I’ve been trying out the new PhotoLab channel mixer and black and white mode in DxO PhotoLab 7 and I have to say I’m somewhat underwhelmed. First, it’s a feature that really it should have had before. Second, it’s not very strong in its effect.
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.
The new Lightroom Point Color tool and how it works
The Adobe October 2023 update brought a few new features, and the Lightroom Point Color tool is one of them. It’s part of an overhaul of the old HSL/Color panel, which has now been renamed as the Color Mixer. So how do these new tools work, and do they actually work any better?
Lightroom adds local storage, but is this quite the game-changer it seems?
The October 2023 Lightroom update brought an important change to the way Lightroom (that’s the ‘web’ version, not Lightroom Classic) handles your files. Now you can browse and even edit photos on your local drives without having to import them into Lightroom and its cloud storage.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 and Premiere Elements 2024 announced
Adobe updates Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements every year, and this time around it seems to be focusing heavily on one-click effects and AI, which is where the industry is going right now. So what’s new in Elements 2024 and is it worth using as a photo editor?
The new Lightroom Lens Blur tool explained
Adobe’s October 2023 update adds a new Lightroom Lens Blur panel. It’s flagged as Early Access, so it’s still in development, but you can use it right now and it’s actually rather impressive!
DxO FilmPack 7 announced, with new film renderings and luminosity masking
FilmPack 7 has a number of new features, including luminosity masking for more control over image adjustments, 25 new analog film renderings, new ‘digital’ renderings replicating modern digital camera picture styles, and an ‘enriched’ Time Machine mode where you can browse historical photos and recreate their look with your own images.
Affinity Photo 2 videos on YouTube
If anyone is interested, I’ve recently produced a series of videos on Affinity Photo 2 for Amateur Photographer, covering everything from new features in version 2 through focus stacking, HDR merge, object removal, non-destructive editing and panorama stitching. Here’s a list, with links.
Am I impressed by Photoshop’s AI Generative Fill and Generative Expand?
Everyone’s raving about Photoshop’s new Generative Fill and Generative Expand features. So far these are confined to the Photoshop 2024 beta, but is this the future of photography, a world ruled by the imagination not reality.
Lightroom AI Denoise vs DxO DeepPRIME XD: there’s a clear winner
Lightroom’s new AI Denoise feature was the biggest news in Adobe’s April 2023 Lightroom update. Like so many other tools now appearing, it uses AI based denoising techniques directly on RAW image data to produce an enhanced RAW DNG file far superior to an image processed in the regular way. But is it as good as DxO’s DeepPRIME XD?
Now you can use Curve adjustments with Lightroom masks
This is a new feature introduced to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic in April 2023. It arrived in the same update as the new Lightroom AI Denoise feature, so it would be easy to overlook it, given all the fuss over the AI denoising.