Post-Processing

Far be it from me to criticize one of my fellow PetaPixel writers, but I feel it necessary to counter Bimal Nepal's recent "Stop Making Digital Look Like Film" op-ed.

In e-commerce, photography isn’t just a picture—it’s the customer’s only connection to the product. A shopper can’t hold the glasses, feel the texture of the frame, or judge the true glossiness of the metal. When the image doesn’t reflect reality, the result is disappointment, higher return rates, and ultimately, a loss of trust in the brand.

We put Luminar Neo to the test, not as a standalone app, but as a plugin designed to enhance your existing editing photography workflow.

DxO PhotoLab 9, the latest version of its RAW photo editing software, is one of the more significant updates in recent memory, simply because it finally tackles masking in a meaningful way. But there’s also more to it than a single feature upgrade.

DxO announced PhotoLab 9, ushering in what DxO describes as a new era of photo editing. The RAW photo editing software features new AI masking, improved local adjustments, DeepPRIME denoising and sharpening, and much more.

The clothing brand J.Crew has been accused of AI-generating a series of pictures which, at first glance, look as if they were taken by an actual photographer.

As expected, an AI image model known as 'Nano Banana' that was making a big impression last week is in fact made by Google. The tech giant announced it last night along with its actual name 'Gemini 2.5 Flash Image.'

Will Smith is currently playing in the U.K. as part of his 'Based on a True Story' tour. The actor, rapper, and film producer has been sharing snippets of his live performances.

A man was nearly tricked out of reward money after a scammer sent him a face-swapped, digitally altered photo of his missing dog.

A photographer and software developer fed up with paying endless subscription fees has decided to help himself -- and his fellow photographers -- by building not one, but four free apps.

A famed mountaineer has been accused of using stolen photos and editing himself into other people's selfies to exaggerate the number of peaks he has climbed.

PetaPixel put Photoshop’s two newest AI features, Harmonize and Generative Upscale, to the test on real-world photography projects to find out if they are useful tools for photographers, or just more hype?

Blackmagic Design released DaVinci Resolve 20.1, introducing full support for Apple Vision Pro immersive video workflows. With this release, DaVinci Resolve becomes the first professional non-linear editor (NLE) to offer a complete end-to-end solution for creating, editing, and delivering Apple Immersive Video content.

A photo manipulation expert has dropped a mind-bending video proving just how difficult it has become to tell reality from AI fakery.

An Airbnb guest who stayed at an apartment in New York City has been refunded $5,730 (£4,300) and received an apology from the company after the host allegedly manipulated photos to make false claims against her.

In the ever-evolving world of digital photo editing, staying ahead of the curve means finding tools that streamline the process without sacrificing quality. Skylum's Luminar Neo positions itself as a solution for both professional photographers and hobbyists looking to enhance their workflow with speed and precision.

Asus announced two new 4K displays designed for photographers, video editors, and other visual artists. The pair of monitors both promise wide color gamut, professional workflow features, and HDR.

Eizo has long been celebrated for its professional-grade, color-accurate monitors. Its displays are among the best options in the industry for professional photographers and videographers. The company's latest flagship DCI 4K display, the 30.5-inch ColorEdge CG3100X, promises to fit into a professional HDR workflow.

Runway has launched a new AI video model that can manipulate existing footage with text prompts -- rather than generative synthetic videos from nothing.

Canva, which acquired Adobe Creative Suite competitor Affinity last year, recently doubled down on its dedicated photo editing tools with AI photo editor, a collection of AI-powered tools that let Canva users make wide-ranging tweaks and edits to their images.

The digiKam team has announced the official release of digiKam 8.7.0. The major update for the free open-source digital photo manager promises significant improvements to face management capabilities, GPU processing, AI-driven tools, and overall system performance.

Imagen, the AI-driven post-production platform for photographers, has launched the Profile Shop, a new digital marketplace featuring AI editing profiles. Through the new marketplace, seasoned photographers can monetize their curated styles, and up-and-coming photographers can more easily develop a personal style all their own.

Wacom has its latest update to the Cintiq line of Pen Display tablets. The three new devices have been designed to deliver professional-grade performance and tools in a more compact and affordable package for consumers.

Retouch4me, developer of a leading AI-based photo and video editing platform, has released Apex, a new plugin designed specifically for portrait retouching. The Apex plugin promises natural-looking, professional portrait retouching in under a minute.

Google is hosting its annual I/O conference today, and while much of the focus is on the company's own tech, there's also fresh news for photographers. Google and Skylum have partnered to bring Luminar photo editing software to Android and ChromeOS.

Filmmakers have re-edited the new Superman trailer to remove a blink that showed the hero reacting to a thrown can -- after fans complained that DC's Man of Steel would never flinch at such a minor impact.

The team from ACD Systems, maker of ACDSee post-processing software, took time out of their busy schedules to give PetaPixel the full rundown on the company's approach to the ethics of artificial intelligence.

After going radio silent for about a year following the reveal of Capture One Studio, Capture One is back with entirely new branding and revamped photo editing software.

ACD Systems released the first version of ACDSee Gemstone back in 2021, ushering in a new AI-fueled standalone photo editing app that aims to take on Adobe Photoshop. The company recently released the latest version of Gemstone, adding new cutting-edge AI features, better masking, and more.

DxO has officially released Nik Collection 8, the latest version of its renowned suite of plugins for Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and DxO’s own PhotoLab. This update introduces a completely redesigned Photoshop panel, enhanced masking tools, and significant improvements to both Silver Efex and Color Efex, offering what DxO claims is a more “dynamic editing experience.”

Google is rolling out native image editing tools within its Gemini app, allowing users to modify both AI-generated images and personal photos uploaded from their devices.

Earlier this month, Adobe set out its vision for an AI chatbot that is capable of editing photos in Photoshop. Now an Adobe coder has shared more of what the future may look like.

Former President Joe Biden has been accused of editing himself into a family photo celebrating Easter. But did he really?

A bride took to Reddit to share how a videographer allegedly deleted her wedding video after she asked for a refund.

After nearly a year of delays, a wedding photographer delivered images just hours after the couple aired their grievances about him on CBS News.

Adobe’s foray into the Twitter alternative Bluesky quickly backfired. Frustrated by the company’s business practices, users on the platform flooded its posts with backlash, ultimately prompting Adobe to delete all of its content.

Imagen, the innovative post-processing app, has now added a smart artificial intelligence culling feature to save photographers precious time.

A photographer who lost all their Lightroom presets following a catalog corruption built a super helpful tool to recover their precious editing presets, which were built over a decade-plus of careful photo editing.

In a concerning development, people have been using a new AI model released by Google to remove watermarks from photos.

Cyme released Peakto 2.3 today, adding significant new features to its AI-powered photo and video management platform. With Peakto 2.3, photographers can access all their media from anywhere, even when those files are stored locally on a computer hard drive.

A sports card photographer asked Topps to adjust the crop of his image of basketball star JuJu Watkins, as it altered his artistic vision. In a big win for creatives, the company agreed and made the change.

DxO will release DxO PureRAW 5 in April, promising a big jump from previous versions courtesy of a more refined interface, local adjustments, and AI-powered denoising via DxO's DeepPrime 3 technology.

LumaTouch announced that their mobile post-processing app, LumaFusion, will receive a big update with new Version 5.2.

Director of Photography Ed Andrews has carefully developed an impressive set of overlay flare effects that capture the trademark charm of vintage Olympus Zuiko lenses.

Lately, Wacom has focused primarily on pen display tablets, like last year's Movink 13. The company's bread-and-butter Intuos series has languished, but no longer. Wacom announced the brand new Intuos Pro series, promising the company's most accurate pen performance to date.

Boris FX released a new version of its popular Optics plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic that add new AI-driven masking for still images.

Fixing blemishes is one of the most basic uses for Photoshop, tiresome though it is at times. They vary, these blemishes, whether they’re dust spots on digital images, marks and scratches on film scans, or blobs, stains, and tears on old prints. Other blemishes are the kind that exist on your subject, like skin flaws.