With Darktable, like with Lightroom, you can organize, store, visualize. But you also can modify/edit your photo pictures (in RAW as in JPEG), including in a non-destructive way.

It’s worth trying by yourself (with this kind of price, there is no downside).

• Download Darktable (in English).
• Download Darktable (en français).

It’s been years that I was tracking this product with great care. Here is the best photo news of 2017 (it will compensate the worst one from Adobe Lightroom).

I find several advantages to it:

1. At 5 frames per second on my Canon EOS 70D, the animal moves are decomposed enough to chose the best attitude (e.g. avoiding blinking eyes);
2. I also learned a long time ago that optical stabilization is not the perfect tool to remove strictly all the fuzz and inside a continuous shooting set, the second or the third is often a tad bit more precise, more crispy than the first one (the small move induced by pressing the shutter button will produce a minuscule imprecision that is not welcome on a large-sized  print when the tripod is not available).

Of course, this forces me in comparing thousands of photos. Two by two or three by three, I must choose the best one and dump the other(s). On Adobe Bridge, it goes very fast. But, if -like me) you started regretting the time of simple software prices (instead of monthly license rental costs), you want to go and look elsewhere.

On Windows (it would work on MacOS too), I tried Lightroom but its library management is definitely not living well with my (bad?) habit of transferring files from disk to disk, grouping and backing up in many locations (while handling more than 2 TB of archives). So what can I do? I had to find a better solution, preferably a low-cost one. Since I don’t like the idea of pirating a big executable version (is it still happening today?), I rushed into photo forums  and found FastStone FSViewer which is free for personal use on Windows.

The user interface is not the same as Bridge, of course. But you can easily and quickly compare 4 images. Maybe somewhat faster than on Bridge.

This is a free download and it is a good replacement for Adobe Bridge on Windows (I will no longer need to keep this old version, I can go freeware).

• Video demo of “PatchMatch“, an algorithm developed by Princeton scientific research and Adobe.
• AppleInsider’s sneak peek at CS6 look and feel
• Image de-blurring demonstrated at 2011 Adobe MAX in October 2011, and many other technological presentations shown at the same time.

But, for now, since April 2010, we are still stuck with the old and faithful Photoshop CS5. A very good reason to keep looking at enlightening sources of new techniques, tutorials, solutions and free plug-ins. The last ones I stumbled upon:

• An Introduction to Working with Layers and Masks in Photoshop
• Creating Textures in Photoshop
• How to Use Photoshop’s High Pass Filter to Soften Skin While Retaining Texture by PetaPixel
• Smarter Content Aware Fill in Photoshop brilliantly solves an issue often found when using “content-aware fill“: Photoshop sometimes fills with parts of the image that are taken from the most surprising places (and often the less pleasant ones). A simple and 100% efficient solution.
• Camera RAW vs. Lightroom einmal, in deutscher Sprache verfasst
• Finally, a hodge-podge of filters, brushes, plugins, all free for Photoshop: Free Photoshop Filters, Brushes and Plugins

• Photoshop: Panoramabilder entzerren
• How to Reduce Your Depth of Field in Photoshop
• Camera Raw 6 : accentuer la netteté
• Learn the basics of color focus editing in Photoshop CS5
• Photoshop Tutorial Mine : from image to flickr
• Photoshop CS5: Der seltsame “Eigene Filter”
• Photoshop CS5: Tuning für den “Eigenen Filter”

And I will also add a few Photoshop plugins that I could recommend right now.

• Curves by Mehdi offers predefined curves (helping understand the curves feature of Photoshop
• Grain Generator by Richard Rosenman will add all the grain you want to your photograph (excessively configurable)
• virtualPhotographer by optikVerve Labs: 200 one-click preset effects
• B/W Conversion by photo-plugins.com
• Fed up with the work of cleaning out wires from the landscape, not having the fill-by-content CS5 feature? Go and download Wire Worm by MV’s Plugins

According to us, this is even more compelling for the users of the entry-level photo cameras (probably because their users have less background experience to support them while they handle a Digital SLR camera that is much more complex than the bridge or compact camera they may have used before). At Canon, these SLR cameras are recognized by their three-figure moniker (EOS 500D, EOS 550D, EOS 600D, etc.)

With those users on our mind, we searched as extensively as needed to find the users guides for those SLR cameras:

• User manual for the Canon EOS 600D
• User manual for the Canon EOS 550D
• User manual for the Canon EOS 500D
• User manual for the Canon EOS 450D

They are now at your disposal in an easy to download electronic format (a PDF file) and they are free.

• Canon EOS 600D Instruction Manual (17.0MB ZIP file, in English, from Canon Europe)
• Canon EOS 600D Instruction Manual (17.3MB PDF file, in English)
• Canon EOS 600D books at Amazon
• Mode d’emploi du Canon EOS 600D (ZIP de 19,4 Mo de Canon Europe)
• Mode d’emploi du Canon EOS 600D (PDF de 19,7 Mo)
• Canon EOS 600D Bedienungsanleitung (18.4 MB ZIP auf Canon Deutschland)

These user manuals are free to download.

If you detect a change (a user manual which becomes unavailable or which moved to a different location, or a new manual to download), please, tell us about it with a small comment below. The Canon EOS 600D lovers and those who would like to read the manual before buying the product will thank you.

• Canon EOS Rebel T3 / EOS 1100D / Kiss X50
• Canon EOS Rebel T3i / EOS 600D / Kiss X5
• Olympus E-5
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100
• Pentax K-r
• Pentax K-5

It also addresses processing issues for the following cameras:

• Nikon D7000
• Nikon Coolpix P7000
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2

Supported Languages: Deutsch, English, Français, 日本語, Español, Italiano, Nederlands.

photo credit: yellowcloud

Pentax has announced a tsunami of firmware updates for its SLR photo cameras:

• Pentax K-5 firmware v1.02
• Pentax K-r firmware v1.01
• Pentax 645D firmware v1.01

Canon offers a new firmware (v1.0.8) for the Canon EOS 60D.

It fixes a phenomenon in which captured images may become overexposed when using the camera’s built-in flash or an external Speedlite in combination with the lenses listed below:

a) EF300/4 L IS USM
b) EF28-135/3.5-5.6 IS USM
c) EF75-300/4-5.6 IS USM
d) EF100-400/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

Download freely from Canon.

photo © 2010 yellowcloud | more info (via: Wylio)

Update: This is now confirmed and the firmware can be downloaded freely.

According to SonyAlphaRumors.com, Sony will present tomorrow a new version of the firmware for the Sony Alpha 850 and 900 SLR Full Frame photo cameras. It should bring:

• Faster Autofocus
• Maximum exposure compensation range: Increased from ±3EV to ±5EV
• Increased exposure bracketing range for HDR: from a maximum of 4.0EV (three shots at -2EV, 0EV, +2EV) to a maximum of 6.0EV (-3EV, 0EV, +3EV).
• Shutter release, even when the camera body doesn’t detect an attached lens.

Download the new (free) firmware from Sony. As soon as it is available. Right now!

The direct link: http://support.sony-europe.com/dime/downloads/downloads.aspx?site=odw_fr_FR&f=FW_DSLR_A850_A900_V2_WIN_MAC&m=DSLR-A850

Unfortunately, ArgyllCMS is only a set of command line tools. So, they lack most of the pleasant interface that we photographers prefer to use.

This is no longer an issue when you start using dispcalGUI, a graphical front-end for several utilities from the open source color management system ArgyllCMS, specifically dispcal, dispread, colprof and dispwin, which when used together allow you to calibrate and profile your display using a measurement device.

No need to worry about command line commands and options!

Screenshots

GNOME	GNOME: Gamut Mapping Options	GNOME: Edit Testchart
GNOME: Display Adjustment	GNOME: Measure	GNOME: View Curves
KDE4	Mac OS X	Windows 7

If you are a photographer and you use Linux, you cannot afford not to use dispcalGUI.

Main features:

• Fixes a phenomenon in which the set aperture moves when shooting movies in manual exposure mode using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
• Fixes the AF point-selection behavior of the C.Fn III-7 (Manual AF pt. selec. pattern) custom function when set to [1].
• Fixes the AF point display for the viewfinder electronic level when shooting in the vertical position.
• Corrects misspellings in the Spanish and Thai menus for applicable products.

Firmware Downloads from the Canon (Japan) web site: Canon EOS 7D firmware.

• Instructions in Japanese
• Instructions in English

photo credit: eirikso

Canon launches two new firmwares (surprisingly, both hold the same version number v1.0.8, but they are really two different firmwares split at birth for two different cameras).

For the Canon EOS 1D Mk-IV, this is the correction of a bug around the aperture management in video mode.
For the Canon EOS 550D, menus have to be corrected/updated.

As usual, the downloads will take place from the Canon Japanese web site:

• Download Firmware Update 1.0.8 pour Canon EOS 550D
• Download Firmware Update 1.0.8 pour Canon EOS 1D Mk-IV

The excellent images handling software program, IrfanView, has just been upgraded to version 4.27.

• Command line options to handle images with scripts (actions) or filters.
• Addition of a border or a frame.
• Addition of new filters and file formats.
• The screen copies options now allow to handle larger objects like a full web page (auto-scroll is included).

Even better, it stays free.

It is no longer possible to list all the web sites that offer you the possibility to assemble a photo collage in a form that is appreciated by so many photographers despite its simplicity. Many web sites are characterized by the needed payments they request, but the idea has come a long way and what could be easily done with scissors and a glue stick, is now available on a computer near you. So, here are just two ideas I liked.

• PhotoVisi offers about the usual services with the main difference that you can freely download the image file in 1600×1200 pixels.
• ShapeCollage is letting your imagination roam freely with its huge choice of templates taking the form of nearly anything and because it is a free download software.

If, after that, you do not have ideas for your next photos, I’ll resign…

The new version of HDRtist, v1.2, is available for free download.

photo credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

Blair Mathis decided to reduce the distance between them by the installation of several plugins on GIMP. And the result is astonishingly interesting. All the more because the process is fully documented step-by-step, which makes it little more than a longer software installation.

1. PSPI
2. Layers
3. Separate+ from Yellowmagic
4. Liquid Rescale from Wikidot (for an image rescale without deformation as in CS4)
5. Additional brushes from Blendfu
6. GIMP Animation Package
7. Enable GEGL

But if this is not enough, there are also a few hacked versions of GIMP that have been already prepared for the Photoshop lovers. The most renowned are:

• GimpShop whose interface is specially good
• GimPhoto is slightly less convincing but is based on a more recent (and more powerful) GIMP version

Once again, here is how you can (nearly) download Photoshop for free, while being well on the right side of law.

Aviary, one of the best online graphics edition software, just changed its pricing model. Instead of the subscriptions previously used, they went for a new price structure: 100% free. Supported by new financial partners, they offer their tools for free. Impressive free tool suite.

The announcement on the Aviary blog.

• Pentax K-x User Manual

The EXIF data hold a lot of useful technical information about your photos. One of these is the date and hour of the snapshot. This is quite pleasant, useful and nice up to the moment when your camera internal clock fails or starts lagging. Or when you need very precise synchronization with another device (like a GPS geo-marker, for example). Here, you need to correct precisely the hour (or worse, the date) written in your photos and -generally- you have to do it on dozens of photos at once.

How to do this? Under Windows, ask to EXIF Date Changer from Relik Software. This utility program will allow to correct this information in a matter of seconds.

But, please, remember that even if this is perfectly legal, beta-quality software may contain some bugs and glitches that are not backed up by a manufacturer’s warranty. You’re just helping Adobe make Lightroom 3 into a better Lightroom.

Download Lightroom 3 public beta for free.

Via DownloadSquad.

For example, I created this weirder than weird image of Michael Jackson (from the thumbnail shown below).

On Windows, Photoshop SpeedUp is a freeware that can solve part of this issue. It gives all the tools to reduce load times for the big Adobe Photoshop tool.

Here is the application with a rather dull image taken from the back of La Défense in Paris.

1st solution: Photoshop

Let’s start preparing the picture with Image > Adjustment > Shadow/highlight.... We’ll start with quite heavy settings! Shadows: amount:50%, tonal width:45%, radius:44px ; Highlights: amount:67%, tonal width:65%, radius:46px ; Adjustments: color correction:+20, midtone contrast:0, black clip:0,01%, white clip:0,01%.

You have one heavily modified “base” layer. Duplicate it and select an interaction of color dodge. Highlights are burnt and totally white. But the colours have been hightened.

Do the duplicate dance again, but with an interaction of linear burn. Now, there is too much black. Set black as foreground color, then Select > color range... and apply a fuzziness of 100. Now add a new layer mask using the little icon with a circle in a rectangle at the bottom of the layers box.

Now, duplicate it again, but with an interaction of Overlay. Press Ctrl-I. You can start playing with the opacity of the last two layers, preferably 40% for “overlay” and 60% for “linear burn”.

Set white as foreground color, then Select > color range... and apply a fuzziness of 100. Select the “base” layer, duplicate it, and move it up the list of layers. Again, use the icon to add a layer mask. You may want to apply a Gaussian blur with Filter > Attenuation > gaussian blur... with a radius of 2. This step is giving the kind of halo that is most visible in most HDR images, so choose the adequate radius value for your image.

last step could be to correct the always-possible color shift (or to create one) by adding an adjustment layer (using the black-and-white circle icon), option color balance.... But it is not often needed:

Source: a now-closed web site at www.hdrphotos.net.

2nd solution: The Gimp

Using The Gimp, you may use directly the plugin from Gimpology.com. It’s propably a little less extreme than my prefered solution.

3rd solution: Photoshop tutorial

I found another Photoshop tutorial on the web at Various Photography Thoughts.

Final Note

CreateHDR which is supposed to do all this for free and online does not seem to work anymore, except -sometimes- for very small pictures. Did they have too much success?