Recent Software Articles

Do the New Photoshop and Lightroom Updates Affect You?

New features added to Photoshop and Lightroom today might change how you edit your photos, but it entirely depends on what kind of images you make and what your current workflow is like. This is my review of the new features and whether you'll want to dive in or avoid them.

Is It Time We Dropped Master/Slave Terminology?

In recent weeks, racial inequality has been brought to the forefront of awareness for many around the world. In light of the cultural shift that has the world talking about the Black Lives Matter movement, is it time for the photography community to change some terminology?

This New Lightroom Feature Update Can Improve Every Photo

Lightroom received a group of new features as part of Adobe’s latest Creative Cloud batch of updates, but one in particular stands out as a huge shift to how you work with the software. Want to know how to make it work for you?

Adobe Updates Almost All Their Creative Cloud Apps

The rollout begins today, so you'll see the updates soon if you haven't already. Adobe is calling this a major set of updates, and I'll highlight the ones that apply to photographers.

Why Choosing the Wrong Color Space Can Be a Disaster

As you get more comfortable with editing, you’ll probably come across color spaces. Just picking a random color space to edit or export with can cause major issues with your photos, however. Want to know which color space to use and when?

Let Lightroom Organize Your Photos in Less Than 30 Seconds

Most Lightroom users aren't taking advantage of this simple feature that literally organizes your photos for you, and it only takes around 30 seconds to set up in Lightroom Classic. Save time, and keep your library organized by following this tutorial.

Fstoppers Reviews BatchPhoto: Batch Editing Nirvana?

Pro photographers are time-limited, so anything that can not only streamline your workflow but save you time has got to be a worthwhile investment. In the competitive world of digital asset management, how does BatchPhoto stack up?

Three Mistakes That Photographers Should Avoid

The wonderful thing about creativity is that there are no real right or wrong answers. There are plenty of artists that regularly break the rules in order to produce something compelling or beautiful. Nonetheless, there are still certain practices that can be widely disliked and preferably avoided.

New Preset Pack Released by SLR Lounge and DVLOP

A new pack of presets, called Crush, has just been released by SLR Lounge and DVLOP. With a "bold and vivid" aesthetic, this pack combines DVLOP's technical background in preset development with SLR Lounge's professional style. Want to see what's included?

Can You Save a Photo Through Lightroom Editing Alone?

While it's important to get things right at the source, if you've made that age-old mistake of not changing your camera settings before taking the shot, is it possible to recover the photo? Or is it destined for the recycling bin?

Lightroom Versus Luminar 4: Which Is Right for Your Needs?

Luminar 4 has brought with it some advanced AI features that can save a lot of time in edits and enable new creative avenues. How does it hold up against Lightroom when it comes to editing? This great video shows a photographer processing the same image in both apps and what you can expect from each.

Can Affinity Photo Replace Photoshop?

In the past few years, serious alternatives to Photoshop have started to crop up, with Affinity Photo being one of the most comprehensive options. If you are looking for a subscription-free alternative to Photoshop, check out this great look at using Affinity Photo to edit a beauty image.

Adobe Photoshop for iPad Gains Curves and Apple Pencil Pressure Support

Adobe surprised everyone with a Photoshop for iPad announcement when they said it was "full Photoshop." Creatives were elated, but then later disappointed when that apparently meant the algorithms were the same as on desktop (good news), but the features were not (not so good). Major features such as Curves were not even available at launch, but today, at least some of that has changed.

Is This the Best Denoising Software Available?

Noise is one of the most common issues photographers have to deal with, and there are lots of different ways to deal with it in post-processing. This excellent video review takes a look at one of the most advanced pieces of specialized software for the task and how well it can take care of noise in your images.

Is the Surface Book 3 a Macbook Pro Killer?

The newly announced Microsoft Surface Book 3 is reportedly their most powerful laptop ever. So could it be good enough to destroy the competition? Namely, the new Apple Macbook Pro 2020. Photographers and creatives alike love Apple products for editing workflows, but could this be the beginning of the end for Apple's domination of the creative market?

3 Fixes for My Weirdest Lightroom Issues

Lightroom is a great piece of software, when it works. In my case, it's an essential piece of my workflow for photography. Unfortunately, it's got some major quirks. Some can be particularly frustrating to solve — here's 3 weird tricks that helped when I ran into an issue.

A Quick Landscape Photography Tutorial From Alaska

We are currently locked down in Puerto Rico, and it's literally illegal for us to go outside to take photos, but we found an old lesson we filmed in Alaska that was never released.

How Good Is Luminar 4 When It Comes to Retouching Skin?

For boudoir photographers, getting skin to look perfect is incredibly important and there are various software options that offer automation and simplicity instead of spending endless hours in Photoshop. In this video, check out how Luminar 4 performs. (Models in the video are wearing lingerie — possibly NSFW!)

Why Doesn't Every Professional Camera Have This Feature?

Shooting while tethered is probably the best way for many photographers. It's obviously not ideal for certain kinds of photography, like events and weddings; however, for those that shoot on a tripod, being tethered to a larger screen can make all the difference.

Canon Quietly Rolls out Its New Mobile App and Cloud Service

Without any fanfare, Canon appears to have launched its new mobile device application and cloud service, canon.image. Like most manufacturers, Canon does not have a great record when it comes to mobile applications. Will this new service be an improvement, and is it about to change the way that camera apps operate?

What Post-Processing Software Is Right for You?

These days, there is a vast range of post-processing software available for photographers, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. This excellent video takes a look at five of the most popular options to help you decide which is right for you.

This Free Software From Sony Could Make Gimbals Redundant

Filmmaker Mark Bone has just discovered that some free software from Sony can stabilize footage from his FX9 to the point that he’s wondering how often he will ever need to use a gimbal in the future. Check out this short video.

How to Get Skylum Luminar 3 for Free

If you're looking to try out Skylum Luminar, or just want to own your editing software outright, check out this promotion! By signing up for Skylum's mailing list, you can get a full copy of their editing software, Skylum Luminar, for free.

Why You Should Be Using Capture One Pro Instead of Lightroom

For hardened Lightroom users such as myself, Capture One Pro can feel like a bit of a mystery. What are the advantages and why would you consider changing? Ignoring for a moment the pros and cons of payment models, here are some excellent reasons why Capture One Pro might be worth investigating.

The Easiest Way to Give Your Images a Fresh New Look

One area a lot of photographers can focus their quarantined free time is updating their portfolios. Unfortunately, taking new and fresh photos is probably not part of that process, but that doesn't mean you still can't find new images to add to your website or social media stream.

Fstoppers Reviews Joel Grimes Beauty Brushes

It's always best to get it right in camera, but sometimes, there are cases where subtle things may go unnoticed but become visible later during the retouching process. Having the right set of tools is crucial.

Spend Less Time Culling With the Help of AI

Depending on how many photoshoots you've had, or how long the event was for, you could end up with an abundance of photos to cull through. What if you could use artificial intelligence to help you speed through culling your photos?

A New Way to Take 3D Photos on Your Phone is Coming

Over the years, 3D has come and sort of gone, then come back again. We've seen it in the movies and in photography. After digital imaging got popular, I had a 3D Fuji camera, which was fun, but you either had to make expensive lenticular prints or watch on a 3D TV. Not a fulfilling experience.

How Useful Is Sky Replacement in Luminar 4 and Should You Use It?

With the release of Luminar 4, it has become amazingly easy to replace a boring sky with something more appealing. You only need to pick the sky of your choice, and the artificial intelligence part of the program does an amazing job in masking out the sky and changing it into something else. But should you use it?