Photography News from around the interwebs. You can keep up to date on the photography news that catches my eye in this regular blog post. Learn about new software, hardware, photography workshops or really anything that I though you might like and or need to know.
Photography News: Software
Adobe Lightroom Release Candidate
Adobe just announced release candidates for Lightroom 5.2 and Camera Raw 8.2.
Lightroom 5.2 adds the usual new camera and additional lens support as well as a couple of new features. New features are rather uncommon so this is some pretty cool photography news!
- A Smoothness adjustment slider has been added to the Detail Panel under Color Noise Reduction. This helps to reduce low-frequency color mottling artifacts
- Refinements to the Spot Healing Tool:
- New Feather control
- Auto find source method now works better for images with textured areas like rocks, bark, and foliage
- Auto find source method now prefers source areas within the crop rectangle
- Smart Preview size has been updated to 2560 pixels on the long edge.
- Refinements to the Local Adjustment Brush:
- Right Click (PC) / Control-click (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to bring up a context menu to duplicate or delete
- Control+Alt+Drag (PC) / Command+Option+Drag (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to clone (duplicate) that adjustment
As a release candidate that means there could be some hidden problems and Adobe is providing them early so you can “help” find the bugs. I’ve never had a problem, but your mileage may vary!
You can download the release candidates at the following links from Adobe Labs:
If you don’t have Adobe Lightroom, shame on you! Go buy it now, you will thank me later.
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GoPro Updates Smartphone App
Some new sharing features have been added to the GoPro app for IOS and Android.
- View photos and play back videos1
- Copy photos and videos1 to a GoPro album on your smartphone or tablet
- Share photos and videos1 via email, text, Instagram, Facebook or other app
- Browse and delete files on the camera’s memory card
Wait, What? You don’t have a GoPro? I love mine, I think you will too!
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All New SmugMug
I’ve been a faithful Zenfolio user for sometime, but I have friends that LOVE their SmugMug. The new update makes me think that I might like it too! Check it out…HERE.
You can see my Zenfolio galleries…HERE.
You can also save 10% with Zenfolio using my code, C1R-M4Y-MEZ
Next-Gen Gallery WordPress Plugin
The venerable (7.5 million downloads!) WordPress plugin has been updated to an all new version with teh release of 2.0. To be honest, I have mostly gone away from this plugin because of all of the improvements WordPress has made to the native gallery. These updates look cool though!
- NEW: Improved user experience throughout the plugin, settings and usage.
- NEW: Plupload queue uploader that allows for bulk and zip uploads within the same interface.
- NEW: Complete redesign of the NextGEN options panel
- NEW: Added new interface for adding galleries from pages and posts.
- NEW: Galleries are now mobile friendly and responsive, which is most noticeable with a responsive theme.
- NEW: Streamlined functionality for displaying galleries based on tags.
- NEW: Architecture based on Pope Framework
- NEW: New shortcode, “ngg_images”, and corresponding Attach to Post interface
- NEW: Galleries have now global and instance settings
- NEW: Support for FastCGI environments
- Changed: Replaces shortcodes with placeholder images, however still supports legacy shortcodes.
- Changed: Introduced new Growl-like notifications
- Changed: The container and it’s images are centered for slideshows
- Changed: NextGEN styles now override vs replace default styles
- Changed: NextGEN legacy templates have been deprecated (but still function)
- FIXED: The ability to use NextGEN image as a Featured Image.
- FIXED: Many bugs and annoyances, such as PHP warnings, errors, etc.
Photography News: Workshops
If you are interested in learning more about my wildlife, nature and creative photography workshops, click the button!
