Life after Photoshop

Featured posts

Welcome to the Life after Photoshop archive of 'Featured' posts. These are favourite articles or tutorials that appear in the carousel at the top of the home page.

Folders vs albums: what’s the best way to organise your photos?

by

Remember that while your folder filing systems will be the same for whatever software you use, albums and collections exist only within that specific application. You get more organisational capabilities but only by committing to a single software solution.

Is Adobe trying to retire Lightroom Classic?

by

As of January 2025, Adobe is no longer offering its regular 20GB Photography Plan subscription to new users at its old $9.99/month price tier. Existing subscribers can continue to use it, though at an increased cost of $14.99/month. But for new users, there is now only the 1TB Lightroom Plan (now $11.99/month) and the 1TB Photography Plan ($19.99/month – as before).

With Lightpanel, ON1 launches a new product and a new direction

by

ON1 has made its name with its all-in-one photo organizing, editing and effects tool ON1 Photo RAW. This is a very effective Lightroom/Photoshop alternative which offers many of the same tools, a huge catalog of preset effects and, should you want it, a subscription-free purchase. But now it’s setting off in a new direction with LightPanel, an AI-powered Lightroom add-on for image culling and styling.

Why don’t I talk about ACDSee?

by

I review a lot of software on Life after Photoshop but I rarely talk about ACDSee. Why? On the face of it, ACDSee Photo Studio 2025 is a powerful all-in-one photo organizing, developing and editing tool that embraces the latest developments in AI and is available both as a subscription and subscription free. So what’s not to like?

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025 review

by

Photoshop Elements 2025 verdict: 3.3 stars Photoshop Elements looks like the perfect family-friendly, subscription-free antidote to the complexities of Photoshop, with fun projects, easy Guided Edits and plain language. But underneath it’s cluttered, dated and confusing. There’s too much to see and do and too many ways of doing it, all on top of an old-fashioned workflow with limitations that quickly become apparent.

CameraBag Pro 2024 review: this simple effects tool deserves to be better known

by

Verdict: 4.5 stars CameraBag Pro is a photo editing tool from a company you might never have heard of, at a price which might make you think it can’t be very good. Well, it’s not clear why this software isn’t better known, but the bottom line is that it’s very good indeed. It comes with 200+ photographic effect presets, and they’re of a pretty high standard, plus all the tools you need to modify these and make your own. It even does basic photo enhancement and file browsing. It’s quirky and weird – at first – but at this price, and subscription-free, it’s an absolute steal.

DxO PhotoLab 8 Elite review

by

Verdict: 4.5 stars PhotoLab 8 is the latest update to DxO’s flagship photo organizing, image enhancement and editing software. The changes in this version are incremental but still very useful. If you’re upgrading from a previous version you might want to look closely at what’s new before you take the plunge. But if you’re new to PhotoLab then here’s the low-down. If you want to get the best possible quality from your RAW files and you’re prepared to put in a little time and effort, PhotoLab 8 is quite simply in a class of its own.