If you’ve been looking for a dedicated editing console for creative programs like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and more, then the Loupedeck + Editing Console might satisfy your needs.
The Loupedeck + was designed specifically for those looking to improve their editing workflow and efficiency through a board with customizable controls. For heavy Lightroom users in particular, this is the way to go if you’re no longer interested in editing with a traditional mouse and keyboard.
Watch our hands-on video for a look at the Loupedeck + Editing Console in action.
Expanding its suite of outstanding photo editing apps, Macphun today announced Aurora HDR, a powerful but easy-to-use tool for creating High Dynamic Range images. Co-developed by leading HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff, Aurora HDR automatically combines several exposures of the same image, bringing out bright colors and shadow detail that are lost by a single exposure.
Unlike typical HDR compositing, which yields a finished image that’s hard to meaningfully edit, Aurora HDR includes nearly 40 one-click presets to change the look of the image, including Signature Pro presets developed by Ratcliff. The app can be used in standalone or plug-in modes, and incorporates a large collection of detail, noise, and intensity adjustment tools borrowed from Macphun’s Creative Kit 2016 (reviewed here), notably including selective adjustment brushes.
When Apple ceased development of Aperture, a lot of serious photographers were very unhappy about Apple’s attempt to palm them off with Photos instead. Many headed instead to Lightroom, the photo cataloging and editing app Adobe created from the ground up specifically for photographers.
If you’re new to Lightroom, our review covers the process of converting from Aperture – everything from importing your existing photo libraries to where to find equivalent features. This piece is about getting the most out of Lightroom – especially when it comes to speeding up your workflow – via some recommended tweaks and tips.
Adobe announced almost one year ago that it had acquired the team behind the popular image editing app Aviary, and since then the iPhone app has picked up Adobe ID support for syncing editing supplies with Creative Cloud and joined the Creative SDK. Now Adobe is tying Aviary’s tools like text adding and filter adjustments to Adobe Social — which lets social media managers publish content with simple workflows — thanks to tighter Adobe Creative Cloud integration. Adobe highlights what Aviary integration with Social will mean for users: Expand Expanding Close
Even though it’s known as “black and white photography,” balanced grays are what make monochrome images striking or flat. Today, MacPhun released Tonality 1.2 ($18) and Tonality Pro 1.2 ($70), tools designed specifically for making the best possible black and white images from color photos. Both versions work with popular photo library management tools, newly including the Mac version of Apple Photos. The Pro version now plugs into Adobe’s new Lightroom CC, and adds RAW support for both new cameras and Lightroom.
Like MacPhun’s excellent noise-removing app Noiseless, Tonality uses a super-simple interface to let you preview potential changes to your images. The window’s bottom initially scrolls across 13 “Basic” presets, ranging from the intelligent “Adaptive Exposure” to the simpler “Underexposed;” 10 different categories collectively contain 150 different presets. Each preset effect starts at maximum, but can be muted using a single slider. Power users can access a right-side pane with controls for exposure, contrast, clarity, structure/micro-structure, color and tone filters, split-toning, glow, blur, vignette, and grain. Additionally, masking tools and a gradient filter let you alter specific areas of your images while leaving others untouched. The differences are so dramatic that you’ll never feel satisfied with a one-step “apply B&W filter” button again.
Following months of rumors, Adobe is today announcing Photoshop Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC, the latest versions of its popular photo editing and organization software. Sharing the same code, design, and much of the same functionality, the two Lightroom releases are separated into purchasable (Lightroom 6) or subscription (Lightroom CC) versions, only the latter of which can sync with Adobe’s mobile applications. Apple notably recommended Lightroom as a replacement for its recently-discontinued Aperture professional photo application, and worked with Adobe to build an Aperture library importing tool to aid users during the transition.
Lightroom manages large photo libraries, while offering photographers powerful tools for RAW and JPEG image adjustment. Now solely a 64-bit application, Lightroom 6/CC promises huge speed improvements when applying prior effects to images, as well as newly added tools and brushes. As shown in the embedded video, facial recognition has been added, enabling functionality similar to Apple’s Faces feature from Aperture and iPhoto. A new HDR (high dynamic range) tool uses two images to create a composite photo with more vivid colors and detail, while brushes such as radial and graduated filters have been added. The app has also gained new slideshow options, automatic panorama stitching, video slide shows, and many other features.
Snapseed, the excellent free photo editing application, today received its first major update since Google purchased developer Nik Software back in 2012. Version 2.0 arrived in the App Store with a brand new user interface and a huge collection of new features, most notably including spot healing, lens blur effects, perspective transformation, and a non-destructive editing system that can copy edits from one image to another. The app remains universal across iOS devices, and now has a minimalist UI with Material Design influence.
While Apple’s Photos application improved considerably with the release of iOS 8, Snapseed’s unique ability to selectively fix small parts of photos — such as improving the brightness level of one dark face in an otherwise bright image — has kept it relevant as a key iOS photo editing tool for years. Snapseed 2.0 expands upon that feature, letting you apply filters and brushes selectively with a brush tool. You can also go into individual layers and make adjustments to changes that were previously applied during the editing process.
Instagram today released a major update to its popular photo sharing app for smartphones. The latest release, Instagram 6.0, packs in several new photo editing tools including light and dark adjustments, sharpening effects, color adjustments, filter strengths, and more.
When you go to select a filter, you’ll now see a new wrench icon. Tap it and you’ll find a tray of photo editing tools ready for you to explore. You can also now adjust how much of a filter you apply to a photo by double tapping the filter icon.
After briefly leaking earlier this year, Adobe is finally ready to show off its Lightroom Mobile for iPad software for photographers and photo editors. The iPad application borrows many of the essential features from the powerful desktop software and is optimized for the touch input user experience key to the tablet. We’ve taken a sneak peek at Lightroom Mobile for iPad, and we have all the details on Adobe’s latest Lightroom update. Expand Expanding Close
Trackpads and keyboards are great for many things, but there are some tasks where there’s no substitute for a physical dial, slider or button. In video editing, for example, there’s a reason that professional kit uses a rotary dial to move forward or backward through the video clip. Photo editing and audio work are also far easier with physical dials and sliders.
While there’s a whole world of dedicated hardware controllers out there, the Palette project on Kickstarter takes a particularly neat approach: a modular system that you can design to your own requirements. There’s a power block, button, rotary dial and slider, and you can mix-and-match them in any layout you like, and they can be made to work with any software … Expand Expanding Close
As promised, Analog Camera for iPhone and iPod touch has hit the App Store to fulfill your filtered photo taking needs. I had a chance to spend some time with the app over the Memorial Day weekend and quickly decided it’s a keeper.
Analog Camera is a seriously fun and fast camera app with personality, as we would expect from the makers of Clear for iPhone and Mac (and soon iPad), that features eight different photo filters and all the social network sharing you could ever need.
Analog Camera’s easy sharing features allow you to open photos you shoot or edit within the app in other apps including Instagram. This feature is especially cool if you’re feeling spunky and want to experiment with double filters or blurring features offered with Instagram.
Capture and process an image in Analog Camera, then jump right over to Instagram or similar apps to share.
