So what?, you’re thinking. Why do we need another generic Adobe profile when we can choose one that matches the camera’s own rendition and picture styles, or choose one of Adobe’s many built in black and white, creative, modern or vintage profiles? Well let’s see…
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Everyday edits: This minimalist still life shows Lightroom’s AI masking working perfectly
Minimalism, brutalism and architecture, three of my favourite things. So when I got the chance to spend a week in a converted WWII bunker, I spent much of my time exploring the objects, compositions and lighting in this strange but extraordinary environment.
Everyday edits: Bournemouth Pier, with Lightroom Classic’s Storm Clouds Adaptive Preset
It was a dark, blustery day in May. Bournemouth, on the UK’s southern coastline, was not looking its best. But I didn’t want to try to glamourise it, I wanted to make this place look exactly how it felt on that day – only more so.
Adobe Lightroom review (2025)
Adobe Lightroom (2025) verdict: 4.1 stars Adobe Lightroom does something pretty amazing. It makes all your photos available to organize and edit anywhere, on any device. But this does come at a cost. One drawback is that you have to pay for Adobe’s Creative Cloud storage, which is now included in its subscription plans. Another is that this version of Lightroom is slicker and more streamlined than the original Lightroom Classic, but also sacrifices some organizational features.
DxO Nik Collection 8 review
Verdict: 4.6 stars Nik Collection 8 has some interesting new features for existing users, but mostly for those who use Photoshop as their main ‘host’ application for launching the plug-ins. Silver Efex gets a major interface overhaul, however. This is very welcome, though its actual capabilities are little changed. Otherwise, apart from some workflow tweaks, it’s business as usual for this epic plug-in suite. Frankly, the Nik Collection is already such a wide-ranging, powerful and inspiring set of photo-enhancement tools that it’s always a bit of a surprise to find DxO has found anything to improve.
Reviews
DxO PureRAW 5 review
Verdict: 4.4 stars PureRAW 5 brings an even newer, even better DeepPRIME XD3 denoising process, XD3 X-Trans sensor support in beta, new local adjustments for selective sharpening and denoising and new custom presets for export. The results are quite amazing, as ever, though it’s hard to see any visible improvement over the earlier DeepPRIME XD2 process and there are a couple of niggly little operational glitches.
Why don’t I talk about ACDSee?
I review a lot of software on Life after Photoshop but I rarely talk about ACDSee. Why? On the face of it, ACDSee Photo Studio 2025 is a powerful all-in-one photo organizing, developing and editing tool that embraces the latest developments in AI and is available both as a subscription and subscription free. So what’s not to like?
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025 review
Photoshop Elements 2025 verdict: 3.3 stars Photoshop Elements looks like the perfect family-friendly, subscription-free antidote to the complexities of Photoshop, with fun projects, easy Guided Edits and plain language. But underneath it’s cluttered, dated and confusing. There’s too much to see and do and too many ways of doing it, all on top of an old-fashioned workflow with limitations that quickly become apparent.
CameraBag Pro 2024 review: this simple effects tool deserves to be better known
Verdict: 4.5 stars CameraBag Pro is a photo editing tool from a company you might never have heard of, at a price which might make you think it can’t be very good. Well, it’s not clear why this software isn’t better known, but the bottom line is that it’s very good indeed. It comes with 200+ photographic effect presets, and they’re of a pretty high standard, plus all the tools you need to modify these and make your own. It even does basic photo enhancement and file browsing. It’s quirky and weird – at first – but at this price, and subscription-free, it’s an absolute steal.
How to articles
Have I been looking at dynamic range all wrong? And how much is enough?
So until now I’ve been thinking of dynamic range recovery as being a combination of highlight recovery and shadow recovery. But actually, I’m starting to think that if my highlights are blown, that’s maybe not a dynamic range issue, but an exposure error on my part. I’ll explain what I mean.
Recreating a classic style digitally in ON1 Photo RAW: Josef Sudek
Josef Sudek was a photographer from what is now the Czech Republic who had a characteristic style, particularly later in his life, when he drew inspiration from the objects that surrounded him and the effects of light. His images were deep, soft and mysterious. But is it possible to achieve some of that look digitally without producing just a cheap, fake effect?
I edited this black and white image three different ways and I still can’t decide which is best
Editing processes are very selective, and different photographers will have different approaches. Even the same photographer can have different approaches at different times. Just as it’s not always easy to cull your images, it’s not always easy to decide on the best way to edit them.
3 reasons why I edited this in DxO PhotoLab and not Lightroom
I know Lightroom very, very well. I’ve been writing about it for years. A large part of this site’s content is devoted to Adobe Lightroom tips and tutorials. That means, though, that I also know its weaknesses, and there are plenty. So I thought I’d run through the editing steps I used on this photo and why I did them in DxO PhotoLab and not Lightroom.
This is how Capture One makes your wide-angle lenses even wider!
I’ve been puzzling over this for a while but now I think I know the answer. This is how Capture One (and DxO too, by the way), can appear to ‘see’ a wider angle of view than the camera can. It’s a particular characteristic of wide-angle lens corrections that looks like it shouldn’t even be possible but has a rational and extremely interesting explanation.