The price of Adobe Creative Cloud has quietly raised from US$9.99/month to US$19.99/month for individuals, and Adobe Sales confirmed it.
Photography
Legacy App Aperture Won’t Run on Future macOS Versions
Apple has created a new support document warning users that its legacy photo editing app Aperture won’t run on future versions of macOS.
New Leica Ad Celebrates Photojournalism
Leica is a well-known camera brand, and today it released a five minute ad that celebrates photojournalism. Called ‘The Hunt’ it shows all of the stress, fear, drive, and life-threatening situations photojournalists face as they tell their stories. It was created by Brazilian agency F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. We see scenes of an oppressive regime in China, an African warlord, conflict in the Middle East, and more. Although the photographers in the ad aren’t real, they do represent conditions that can happen in the real world.
News+: Fixes and Enhancements With Affinity Photo
I’ve been using Affinity Photo for several months now, and I’m still getting used to using it. In the latest issue (May 2019) of MacFormat magazine, they share photo fixes and enhancements with Affinity Photo.
As well as using Affinity Photo to fix common problems, you can produce more creative results using selection and compositing tools such as layers and masks.
Unfortunately, this magazine is in PDF form instead of using Apple News Format. So you’ll have to swipe to page 28 (As opposed to me being able to share the singular article).
This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.
Camera+ 2 Gets a 2.0 Update With a New Design
Camera+ 2 has been recently updated to 2.0. The main focus is the camera itself. In the new design, the app is divided into three categories: Presets, Shutter modes, and Settings. Presets give you instant access to specific shooting modes, like Action Mode, Slow Shutter, and Macro. Shutter modes define how you want to shoot, with a timer, stabilizer, and Smile. Settings give you preferences like showing the grid and horizon level. Besides the new updates, Camera+ 2 offers RAW capture and editing, manual controls, depth capture and editing, and integration with your photo library. You can read more about it on the company’s blog. App Store: US$2.99
How to Take a Good, Impromptu Portrait
Have you ever been somewhere and had someone walk up to you and ask you to take their photo? Aimée Lutkin has some tips to help take a good, impromptu portrait.
You can get better photos with a little direction and a few adjustments. If you have a terrible photographer in your life, forward this post to them. If it don’t, you might be (probably are) the culprit. Here’s how to improve your flattering photography game.
Manage Faces in Apple’s Photos App
David Murphy has a nice tip out on how to organize photos by Faces on iOS. It’s a great way to manage photos of people.
On the three platforms you’re most likely to use to store your smartphone pictures—Apple Photos, Amazon Photos, and Google Photos—machine learning can categorize your photos by the faces in them, rather than rudimentary details like when or where they were taken.
Pixelmator Photo iPad App Available for Preorder
The team behind Pixelmator, an alternative to Photoshop, is coming out with an iPad app called Pixelmator Photo. You can preorder it today for US$3.99, and it will launch on April 9 for US$4.99.
With powerful, nondestructive color adjustments like Levels, Curves, Hue & Saturation, Selective Color, and Black & White, it lets you edit the colors of your photos in any way you want. And the Repair and Crop tools let you perfect all the details.
I have to say, I’m kind of disappointed with this. I use Pixelmator Pro every day, and I was hoping it would be ported to iOS. But Pixelmator Photo is just another photo editor, and the graphic design features won’t be available.
VSCO Launches For This Photo Machine Learning
VSCO is launching a feature called For This Photo that uses machine learning to automatically suggest presets for your photos.
Darkroom 4.1 Adds Photos Extension, Editing in Files
Darkroom 4.1 adds more ways for users to edit images, including a new photos extension and the ability to open photos directly in Files. What’s new: Photos Extension: Edit your photos with Darkroom right within the Photos app; Import to Darkroom: As an alternative to the Photos Extension, hand over your photos from apps using the new Share Extension; Copy to Darkroom: Easily copy your photos from external storage services like Dropbox or the Files apps to the camera roll and edit in Darkroom; Drag and drop to Import: Photos now can be dragged and dropped, on iPad only, to Darkroom to be copied and edited; Imported Smart Album: One convenient place to track all the photos you imported and/or copied to Darkroom; Open: Right from the album picker you can tap on the “Open” to access any photos accessible through the Files app, and 3d-party services that integrate with it. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)
Pixelmator Pro 1.3.1 Available, Adds New Features
Pixelmator Pro 1.3.1 is now available. It adds support for editing iPhone Portrait photos and a new comic book effect.
Adobe AI Can Enhance Your RAW Files
The new feature called Enhance Details will be found in Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic CC, and Lightroom CC for macOS and Windows.
Flickr Photo Deletion Delayed Until March
Flickr says that accounts that are no longer used will be targeted first. For active users old content will be deleted first.
Fauxtography, or Manipulating an Image to Tell a Story
Nice piece on photography and fauxtography by The Verge. It talks about certain automated actions in photography but I think it speaks to photo manipulation in general. Long before smartphones and Photoshop were invented, some photographers still manipulated their images in the dark room. These were under the category of fine art photography, and it helped a photographer use the picture to tell the story in their head.
For the longest time, we’ve had a seemingly clear dividing line between shots straight out of the camera (colloquially referred to as SOOC) and examples of fauxtography where the shooter has indulged in applying some after effects like filters, vignettes, recoloration, or masking and inserting objects in the frame. Phones are now stampeding over that line.
Social Media and Photography, AR's Killer App, Far Future of iPhone, with Andrew Orr - ACM 498
Bryan Chaffin is joined by Andrew Orr to talk about social media and photography. They also talk about where AR can go and what the killer app of this emerging technology could be. Still donning their futurist hats, they look at what iPhone might in 10, 20, and even 50 years.
iPhone XS Max DxOMark Score Ranks it Fourth
The iPhone XS Max DxOMark score causes the iPhone to rank fourth in the list. With a score of 82 it barely edges out the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus.
Achieving a DxOMark front camera score of 82, the Apple iPhone XS Max puts in a solid performance for both still and moving images during our tests, and is a nice improvement over its predecessor, the iPhone X. For still photos, the device boasts some great strengths for selfie shooters, including excellent HDR, bokeh shots, and detail at close range, which are among the best results we’ve observed for front cameras.
Raised issues include noise, white balance, and skin rendering.
TMO Background Mode Interview with TMO Contributor Andrew Orr
Andrew is a Contributing Editor at The Mac Observer assigned to the morning news desk. He is also a science and nature lover, with a special interest in botany, as well as an amateur nature photographer.
I asked Andrew about growing up in Michigan and his early interest in writing. He also started using computers when he was young and recalled how had to eradicate a virus from an Windows XP PC at age 13. Later he studied computer security at Bay de Noc Community College, and he attributes his technical writing success to the combination of his writing skill, interest in science, and experience with computers. Andrew told me how he was discovered by The Mac Observer and the tools he uses to collect and report the news each morning.
Reminder: Free Flickr Users Need to Take Action (Update)
Starting today, January 8, free Flickr users with more than 1,000 photos need to take action. Unless you upgrade to a paid plan you can’t upload more content.
Apple Shares Shot on iPhone XR and iPhone XS Photos
Apple shared some Shot on iPhone XR and iPhone XS photos for the holidays. New camera features in these phones include Smart HDR and more.
Pro Photographer Tyler Stalman Reviews iPhone XR, XS Cameras
Professional photographer Tyler Stalman reviews the iPhone XR and iPhone XS cameras in a video. He talks about all of the new features, like Smart HDR, the new image signal processor, and how the wide-angle lens is slightly wider than previous models. Speaking of Smart HDR, he noted that it only works with video shot at 30 fps or lower. But it works whether you’re shooting in 720p, 1080p, or 4K. Mr. Stalman also notes something he found that can correct the blurring problems around the edges of subjects when you shoot in Portrait Mode.
Camera App Focos Comes to the iPad With Version 1.6
Focos is a Portrait Mode editor that lets you control bokeh in your photos. The latest update added support for the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro.
RAW Power Gets Big 2.0 Update
Today, Gentlemen Coders released RAW Power 2.0 for iOS and macOS. RAW Power unlocks the power of Apple’s RAW engine with simple, easy-to-use controls. More than just an image editor, it is a full photo application that lets you organize and manage your iOS Photo Library. If you use iCloud Photo Library, all changes are also synced to iCloud, where every image you take and every change you make is instantly available to every app on your iPhone or iPad. You can use it for more than RAWs — it’s great with JPEGs too, with White Balance, Curves, Sharpen, and other tools missing from the built-in Photos app. The app also includes an innovative new Depth Effect for photos shot on iPhones with a dual camera system. The Mac app is on sale for a limited time. App Store: RAW Power – US$2.99 | Mac App Store: RAW Power – US$26.99
Darkroom 4 is Coming to iPad, Beta Available
Photo editor Darkroom has been on the iPhone for a while now. The next release—Darkroom 4—will be coming to the iPad for the first time.
App Sale: Pixomatic Photo Editor Now Free
Usually US$4.99, Pixomatic photo editor is free, and I’m not sure how long it will last. Pixomatic is the first-ever mobile app that brings desktop level quality for selecting and masking images. Now, you have no problems with cutting out even the most difficult picture elements, including hair. Smoothly select and mask even the trickiest hair edges. Also, they introduced hundreds of photo stickers that you can add to your photos with a single tap. In just a few minutes create funny pranks, visual art and social media posts for your business or stunning photo manipulations, viral memes and selfies to share with friends. Pixomatic has a full range of amazing photo editing tools for creative minds. Use smart cutout, add layers, apply blending modes and unique filters to create epic masterpieces. Let Pixomatic be your only all-in-one photo editor. App Store: Pixomatic – Free