If you’re like me, you’re one of Instagram’s billion active users, and if you’re a photographer, it’s a natural choice to have a presence on the platform that has been synonymous with photography over the last decade. Instagram, however, doesn’t seem to care about photographers — only users. Should that change? Can it?

It's no secret that Instagram is a bit of a free-for-all in some respects. Every day, I fend off the usual swarm of bots and comments offering me services of questionable legality. Instagram seems to have recognized this, introducing several new tools today, all designed around increased control and positivity in the app experience.

Everyone who owns a good camera eventually wants some degree of remote control. It may be simply to get in a selfie, to take a time-lapse, or to create bracketed images.

Last week, Adobe teased one of the many new features they will be unveiling this week during their launch event in New York (and online). A question that I saw asked in the comments of that article, as well as again posed during a recent Adobe briefing I attended, asked that since we were promised fast and regular updates as a part of the Creative Cloud model, why then are we waiting for a major hyped release? Well, I have an answer for you.

Instagram is very much a calling card for a good amount of photographers these days. Many of my friends with successful photography businesses attribute a large proportion of their client influx to the app. Here's a great video on how to make your account better.

It becomes obvious relatively quickly that gaining traction on Instagram can be at times daunting. You’re pouring heart and soul into your work and posting your best images, but still even then somehow you are not seeing the overall growth as quickly as you would like.

As Adobe’s Creative Cloud continues to grow, so does its most loved software, Photoshop. Over the years, Photoshop has single-handedly expanded its offering of creative tools to thousands of people across the globe, serving all types of industries from photography and design to forensics and astronomy.

We already had good reviews of a pre-release version of Lightroom Classic version 7.2 earlier this month, but today, it's finally out. As other software companies such as Apple have announced a slowdown of software feature developments and a concentration on bug fixes and performance improvements, so, too, has Adobe promised a renewed focus on Lightroom performance across all platforms. And this is just the beginning.

If you look into the night sky long enough, you will see the stars move. Because it is dark at night, you will need a longer shutter speed to capture the beauty of the stars and constellations. But don’t expose too long, or they will turn into trails.

Instagram appears to be testing a new layout on select user accounts across the globe, as users wake up to find a big change to their Instagram home feed.

External monitors are vital pieces of kit in any videographer's bag, but what about using that big screen you carry around with you already? Here is how you turn your iPhone into an external monitor on the Panasonic GH5.

Many of us remember the debut of NIK Tools in 1995. They were a powerful set of plugins for Photoshop that did color adjustments, created lovely black and white images, and could sharpen images and lower noise in them. Just about every photographer I knew snapped them up at $500.

Nik Tools (now called the Nik collection) has been around since 1995 as an Adobe plugin. Google bought the tools, then dropped them, and DXO rescued the popular photo-editing aids in 2017. They've undergone continuous upgrades since then, and this new version will please Mac users with the new M1 chips.

Now, photographers and models have their own Tinder-like mobile app called Romey.co. Romey.co is a global marketplace, connecting companies, bookers, models, and photographers where everyone is empowered, and everyone wins, changing the paradigm in an industry notorious for being cutthroat. Models and photographers download the app (iOS and Android) and use it to match intelligently with each other so they can keep active portfolios and network. The app's algorithms match you based on your profile and preferences, so you spend less time searching and more time connecting.

Publishing high definition pictures on the web always seemed to be an issue. Both in terms of speed and quality. Full-resolution files could never really be enjoyed through the Internet without having to compromise either on the quality or the experience for the viewer. But that is about to be a thing of the past! A solution finally exists, and it solves pretty much all the problems we used to have on the web and our 20-plus-megapixel pictures.

In March, I did a post that was critical of Adobe applications of late: lots of bugs, sometimes unintelligible offshore customer support, and their Creative Cloud menu bar app (on Mac OS) that seemed more a marketing device than a useful way to know about Adobe updates (on Windows, the Creative cloud app is launched from the Task Bar).

I've read plenty of articles online about the sharing of user information, privacy settings on facebook, and the creepy things that someone could do with malicious intentions. In this video, Sam Pepper uses Instagram location tagging to find girls in the area, and makes them believe they know each other by sharing information they posted online.

I know that all of the iPhone 7 hype is on the portrait mode and DNG file capture that the new camera has, but I was particularly interested in another aspect of iOS's photo capability. Having been stuck on a Nexus 6 for the past year and a half, I missed out on a lot of the new tricks that the iPhones were offering. Specifically, Lightroom Mobile's new raw file support, giving it similar editing capability as the desktop version of Lightroom.

The folks at Skylum put out a minor update to Luminar Neo today. That's not a big news item, but what is significant is that the Neo programmers are doing it from Ukraine while the Russians shell the country.

There isn't a lot of information about this Adobe App and whether this technology will be added to the desktop software yet, just that it's called Sensei and they have this video to show its potential. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to make your selfie or basic smartphone photo look like it was taken by someone who knew what they were doing.

There is often talk about how great smartphone cameras are now — and I'm one of the people saying it — but with modern apps, they are so much more than their camera for photographers. Here are 10 apps that can improve and aid your videography.

Today Serif released their fully featured photo editing app Affinity Photo for iPad on the App Store. The new app uses the same backend engine used in the desktop version while also focusing its capabilities for the iPad’s hardware, touchscreen, and Apple Pencil. “The result,” said Serif’s Managing Director Ashley Hewson, “is a genuinely unique new way to interact with your images and your iPad.”

This week, the brand new Vision Pro by Apple has been released to the public. This spatial computing device is clearly a massive talking point around the world already, but what is it like to use for editing photos?

When I sat down to write this, its was originally going to be a pretty solid list of 5 crucial apps for traveling. However, when I got going I realized that most of what these apps did could be done in no time without them. Which led me to wonder...What is the most complicated thing you have to deal with when you're traveling. The itinerary? The packing? Getting everything booked? Maybe none of those things jam you up when traveling domestically, but what about when traveling internationally?

There are a few reasons why you might want to remove an object from a photograph. Maybe it's distracting from the more important elements of the image, a person in the background who isn't supposed to be there, or a sign that you didn't notice. But what do you do when you want to move (or remove) a significant object from your image's foreground? You might have had to do this in the past, and you know it isn't easy to do well.

Double-check your focus on your photos, Instagrammers! The social platform has begun a slow rollout on its latest update: the ability to pinch and zoom on images. But is this update foreshadowing what's about to come?

There is a new cat in town and it's roaring like a lion. PICR is a startup from Portland, Oregon that promises to make your life as a photographer easier. They have created a platform for photographers that could build a bridge between the potential consumer and the service provider. An online agent of sorts. Can they really deliver?

If you are doing any business or marketing on Instagram, then at some point, you have been annoyed that you can only put one link on your profile. For a lot of users and most photographers, the ultimate goal is to drive traffic from Instagram to your website/portfolio.

Being a member of the media has a set number of luxuries. One of those being, working with Adobe and getting early access of products, and exclusive news. Thanks to Adobe, I used Creative Cloud for an entire year free by attending a media exclusive Adobe event back in the summer of 2013. However, since I've started paying for it a month ago, my frustrations have hit an all time high.

When Lightroom mobile was initially released a few years back, I, like many Adobe users at that time, was curious, and found myself finger tapping all the way to my phone's respective App Store to download it. After that addition to my phone was made, the once fresh home screen icon for a long time sat irrelevant, and relegated to the end of the bench, placed inside of a seldom seen, far lateral, home screen folder.

If you began shooting video within the last five to eight years, it's quite likely that you rode the "5D Mark II wave." Maybe you didn't own a 5D, and still don't, but that camera revolutionized the world of video production forever. Not only did that camera enable many "budget" filmmakers to make top notch content, it inspired almost every manufacturer to begin shoving video into every camera they could. No longer was it necessary to buy a dedicated video camera to create motion pictures. While I will certainly credit Canon with originally bringing professional video capability to the masses, I have to hand it to Sony for rocketing "DLSR video" to another level entirely.

I'm no app designer, but the latest Instagram update seems like an absolutely terrible idea.

As announced at Adobe MAX 2015, Adobe released new updates to its professional Creative Cloud suite of applications. Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, Audition CC, Dreamweaver CC, Photoshop CC, Fuse CC (Preview), Adobe Stock, and more have been updated. You can download the new versions from the Adobe Creative Cloud app.

Apple’s Photos app on MacOS has been through many changes. We’ve come quite far since its predecessor, iPhoto. This time around, Apple has its sights set on bridging the gap between a consumer app and something more professional. Where does it fit in, and is it worth using?

A number of iOS and Android apps rake in huge sums of money by promising heavy Instagram users access to a multitude of account information and analytics. It's no secret that Instagram could capitalize on this in a huge way. Naturally, they don't plan on charging for the service. Instead, they're likely counting on it to boost user interaction. But we do finally know what the new "Insights" feature will offer and how it will look.

Adobe's updates to apps across the Lightroom lineup today include a new Texture slider under the Presence pane for a finer alternative to clarity, tutorials created by photographers you know so you can follow along with their edits, additional tools that help others collaborate to add images to albums with you online, and more.

It goes without saying, Photoshop is one of the most complex and difficult programs in Adobe's arsenal. I have been a designer professionally for over six years and used it for almost ten. I am far from a master and find myself constantly searching for foreign features that I can use within the software. It comes with great pleasure to bring you this hilarious video of eight legit Photoshop masters attempting to use Version 1.0 in all its glory.

I'm sure we all wonder how we can get our work out there and to be seen by people all over the world. For myself and many others, Instagram has become a huge spot for sharing our work. With millions of people browsing through their feeds multiple times per day, why not post content that people can like and engage with? This service is free to us, and we can be as good as we want at it as long as we understand how to use it and put the time into growing it properly. Here are some tips from YouTuber BMACadelic on how to do just that.

When it comes to processing your images, Adobe is the standard choice for a lot of photographers, and many creatives go years without even trying other options. However, nowadays, there are a lot of alternatives to Lightroom and Photoshop, and whether you just do not like subscriptions or you are looking for a different way to work with your photos, this helpful video will give you a brief overview of three different options.

Gunther Wegner, creator of the LRTimelapse software, reveals a major issue affecting all the latest Nikon cameras compatible with the SnapBridge wireless app. For some reason, the Nikon engineers linked the camera’s Wi-Fi feature to the use of the app. When switching to a third-party app, the SnapBridge-capable cameras disable Wi-Fi, completely making the use of third-party apps over Wi-Fi impossible. Hence, photographers who rely on specialized apps for their work such as time-lapse or macro photography are stuck and cannot use these cameras anymore.

I've reviewed BlogStomp in the past, and decided it was a tool that all photographers should be using to create simple and beautiful collages. Announced today from the same team is AlbumStomp, containing all the features you've come to love from BlogStomp, but for the use of creating brilliantly beautiful and simple photo albums for your clients.

Big news comes out of Instagram this week as they open their advertising API to the masses of potential clients around the world. The third-party partners are now plugging their information and creative campaigns into the API making this weekend the most ads I have seen in years. Though the quality of the imagery doesn't seem to stray too far away from what I am used to seeing its interesting to see where this goes for Instagram, I believe it could be the next big advertising company.

In its seemingly inevitable march toward becoming another version of Facebook, Instagram recently confirmed that recommended posts will now be a part of what users see, further muddying already fragmented feeds. The reaction from most people has been negative, which is unsurprising.

This Cinemagraph time-lapse was made using only 12 JPEG images. The software allows photographers to create motion within a static photograph. You need to upload each image to the website, and then you design the movement within each image. Once you get a moving image "flowing" you can render it out and import it into Adobe Premiere Pro to create the final time-lapse.

Square peg in a round hole. That’s how social media platforms can feel for a creative. None of them were really specifically made to be used by creatives for networking, collaboration, and artistic development. We sort of just made it work the best we could with the options that were there. A new app, Daisie, is set to take on this much-needed role in summer 2018.

You read that right. It was rumoured late last year that Google was playing around with the Android camera API to include raw capability, and then we reported that this feature was rolled out with the latest 5.0 Lollipop update on many Android devices, but now we finally have an app that lets us access this feature and use it to our hearts content.

Matterport is a new 3D camera that is designed to scan the interior of homes. The software stitches all of the still images together and creates a virtual tour of the home. Not a virtual tour as in a slideshow that realtors love, but one where you can actually walk through the home yourself. You can look up and down, left and right, move forward, backward, and so on. The technology, even in the state it’s in, is actually pretty incredible and really helps show off the home in a way we haven’t really been able to experience before.

Apple's latest iPad Pro ads tout what you're able to do with the new tablet as it gets closer and closer to offering the full capabilities of your computer, camera, and editing suite. Today, however, Apple shared a look into how it made those ads with the iPad itself (from the shoot to the edit) as the iPad Pro became both subject and filmmaker.

For astrophotographers who use Photoshop, here's some interesting and some good news. A just-released plug-in called APF-R (Absolute Point of Focus) can do wonders for your images. Astrophotographer Christoph Kaltseis has developed APF-R in order to achieve high-resolution, ultra-sharp images that still look natural. As astro-imagers know, trying to sharpen point sources like stars can result in ugly halos and other unwanted artifacts.

The latest update to the wildly popular VSCO CAM camera app brings many long-requested features for mobile photographers. iOS 8 allows much greater camera control and VSCO has refined these tools to be useful for both pros and amateurs alike. These tools give mobile photographers the ability to acheive their desired results under situations that were previously difficult for auto-exposure and focus settings.