These are the latest updates from the world of photo-editing software. It’s not exhaustive because some news items are more important than others, and some are just routine marketing, but if there are any big events, I’ll cover them here.
DxO has launched a major new version of its flagship DxO PhotoLab raw processing, correction, enhancement and editing tool. DxO PhotoLab 7 brings new color calibration tools, support for LUTs, the ability to use HSL tools for local adjustments and a new black and white workflow.
There are no new plug-ins in the Nik Collection 6 this time around, but significant feature additions to some and improved local adjustment tools across the board.
Sky Swap AI is one of the big features in ON1 Photo RAW 2023, but ON1 has now split it out to also offer it as a standalone program and plug-in. You can open ON1 Sky Swap AI as an app, or launch it from Capture One, Affinity Photo, Corel Paintshop Pro, Apple Photos, Photoshop or Lightroom Classic.
The improvements in PhotoLab 6.3 mainly target the Elite edition, with an extension to the soft proofing tools that can no incorporate on-screen simulations of papers and inks, to allow even more accurate color visualization and control over printed output.
You can read the full details in Capture One’s official bulletin, though this offers so many alternative scenarios for existing users that they do become a little hard to follow – but perpetual licenses will no longer offer feature updates or even traditional upgrade discounts.
Black Friday may be over, but DxO now has a Holiday Magic offer running until December 31. If you buy two or more DxO products during this period it triggers a 30% discount at the checkout. This applies to any permutations of DxO products, including DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite, Nik Collection 5, PureRAW 2, FilmPack 6 or ViewPoint 4.
ON1 software is running a 25% off Black Friday sale on ON1 Photo RAW including both the perpetual license version and the ON1 Everything and ON1 Everything Plus subscription plans. It does not look as if this deal extends to ON1’s Professional Plug-ins like ON1 Effects.
Capture One is one of the most expensive photo editing applications on the market, and in my opinion the professional quality, tools and results it offers are well worth the cost. But this Black Friday, right up until 11:59pm November 28 CET (Central European Time, so that’s 10:59pm GMT and 05:59 Eastern Time), the whole Capture One product range is up to half price.
The star of the show is DxO Nik Collection 5, which is on sale at half its regular price – but there are savings to be had across the full range of DxO software too. But you’ll have to be quick. The DxO Black Friday sale started at 10am CET (9am GMT, 4am ET) on Monday November 21 and will end at 11:59pm local time on Monday November 28.
The three Affinity desktop apps – Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher – have been upgraded to version 2, as part of a new combined ‘Universal’ license for all three.