Software News

The Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) member magazines recently convened for their General Assembly to vote for the best photo and imaging products launched by the industry in the last 12 months. The voting took place during the General Assembly that was held in spring, 2014, in Vancouver, Canada.

Whether you need to add special effects and edges, perfect a portrait, enlarge a small file for a big print, erase an unsightly sign, pump up detail, add lens blur, or simply make basic color and tonal corrections quickly, Perfect Photo Suite 8 (PPS8) from onOne Software has an incredible number of tricks up its sleeve. What’s more, it works as a stand-alone with layers and masks if you seek these more advanced options. With eight modules and hundreds of one-click presets, the tools in PPS8 for automated and manual enhancements help you to correct, stylize, and retouch images in a layered workflow.

DxO Labs announces the immediate availability of DxO Optics Pro v9.5 for Mac and Windows, the latest upgrade of its image processing software of reference for all demanding photographers. DxO Optics Pro v9.5 offers a new image transfer feature that lets users process their RAW photos from Lightroom.

The number one multi-platform photo workflow software, AfterShot Pro 2 provides you with the ultimate in creative freedom with powerful RAW conversion, photo editing and adjustment, and photo management features. Use AfterShot Pro 2 on the platform of your choice – Windows, Mac and Linux. Load, edit and adjust thousands of RAW photos, faster than ever. Refine an unlimited number of photos while preserving the originals with non-destructive photo adjustment. Finish projects and create stunning output with this total workflow photo software.

Tamron recently added the SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD (A011 for Nikon mount) and the 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD macro (B016 for Canon and Nikon mount) to the lens profile for aberration correction offered for Adobe’s Photoshop CC, Camera Raw and Lightroom 5. The lens profile will be bundled with the Camera Raw 8.5 update and Lightroom 5.5. Customers who use these lenses will be able to utilize the software for easy correction of lens distortion, chromatic aberration and peripheral light fall-off based on design data.

DxO Optics Pro is a Raw converter that keeps pace with the ever-growing, ever-changing world of digital photography. The newest version—DxO Optics Pro 9 (for Mac or Windows)—focuses on one of digital imaging’s most troubling artifacts: digital noise. Whether you’re shooting at high ISOs or bringing out blocked shadow detail in a seriously underexposed image or an HDR photo, digital noise (luminance and chrominance) can rear its ugly head. And now we can finally deliver a knockout punch to this culprit. But before you get in the ring, there are a few things you should know.

I have always had mixed feelings about so-called “film simulation” software, programs that offer one-click presets that add effects and options for manipulating digital images. On one side, I am unsure why the designers use visual references to types of film for their preset IDs. It strikes me that an increasingly small proportion of folks relate to them. On the other side, I admire their offering programs that open up a raft of image expressions in easy to attain fashion. I will not revisit that discussion here, although the near concomitant release of two such programs, Alien Skin’s Exposure 5 and DxO’s FilmPack 4, makes it tempting to do so.