Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

 

Lightroom 5 Free Beta is Here! [Updated]

By

Lightroom 4 Main Interface

Adobe should be releasing Lightroom 5 as a free beta any day now based on the early release of an article on TechCrunch (which was quickly taken down).

I expect to see the announcement later this week at the Photoshop World opening keynote, which takes place on Wednesday, April 17, at 9AM ET. Adobe is well-known for dropping big news at Photoshop World openers, and it looks like this one got a bit ahead of them. [Read more…]

Topaz Labs B&W Effects 2.1 Upgrade + 30% Off for New Users

By

Topaz BW Effects

Topaz Labs has updated B&W Effects 2 to version 2.1. New features in version 2.1 include the following:

  • A Zone System: Allows users to identify various zones in their images as well as observe the changes in zones as exposure and other adjustments are made.This is not an adjustment tool, but a visual aid. 
  • Borders: Prior versions of B&W Effects only had a choice of 2 borders: Solid Black or Solid White. This version adds many more options!
  • Tone Quicktools: Similar to the Color Filter buttons, quicktools have been added for Silver and Paper toning for: Selenium, Cyanotype (Gold/Blue), Copper (Red), Sepia and Antique Dye
  • Apply Button: This feature allows a user to apply changes without having to exit the program. Multiple presets can be applied one on top of another and so forth.
  • Language Support: B&W v2.1 supports Spanish, French, German, (Brazilian) Portugese, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified and Taiwanese). If your machine has one of these languages set in the region/language settings, the UI will be rendered in that language.

The upgrade is free for existing users and is available at a discount through April 21, 2013. Use the coupon code bw21 to get 30% off Topaz B&W Effects 2 or the complete bundle on Topaz Labs’ website.

Lightroom 4.4 and Camera Raw 7.4 Now Available; Adds Support for 25 New Cameras

By

Lightroom 4

Adobe has released final versions of Lightroom 4.4 and Camera Raw 7.4, which are now available on Adobe.com.

Part of the update includes improved demosaic algorithm for better raw file support on cameras with X-Trans sensors – the X-Pro1, X100S, X-E1 and X20.

Additionally, Lightroom 4.4 and Camera Raw 7.4 offer RAW support for the following cameras: [Read more…]

Adobe Camera Raw is 10 Years Old

By

ACR Teaser

Adobe Camera Raw turned 10 years old this past Tuesday. What started out as a $99 plug-in for Photoshop 7.0 became a standard feature on future versions of Photoshop and has been updated over the years to support over 400 cameras and their various RAW file formats.

Check out more of what’s happened with Adobe Camera Raw over the past 10 years in the full infographic below. [Read more…]

Iran’s Epic Photoshop Fail

By

Iran Photoshop Fail

Iran recently made the news with the unveiling of its stealth jet, the Qaher-313, which may or may not even be able to fly. After some heavy criticism to that point, however, Iran released a photo of the Qaher-313 in flight high above the country’s own Mount Damavand.

Unfortunately for Iran, the rest of the world still hasn’t bought in to the Qaher-313’s ability to actually fly – since the nice photo of Mount Damavand had the below hanger shot (from the Qaher-313’s unveiling) Photoshopped into it.

The motion blur added to the jet is a nice touch – don’t you think? [Read more…]