Photo Editing and Organizing

Adobe Lightroom Classic CC

A long-promised speed boost has arrived with version 7.2 of the desktop-only version of Lightroom (a.k.a. Lightroom Classic). If you have 12GB of RAM or more, you should see a nice improvement in the speed of importing, exporting and moving between images in the Loupe view. Lightroom’s automatic image enhancements have also been improved using the company’s artificial intelligence technology, dubbed Adobe Sensei.

Hidden Gem: Create a collection from a folder. This is a new capability within the Folders panel of the Library module. If a folder contains subfolders, you can also choose to create a collection that has the same hierarchy as that of the top folder.

Price: $10/month
adobe.com

ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1

New features include uodates to image importing, support for tethered shooting (Canon and Nikon cameras only for now), metadata templates, video browsing and more. The software offers masking tools, layered editing, HDR and panoramic tools.

Hidden Gem: Purity sliders. Ideal for removing color casts from image highlights and/or shadows.

Price: $80
on1.com

DxO PhotoLab

Formerly known as OpticsPro, DxO’s RAW editor is now integrated with Nik Software’s U Point technology for precise and powerful local adjustments. There’s also new support for drone camera RAW files.

Hidden Gem: Full screen mode. Press F12 on Windows or Shift+Cmd +F on Mac and you’ll be able to quickly cull and edit images, browse, rate and tag photos efficiently.

Prices: start at $100 
dxo.com

Phase One Capture One 11

The major theme with Capture One’s v. 11 release is layered editing. Now all of its numerous adjustment tools are compatible with layered editing—you can also add Capture One’s Style presets as a layer.

Hidden Gem: Annotations. Write directly on your image and export your notations as a layer on a PSD file.

Price: $299
phaseone.com

Zoner Photo Studio X

Combining non-destructive RAW photo editing with a robust image organizing tool, this recently updated editor has new presets and an AI tool that automatically finds faces in photos to optimize image corrections.

Hidden Gem: Batch edits. Resize, rename, apply presets or other edits to hundreds of images at once.

Price: $49
zoner.com

Alien Skin Exposure X3

With its Complete Workflow Update, X3 takes another step toward unifying image editing and organizing. Updates include improved keywording tools, such as the ability to import keyword sets from third-party apps, and the ability to print from within X3. Beyond organizing, the new update adds color controls for adjusting hue, luminance and saturation for specific colors.

Hidden Gem: Batch editing, which lets you adjust white balance or apply presets to an entire collection of images before you start on more specific edits.

Price: $149
alienskin.com

Camera Bits Photo Mechanic 5

Known for its speedy import, culling and organizing tools, Photo Mechanic helps you work faster. You can begin culling images as they import, create web galleries, compare images and much more.

Hidden Gem: The Adjust Capture Dates and Times tool. It lets you adjust the date or time for one photo and fix the rest of the photos in a group automatically with a relative time change. Ideal for organizing a wedding with multiple shooters.

Price: $150
camerabits.com

ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2018

Photo Studio Professional 2018 adds a slew of useful editing tools. You’ll find lens corrections, a smart-erase tool— to fill in pixels when you remove an object—and a chromatic aberration removal tool, among others.

Hidden Gem: Mobile syncing. Using the free ACDSee Mobile Sync app (iOS and Android), you can move images and videos from your phone into ACDSee Photo Studio Professional by sending them over the same Wi-Fi network as the desktop app.

Price: $160
acdsee.com

Anthropics PortraitPro 17

With version 17, PortraitPro adds several new retouching tools, including the ability to save your retouching progress as “snapshots” that you can return to if you want to examine earlier steps in your editing process. Create custom presets and batch-apply them to photos, and take advantage of new vignette tools and new bronzer makeup options.

Hidden Gem: Background Controls. Beyond tweaking people, you can edit or totally remove a background behind your portrait subject.

Price: $80
portraitprofessional.com

Skylum Luminar 2018

The rebranded Macphun Luminar is now available on both Mac and Windows PCs, and delivers new lens corrections and transform tools, plus the ability to apply color look-up tables (LUTs) to still photos. The software has been retooled for faster performance when working with RAW files, too.

Hidden Gem: Sun ray filter. Allows you to place a sun in your photo with adjustable rays that spill naturally throughout your scene.

Prices: start at $100
dxo.com

Athentech Perfectly Clear 3

Version 3.5 is now a standalone app that hones in on faces with a new Face Aware Exposure to correct exposure for faces in front of bright backgrounds. There are now 56 presets and an improved UI, portrait tools and more.

Hidden Gem: Image science. The algorithms that power Perfectly Clear’s automated corrections are the same used by many pro labs to correct files for printing.

Price: $129
athentech.com

Online Galleries, Proofing and Sales Tools

PASS

This client gallery platform features a Lightroom uploader, a mobile app, a free website portfolio and a store to sell prints.

Hidden Gem: Vivi. This tool automatically creates a highlight reel of the photographer’s most popular photos.

Prices: start at $0 for 20gb of storage (15 percent store fee)
passgallery.com

Fundy Designer

This design tool is packed with intelligent features that speed album building or help you sell wall art to your clients. You can choose from 142 different print partners to create your output, including a number of “Direct” partners whose templates are integrated into Designer.

Hidden Gem: Card designer. Build your own photo cards. Pre-designed cards can be customized and then printed through Fundy’s lab partners.

Prices: start at $199
fundydesigner.com

Zenfolio

You can build a website using a large selection of templates, sell prints and digital downloads, offer client proofs, manage events and more. All of the plans support unlimited photo and video uploads.

Hidden Gem: Client marketing campaigns. With this tool, Zenfolio becomes your marketing team, sending out a coupon code to customers and managing email communications with clients.

Prices: start at $5/month
zenfolio.com

Pixpa

The cloud-based Pixpa lets you build your own portfolio site using drag-and-drop elements and a collection of themes. The service also supports building an e-commerce site for both physical and digital goods.

Hidden Gem: For an extra $5/month you can add the ability to offer client proofing albums that are either public or private.

Prices: start at $5/month

pixpa.com

Pic-Time

This website and client gallery solution gives photographers a chance to show and sell their work through a clean interface. It has tools for displaying your work, selling prints and conducting email marketing campaigns.

Hidden Gem: Album building. Pic-Time lets your clients build their own albums using the website’s tools, but you can also choose to design, build and sell your own.

Prices: start at $10, with 15 percent commission on store sales
www.pic-time.com

PhotoProofPro

An elegant solution for online proofing, PhotoProofPro is responsive so mobile browsers enjoy a great view. Each client gets their own page with your custom branding, and client records are
kept so you can track who ordered and shared what.

Hidden Gem: Client and photographer ratings. You can rate your favorite images that a client sees and they can offer their own input as well.

Prices: start at $0 for 250mb storage, 3-client limit
photoproofpro.com

Swift Galleries

This in-person wall-art sales tool helps your clients visualize how your photos will look on their walls. It offers tools to properly size images for a client’s walls, along with tools to sell prints and albums as add-ons.

Hidden Gem: Education. Swift Galleries offers loads of it, including an in-person sales course that’s free if you pay annually.

Price: $24/month, $180/year
swiftgalleries.com

Pixieset

This online gallery and proofing tool offers both digital delivery and print sales. A Lightroom plugin lets you sync collections and upload images directly from Adobe’s program to your gallery.

Hidden Gem: Client Exclusive Access. When you want to take more control over who sees what, this tool lets you hide selected photo sets from public guests
while giving your client full access to the collection. The clients also has the ability to hide photos before they share.

Prices: start at $0, with a 15 percent commission on sales
pixieset.com

Pixellu SmartAlbums

With SmartAlbums, you can quickly drag-and-drop photos into a timeline and build album pages using lab presets. When you’re done, clients can proof the album and leave feedback via Pixellu’s cloud-proofing platform.

Hidden Gem: Face recognition. As you crop images, SmartAlbums can tell if a face is in the image and will automatically re-crop the image to make sure the face is not cropped out.

Price: $299 (smartalbums), from $13/month (cloud proofing)
pixellu.com

ShootProof

With tools for client albums and a custom mobile app, ShootProof lets your clients browse password- protected galleries that are easily shareable on social media. You can create galleries and slideshows with a selection of over 14,000 audio tracks to choose from.

Hidden Gem: New downloading options. You can set limits on the number of digital downloads a client gets with options for full-resolution or social media-friendly sizes.

Prices: start at $10/month
shootproof.com

CloudSpot

This cloud gallery and digital service gives you an unlimited number of galleries with both digital and print delivery services. There are custom templates to manage client communications, plus automatic image resizing and a Lightroom plugin for uploading.

Hidden Gem: Blazing downloads. When your clients get a link to images, they’re downloaded in an instant.

Price: starts at $0 with 1gb of storage, 15 percent commission on sales
cloudspot.io

Tech Tip: GPU Acceleration

It’s an increasingly recognized fact that Moore’s Law, the rule that computer processing power doubles every two years, no longer holds sway. But while computer processing speeds level out, digital images keep getting larger and more information-rich, putting an immense strain on our computers and the software that processes these images.

To help offset this computational work, software companies are relying on GPU acceleration to push some editing tasks that would typically be handled by the CPU into the GPU. Here’s what you need to know:

It’s invisible: If your graphics card is supported by your application, GPU acceleration happens under the hood. You won’t know it’s happening.

Compatible cards: A graphics card from NVIDIA, Intel or AMD that supports the OpenGL 3.3 and DirectX 12 standards are going to work fine for Windows PCs. For Macs, OpenGL 3.3 and Metal support are the watchwords. Each imaging program has its own requirements, but having at least 2GB of video RAM (VRAM) will be important, especially if you’re driving a 4K or 5K monitor.

When you don’t want to upgrade: If your PC or Mac has a Thunderbolt 3 connection, you may be able to purchase an external GPU if your internal one is too slow. For laptop users, it’s worth exploring if you’re hitting speed bumps.

As of this writing, programs that offer GPU acceleration include Lightroom CC (in the Develop Module), ON1 Photo RAW, Capture One v. 10 onward, DxO Optics Pro 11 onward and ACDSee Ultimate 10 onward.

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