DL Cade

Articles by DL Cade

MSI Creator Z17HX Review: Fast, Color Accurate, Fatally Flawed

The Creator Z17HX Studio is MSI’s attempt to give photographers and video editors the fit and finish of an Apple laptop, the color accuracy of a studio-grade computer display, and the performance that comes with the newest Intel and NVIDIA hardware. The good news is that MSI delivers surprisingly well on all of these promises; the bad news is that it had to make one huge compromise along the way.

The NVIDIA RTX 4090 is Amazing, and Photographers Should NOT Buy It

When NVIDIA reached out to ask if we wanted to try the new RTX 4090 GPU, we almost said "no." Most of our readers are photographers, and most photo editing simply doesn't require a top-tier GPU. But we did say "yes" because we wanted to answer a different, more relevant question: do photo editors need a GPU at all? And if so, how much do you need to spend to get top-notch photo editing performance?

Huion Kamvas Pro 24 Review: A Flagship 4K Pen Display for a Lot Less

The Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) is Huion's flagship pen display: a high-resolution graphics display that delivers most of the benefits of a Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 at about half the price. In the two months I've spent using it on-and-off in preparation for this review, I've come to three important conclusions: (1) this is an excellent product, (2) a large 4K pen display is the best way to edit your photos, and (3) I can't realistically use this display as my daily driver.

Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (2.5K) is the Perfect Pen Display for Photo Editors

As displays have become better and cheaper to manufacture over the past several years, high-quality pen displays have slowly been edging out pen tablets as the best way to edit your photos. One of the companies making a major push in this space is Huion, and over the past couple of months we've had the chance to go hands-on with the company's brand new, color-accurate Kamvas Pro 16 (2.5K) -- one of the most compelling options for any photographer looking for a high-quality pen display at a reasonable price.

XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 Review: A Great Portable and Affordable Pen Display

XP-Pen's new Artist Pro 16 is one of the most compelling entry-level graphics displays on the market. It's lightweight, well-built, highly customizable, color-accurate, and all for a price that will make Wacom owners blush. It's not a perfect product, but no other Full HD pen display on the market offers this kind of experience and build quality for just $450.

Apple Silicon is Still a Pain to Use with Color Accurate Monitors

If you've been using an Apple Silicon Mac with an external display for photo and video editing, you may have noticed a few issues. Whether it's ultra-wide monitors not displaying correctly, calibration software not working right, or high-end monitors displaying in YCrCb mode instead of RGB, Apple Silicon still has a bunch of issues with color-accurate monitors.

HP ZBook Studio G8 Review: Rock Solid Performance, Painful Price Tag

HP's ZBook lineup -- which encompasses the lightweight ZBook Firefly, the affordable ZBook Power, the powerful ZBook Fury, and the best-of-all-worlds ZBook Studio brands -- doesn't attract a lot of attention. As a mobile workstation-class device, the ZBook Studio is not as flashy as most gaming laptops or as affordable as most "creator" laptops, but in many ways, it's better than both.

ASUS ProArt PA32UCG Review: Like a Pro Display XDR for PC Users

ASUS announced plans for the ProArt PA32UCG way back in September of 2019. Based on specs alone, this exciting monitor would improve on the already-impressive ProArt PA32UCX and take on the Apple Pro Display XDR by offering the same 1600 nits peak brightness out of a 4K panel, with a faster refresh rate and wider color gamut. Nearly two years later, the monitor is finally available, and we're here to see if it can live up to the sky-high expectations we've built up over the past two years.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Review: Small Update, Huge Performance Gain

When Razer announced the "mid-2021" Blade 15 Advanced back in May, it seemed like a standard refresh. The company swapped out the 10th-Gen Intel CPUs in the "early-2021" model for 11th-Gen processors and added a new anti-fingerprint coating to the chassis. No big deal, right? Wrong -- that 11th-Gen processor has allowed Razer to upgrade just about everything under the hood of the latest Advanced model, leading to a huge performance uplift.

Dell U4021QW Review: The Premiere Ultra-Wide Monitor for Photo Editing

The Dell U4021QW is, quite literally, one of a kind. It's the world's first 40-inch curved ultra-wide WUHD 5K2K monitor -- a 21:9 aspect ratio monster that boasts a color-accurate 10-bit panel. In our testing, it has performed beautifully. But while it's definitely the premiere ultra-wide monitor for photo editing, it's not the best photo editing monitor overall.

NEC PA311D Monitor Review: Extreme Color Accuracy for Professional Users

The Sharp/NEC MultiSync PA311D is NEC's flagship photo editing monitor, with more colors, more accurate colors, and more control over your colors than any other monitor we've tested to date. It's not a perfect display -- HDR editing is out of the question, and hardware calibration is impossible unless you pay extra for an NEC-branded colorimeter -- but everything about this monitor was designed with professionals in mind, and we absolutely love that.

Razer Blade 14 Review: Made for Gamers, Great for Creators

The Razer Blade 14 released just a few short weeks ago is aimed squarely at gamers. The headline on the Razer website is "the world's most powerful 14-inch gaming laptop." But don't be fooled by the glowing green logo and the RGB-backlit keyboard: with its AMD CPU, NVIDIA GPU, and color-accurate QHD display, the Blade 14 is an ideal choice for photo and video editors who are looking for a PC that's portable and powerful.

M1 iPad Pro Review: More Powerful, More Functional, Still Frustrating

The last few generations of iPad Pro were already powerful enough for serious photo editing, but the benefits of such a small and versatile device have never quite outweighed the cons of a tablet-based workflow. The 2021 iPad Pro -- with its M1 SOC, up to 16GB of RAM, Thunderbolt support, and mind-blowing miniLED display -- makes the best case yet for ditching your laptop. But even with all this power under the hood, it’s clear the iPad is still an accessory, not a laptop replacement.

Performance Test: Lightroom Classic is Way Faster on Apple Silicon

This morning, Adobe unveiled the long-awaited version of Lightroom Classic that is fully optimized for Apple Silicon devices, and we had a chance to test it out before release. Our hopes were high for a program so famously sluggish. Could Apple’s M1 processor deliver a hefty performance boost for photographers? In short: yes. The latest version of Lightroom Classic was up to 25 percent faster on the M1 than on our more expensive Intel-based Mac.

Turn Your iPad Into a Drawing Tablet: Sidecar vs Astropad vs Duet vs Luna

If you own an iPad and an Apple Pencil, there are several ways to pair them with your computer and transform them into a high-quality drawing tablet for photo editing. There's Apple's own Sidecar feature, the popular app Astropad, the hardware-assisted option Luna Display, and the "made by ex-Apple engineers" Duet Pro. I wanted to see which of these options offers the most features and the best experience for the photographer on the go.

Xencelabs Pen Tablet Review: Already Better than Wacom

What do you get when you take a bunch of former Wacom employees, start a new company, and give them carte blanche to develop a brand new pen tablet? What you get is Xencelabs, a new player in graphics that is bringing some much-needed innovation to a stale market. This is no cheap knock-off we're talking about, Xencelabs' new Pen Tablet Medium just put Wacom on notice.

MSI PS321QR Review: A Gaming Monitor for Photographers

As display technology has improved in leaps and bounds over the past few years, the market has forked into two distinct camps: gamers who prioritize speed, and creators who prioritize color. The 32-inch 2K MSI Creator PS321QR tries to strike the perfect balance between these two needs, offering a compelling combination of refresh rate, response time, and color accuracy for just $700.

Wacom One Review: An Entry-Level Pen Display Perfect for Photo Editing

With the release of the Wacom One in 2020, Wacom lowered the barrier to entry into the world of pen displays and inadvertently created an ideal product for photographers. Where other pen displays in the Wacom lineup are either too big or too expensive, the Wacom One makes a great case for trading in your Intuos Pro for a more intimate photo editing experience.

BenQ SW271C Monitor Review: Love the Updates, Hate the Price Hike

With the release of the new-and-improved PhotoVue SW271C, BenQ is once again hoping to win over photographers with impressive color accuracy and targeted photo editing features at a reasonable price. But unlike the original SW271, the SW271C is entering a much more competitive marketplace, at a price that isn't quite so "reasonable" anymore.

Real-World Test: Photoshop for Apple Silicon is Really, Really Fast

Earlier today, Adobe finally released the full-blown non-Beta version of Photoshop for Apple Silicon, and we got a chance to test it out. I won't beat around the bush: the benchmarks are really impressive, matching or outperforming Intel-based computers that cost two to three times as much.

The Black Leopard: One Man’s Quest to Capture the Ultimate Wildlife Photo

Behind every once-in-a-lifetime photograph is a story. Sometimes these are stories of luck—of being in the right place, at the right time, with the right lens attached to your camera—but more often than not triumph is preceded by years of trial and error. An outlandish "bucket shot" achieved by the sheer force of the photographer’s will and persistence. The Black Leopard by wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas falls into the second category.

Apple M1 Mac mini Review: The Best Mac for Most Photographers

When Apple debuted the M1 system on a chip (SOC), it released three computers equipped with the same CPU/GPU/RAM combo: the M1 MacBook Air, the M1 MacBook Pro, and the M1 Mac mini. It might seem like this makes for three redundant options, but after reviewing the MacBook Pro and spending a month with the new Mac mini, I can confidently say that the Mac mini is the best choice for the majority of photographers. To explain why, I need to turn to economics.

5 Things You Should Know Before Buying the Apple Pro Display XDR

When Apple unveiled the Pro Display XDR in June of 2019, I'll admit that I drank the cool-aid in big refreshing gulps. From design to execution, I had every reason to believe that this monitor would change the creative landscape, bringing reference displays in a price range attainable by mere mortals. But one year and 7 months later, as I sit staring at my very own review unit, I've had to temper my enthusiasm with a small dose of reality.

These Elegant Self-Portraits are a Masterclass in Minimalist Composition

In her ongoing series Reflections 2, photographer Ziqian Liu shows just how creative you can get when you limit your props and subject matter, and master composition instead. Throughout the series, Liu uses only herself, various plant life, the occasional fruit, and a round mirror to craft images that are at once symbolic and striking.

These Photos of Underwater Flowers Look Like Paintings

Underwater photographer Barbara Cole is best known for her beautiful portraits of people—stunning creations that seem to walk the line between photography and painting. But her most recent project, Appearances, explores a different subject: flowers.

These Studio Portraits of Smashed Electronics are Oddly Satisfying

From time to time, we all get that desire to throw one of our electronics at the wall and/or smash it with a bat. But how many of us ever actually get to do it? For photographer Jaap Vliegenthart, he got to live out this fantasy: crushing some of his old electronics to smithereens and then capturing the aftermath.

All I Need to Know I Learned from Photography

As any photo enthusiast will tell you (sometimes without you even asking), the benefits of photography go far beyond the ability to capture a moment or immortalize an expression. It goes beyond a mere understanding of color, or composition, or the ability to see the extraordinary hiding inside of an ordinary scene.

Dell mini-LED 4K HDR Monitor Review: Setting the Bar at $5,000

In the age of digital photography, your monitor is as important as the camera you shoot with or the lenses you use. But as more high-end options hit the market every year, the line between "worth it" and "overkill" is starting to blur. Dell's new 32-inch 4K HDR PremierColor mini-LED monitor, an elite display by any standard, is helping to draw that line a little bit clearer.

2020 Helped Us Rediscover the True Value of Photography

When I look back on 2020 in 5 or 10 years, I don't think I'll remember it as the year when a pandemic brought the photo industry to an economic standstill. I don't think I'll remember the CIPA numbers, or the R5 overheating debacle, or any of the virtual product launches. I'll remember 2020 as a year that helped us rediscovered the importance of photography.

Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro Review: This Changes Everything

On January 15th, 2008, Steve Jobs pulled a MacBook Air out of a manila envelope and changed laptop computers forever. Blink and you might have missed it: the instant when an entire industry shifted to accommodate a new breed of device that made more sense to more people. And last month, Apple had the audacity to do it again.

How to Optimize Lightroom Classic for the Best Performance

One of the consequences of reviewing computers for PetaPixel and running benchmark after benchmark is that you learn a thing or two about working in Lightroom. From weird quirks to the optimal performance settings for import, export, and editing, there are a few key changes you can make to coax a little more speed out of Adobe's Raw editor.

Apple ProRAW Review: The Best Way to Shoot RAW on an iPhone

Earlier today, Apple officially released Apple ProRAW via iOS 14.3. This new hybrid image format claims to give you the best of both worlds: AI-powered computational photography on the one hand, and the flexibility of a 12-bit RAW file on the other. But does it deliver the goods? In a word: yes.

Dell XPS 17 Review: A Photo Editing Powerhouse with a Stunning Display

When Dell decided to bring back the XPS 17, I was skeptical. Most 17-inch laptops fail to give you enough performance to justify the drop in portability; what you end up with is either too big, not powerful enough, or both. That's what makes the XPS 17 so special. This is a 17-inch laptop built with creative professionals in mind.

5 Books that Will Help You Conquer Creative Block

It happens to the best of us... and in 2020 it happens all the time: creative block. Whether it's a lack of inspiration, a lack of motivation, a lack of free time, or some combination of all three, we've all hit that wall where it feels like every one of our ideas is stale, everyone else is better or more prolific than us, and there's no real reason to keep trying.

5 Facts About Vision that Will Change the Way You Take Pictures

One of the best ways to broaden your horizons and inject a little inspiration into your photography is to explore subjects outside the world of photography. To study painting or take a course in graphic design, for example. But I recently discovered a fount of photographic inspiration in an unusual place: a neuroscience lab.

Why Canon is Winning Full-Frame Mirrorless

When the mirrorless race began in earnest at the end of 2018, nobody knew who would come out on top. Three years and more than 10 full-frame mirrorless camera bodies later, the answer is obvious: Canon is winning big, and they've done it by going "all in" on the RF Mount.

XP-Pen Artist Pro 24 Review: Editing Photos on a 24-Inch Pen Display

There are two big leaps you can make in your photo editing workflow. The first is moving from a mouse-and-keyboard setup to a pen tablet like the Wacom Intuos Pro—almost everybody does that at some point. But if you really want to kick your experience up to another level, there's one more step you can take: you can buy yourself a high-resolution pen display.

Apple Silicon is a True Game-Changer for Photographers

Late last week, Apple unveiled its most consequential product in at least a decade. 10 years, 9 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days after Steve Jobs took the stage to unveil the first iPad, Tim Cook announced the release of three new Macs powered by Apple's own M1 system on a chip (SOC)... changing the industry forever.

AI and the Battle for the Future of Photo Editing

For photographers, AI photo editing is no longer a fringe topic for ML researchers or a gimmick employed by smartphone apps. With the impending release of Skylum's Luminar AI and Adobe calling the latest build of Photoshop "the world’s most advanced AI application for creatives," it's time for the community to reckon with an important question: What does this mean for photography, photo editing, and creativity at large?