Sony's Imaging Edge software suite is now available to download for Mac and Windows. Announced at the same time as the A7R III camera, Imaging Edge includes a remote shooting application, image viewer and RAW development application. Importantly, Imaging Edge also supports the A7R III's Pixel Shift Multi Shooting mode.

Download Imaging Edge

Adobe Lightroom Downloader is a new app that downloads all your Lightroom CC photos and videos from the cloud as original files and stores them in a local folder. Available for  Windows 10 and macOS High Sierra, Adobe Lightroom Downloader retains any edits made to the raw images by writing them into the XMP sidecar files that accompany the downloaded raw files.

Get the Adobe Lightroom Downloader app

AKVIS Retoucher 9.0 is a photo restoration software that helps to remove dust, scratches, date stamps and other unwanted details from photos. Version 9 offers a number of Color Correction parameters, the flexible Crop tool as well as the Vignette option that lightens/darkens the image at its perimeter. AKVIS Retoucher 9.0 is available now for $87.

ON1 Photo RAW 2018 offers photographers accelerated photo management, precise photo development, hundreds of customizable photo effects, fast and beautiful HDR, pano stitching, masking and blending adjustments, layers, and much more.

ON1 Photo RAW 2018 is available for download as a free 30-day trial from the ON1 website. Previous owners of any ON1 app (or ON1 plug-in) can upgrade for $99.99. Those who don’t own an ON1 app can order for $119.99.

The Capture One Brand Ambassador Program aims to show why Capture One is considered “the professionals’ choice in image editing.”

Halide 1.5 is a camera app with a redesigned user interface made from scratch for iPhone X, as well as offering numerous enhancements and new features for all iPhones. Halide 1.5 will be on sale for $2,99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) for a limited time during iPhone X launch weekend from Friday November 3rd, to Monday November 6th, after which the price will go up to $4,99.

The new 1.6 versions of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are even faster, smoother and more powerful than before. Also, for a limited period, buyers of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer will be able to claim a bundle of creativity-boosting extra goodies totally free of charge. The v1.6 update is available free of charge to existing owners of the Affinity desktop apps.

Digital Film Tools have released Film Stocks v3.0, which adds 8 Black & White Films, Polaroid presets, 12 Faded - Color presets, 5 Faded - Black & White presets, and 16 Motion Picture Film presets. 89 color-grading presets from Academy Award nominated movies are also provided. The Film Stocks photo plug-in is available now for $50 USD, while the  Film Stocks video/film plug-in is available for $95.00 USD.

Macphun (Skylum) today announced Luminar 2018. This edition offers everything a modern photographer needs for photo editing, including new filters powered by artificial intelligence, major speed improvements, a dedicated RAW develop module and a forthcoming in 2018 digital asset management platform. Users will also benefit from the new intelligent Sun Rays filter, LUT support and real-time noise removal. Luminar 2018 has been re-built from the ground up for dramatic performance boosts. Existing filters deliver richer colors and depth in less time. A brand new streamlined user interface speeds up working with presets, filters, and masks. With full support of pro options like layers, masks, and blending modes, complex repairs and photo composites can be easily accomplished. Luminar 2018 will become available in November 2017, and in 2018 a free update will provide a new image-browser / digital asset manager to help photographers manage their image libraries. Pre-order for Luminar 2018 will run from November 1 until November 16. New users will be able to purchase Luminar 2018 for $59, and current users of Luminar may upgrade at a special price of $39.

With Macphun expanding to the Windows platform by bringing Luminar and Aurora HDR to Windows users, the company has felt compelled to change its name in order to reflect this development. The new name is Skylum. "We think that this name is a better fit, since we’re no longer a Mac-only developer," says Alex Tsepko, Chief Executive Officer. "It’s also closer to where we want to go in the near future. We will continue to use Macphun name this year, and early in 2018, we'll completely switch to Skylum."

X-Rite have announced the i1Studio, an all new start-to-finish colour management solution that delivers expert results from capture to print. The package comprises the i1Studio all-in-one spectrophotometer, i1Studio software; X-Rite’s market leading ColorChecker camera calibration tools and the ColorTRUE mobile app for iOS devices. “Photographers tell stories with their pictures. Along with light, colour plays an essential role in telling these stories. We want to make sure that story is told as perfectly as possible, whether it’s colour, or black and white,” said Liz Quinlisk, Marketing Director Photo & Video, X-Rite. “Managing colour should be easy with getting accurate repeatable results every time as the ultimate goal. i1Studio provides an intuitive, start-to-finish colour management solution for every device in our users’ workflow so they can easily achieve this goal and get amazing results.”

DxO today released DxO PhotoLab, successor to the company's highly regarded OpticsPro raw image conversion software, which now incorporates Nik Software's U Point technology. This local adjustment technology allows users, with just a few clicks and Control Points, to make complex selections, which would normally take meticulous, time-consuming work using a brush tool. Following this recent acquisition, DxO PhotoLab is now the only software to offer U Point technology in a non-destructive raw image conversion workflow. To provide photographers with all the tools they need to make local corrections, DxO is rounding out DxO PhotoLab’s feature list with an auto mask retouching brush that’s perfect for making precise selections, especially on portraits, as well as a graduated filter tool that’s useful for landscape photography. These tools share many similarities with Control Points: they give all users access to essential settings options, including exposure, contrast, white balance, micro-contrast, vibrancy, sharpness, and the addition of a bokeh effect. Dxo PhotoLab also includes a repair tool that has been rebuilt from the ground up. The interface is just as simple as before, featuring a simple brush that can be used on the areas that need retouching; but the underlying algorithm provides much better — and faster — results. The Essential and Elite editions of DxO PhotoLab for PC and Mac can be downloaded from the DxO website.

DxO today announced the acquisition of the Nik Collection assets from Google. The Nik Collection is composed of seven desktop plugins for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop that provide a powerful range of photo editing capabilities. The current lineup of the Nik Collection includes Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro, Dfine, Viveza and Sharpener Pro. DxO plans to continue development of the Nik Collection. The current version will remain available for free on DxO’s dedicated website, while a new version is planned for mid-2018.

Phase One today released The Film Styles Pack for Capture One. This newest Styles Pack is designed for photographers who long to create the feel and texture from the days of analogue photography. Capture One Film Styles give photographers a head start in the editing process, providing a solid foundation of adjustments for a faster workflow. Styles function as inspiration, providing a quick view of images, with a variety of editing options. This latest release delivers 15 different “looks,” each in three different strengths, from subtle to regular to strong, for a total of 45 different Styles. The Capture One Film Pack is available now for $69 / €69 from the Phase One e-store.

At Adobe MAX, Adobe announced a number of feature updates to Photoshop CC. Lightroom Photos is now available in the Photoshop start screen and search, so you can search or browse the photos you’ve synced across Lightroom’s desktop, mobile and cloud experiences and import and edit them directly in Photoshop. The search functionality in Lightroom Photos is powered by Adobe Sensei so you can search through your photos even if you’ve never tagged them. Furthermore, you can now open and edit 360 spherical panoramic images, and retain key metadata on export to use with third-party panoramic viewers. Another new feature is colour and luminance range masking in Adobe Camera Raw, as well as support for HEIF files, allowing users to take advantage of iPhone 7+ depth map data to create a shallow depth-of-field effect. Other novelties include improvements to the selection, masking and resizing processes, a new Curvature Pen Tool and enhanced Brush Presets. You can read more about these feature improvements at the website below

Adobe have just announced the all-new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC cloud- based photography service. Featuring a streamlined user interface, Lightroom CC enables image editing in full resolution across mobile, desktop, and the web. With Lightroom CC, photographers can make edits on one device and automatically synchronise their changes everywhere. Additionally, Lightroom CC has scalable storage options for safe and secure back up of full resolution photos including raw files. Plus, Adobe Sensei’s machine learning technology automatically applies searchable keywords to objects in photographs, making organisation in Lightroom CC easier than ever. The all-new Lightroom CC is available across three photography plans: the Creative Cloud Photography plan with 1 TB includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom for mobile and web, Photoshop CC, Adobe Spark with premium features, Adobe Portfolio, and 1 TB of cloud storage (£16.64/month excl. VAT), but Lightroom CC has also been added to the existing Creative Cloud Photography plan with an additional 20 GB of storage to help users get started on the new service. This plan remains at £8.32/month excl. VAT. Finally, the all-new Lightroom CC plan addresses the needs of photographers who want a cloud-based photography service for editing, organising, storing and sharing their photos from wherever they are, and includes Lightroom CC, Lightroom for mobile and web, Adobe Spark with premium features, Adobe Portfolio, and 1 TB of cloud storage (£8.32/month excl. VAT).

Anthropics today launched PortraitPro 17. This version adds new tools such as Background Editing, Snapshots, advanced Preset controls and Vignette, plus new makeup options, improved automatic face-detection technology, an updated interface and faster operation. 

“Background editing and Snapshots are things we’ve been working towards for a while,” said CEO Andrew Berend. “It’s really exciting to finally see them in the hands of our users.” PortraitPro 17 is now available for purchase, priced from $39.95/£29.95.

Akvis today released SmartMask 10 for Mac and Windows. This update adds a new Refine Radius tool to the Refine Edges mode that lets users locally fine-tune the boundaries of their selection. Additionally, the Magic Brush tool has been improved and now offers a number of new settings allowing you to more precisely define the colours to keep/drop. Last but not least, the new version comes with the new Grey interface theme, support for new raw image files in the standalone version, and some bug fixes. Version 10 is a free upgrade for everyone who bought the product in the last 12 months. The software runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10; and Mac OS 10.7-10.13. The product is available as a standalone application and as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Corel PaintShop Pro.

Alien Skin Software today released Exposure X3, the latest version of their non-destructive raw photo editor and organiser. This edition brings new colour and B&W toning enhancements that give photographers greater control over their image adjustments. Powerful new organising tools include virtual copies for editing multiple variations of a single photo, without taking up additional disk space. Exposure’s intuitive keywords interface enables photographers to add descriptive metadata to their photo, making it easy to organize photos around themes and to create keyword sets. The advanced collections tools help them quickly and easily group their images, no matter where they appear on their computer. Exposure X3 is available for $149. Existing users can upgrade for $99.

Adobe today launched Photoshop Elements 2018, which offers a number of new features and improvements over Elements 15. "This release focuses on enhancing the experience even further for memory keepers with hassle free organization, automated editing and some fun new Guided Edits that walk you through how to edit and create," says Bob Gager, Product Management Team Leader for Photoshop Elements. Adobe Elements Organiser 2018 now automatically curates your photos based on quality, faces, subjects etc., and allows curated photos to be turned into dynamic slideshows with just one click. The program offers a number of new Guided Edits and adds a brand new Auto Selection tool that makes precise photo selections easier than ever. Plus, Adobe Photoshop Elements can now "open closed eyes like magic," meaning that the program can automatically copy the open eyes from one photo and blend them into another to create the perfect shot. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 is available now for $100.