Software News

DxO Optics Pro Version 7 is a Raw converter for Mac and Microsoft Windows with some nifty tricks up its sleeve. It offers its own brand of nondestructive image editing, with tonal, exposure, geometric, and optical corrections that make it stand apart from the crowd. As was true of Version 6.6, Optics Pro 7 supports the company’s new FilmPack 3 film emulator plug-in (see sidebar below). We will have a more complete review of the film emulator in a future issue.

Optics Pro Version 7 is a dramatic departure from earlier releases. The Select pane is gone, so you no longer have to deal with tedious Projects (unless you want to). Now you go straight to work after opening a folder. Double-click on an image and that takes you right to the nondestructive editing phase, in Customize. Beyond this point the Mac and Windows versions part ways in one key respect: the Windows version runs faster than the Mac version, which continues to be laborious.

DxO just released PhotoLab 4, a major update of their innovative photo-editing software. This latest version features DxO DeepPRIME, a game-changing technology you’re going to be hearing about over and over from now on. DxO DeepPRIME is a groundbreaking demosaicing and denoising engine based on artificial intelligence and trained with deep learning. And I'm not kidding when I say it will make old Raw files from your 10+ years old camera look like they were shot with the best and latest camera model on the market.

Ever since DxO acquired the popular Nik Collection of image-editing software from Google last October, photographers have eagerly awaited an update to the powerful free suite of Photoshop and Lightroom plugins. The good news is that Nik Collection 2018 is now available on the DxO website, although the download is no longer free.

The Nik Collection of eight uber-creative plugins has been updated to version 5 with significant enhancements to Nik Color Efex and Nik Analog Efex, plus the addition of DxO ClearView, in a sweeping upgrade that now includes DxO PhotoLab 5 ESSENTIAL Edition and is available from DxO Labs starting today for the inflation-fighting price of $149.

Adobe announced Photoshop Elements 13 and Premiere Elements 13. Both have cool new features. If you’re a user of version 12, should you upgrade? The answer is: it all depends. Here’s the advice I give my friends.

I have been using Epson’s Advanced B&W Photo printing mode for many years in a series of the company’s desktop printers but always wished the print software offered a way to see my image adjustments in real time. So, when Epson announced their new Print Layout software, which offers a “live preview” (among other controls) in Advanced B&W Photo mode, I contacted them to give it a whirl. 

Zoner has updated Zoner Photo Studio X and the watchword is SPEED. The updates significantly enhance performance by utilizing your graphics card, enriching the experience on lower-powered PCs, improving ease of navigation, and much more. Already established as a top features-for-dollar photo and video editor, Zoner Photo Studio X continues to get better and better with every upgrade. Plus you get a ton of extras and all for the same very affordable price.