Don’t get me wrong. I really value the processing headroom of RAW files, whether they’ve been shot on a phone or a full frame camera, but I’m starting to think the iPhone might be a special case.
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Skylum will stop selling Luminar AI on October 3
It’s probably not a great surprise, as from the moment Luminar Neo was launched, the fact that the older Luminar AI stayed on sale seemed pretty odd.
Don’t forget about white balance just because you’re shooting RAW
It’s true that you can set the white balance to whatever you like when processing RAW files, but there are still advantages to choosing the setting you want – or you think you will want – on the camera when you shoot.
Reviews
Skylum Luminar Neo review
Verdict: 3.3 stars Luminar Neo uses Skylum’s latest AI tech across its wide range of tools to automatically enhance your images or to make it easier for you to enhance them yourself. The results can be spectacular, variable or, occasionally, somewhat pointless, but there’s no denying its ability to transform regular photos into more dramatic, more spectacular and more ‘idealized’ versions of reality. But its constant updates and increasingly complex bundles, extensions and paid add-ons don’t inspire a lot of long-term confidence.
Color Efex Pro 5 review
Verdict: 5 stars . Color Efex Pro 5 has been modernized and streamlined as part of the Nik Collection 5 update, and when I thought it could hardly be any better – well it’s even better. Color Efex Pro 5 is a big collection of photographic and digital filters which can be used individually or in combination for an almost limitless range of effects. Color Efex Pro 5 replaces the old and somewhat dated interface, adds more controllable control points and DxO’s ClearView contrast enhancement. It was brilliant before, and it’s even more brilliant now.
How to articles
Don’t just accept Lightroom’s default Adobe Color profile
It’s easily done. You view a RAW image in Lightroom, it applies the default Adobe Color profile and you don’t even bother to question it. You can see what you don’t like, you do some editing – sometimes it takes a while – and you fix it. But often you’re fixing an issue introduced by the default Lightroom profile, and not something that actually needs fixing!
Can you create digital bokeh, and is it as good as the real thing?
If you want the short answer, it’s yes and no. Yes, you can create digital bokeh, and no, it’s not as good as the real thing. You can, however, create a reasonably convincing bokeh ‘look’.
How to use DxO PureRAW in Lightroom Classic
DxO PureRAW 2’s processing is better than Lightroom’s, but it can also be used from WITHIN Lightroom. So how does that work, and are the results (a) really worth the effort and (b) as good as regular RAW files to edit?
How I use merged HDR stacks as ’super-negatives’
Lightroom and Capture One offer HDR tools with a difference. They don’t create wild and exaggerated HDR effects. Instead, they create what I would call DNG ‘super-negatives’ with extended dynamic range that you can then exploit however you like.
Is luminance masking all it’s cracked up to be? I’m not convinced
Luminance masks sound like the perfect solution to a perennial problem – restricting masks to specific brightness ranges. But how useful are they really?