Software

There's a new mobile game taking off that's causing quite a stir, especially for parents concerned about their children's privacy. It's called Photo Roulette, and it's a group party game that selects random photos from players' camera rolls for everyone to see and guess about.

If you've ever noticed a little spray can icon while using Lightroom but have no idea what it's for, this 8.5-minute video by photographer Anthony Morganti was made for you.

Canon has announced that a fix for the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens' focusing issues will be released "in the beginning of January 2020." The announcement comes one week after Canon confirmed to PetaPixel that the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM focusing issue reported here is, indeed, a widespread problem.

Pixelmator Pro just released a new tool called "ML Super Resolution": a machine-learning-powered feature that "makes it possible to increase the resolution of images while keeping them stunningly sharp and detailed." In other words, the real-world equivalent of all those movies where someone yells "Enhance!" at their computer screen.

As expected, Nikon officially released Firmware Version 2.20 for the Nikon Z6 and Z7 full-frame mirrorless cameras tonight, adding (limited) CFExpress compatibility and preparing the cameras for the optional upgrade to shoot ProRes RAW video over HDMI, which will cost an additional $200 fee, plus shipping.

Nikon Rumors is reporting that some much-anticipated firmware updates for the Nikon Z6 and Z7 full-frame mirrorless cameras will finally arrive this week. These include the ability to use CFExpress cards, as well as the paid upgrade that will allow users to shoot ProRes RAW video with an external recorder.

As promised in November, Adobe has already released the first major update to Photoshop on iPad. This first update adds the Adobe Sensei AI-powered Subject Select Tool—first debuted on the desktop in 2018—to the iPad version, making it much easier to create complex selections in a single tap.

Lightroom for iOS and iPadOS got two major updates from Adobe today: the much-anticipated 'Direct Import' feature, and the Advanced Exporting features that were released on Android and ChromeOS in November.

Photography podcast The Group Chat has only released one episode since it was launched a few days ago, and yet it's already receiving a good bit of attention among photographers. Why? Because they chose slam a very profitable and widespread practice in the industry: the sale of presets.

The worldwide hiding of Instagram likes has begun, and even if you're not affected by this "test" yet, it's likely you will be soon. If you want to avoid this and continue to see your like counts, there is a solution in the form of a free browser extension called "The Return of the Likes."

Phase One has announced the launch of Capture One 20, the latest major version of the popular photo editing software. The release brings a refined design, new processing capabilities, and workflow enhancements, many of which were developed directly from feedback from photographers using the software.

Yesterday evening Apple crowned the best iOS and MacOS apps of 2019 and, unsurprisingly, a camera app managed to take the title of "iPhone App of the Year." Created by Lux Optics, the winner is Spectre Camera: an AI-powered app that allows you to capture high-quality long exposures with your smartphone.

Google is rolling out a long-overdue feature to Google Photos: manual face tagging. The app now offers the ability to fill in tags for faces that it failed to identify.

Leica has launched version 2.0 of its FOTOS companion app for Leica cameras. In addition to bringing improvements to the existing features, Leica has also turned FOTOS into a freemium app: you can pay $50 for the "Pro" version of the app that unlocks additional features.

When Adobe released the first version of "full" Photoshop for iPad, the company reassured us that updates to this limited first version "will be impactful, and frequent." Today, Adobe followed up on that promise by revealing some of the major updates that will be coming to the app in the coming months.

A security firm has discovered a major Android exploit that would allow hackers to take control of your smartphone's camera in the background and use it to take pictures or record video while the phone is locked. The security report reveals that the exploit affects Google and Samsung smartphones, bringing the tally of affected users into the "hundreds of millions."

FiLMiC, the company that made a name for itself by helping iPhone users shoot 4K log footage, has expanded into the world of still photography by launching a new photo app for iOS called Firstlight. The app aims to offer high-end camera features through a clean and intuitive interface.

Ryan Breitkreutz over at Signature Edits has created a useful tutorial that dives into one of the most critical aspects of portrait photography: skin tones. In this 30-minute video, he shares some his personal tips and techniques for capturing natural-looking skin tones, first in-camera, and then in Lightroom.

The Sony RX10 IV is one of (if not the) most popular bridge/superzoom cameras on the market, and it just got better. As promised in an earlier announcement, Sony has released a free firmware update that improves the RX10's autofocus by adding Real-Time Animal Eye AF.

Adobe has released a new "speak peek" of an upcoming feature that many photographers have been begging for ever since Lightroom debuted on iOS: seamless photo import into Lightroom from a mobile device.

When it comes to Lightroom alternatives, nobody has taken more users away from Adobe than Capture One Pro. But if you've never used Capture One and you need a crash course on the basics, Ted Forbes of The Art of Photography has put together a helpful video that you might find handy.

Adobe generated considerable hype when it teased "full" Photoshop for iPad last year. The app officially launched to the public this week, and it hasn't exactly lived up to the hype. In fact, it's been quite the opposite: early reviews from users have been terrible.

VSCO has partnered with Snap Inc. to release its first ever Snapchat lens. Dubbed 'Analog,' the sponsored lens is free to use and "designed to celebrate the imperfections, mistakes, and happy accidents found when shooting with film."

Wikimedia Commons has millions of public domain and freely-licensed photos available to the world, and now there's a powerful new tool that helps you dive into the ocean of imagery for exploring or locating exactly what you're looking for. It's called wikiview, and it's a graph-based visual image navigator.

Adobe MAX 2019 ended last night with, perhaps, the most anticipated event of the whole show. No, it wasn't the reveal of Photoshop for iPad; we're talking about the "Adobe Sneaks" showcase, where the company demoed some of the most impressive early-stage technology being developed by Adobe employees.

Adobe has launched Photoshop on the iPad, a fully rebuilt application on the real base of Photoshop that purportedly runs smoothly and efficiently despite being on the pseudo computer that is the Apple tablet. Normally, this achievement would be seen as a gigantic accomplishment, but multiple stories over the past year have put a damper on what would otherwise be a celebrated announcement.

Adobe today announced a new mobile app called Photoshop Camera, which "brings Photoshop magic directly to the point of capture." It's an AI-powered camera that helps people shoot and share imaginative, high-quality photos.

The folks at SLR Lounge and DVLOP have teamed up to create a new venture called Visual Flow, which today unveiled a new patent-pending "lighting condition-based approach to image development."

If you're one of the holdouts still using Apple's defunct Aperture photo editor, and you upgraded to macOS Catalina, you might have discovered to your dismay that the application no longer works. Have no fear, IT consultant and developer Tyshawn Cormier is here to help.

NVIDIA researchers have been doing groundbreaking work at the intersection between photography and AI -- things like removing noise, transferring styles, photo reconstruction, turning doodles into photos, and creating realistic photos of imaginary people. The company's latest AI app, called GANimal, lets you instantly turn your pet into any other animal.

Adobe has been granted a license by the US government to keep serving creatives in Venezuela, allowing the company to overturn a very controversial decision from earlier this month.

If the advertised astrophotography capabilities of the Google Pixel 4 enticed you to upgrade from your Pixel 1 or 2, you might be able to do without. The latest Google Camera mod brings this feature and lots more to the older Pixel phones.

Software company DxO has released the latest version of DxO PhotoLab, a program they're calling "the most advanced photo editing software on the market in terms of image quality." We don't know about all that, but the new DxO PhotoLab 3 does come with some very interesting new features, especially where color management is concerned.

Adobe has just revealed the "first-ever Amazon Alexa Skill aimed at creative burnout." It's called the Adobe Inspiration Engine, and it's aimed at artists, photographers and other creatives who have fallen into a rut and need a little boost to get those creative juices flowing.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. We reported over the weekend that iPhone users have been enjoying free and unlimited original-quality photo backups through Google Photos thanks to the ultra-efficient HEIC file format. Google is now calling it a "bug" and saying that it will be fixed.

Last year, Adobe promised that a full-blown version of Photoshop CC for the iPad would ship in 2019. As we approach the end of the year, it seems that Adobe is on track to deliver on that promise, but according to some current beta testers, the app might not deliver all of the features professionals want or expect.

Adobe has launched a new version of its Creative Cloud desktop application that has been redesigned from the ground up "to be a more intuitive way to access your apps, update them, and discover new apps that complement or extend your creativity."

The popular and increasingly powerful macOS photo editor Pixelmator Pro has released a major update that adds full compatibility with macOS Catalina (sorry Adobe), allowing users of the latest MacBook Pros to use their iPads as a high-end photo editing tablet for retouching.

Shutterstock has rolled out a new background removal tool to its Shutterstock Editor online image editor, allowing users to quickly and easily extract subjects from their backgrounds in any photo.

Adobe is causing an international stir today after the software giant announced that it would be "deactivating all accounts in Venezuela" due to a US Executive Order issued back in August. The news was quietly published in a support article uncovered by Bleeping Computer, but journalists and Venezuelan creatives alike are baffled by Adobe's justification.