last.

ILFORD ORTHO PLUS

We are expanding the world’s biggest selection of black & white films with the addition of ILFORD ORTHO PLUS in 135 and 120 formats. As the name suggests this is an orthochromatic black and white film (all other ILFORD and Kentmere films are panchromatic) rated at ISO 80 in natural light and ISO 40 in Tungsten.

“Our Ortho film was designed as a technical, high-resolution copy film for negatives and has been available in sheet format for some time. We know photographers want choice and love to try new films and so we have now coated our Ortho emulsion onto an acetate base for 35mm cassettes and 120 rolls. We believe ORTHO PLUS offers superb photographic potential thanks to its fine grain and sharpness and some of the results we have seen are stunning.” Giles Branthwaite, Sales & Marketing Director.

The blue and green sensitivity of this emulsion enables the film to be handled in deep red safelight conditions making processing and inspection easier. Its lack of red sensitivity also means that reds and oranges are rendered darker than panchromatic films.

ILFORD ORTHO PLUS will be available from early November. Check your preferred stockist for pricing.

ILFORD & Paterson FILM PROCESSING STARTER KIT

Building on the launch of the ILFORD Simplicity range of film processing chemicals in 2018, we have worked in collaboration with Paterson, a specialist manufacturer of some of the world’s most popular darkroom products, to create a starter kit containing all you need to process your first two rolls of film. You just need a light tight space and some film!

“ILFORD Simplicity chemicals are pre-measured for simple, convenient use and while they can easily be used in most tanks their volumes work perfectly with the Paterson 2-reel Universal Film Development Tank as they hold 600ml of diluted chemicals. Working closely with Paterson we have now created a kit that offers film photographers a convenient and affordable way to start processing their own films.” Giles Branthwaite, Sales & Marketing Director.

The kit contains: 1 x ILFORD 35mm Film Cassette Opener, 1 x ILFORD Simplicity Film Starter Pack (containing developer, stop bath, fixer and wetting agent), 1 x Paterson Universal Film Tank, 2 x Paterson Super System 4 Reels, 3 x Paterson 600ml Graduates, 1 x Paterson Thermometer, 1 x Paterson Stirrer, 2 x Paterson set of 2 film clips.

ILFORD & Paterson FILM PROCESSING STARTER KIT will be available from early November. Check your preferred stockist for pricing.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today’s Digital World

25 Oct

The post Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today’s Digital World appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Adam Welch.

photo-books

Imagine the internet never existed. I know – you’re reading this while on the internet – but bear with me. As a photographer, how would you show your photographs to other people? There would be no Instagram, no Flickr, no Facebook. The reality of this fictional internetless world would leave you with limited outlets for your work. In short, you would have to find a way to physically park your photos in front of the eyes of other humans. Galleries would certainly be an option; magazines and journal publications would be another. Of course, there would be another option; the construction of a photo book.

Aside from a solo exhibition, there is perhaps no better way for a photographer to express their exact creative vision than with a well-executed photo book. Even in today’s elevated climate of digital photography, photo books have managed to keep their foothold as one of the most impactful methods of distributing photographs to the masses, all the while maintaining allegiance to the original photographs as we meant for them to be viewed.

Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today's Digital World

Photo books aren’t nearly as prevalent (or produced) as they once were. However, if you are truly serious about yourself and the photographs you produce, then a photo book might be a wonderful conduit for you to express your photographs – I know it was for me. As paradoxical as it might sound, producing photo books today has never been easier.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the reasons, methods, and considerations you might want to examine if you’ve ever felt the need for something more than just condensing your photographs into social media posts and online galleries.

But…why a book?

We’ve already touched on some of the other ways that you might present your work to the public, so why are photo books so special? Well, it comes down to control, fidelity to your original vision, and the importance you place on both.

Photographs are finite in their original incarnations, meaning there was a time when you didn’t always have to guess how your photos would appear on the different devices. Even photos in widely-circulated publications like magazines would essentially be faithful to whatever the final press copy of the image might have been.

Herein lies the immense benefit of photo books; they are an end in themselves.

Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today's Digital World

With final archival quality of inks, papers and bindings, and even the varied perception of our own eyes aside, a photo book can be your final say on how your work should look. Much like a print, the extent of your involvement in the production process of your photo book (more on this shortly) means you can virtually maintain complete discretion on how people view your images.

This means that a person in Singapore will see the same colors and contrasts a person viewing your photo in Australia, Canada, or Wales.

Three stages of producing your photo book

I’ve condensed the steps of producing a photo book into three broad sections. That being said, a book could be written on each one of the steps themselves. So, we’ll just hit the high points.

1. The inception of the Idea

Of course, this is where any photo book should begin. With some extremely rare exceptions, your photo book should revolve around a central theme or concept. It could be something you care passionately about photographing or something you want to learn more about and show the world. The weird thing about ideas is that they are notoriously fluid, meaning that even though you have a general direction to aim your energy (and your camera), you should remain open to the organic evolution of your initial idea or concept for your book.

In the case of my photo book, “Faces of Grayson,” I initially had no intention of producing a book at all. I was just a person out in the wilderness with a camera. It was only after I examined a few of my images that I instantly knew I wanted to do more with the subject matter and eventually produce a book.

Image: The photo that started it all.

The photo that started it all.

Unless your photo book is strictly for your own personal use and enjoyment, I’d suggest that you don’t approach your idea for your photo book in retrograde. It’s likely not a good practice to simply go through all your photos and force yourself to find a common theme. If you begin with a solid idea that you care about, you’ll ultimately end up with a more cohesive finished work.

We’ll talk a bit more about the actual shooting and choosing of the book images in the next section.

2. Compiling the images

We’ve touched briefly on how it’s usually not advisable to base your photo book on photos already in your image archive. It’s just not a good idea. So, once you’ve decided on the subject of your photo book, approach the acquisition of your content with a Zen-like state of relaxation. Don’t force the work, and don’t force yourself to produce the work quickly.

With that said, pay careful attention that you don’t forget that these images are specifically intended to be part of your photo book. You should always keep the overall theme, feel, and concept in line with your original idea even if that idea evolves along the way.

Don’t rush things

For my photo book, I shot images for roughly two years. In the end, I had a multitude of photos from which I could choose the absolute best.

There is no time limit for obtaining your images. Please, please, PLEASE don’t rush yourself. A rough estimate of when you would like to see your book finally come to life is perfectly healthy. Conversely, subjecting yourself to a self-imposed “deadline” is not. So if there’s one piece of advice I could give when it comes to shooting the photos for your book, it would be not to rush. Instead, be deliberate, take your time, and get it right the first time.

Sequencing your photos

After you’ve completed the principal photography work for your book, it’s time to put it all together. Ask yourself a few questions: Is your book a narrative? Does the story you want it to tell depend on the order of the images?

Some photo books work very well with sequential arrangements based on the chronology of time and the progression of the subject matter through that time. If this is the case for your photo book, then make sure how you assign your images to the pages conveys this dynamic to the viewer.

If your book is not a narrative and instead is more of a compilation of place or subject with no need for sequential ordering, then the arrangement of the photos become less important. However, it should still remain a focus of great consideration.

Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today's Digital World

Once you have completed the task of choosing and sequencing your photos, it’s time to choose layouts and fonts, image sizing and orientation. Also, chooses the amount of supplemental textual narration you wish to include (or not include) with the images.

The majority of this will be left to your discretion unless you conscript outside help from a designer. Deciding on the final flavor of the book is the most difficult and most exciting aspect of putting together any photo book.

3. Printing

All right. This is where things get truly slippery. You’ve completed work on obtaining the photos for an idea that you absolutely love. The images are outstanding, sequencing is beautiful, and you know every last detail of your final grand vision. It’s all going to be perfect!

Well, I’m sorry to break it to you…

It won’t be.

Yes, I know. That truth hints at an underlying pessimism, but it’s intended to be constructive. You see, the key to sustained success with your photography is to maintain a realistic handle on your expectations. If you enter the printing process believing nothing will go wrong, and there will be no unforeseen challenges, then you will be quite discouraged when these inevitable issues arise.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s look at some common (but not all) options you might have for getting your photo book printed.

Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today's Digital World

Print-on-demand

A commonplace service in the literary world, the print-on-demand model is perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective method for getting your photo book published and printed. It also involves the least investment on your part in terms of personal control.

Print-on-demand means just what the name implies; you provide the finished content design, and a printer/publisher/distributor will print a copy of the book each time a copy gets ordered. This is a wonderfully cost-effective way to print small or large numbers of your photo book with virtually no waste. Your book gets printed only when there is an order. Often this method also includes a free ISBN and other perks.

This is also a great option to get your photo book printed and sold with as little overhead as possible. However, there are some downsides to this process. Namely, you will have little or no creative control over paper types, bindings, inks, and other nuances of the book printing process.

Amazon, Blurb and a growing number of other well-known book merchants have begun offering these types of services to photographers wishing to get their photo books distributed to the masses. For users of Lightroom, you can design and send your book to Blurb direct from the Lightroom software too.

Traditional book printers

If you want to go big with your photo book endeavor and have the financial (and marketing) resources to sit at the table, then you might be interested to know that even independently published photographers can have extremely high-quality photo books printed which offer enormous creative control over virtually every aspect of the printing process. This means that you will usually be able to select paper types and binding materials along with physically proofing prints so that your photos look exactly the way you want them to display.

Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today's Digital World

Unfortunately, this isn’t always the most forgiving option for those who are creating their first photo book or have limited means for producing their published work. It involves the willingness to exercise ultimate creative judgment on all aspects of your book, which can be highly stressful. Furthermore, the majority of these types of printing firms have strict minimum printing runs for all printed books.

So, unless you need and are ready to store and distribute upwards of 1,000 copies of your book, this might not be the best route for your project. At the same time, if you do have the logistics in place and the demand is high enough for the quantity involved, the per-copy price of high-volume printers like these translates to relatively attractive profit margins when you consider the quality versus the cost of the product.

I went via this route with my first photo book. It involved organizing an overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign along with a highly aggressive marketing strategy to source the funds I needed to cover the cost of printing. Would I do it again? Honestly, probably not, at least not this way, which brings me to our next option.

photo-books

Limited quantity printing

If you’re looking for a careful balance between precise creative control, costs, and volume, this is likely the best choice for your photo book.

You could easily call this printing method could easily “artisan” printing. It involves a low number of meticulously crafted books, often with finely curated materials and craftsmanship, which can be purveyed more as a personal statement than a mass-produced product.

Limited quantity printing is perfect for face-to-face marketing, where the photo book itself becomes an art piece. Printing costs are relatively high, so in most cases, quantities of twenty or more copies could become slightly awkward. However, books of this nature can demand higher sale prices from collectors and impassioned patrons, and rightfully so.

Value in the effort?

It might be difficult to believe, but there is so much more to say about the in’s and out’s of making a photo book; at least one that you intend to make for the enjoyment of others.

A photo book is more than just making photos and finding a way to bind them into pages. Is it worth it? Does the reward justify the risk? It depends. Have you felt strongly about your subject and feel equally compelled to make photographs of that subject which you then work to compile into a photo book? If so, you’ve already committed a piece of yourself to the project. Anything that carries that much personal investment is, by definition, a success.

So, yes, there is still value in photo books. In a sense, books such as these carry even more value today. We live in a world saturated by the instantaneous. Producing a photo book requires time, deliberate intent, and the willingness to slow yourself down to focus on your true goal.

Will your photo book sell a million copies? Well, it’s doubtful.

However, depending on your expectations, making a photo book could very well be the most memorable, rewarding, and ultimately challenging mission you ever undertake as a photographer. There truly is no other feeling than seeing your own book sitting on your shelf. Believe me.

 

 

The post Photo Books: Value and Worth in Today’s Digital World appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Adam Welch.


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Why These are My Favorite Free Online Photo Editing Tools

23 Oct

The post Why These are My Favorite Free Online Photo Editing Tools appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

free-online-photo-editing-tools

Are you looking for a way to keep your photography workflow going without your computer? Fortunately, there are some free online photo editing tools that can help you out. Here are a few of my favorites and why.

Maybe you’re traveling light or your computer doesn’t have enough capacity? Perhaps it just crashed and you sent it to get fixed? Whatever the reason, sometimes you just can’t work with downloadable programs.

Browser Photo Editors

But there are no more excuses because here are some great browser tools to solve your needs regardless of your level of expertise.

Google Photos

With Google Photos, you can have unlimited storage in their Cloud, but your photos and videos are limited to 16 MP in their file size. If you store files that are bigger than that, it eats into your Google Drive quota. Still, you can back up or share your images from anywhere you have Internet access.

If you want to learn more about protecting your work, check the article Are Your Photo Backups Rock Solid?

Back up, storage, archiving, organizing

Archiving

In order to keep track of all these images, you can organize them by album. But in case you haven’t gotten around to doing it, you can find them by type: video, movie, animations, collages or photos. Furthermore, you can search for them by the things or places featured in them, even if you didn’t tag them.

Albums, Artificial Intelligence, Face recognizion, Format

You can use Google Photos for free; all you need is to have a Google account. In this day and age, most of us already have one anyway.

Features

You can also create photo books to print directly from Google Photos. Other features include movies, collages, and animations.

print, buy, checkout, photobook, photoalbum

It includes some photo editing tools, but it’s mostly filters and very basic adjustments. If you need to do further edits, I suggest to move on to my next favorite on the list.

Fotor

Fotor is a photo editing and graphic design platform that you can use online or download it to your desktop. There is a free version or a paid pro version. The tools available depend on which of these combinations you’re using. Here, I’ll talk, as the title says, of the free online one.

interface, user experience, home page

Photo editing

I like the Fotor editor because it offers a good balance between customizable adjustments and one-click effects. If you want to do some controlled editing, just go to the Basic tab. If you prefer presets, go to Effects and Beauty. In these last ones, you’ll find some free choices and some premium ones.

post-production, photo-retouching,photo-editing

Collage

For the collage feature, it offers many more designs than Google Photos. There are four main categories, and each one has a series of templates. What I find particularly useful is Photo Stitching. With this, you can create a panorama by ‘stitching’ many images into one.

Collage, Montage, Design tools

Graphic Design

However, my favorite part is the ability to do graphic design. From a thank you card to a brochure, you can easily customize the templates with your photos. You can then adjust colors, fonts, and stickers to your liking.

The templates also cover any social media needs as well as the more traditional formats. Some are free and some you have to get the paid subscription.

Design, marketing, templates, social media, documents

Storage

If you decide to create an account, you also have free storage in the cloud for your photos and any work you make in Fotor. And, of course, if you go for the paid version, the storage space increases.

Pixlr

Pixlr is a browser photo editor that offers different versions to fit your needs. Again, there are different versions available that offer certain levels of functionality and effects.

The free Pixlr Express is very basic – not much more than any other editor.

Still free, the Pixlr Editor allows you to do more controlled and personalized edits and is the one I prefer to use.

Pixlr X, which is a blend of the first two, is the paid version, and it comes with more professional features.

interface, homepage, photo editor

Pixlr Editor

The interface is similar to Photoshop or GIMP, to explore these more in-depth, you can check my previous articles: A Brief Introduction to GIMP and How to Set Up the Photoshop Interface.

You’ll find a tool panel on the left side, the canvas for your image in the middle, and the panels for history, layers and other options on the right.

photo retouching, adjustments, photo editing

Tools

You have all the adjustments you need to correct and fine-tune your image and filters and effects for you to choose from. It also includes two of my most important tools when doing photo retouching – layers and masks.

layers, photo editing, black and white

Conclusion

I hope you liked my list of favorite free online photo editing tools. Remember, there are many solutions out there that are free. I’ll leave you some related articles in case you want to explore some more tools and software.

Please, also share your favorite free online photo editing tools with us in the comments section.

Related Topics:

Your Comprehensive Guide to Photography Post-Processing Software

3 Alternative Post-Processing Applications that Challenge the Adobe Throne

Tips on Choosing a Free Photo Editor for Post-Processing

Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites – Which is Best for you?

36 of the Best Online Tools to Boost Your Photography Business

The post Why These are My Favorite Free Online Photo Editing Tools appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.


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iPhone users get free unlimited Google Photo storage for original photo files, for now, while Pixel 4 owners have to pay up

22 Oct

All Android phones running Google apps come with free Google Photos cloud storage for images and videos captured with the device. However, image and video files are not stored at original quality. Instead, they are compressed to what Google calls ‘high quality’. Users who prefer to store their original out-of-camera files in the cloud have to shell out for one of Google’s storage plans.

On its own Pixel device, Google has in the past made an exception. Users of the Pixel 3 and previous Pixel devices could store unlimited original files for life, but this perk has ended with the brand new Pixel 4. Users of the latest Google flagship will just be treated like users of any other Android phone.

Now it seems the only ones benefiting from Google’s free unlimited storage for original photos are actually the users of one of Apple’s recent iPhones. Reddit user u/stephenvsawyer discovered that images in the HEIC/HEIF format, which recent iPhones use by default, will be stored without any compression.

A screenshot from Google’s Pixel 2 promotional page captured at the time of the release showing the no-longer-current benefit of getting unlimited storage of original files for free.

The reason for this is pretty simple: if Google tried to compress the images, the file size would actually increase. So the decision to save original HEIC/HEIF files to its cloud platform saves Google both storage space on its servers and computing power. It’s worth noting that this only applies to photos. iPhone videos are saved at 1080p resolution, even if they were recorded at 4K settings.

The latest version of the Android OS, Android 10, technically supports the HEIC/HEIF format, but Pixel 4 devices don’t currently offer this option. So, at least for now, iPhone users are actually getting more out of Google Photos than users of Google’s own flagship phone.

In a statement made to Android Police, Google said ‘We are aware of this bug and are working to fix it.’ What exactly this ‘fix’ entails remains to be seen, but there’s a good chance this iPhone loophole could get closed down in the near future.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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UK photo retailer Jessops is reportedly looking for administrators to help salvage the company

20 Oct
Jessops’ current online storefront

British photo retailer Jessops is looking for administrators to ‘help salvage the struggling High Street brand,’ according to BBC News.

Serial entrepreneur Peter Jones purchased Jessops from administrators back in 2013 in a joint venture with restructuring company Hilco Capital, after the photo retailer racked up £81M ($ 104M) in debt and closed more than 187 stores. At the time, Jones said in the below interview with BBC News that Jessops would reopen ’30-40′ of its stores with the intention of charging the same price in stores as it did online.

After not initially reaching Jones’ £80M revenue goal during his first year of ownership (2015), Jessops ended up showing revenue of £80.3M and £95M in 2016 and 2017, respectively. However, recent trade conditions have negatively impacted revenue and as a result the company is reportedly looking for a company voluntary agreement (CVA) with landlords and lenders of the chain’s 46 stores, leased under Jessop’s retail property firm, JR Prop Limited. As explained by BBC News, CVA ‘is an insolvency process that allows a business to reach an agreement with its creditors to pay off all or part of its debts [over an agreed period of time] and is often used as an opportunity to renegotiate rents.’

Sky News has reported store closures and rent cuts are expected, but sources close to Jessops say Jones is still optimistic about the presence of its brick-and-mortar locations, according to BBC News.

Sources close to Jones have also told Sky News that ‘Mr Jones had decided that placing JR Prop into insolvency proceedings would provide the most effective means of streamlining Jessops’ operations to ensure their survival.’

Jessops was established by Frank Jessops in Leicester, United Kingdom in 1935. Currently, Jessops’ headquarters are located in Marlow, United Kingdom.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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ON1 Photo RAW 2020 comes with new AI features, SmugMug integration and more

19 Oct

ON1 has released the latest version of its Raw processing and image editing and organization application Photo RAW. Photo RAW 2020 comes with new AI features, new filters, SmugMug sharing, X-Rite integration and more improvements.

The list of improvements is very long and includes the following:

  • AI Match automatically detects when you shoot in black and white or custom film looks in your camera and matches the look of your Raw output files..
  • AI Auto Tone uses a machine learning trained algorithm for improved results over the previous version.
  • Overall performance has been improved, including faster file opening and brush action.
  • Decoding of Fujifilm X-Trans Raw files has been improved to reduce scalloping and other artifacts.
  • There are more than 100 new looks and styles available as well as a series of new skies, backgrounds, and textures.
  • SmugMug Integration lets you select photos and videos and publish them to your SmugMug galleries.
  • Custom camera profiles can be created by photographing an X-Rite target with your camera, then import it into ON1 Photo RAW, then send it to the X-Rite Camera Profiler software to build a custom camera profile.
  • Noise reduction can now reduce noise, both color and luminance independently and maintain better detail than the previous version.

Additional features, including Raw editing on the new ON1 Photo Mobile 2020 app, syncing across devices, more AI-powered functions and video integration are in the development pipeline and will be released to users in the nearer future.

ON1 Photo RAW 2020 is available for download from the ON1 website from today. The full version will set you back $ 99.99, previous ON1 users will be able to purchase an update version for $ 79.99. A free 30-day trial is available for those who are interested in trying the software out.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ilford Photo teases upcoming film stock release in multiple formats

14 Oct

Ilford Photo has posted a teaser on Twitter that appears to show the launch date of an upcoming release (or re-release) of a film stock.

In addition to a release date and time — 3pm (unknown time zone) on October 24, 2019 — Ilford shared four silhouetted images of different film formats. The obvious ones are the 35mm film canister, the roll of 120 film and the vertical 8 x 10 image. But the image with the black background isn’t as clear as the others, although the silhouette does depict a rectangle with what appears to have a 4:3 aspect ratio.

There’s plenty of speculation as to what this tweet is teasing, but Ilford Photo isn’t giving away any hints (aside from the fact it’s not ‘IlfoColor’), so it looks like we won’t know for sure for another ten days.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC

06 Oct

The post Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.

PhotoWorks is an image editor with a fresh, clean interface and a set of tools that work intelligently to get the best from your photos. It helps you turn drab files into spectacular pictures within a few clicks – sometimes only one! The software’s Portrait Magic technology uses face recognition to add expert retouching edits to your photos. A host of other handy features make the PhotoWorks photo editor for PC an enticing proposition.

PhotoWorks interface

The histogram is a constant when you edit in PhotoWorks. It’s good to see a program that knows its value.

Who’s it for?

Automatic photo editing is the forte of PhotoWorks, but the software doesn’t do everything. It doesn’t offer the huge toolbox that many other programs do, with so much thrown in that you have to rummage endlessly to find what you want. It’s designed for ease of use and speed, which will appeal to beginners and casual photographers but might catch the eye of a few veterans, too.

photoworks-photo-editor-for-pc

The clean, minimalistic interface of PhotoWorks. All edits are memorized by the software, so they’re non-destructive.

In this review, I’ll look at everything PhotoWorks has to offer. I feel like I’ll enjoy it because this photo editing software for PC isn’t an unwieldy monster with innumerable needless features. PhotoWorks seems knowable from the first time you open it. You can jump in without facing a steep learning curve, though there are good tutorials available online if you need help. Let’s see what it can do.

Opening raw files

Raw files are always an obvious place to start when reviewing a photo editor for PC. Can PhotoWorks handle them? It’s not billed as a raw processor, but it does open most proprietary raw files in addition to Adobe’s standard DNG files.

When you open raw files in PhotoWorks, you have the option of applying one of six profiles to them: Default, Auto Enhancement, Landscape, Portrait, Sunny Day or Black & White. With the Default profile, all the settings in PhotoWorks are zeroed when you open the file, whereas the others are Presets with adjusted sliders.

photoworks-photo-editor-for-pc - raw conversion

You’re presented with six starting points when opening raw files. The default conversion opens automatically on the page.

PhotoWorks is really a pixel editor. It converts individual raw files quickly and the quality is okay – good, even – but problems like chromatic aberration (CA) and chroma noise are present if you examine images at 100%. Should you view images at 100%? Only if you’re creating big prints or trying to impress third parties with technical quality. And if you’re doing that, you may not belong to the target market for this software, though PhotoWorks has potentially wide appeal.

chomatic abberation - CA

PhotoWorks does not currently fix chromatic aberration or purple fringing. If you’re the type of photographer who scrutinizes image quality and needs impeccable files, you could run them through a dedicated raw converter first.

By pairing PhotoWorks with a separate raw processor (e.g. RawTherapee, Darktable), “serious” photographers could have the basis of an efficient workflow. That’d be good for, say, wedding photographers, who would also benefit from the software’s intelligent retouching capabilities. We’ll look at those in more detail later, but for now, it suffices to say they’re good.

Saving the PhotoWorks way

Not long after firing up PhotoWorks, you’ll notice there’s no way to close images. This is unusual, to say the least, but it’s another form of streamlining. You can save edited files and move onto the next image. Your edits are stored, even if you move on without saving, and you have the option of resuming them or starting afresh when you go back to the file. This is true even if you close the program. Edits are non-destructive.

Both Save and Fast Export let you export a separate copy of the edited file in the format of your choice, the main difference being that you choose the format beforehand with Fast Export. You can select from JPEG, TIFF (8-bit compressed), PNG and BMP.

Enhancement

The Enhancement tab is where you make changes to color and tone in your image. It includes an Auto Correction feature that aims to transform your photos in a single click, but you can alter its effect if you want. For instance, let’s say you’re already happy with the tonal range but would like more color, you could switch off the dynamic range and add vibrance to Auto Correction. Plus, there’s a slider that adjusts the strength of the auto effect.

PhotoWorks image enhancement

PhotoWorks includes a blue sky enhancement, which makes it easy to deepen the blue of the sky whilst also warming the photo up. Those two edits are normally at odds with each other.

Most of the color and tone sliders you’d expect to find in top-end software are in the Enhancement section of PhotoWorks under the Main tab. They give you as much manual control as you want. The workspace is so tidily laid out that it puts some established photo-editing brands to shame. The design is thoughtful and user-friendly, and it makes you want to linger. You even get to suggest features you’d like to see.

Two more tabs under Enhancement are Colors and Sharpness. The first lets you adjust hue, saturation, lightness (HSL) and color balance. The Sharpen tool is basically an unsharp mask, and there’s a blur section where you could create dreamy soft-focus effects or counteract over-sharpening. It’s all useful stuff, and the confusing terminology is notably left out.

photoworks-photo-editor-for-pc-sharpening-the-blur-tool

A slightly de-sharpened image focuses attention on form rather than detail. That’s where the PhotoWorks Blur tool is useful. It works well with busy compositions.

Tools

Move along to the Tools tab in PhotoWorks and a carefully selected set of powerful tools reveals itself to the right of the screen. There are not a hundred little tool icons as with complex programs. Some of the tools, like Curves or Tone Mapping, offer an alternative and perhaps more advanced way of working with your pictures. Seasoned photographers will be familiar with these features.

Crop

The PhotoWorks crop tool includes a modern set of aspect ratio presets that fit today’s devices or social media pages perfectly. Of course, you can also use the original aspect ratio, choose a different ratio or crop the photo freely. There’s nothing much missing here. You can rotate the picture, which helps get horizons level or to achieve the most effective composition.

AMS Software, the creator of PhotoWorks, also offers a choice of grid overlays to assist you with composition when cropping. For example, you can choose a Rule of Thirds or Golden Ratio grid to help you decide what to include and where. My only slight gripe here is that the grid lines are often a little hard to see: maybe a different color or opacity control would help.

the golden spiral crop composition

The Golden Spiral crop grid in PhotoWorks.

Geometry (correcting perspective and distortion)

You can correct the perspective of architectural photos using the Geometry tools in PhotoWorks. Like in most photo editors for computers, there’s no auto adjustment, so you have to alter the vertical and/or horizontal perspective yourself using the sliders, but this is generally an easy task.

correcting lens distortion

In this pic, you can clearly see the effects of lens distortion on the window frame. In the inset, I’ve corrected it using the distortion slider.

Correcting optical aberrations such as pincushion or barrel distortion is also possible in this section. Some programs will do this for you with the help of lens profiles, but you can do it easily yourself with the assistance of the included grid and distortion slider.

Change background

PhotoWorks makes it easy to change the background of your photo, so if you want to transplant a better sky or create a composite picture, you can. The process of separating the subject from its background is simple. You draw a green line with the object brush, a red line with the background brush, and then you let the software work its magic. Typically, you need to refine the edge a bit using the same brushes, which could become labor-intensive with intricate subjects. For many photos, the process works fine. There’s even a choice of free-to-use pictures you can add as backgrounds, or you can upload your own.

PhotoWorks - change background

The Change Background feature in PhotoWorks separates subjects from their background with ridiculous ease. I’m not sure there’s enough finesse for complex selections (e.g. fur or fine strands of hair), but there’s a lot of fun to be had.

Vignetting

The vignetting tool lets you correct vignetting that occurs naturally with your lens. You can brighten edges and corners for even exposure. It also lets you add a vignette as a creative effect, focusing the viewer’s attention more on the subject of the picture. This photo editor for PC provides all the controls you need to fine-tune this edit.

3D LUT Color Correction

Color LUTs might just as accurately be called “special effects” since they remap the color of your photos to create a different look. PhotoWorks offers a nice built-in selection of them as well as letting you upload your own in the form of cube files. You can’t save your own LUTs within the software, hence you can’t preview them either, but I’m glad to see this feature in PhotoWorks.

PhotoWorks review - color LUTs

This is the “Drama” color LUT. Interestingly, it compresses the tonal range. In doing so, maybe it makes the viewer feel more hemmed in and on edge.

Tone Mapping & Curves

PhotoWorks includes tone mapping and curves tools for controlling color and tone. Tone mapping lets you overlay a color or texture. You could apply a color to a black-and-white image here for a duotone effect. The curves tool adjusts contrast, changes color temperature, and tint and even corrects color if you use the individual RGB curves.

PhotoWorks - tone mapping

A black & white photo turned into a duotone (i.e. a mix of black and blue) using the Tone Mapping tool in PhotoWorks.

Noise Reduction and Grain

There are tools for reducing digital noise or adding film-like grain in PhotoWorks. This photo editing software for PC doesn’t separate color noise from luminance noise, which would be a nice feature for more advanced photographers. But it will smooth and improve the look of high ISO photos.

The film-grain effect is generally better looking than digital noise in photos. You can add that to give your photos an authentic retro look from the days of analog photography.

Retouch

Some of the headlining features of PhotoWorks fall under its Retouch section. The software harnesses the power of face recognition technology to automatically enhance portraits. You can use its Portrait Magic or Face Sculpt technology to retouch faces and show your subjects at their best.

Portrait Magic

A remarkable feature of PhotoWorks is its Portrait Magic feature, which lets you automatically or manually remove blemishes and enhance portraits. Its toolset includes the following:

  • Skin smoothing
  • Control over redness (improve blotchy skin)
  • Skin tone
  • Eyes (sharpness, contrast, remove dark circles)
  • Eyebrows (sharpness, contrast)
  • Lips (sharpness, contrast, hue, saturation, luminance & glare)
  • Teeth (whiteness)
PhotoWorks portrait magic

It may be hard to see the difference here, but Portrait Magic is good at damping down glare on the skin (aka “face shine”). There are many quick fixes to choose from as well as full manual control. (Image: Pexels)

Even if you know how to fix these things already, this technology saves time. It’s easy to imagine it being useful to pro portrait and wedding photographers. The best results are achieved by addressing issues one-by-one, but there’s a set of quick-fix buttons available to speed things up. You have to be careful with it because the software isn’t infallible. For instance, a pair of glasses get in the way of removing dark circles accurately.

Portrait Magic is so good that you could buy this software for that alone. It’s a great photo editor app for pc or laptop.

Face Sculpt

Just when you thought you’d seen amazing things with Portrait Magic, along comes Face Sculpt. Move a slider and watch the software identify and alter a specific part of the face. You can do these things manually in Photoshop using warp tools and the like, but boy is it easy with PhotoWorks: a deft picture editor and retoucher in one.

PhotoWorks - face sculpt

I’ve done nothing to this photo except turn a hint of a smile into a stronger hint. Like Portrait Magic, Face Sculpt is a powerful tool that can totally transform a portrait. The technology behind it is remarkably precise. Subtle edits often work best. (Original image: Pixabay)

Maybe we should all just accept the way we look, but contrary to popular belief, the camera does lie. It’s easy to take an unflattering portrait because of technical reasons, whether it’s an unflattering camera angle, harsh lighting, poor timing or lens distortion. PhotoWorks lets you remedy such problems.

Face Sculpt enables you to reshape or resize eyes, noses, mouths, eyebrows, and the face itself. You can even turn a frown into a smile. Used subtly, it creates different versions of the truth rather than outright lies. And if it helps the subject feel good about themselves, that can’t be a bad thing.

Healing and Cloning Tools

Healing and Cloning tools in PhotoWorks are also first rate. The clone stamp auto-samples from a similar area and gives you the option of changing the sample location. It’s quick and efficient, and no intervention is usually necessary. The Healing Brush is even faster for fixing small blemishes (e.g. dust spots).

Adjustment Brush

There aren’t any layers in PhotoWorks, but you can carry out local edits with the adjustment brush. Users of Lightroom will be familiar with the concept. Color, tone, and sharpness can all be selectively adjusted anywhere on the image. You can also deal with chromatic aberration by brushing neatly over edges and turning Saturation down, though a dedicated tool would be better.

PhotoWorks - adjustment brush

It’s out of fashion, I know, but here’s a quick demo of selective coloring with the Adjustment Brush on PhotoWorks. This Lightroom-style feature offers infinite possibilities without being as daunting to beginners as layers are.

Graduated Filter and Radial Filter

The Graduated Filter and Radial Filter offer alternative ways of making local adjustments to one or more parts of an image. Whether it’s tone, color or sharpness you’re adjusting, these retouching tools make it easy to emphasize your subject. You can also even up your exposures (e.g. the classic dark foreground and bright sky) and bring out shadow detail. Characteristically, these features are neatly designed and easy to use in PhotoWorks.

graduated filters post processing

Two graduated filters are in play here – one to brighten and warm up the lower half of the photo and another to reduce exposure in the sky a little.

Special Effects

With over 150 special effects to choose from, PhotoWorks gives you plenty of ways to interpret each photo. In the Special Effects section of the software, you can add any effect you like and then adapt it to suit your tastes if you want. Hitting the “Apply” button takes you over to the Enhancements area of the software, where you can tweak color, tone, and sharpness.

Image: A quite pleasing special effect to my eye (Faded Photo -1) and one of over 150 special effect...

A quite pleasing special effect to my eye (Faded Photo -1) and one of over 150 special effects available in PhotoWorks.

I personally like adding textures to photos, so it was good to find a few textured effects among the collection. There is also a Quick Enhancements selection, which gives further opportunity for one-click fixing. You can favorite effects so they’re easy to find later on.

A Photographic Films section attempts to replicate the look of various classic films. It’s fun to play around with these effects, which you could find yourself using again and again in some cases.

Captions (add text and stickers)

Whatever you normally do with your photos, there might come a time when you want to add text to them. Maybe you’re making a Christmas card or designing a flyer. You could be creating memes for social media and entertaining your friends. PhotoWorks photo editor app for PC includes a versatile set of tools to help you create the text you want in the font, color, and style of your choice. A sticker collection lets you add cartoon-like captioning for extra fun.

Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC

Conclusion

Beneath the minimalistic surface, PhotoWorks offers a powerful set of tools that are easy to use regardless of your level. The way the software exploits face recognition technology is magical, indeed.

There are a few nuts-and-bolts things I would like to see in PhotoWorks, such as chromatic aberration removal, more nuanced noise reduction and an exposure warning to help with histogram adjustments (aka levels). The ability to export 16-bit TIFFs would be nice. At some point, though, if you keep adding stuff, the program ends up complex like many others and loses its streamlined appeal.

Design-wise, PhotoWorks positively gleams. It has a beautifully clean interface, uses simple terminology that everyone can understand, and gets a lot of work done with minimal effort. Whether you use it alone or alongside other photo editors for PC, it’s definitely worth a look.

You can download a free trial version and explore the features of the program yourself. Or use the exclusive coupon for dPS readers to purchase PhotoWorks at a 50% discount now!

Disclaimer: PhotoWorks is a paid dPS partner.

 

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The post Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.


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