Adobe programs are the go-to for most creatives. The company offers a wide variety of software for tackling just about anything you need to do, from photo and video editing to graphic design and illustration and more. Because of that, most students who are in some sort of creative program are required to have access to Adobe Creative Cloud. But that comes at a price. Adobe programs are subscription based, and they can be pricey, especially if you want access to more than one. Luckily, through September 4th, you can take advantage of 60 percent off Adobe programs plus a free month if you are a student or teacher and sign up for the annual Creative Cloud All Apps subscription.

Creative Cloud All Apps for teachers & students $19.99/month + a free month (was $54.99/month)

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Adobe Creative Cloud is the company’s name for its programs that live in its subscription-based model. This deal is only applicable if you opt for the All Apps plan, which includes Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign, and more. You also must be a student or teacher in order to take advantage of the $19.99 per month price. That price lasts for the first year and then will automatically increase to whatever the current student and teacher price is (it’s currently $29.99). The price for those not in school is $54.99 per month, and the Photography Plan alone is $19.99 for only two apps, so this deal really is pretty phenomenal. Plus, you get a free month, which sweetens the deal.

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Adobe has long been the primary editing program powerhouse, especially in the realm of video editing. Premiere Pro, it’s video editing platform, is typically the software of choice for pros and novices alike. In fact, in a recent press event, Adobe said that 61 percent of the films in last year’s Sundance Film Festival were edited in Adobe Premiere Pro. And now, Adobe has announced some pretty significant updates for creatives in three of its programs.

Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Frame.io will all see new features coming this year. Adobe specified that its theme this year is “Create your best work. All together now.” This highlights the fact that many of its updates revolve around collaborative work. It also said that after working with the pro-community, they zeroed in on three areas that are most important to users: Quality, stability, and performance. And indeed, the new features coming to those three programs all reflect those key aspects.

Adobe Premiere Pro updates

Adobe is bringing some truly exciting features and upgrades to Premiere Pro. These changes should make the program even easier and faster to use, no matter your skill or experience level. In fact, Adobe says that this is the most stable and fastest version of Premiere Pro yet. It is able to perform background autosaves, so you can access previous versions of your work if you need to, without manually saving and interrupting your workflow. There are new system reset options and new tools for managing plug-ins. And there’s more GPU acceleration, making just about all features faster.

Text-Based Editing

Perhaps one of the most significant new features in Premiere Pro is Text-Based Editing. This new AI-based workflow is powered by Adobe Sensei. It is able to transcribe your videos in the background, giving you a full transcript with zero work on your end.

You’ll be able to search for words that are relevant to you, finding the desired without scrubbing through the video and trying to find it by listening to random sections. And Premiere Pro will automatically break speaking parts it into relevant segments. That means that by using one simple keyboard shortcut (comma by default), you can add a specific clip into the timeline based solely on the text transcript alone. You won’t need to watch the clip over and over just to get the timing of the start and end correct.

Another useful feature is that AI will automatically detect pauses, which is reflected by ellipses in the transcript. You can click on those and delete them, making the process of cleaning up speaking parts much more simple and faster. Test-Based Editing also allows you to rearrange sections as if you are editing written text. It should be much more intuitive to learn as a result. And it all runs right on the device, meaning it will work even if you don’t have an internet connection.

The Text-Based Editing feature is currently available in Beta but is expected to be fully available in May.

Automatic tone mapping

In another push to make editing easier, Premiere Pro will soon provide access to automatic tone mapping. This feature makes it much easier to get consistent-looking footage no matter what camera or device you use. You can mix and match LOG and HDR footage or different color spaces, including iPhone Dolby Vision HDR (HLG), Sony S-Log, Panasonic V-Log, and Canon C-Log. Then, Premiere Pro will automatically balance out the footage to make them look similar.

The new process means you don’t have to rely on LUTs for creating a seamless throughout your video even if you use multiple cameras. And, even if you don’t use LUTs currently, you won’t have to fuss with getting adjustments to each clip just right in order to have consistent-looking footage. The automatic tone mapping can be turned off, however, if you prefer to have that hands-on control. And you can still use LUT-based workflows as well.

Automatic tone mapping will be available in Premiere Pro come February.

Additional features

Adobe has made a big push in recent years with collaborative features. That continues with even more collaboration tools coming to Premiere Pro. The sequence locking tool allows you to prevent others from making changes while you are working on a specific sequence. Version history is tracked, and all changes are automatically tracked both locally and in the cloud. Progressive project loading only loads specific parts of the project you need as you need them. And finally, you can work offline and sync your changes to the cloud later.

Beyond those big changes, Adobe will be implementing dozens of requested features. Perhaps one of the most notable is the ability to batch edit titles and graphics. If you need to adjust the font across the entire project, you will no longer need to go slide by slide, making that change. Overall, all the new features coming to Premiere Pro should greatly speed up and simplify the video editing process.

Adobe After Effects updates

Adobe After Effects is celebrating 30 years this year, so it’s also getting some important upgrades. The new Properties Panel, which will be familiar to anyone who has used Adobe Photoshop, provides instant access to the settings you need the most without clicking through multiple menu options. It’s a dynamic panel, changing depending on what is in the layer you are working on. Selectable track mattes will be easier and faster to use thanks to the ability to reuse mattes on different layers. And New ACES and OpenColorIO assist in getting consistent colors even when sharing content with other post-production apps.

Overall, all of the After Effects changes coming make the program easier and more intuitive to use, which we always like to see. These features will be rolling out in May.

Adobe Frame.io updates

The last Adobe program getting updates is Frame.io. The collaboration platform will soon be able to generate Forensic Watermark Codes. These codes are invisible and yet can survive live streams, screen recordings, and transcodes. Native aspect ratios will be visible in thumbnails, so you won’t need to click into a file to see if it’s vertical or horizontal. And there’s a new button that allows you to see all annotations at once instead of needing to filter through them one by one.

Adobe also worked on a few different important collaborations. The first will expand access to Frame.io’s Camera to Cloud feature. This workflow was previously only available for video users, but Adobe partnered with Fujifilm in order to provide native support for photographers who use Fujifilm’s X-H2S or X-H2 cameras. Those photographers can now instantly share files to Frame.io while still in the field. It will support raw files, as well as .pds, .ai, .pdf, and .indd files.

Adobe also collaborated with Capture One, creating an industry-first collaboration. This will allow you to upload directly to Capture One through Frame.io and then publish back to Frame.io from Capture One as well.

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Ahead of Adobe MAX–Adobe’s annual creative conference–later this month, the company has released a new version of its Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements programs. Photoshop Elements is a stripped-down version of Photoshop, Adobe’s popular and robust editing software. Premiere Elements is a more basic version of Premiere, its video editing software. Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2023 bring impressive AI features that let you add motion to still photos and incorporate one-click filters, making them powerful tools for those wanting a more user-friendly way to edit their photos or videos. 

New AI & photo editing features in Photoshop Elements

AI has been increasingly creeping into editing software, and this update to Elements continues that trend. Powered by Adobe’s Sensei AI, the new tools make creating dramatic and unique images easier. 

The most noteworthy feature of Photoshop Elements is Moving Elements. This tool allows you to easily add motion to still photos. You simply select the part of the image you want to move and choose the direction of travel, and the AI handles the rest. It works with water, clouds, fabric, and various other background subjects. You can then save the image in social media-ready formats, such as MP4 or GIF.

You’ll also get access to 87 step-by-step Guided Edits, which are ideal for beginners or those who don’t want to spend time on in-depth editing. One such Guided Edit is the Peek-through Overlay, which allows you to add objects to the foreground to create more depth in your photos. You can also take advantage of the AI to remove backgrounds or even move and scale subjects quickly and easily. These Guided Edits are also easily searchable now, using familiar terms and keywords.

Should you want to combine photos, Elements 2023 also has new collage and slideshow templates. These make it easy to add multiple photos into a collage with graphic elements and even text. 

New video editing tools in Premiere Elements

The most significant update on the Elements Premiere side is also based around Adobe’s Sensei AI. The Artistic Effects tool lets you apply effects based on the styles of popular artists, such as Monet or Van Gogh. You can adjust the level of the result, and it seamlessly applies to the entire video clip. 

Finally, you get 100 new audio tracks as part of the new Premiere Elements. These should make it easier to add the perfect soundtrack to your video. The tracks are all free, so you don’t need to worry about paying extra when adding music.

Mobile app & performance

With the latest update, Adobe improved the performance and stability of both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. The company claims you’ll get “35 percent faster installation, 50 percent faster launch times, a 48 percent reduction in app size” on most machines. Adobe also added full support for Apple’s M1-based devices. Those devices should see “up to 70 percent faster launch times on Apple M1-powered Mac computers,” according to Adobe. 

Beyond performance, Photoshop Elements 2023 comes with a new mobile companion app. It allows you to upload photos and videos to the cloud to streamline your editing process. (It’s also available with the purchase of Premiere Elements 2023.) There’s also a web companion app where you can share and view photos and videos as well as create collages and slideshows. Unfortunately, the mobile app is Android only for now, and both the mobile and web app are English-only beta for the time being. 

Availability & pricing

Both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are available now. You can purchase a digital code as a bundle deal for $149.99 for either PC or Mac. You can also buy a physical code. If you want Premiere Elements only, it’s available for $99.99 with a digital code compatible with Mac, PC, or a physical code. The standalone version of Photoshop Elements is also $99.99 for a digital code for Mac and PC or a physical code. If you already have one or both of Adobe Elements, you can choose to upgrade each for $79.99 or both for $119.99 via Adobe’s website.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in photography are more widespread than ever before, touching every part of the digital image-making process, from framing to focus to the final edit. But they’re also widespread in the sense of being spread wide, often appearing as separate apps or plug-ins that address specific needs.

That’s starting to change. As AI photo editing tools begin to converge, isolated tasks are being added to larger applications, and in some cases, disparate pieces are merging into new utilities.

This is great for photographers because it gives us improved access to capabilities that used to be more difficult, such as dealing with digital noise. From developers’ perspectives, this consolidation could encourage customers to stick with a single app or ecosystem instead of playing the field.

Let’s look at some examples of AI integration in popular photo editing apps.

ON1 Photo RAW

ON1 currently embodies this approach with ON1 Photo RAW, its all-in-one photo editing app. Included in the package are tools that ON1 also sells as separate utilities and plug-ins, including ON1 NoNoise AI, ON1 Resize AI, and ON1 Portrait AI.

The company recently previewed a trio of new features it’s working on for the next major versions of ON1 Photo RAW and the individual apps. Mask AI analyzes a photo and identifies subjects; in the example ON1 showed, the software picked out a horse, a person, foliage, and natural ground. You can then click a subject and apply an adjustment, which is masked solely to that individual/object.

Related: Edit stronger, faster, better with custom-built AI-powered presets

ON1’s Super Select AI feature works in a similar way, while Tack Sharp AI applies intelligent sharpening and optional noise reduction to enhance detail.

Topaz Photo AI

Topaz Labs currently sells its utilities as separate apps (which also work as plug-ins). That’s great if you just need to de-noise, sharpen, or enlarge your images. In reality, though, many photographers buy the three utilities in a bundle and then bounce between them during editing. But in what order? Is it best to enlarge an image and then remove noise and sharpen it, or do the enlarging at the end?

Topaz is currently working on a new app, Photo AI, that rolls those tools into a single interface. Its Autopilot feature looks for subjects, corrects noise, and applies sharpening in one place, with controls for adjusting those parameters. The app is currently available as a beta for owners of the Image Quality bundle with an active Photo Upgrade plan.

Luminar Neo

Skylum’s Luminar was one of the first products to really embrace AI technologies at its core, albeit with a confusing rollout. Luminar AI was a ground-up rewrite of Luminar 4 to center it on an AI imaging engine. The following year, Skylum released Luminar Neo, another rewrite of the app with a separate, more extensible AI base.

Now, Luminar Neo is adding extensions, taking tasks that have been spread among different apps by other vendors, and incorporating them as add-ons. Skylum recently released an HDR Merge extension for building high dynamic range photos out of several images at different exposures. Coming soon is Noiseless AI for dealing with digital noise, followed in the coming months by Upscale AI for enlarging images and AI Background Removal. In all, Skylum promises to release seven extensions in 2022.

Adobe Lightroom & Lightroom Classic

Adobe Lightroom and Lightroom Classic are adding AI tools piecemeal, which fits the platform’s status of being one of the original “big photo apps” (RIP Apple Aperture). The most significant recent AI addition was the revamped Masking tool that detects skies and subjects with a single click. That feature is also incorporated into Lightroom’s adaptive presets.

It’s also worth noting that because Lightroom Classic has been one of the big players in photo editing for some time, it has the advantage of letting developers, like the ones mentioned so far, offer their tools as plug-ins. So, for example, if you primarily use Lightroom Classic but need to sharpen beyond the Detail tool’s capabilities, you can send your image directly to Topaz Sharpen AI and then get the processed version back into your library. (Lightroom desktop, the cloud-focused version, does not have a plug-in architecture.)

What does the consolidation of AI photo editing tools mean for photographers?

As photo editors, we want the latest and greatest editing tools available, even if we don’t use them all. Adding these AI-enhanced tools to larger applications puts them easily at hand for photographers everywhere. You don’t have to export a version or send it to another utility via a plug-in interface. It keeps your focus on the image.

It also helps to build brand loyalty. You may decide to use ON1 Photo RAW instead of other companies’ tools because the features you want are all in one place. (Insert any of the apps above in that scenario.) There are different levels to this, though. From the looks of the Topaz Photo AI beta, it’s not trying to replace Lightroom any time soon. But if you’re an owner of Photo AI, you’ll probably be less inclined to check out ON1’s offerings. And so on.

More subscriptions

Then there’s the cost. It’s noteworthy that companies are starting to offer subscription pricing instead of just single purchases. Adobe years ago went all-in on subscriptions, and it’s the only way to get any of their products except for Photoshop Elements. Luminar Neo and ON1 Photo RAW offer subscription pricing or one-time purchase options. ON1 also sells standalone versions of its Resize AI, NoNoise AI, and Portrait AI utilities. Topaz sells its utilities outright, but you can optionally pay to activate a photo upgrade plan that renews each year.

Subscription pricing is great for companies because it gives them a more stable revenue stream, and they’re hopefully incentivized to keep improving their products to keep those subscribers over time. And subscriptions also encourage customers to stick with what they’re actively paying for.

For instance, I subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, and use Adobe Audition to edit audio for my podcasts. I suspect that Apple’s audio editing platform, Logic Pro would be a better fit for me, based on my preference for editing video in Final Cut Pro versus Adobe Premiere Pro, but I’m already paying for Audition. My audio-editing needs aren’t sophisticated enough for me to really explore the limits of each app, so Audition is good enough.

In the same way, subscribing to a large app adds the same kind of blanket access to tools, including new AI features, when needed. Having to pay $30-$70 for a focused tool suddenly feels like a lot (even though it means the tool is there for future images that need it).

The wrap

On the other hand, investing in large applications relies on the continued support and development of them. If software stagnates or is retired (again, RIP Aperture), you’re looking at time and effort to migrate them to another platform or extricate them and their edits.

Right now, the tools are still available in several ways, from single-task apps to plug-ins. But AI convergence is also happening quickly.

The post The state of AI in your favorite photo editing apps appeared first on Popular Photography.

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It’s time to confess one of my biases. I’ve traditionally looked down on presets in photo editing software.

I get their utility. With one click you can apply a specific look without messing with sliders or knowing the specifics of how editing controls work. There’s certainly appeal in that, particularly for novice photo editors. And selling presets has become a vector for established photographers to make a little money on the side, or have something to give away in exchange for a newsletter sign-up or other merchandise. (I’m guilty of this too. I made some Luminar 4 presets to go along with a book I wrote years ago.)

I’ve just never seen the value in making my photos look like someone else’s. More often than not, the way I edit a photo depends on what the image itself demands. 

And then I saw the light: presets are not shortcuts, per se, they’re automation. Yes, you can make your photos look like those of your favorite YouTube personality, but a better alternative is to create your own presets that perform repetitive editing actions for you with one click.

For instance, perhaps in all of your portrait photos, you reduce Clarity to soften skin, add a faint vignette around the edges, and boost the shadows. A preset that makes those edits automatically saves you from manipulating a handful of controls to get the same effect each time. In many editing apps, presets affect those sliders directly, so if those shadows end up too bright, you can just knock down the value that the preset applied.

The downside is that a preset affects the entire image. Perhaps you do want to open up the shadows in the background, but not so much that you’re losing detail in the subject’s face. Well, then you’re creating masks for the subject or the background and manipulating those areas independently…and there goes the time you saved by starting with a preset in the first place.

Regular readers of this column no doubt know where this is headed. AI-assisted features that identify the content of images are making their way into presets, allowing you to target different areas automatically. Lightroom Classic and Lightroom desktop recently introduced Adaptive Presets that capitalize on the intelligent masking features in the most recent release. Luminar Neo and Luminar AI incorporate this type of smart selection because they’re both AI-focused at their cores.

Lightroom Adaptive Presets

Related: Testing 3 popular AI-powered sky replacement tools

Lightroom Classic and Lightroom desktop include two new groups of presets, “Adaptive: Sky” and “Adaptive: Subject.” When I apply the Sunset sky preset to an unedited photo, the app identifies the sky using its Select Sky mask tool and applies adjustments (specifically to Tint, Clarity, Saturation, and Noise) only to the masked area.

Similarly, if I click the “Adaptive: Subject Pop” preset, the app selects what it thinks is the subject and applies the correction, in this case, small nudges to Exposure, Texture, and Clarity.

Depending on the image, that might be all the edits you want to make. Or you can build on those adjustments.

Related: ‘Photoshop on the Web’ will soon be free for anyone to use

Now let’s go back to the suggested portrait edits mentioned above. I can apply a subtle vignette to the entire image, switch to the Masking tool and create a new “Select Subject” mask for the people in the shot. With that active, I increase the Shadows value a little and reduce Clarity to lightly soften the subjects.

Since this photo is part of a portrait session, I have many similar shots. Instead of selecting the subject every time, I’ll click the “Add New Presets” button in the Presets panel, make sure the Masking option is enabled, give it a name and click Create. With that created, for subsequent photos I can choose the new preset to apply those edits. Even if it’s a preset that applies only to this photo shoot, that can still save a lot of time. 

Luminar Presets

When Luminar Neo and Luminar AI open an image, they both scan the photo for contents, identifying subjects and skies even before any edits have been made. When you apply one of the presets built into the apps, the edits might include adjustments to specific areas. 

For an extreme example, in Luminar Neo’s Presets module, the “Sunsets Collection” includes a Toscana preset that applies Color, Details, and Enhance AI settings that affect the entire image. But it also uses the Sky AI tool to swap in an entirely new sky.

The portrait editing tools in Luminar by default fall into this category, because they look for faces and bodies and make adjustments, such as skin smoothing and eye enhancement, to only those areas. Creating a new user preset with one of the AI-based tools targets the applicable sections.

Preset Choices

The Luminar and Lightroom apps also use some AI detection to recommend existing presets based on the content of the photo you’re editing, although I find the choices to be hit or miss. Lightroom gathers suggestions based on presets that its users have shared, grouped into categories such as Subtle, Strong, and B&W. They tend to run the gamut of effects and color treatments, and for me that feels more like trying to put my image into someone else’s style.

Instead, I’ll stick to presets’ secret weapon, which is to create my own to automate edits that I’d otherwise make but take longer to do so.

The post Edit stronger, faster, better with custom-built AI-powered presets appeared first on Popular Photography.

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In a flurry of announcements that included updates to its metaverse building and business analytics tools, Adobe unveiled a handful of nice new Lightroom and Photoshop features. It also appears that Photoshop on the Web will be free for everyone in the future. 

First up, Lightroom updates

Now, Adobe’s Lightroom situation is a little messy. On Mac and Windows, you have Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) all using the same underlying RAW-processing engine but with slightly different feature sets. Then you also have Lightroom available on iOS, Android, and the Web which is similar to Lightroom on the desktop, but not identical. Not all these updates come to all the apps, so we’ll flag things as necessary. 

Related: Adobe Lightroom vs Lightroom Classic – Which photo editor should you use?

Video editing… in Lightroom!?

Lightroom (but not Lightroom Classic) for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android is getting video editing—and it looks pretty good. While you’ll only be able to trim the beginning or end of the clip, you are able to use Lightroom’s full range of editing tools to adjust how the footage appears. You’ll even be able to apply your photo presets. 

Obviously, if you’re looking to cut together a highlight reel or edit a video for YouTube, this is going to be way too bare-bones. But if you’ve shot a few short videos that you want to adjust the exposure or color, it’s a good way to do that without having to dive deep into an app like Adobe Premiere. 

Extra preset power

All versions of Lightroom (and even ACR) are getting a Preset Amount slider that will let you adjust how intensely a preset is applied. This is a big deal for anyone who relies on presets to batch edit. Now you can push things with the photos that need it, or dial things back with the ones that don’t. 

All the desktop apps are also getting Adaptive Presets which use Lightroom’s AI masking engine. You will be able to create presets that automatically target either the skies or the subject of the photo (they’re applied using the Select Sky and Select Subject masks). As with all AI tools, you might need to do some tweaking but this looks like a great way to make certain kinds of presets even faster to apply. 

There are also five new sets of Premium Presets “handcrafted by some of today’s best photographers”:

• Portraits: Black & White by Ayesha Kazim.
• Portraits: Edgy by Jessy J.
• Portraits: Group by Chelsi LeBarre.
• Subject: Concerts by Megan Sumpton.
• Video: Creative by Stu Maschwitz.

Compare View comes to Lightroom

We really like Adobe’s new cloud-based version of Lightroom, however, occasionally things happen that remind me of why I still use Lightroom Classic most of the time. The Mac and Windows version of Lightroom (nope, not the mobile or web versions) are just now getting Compare View—so you can see two photos side-by-side and pick your favorite. It’s a big usability upgrade for sure, but we can’t believe it’s taken so long. 

A few other Lightroom improvements

Lightroom also picked up a few other nice updates:

• An AI powered Red Eye removal tool in ACR and Lightroom on the desktop. 
• Some new community features. 
• AI masks can now be copied and pasted more easily. 
• Mask groups can be inverted. 
• And Lightroom on the desktop gets forward and back buttons for easier navigation. 

Nothing particularly groundbreaking, just gradual product improvements. 

A new Neural Filter in Photoshop

Adobe is continuing to develop Photoshop’s “Neural Filter”, whether people want them or not. (Apparently, “Over 300 million Neural Filters have been applied to creative work by more than four million creatives to date.”)

The latest Photo Restoration Neural Filter is pretty cool though. It automatically restores old, cracked, and damaged photos. We haven’t been able to test it out ourselves yet, but the preview video shows very good results without going too far. 

And Photoshop on the Web, now for free?

The Photoshop on the web beta gets some new features, including Curves, Refine Edge, and Smart Objects. You will also now be able to access it to review and comment on shared files from mobile browsers. 

The biggest Photoshop news doesn’t come direct from Adobe, however. According to The Verge (citing Adobe’s VP of digital imaging, Maria Yap), Photoshop on the Web will be a “freemium” product. Apparently, enough features will be available for free that anyone can perform Photoshop’s “core functions” with the web app. It’s currently testing things in Canada. 

As soon as this rolls out more globally, we’ll be sure to cover it in depth.

The post ‘Photoshop on the Web’ will soon be free for anyone to use appeared first on Popular Photography.

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AI-assisted photo technologies mostly exist to help you save time while editing, or improve image quality using small sensors or when processing images. But sometimes they can radically change your photos, as in the case with sky replacement features.

Swapping a sky in a photo was initially a head-scratcher for me. One of the appeals of landscape photography, for instance, is to get out amid nature and experience the colors and wonder of a sunrise or sunset. Doing that takes work: planning the shoot, determining the best time to arrive and set up, checking weather estimates, picking a composition, and sometimes standing around in cold weather waiting for the show to begin.

But with AI sky replacement, you could theoretically show up at any time, hang your camera out the car window, snap a shot, and then add someone else’s spectacular sky using your computer later. It feels like cheating and reinforces the feeling of many photographers that AI technologies are marginalizing craft and hard work. 

That’s an awfully traditional mindset, though, and I had to remember that photography encompasses a larger spectrum than my experience. Sky replacement is useful in real estate photography, where it’s rarely possible to wait around a house for ideal conditions, especially if you’re shooting three houses that day. Or you may need a better sky for an online advertisement.

Or you might be a landscape photographer who did put in the work, got skunked by a flat sky in a location you can’t easily return to, and want to make a creative composition anyway. We forget that most photography is art, and doesn’t need to hew to journalistic expectations of accuracy.

AI Sky Replacement

Replacing skies isn’t new. With patience, you could use software that supports layers to define a mask for the sky and put another sky image in its place. That takes time, particularly if the sky is interrupted by objects such as tree branches or a complicated skyline.

The goal of a successful sky swap is, of course, to make it appear as if the new sky was originally there all along. But that incorporates several pieces:

• The sky should have a clean edge, taking into account interruptions. This is usually the most difficult part because the software must determine which areas belong to the sky and which belong to the foreground.
• The non-sky elements of the image need to match the exposure and coloring that the new sky would cast over the scene. A sky isn’t just background—it’s the light source and filter for everything we see.
• There needs to be a way for you to fine-tune the mask and the color in areas the software didn’t catch.
• The tool should take into account reflections. Nothing ruins the illusion like a new sky with the original sky reflected in the water below.

And let’s not forget the obvious, which is the responsibility of the editor: Make sure light sources match and shadows are cast in the correct direction. After all, the goal is to present the illusion of a natural sky, and those are obvious flags that can ruin the effect.

Several photo editing apps include sky replacement features, each of them taking slightly different approaches. For this article, I’m looking at Adobe Photoshop, Skylum Luminar Neo, and ON1 Photo RAW 2022. I’m also applying sky images that are included in each app. You can add your own images to each one, too.

Below are the two test images will use.

Photoshop Sky Replacement

You could say Photoshop is the original sky replacement utility since its layers and selection tools were what you needed to use. Now, Adobe includes a specific Sky Replacement tool: Choose Edit > Sky Replacement.

In my first test image, the ruins of a hospital, the feature right away has done a good job of replacing the sky, including in the windows where the sky shows through. The edges are clean, including the tree branches that have grown up beyond the top of the wall.

It includes controls for shifting and fading the mask edge, adjusting the brightness and temperature of the sky, and moving the sky image itself, both using a Scale slider and by dragging with the Move tool.

Switching to a sunset image also shows that the foreground lighting is adapting to the new sky, with options for adjusting the blend mode and lighting intensity. The Sky Brush tool allows some manipulation of the edges.

And typical of Photoshop, the default output option is to create new layers that include all the pieces: a masked sky image, a foreground lighting layer with its own mask, and adjustment layers for the colors. It’s nicely editable.

Notably missing, though, is recognition of reflective areas. When I apply a sky to an image of Mono Lake in Photoshop, the sky is changed but the glassy lake remains the same.

Luminar Neo Sky AI

When I open the first image in Luminar Neo and choose an image from the Sky AI tool, the initial replacement is also pretty good. It has detected the top-right window, but not the openings in the center. And it’s unsure about the branches sticking up from the top of the wall, mostly catching their detail but also revealing an obvious halo and some of the original gray clouds.

To handle these discrepancies, Luminar uses a trio of Mask Refinement controls—Global, Close Gaps, and Fix Details—which to be honest are best used by sliding them and seeing what happens. In this case, increasing Global and reducing Close Gaps helps with the branches.

However, none of the controls can coax the sky into the windows at the bottom. That’s because the algorithm that detects the sky has decided they’re not part of the mask, and there’s nothing I can do to convince it otherwise. The Sky AI tool includes a manual Mask tool (as do most of Luminar’s tools), but in this case I can paint in rough areas using only a brush tool, exposing or hiding only the areas the AI has generated.

The Scene Relighting controls do a pretty good job of adapting the exposure and color and even include a “Relight Human” slider to adjust the appearance of the sky’s color when people are detected in the scene. I also appreciate the Sky Adjustments controls that help you match the sky to the rest of the image, such as defocusing it or adding atmospheric haze. However, note that the lighting isn’t really the problem here; with the sun setting behind the structure, more of the foreground would naturally be in shadow, illustrating the importance of the editor choosing appropriate imagery.

Where Sky AI excels over Photoshop is its reflection detection, which in the Mono Lake image has created a convincing sky and reflection. I have the ability to adjust the opacity of the reflected image and also apply “water blur” to it.

ON1 Photo RAW 2022

In ON1 Photo RAW 2022, the swapped sky has its pluses and minuses. It’s identified all the window openings correctly and handled the intruding branches pretty well. However, there’s obvious haloing around the top edges of the building, a telltale sign of a swapped sky.

That can be mitigated using the Fade Edge and Shift Edge controls, but not entirely. Increasing the fade can sometimes make the edit less noticeable. Also, note that the choice of sky can be more or less effective.

The foreground lighting controls let me adjust not only the amount and blend mode of the effect, but also the color itself using an eyedropper tool, which provides more control.

ON1 Photo RAW 2022 does include reflection awareness, with controls for setting the opacity of the image and the blend mode.

Skies Wide Open

As you can see, replacing a sky is a tricky feat. It can be made easier using AI technologies, but there’s still more work involved. In both Luminar Neo and ON1 Photo RAW, it’s possible you’d do part of the work there and then clean up the image in Photoshop.

The post Testing 3 popular AI-powered sky replacement tools appeared first on Popular Photography.

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Computational photography technologies aim to automate tasks that are time-consuming or uninspiring: Adjusting the lighting in a scene, replacing a flat sky, culling hundreds of similar photos. But for a lot of photographers, assigning keywords and writing text descriptions makes those actions seem thrilling.

When we look at a photo, the image is supposed to speak for itself. And yet it can’t in so many ways. We work with libraries of thousands of digital images, so there’s no guarantee that a particular photo will rise to the surface when we’re scanning through screenfuls of thumbnails. But AI can assist.

Keywords, terms, descriptors, phrases, expressions…

I can’t overemphasize the advantages of applying keywords to images. How many times have you found yourself scrolling through your photos, trying to recall when the ones you want were shot? How often have you scrolled right past them, or realized they’re stored in another location? If those images contained keywords, the shots could often be found in just a couple of minutes or less. 

The challenge is tagging the photos at the outset.

It seems to me that people fall on the far ends of the keywording spectrum. On one side is a hyper-descriptive approach, where the idea is to apply as many terms as possible to describe the contents of an image. These can branch into hierarchies and subcategories and related concepts and all sorts of fascinating but arcane miscellany.

On the other side is where I suspect most people reside: keywords are a time-consuming waste of effort. Photographers want to edit, not categorize!

This is where AI technologies are helping. Many apps use image detection to determine the contents of photos and use that data when you perform a search. 

Related: Computational photography, explained: The next age of image-making is already here

For example, in Apple Photos, typing “sunflower” brings up images in my library that contain sunflowers (and, inexplicably, a snapshot of tater tots). In each of these cases, I haven’t assigned a specific keyword to the images.

Similarly, Lightroom desktop (the newer app, not Lightroom Classic) takes advantage of Adobe Sensei technology to suggest results when I type “sunflower” in the Search field. Although some of my images are assigned keywords (at the top of the results list), it also suggested “Sunflower Sunset” as a term.

That’s helpful, but the implementation is also fairly opaque. Lightroom and Photos are accessing their own internal data rather than creating keywords that you can view. 

What if you don’t use either of those apps? Perhaps your library is in Lightroom Classic or it exists in folder hierarchies you’ve created on disk?

Creating keywords with Excire Foto

I took two tools from Excire for a quick spin to see what they would do. Excire Foto is a standalone app that performs image recognition on photos and generates exactly the kind of metadata I’m talking about. Excire Search 2 does the same, just as a Lightroom Classic plug-in.

I loaded 895 images into Exire Foto, which it scanned and tagged in just a couple of minutes. It did a great job of creating keywords to describe the images; with people, for instance, it differentiates between adults and children. You can add or remove keywords and then save them back to the image or in sidecar files for RAW images. 

So if the thought of adding keywords makes you want to stand up and do pretty much anything else, you can now get some of the benefits of keywording without doing the grunt work. 

Generating ‘alt text’ for images

Text isn’t just for applying keywords and searching for photos. Many people who are blind or visually impaired still encounter images online, relying on screen reader technology to read the content aloud. So it’s important, when sharing images, to include alternative text that describes their content whenever possible.

For example, when you add an image to Instagram or Facebook, you can add alt text—though it’s not always obvious how. On Instagram, once you’ve selected a photo and have the option of writing a caption, scroll down to “Advanced Settings,” tap it, and then under “Accessibility” tap “Write Alt Text.”

However, those are additional steps, throwing up barriers that make it less likely that people will create this information.

That being said, Meta, which owns both Instagram and Facebook, is using AI to generate alt text for you. In a blog post from January 2021, the company details “How Facebook is using AI to improve photo descriptions for people who are blind or visually impaired.”

The results can be hit or miss. The alt text for the leaf photo above is described by Facebook as “May be a closeup of nature,” which is technically accurate but not overly helpful.

When there are more specific items in the frame, the AI does a bit better. In the image below—an indulgent drone selfie—Facebook came up with “May be an image of 2 people, people standing and road.”

Another example is work being done by Microsoft to use machine learning to create text captions. In a paper last year, researchers presented a process called VIVO (VIsual VOcabulary pretraining) for generating captions with more specificity.

So while there’s progress, there’s also still plenty of room for improvement.

Yes, Automate This Please

Photographers get angsty when faced with the notion that AI might replace them in some way, but creating keywords and writing captions and alt text doesn’t seem to apply in the same way. This is one area where I’m certainly happy to let the machines shoulder some of the work, provided of course that the results are accurate. 

The post How to use artificial intelligence to tag and keyword photos for better organization appeared first on Popular Photography.

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A lot has changed in the photography world since we last rounded up the best new photo gear of the year. Mirrorless cameras have elbowed out DSLRs in popularity, smartphone cameras have become more capable than ever thanks to computational learning, Olympus no longer exists as a camera brand, and interest in film photography is surging.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is our excitement about new camera gear and technology. This year, though, the Pop Awards looks a bit different. Not only are there three smartphone-centric winners among our 24 honorees, but, rather than lean solely on our in-house editorial team to debate the winners, we convened a panel of professional photographers, writers, and educators to help us decide. This year’s awards also include our top prize, Camera of the Year (hint: it’s not a DSLR).

Candidates were recommended and evaluated based on ingenuity, attainability, and outright awesomeness. The result of this process is a mix of pro and consumer gear, from the very expensive—a $4,500 large format printer—to the rather affordable—a $5 a month app. These products not only push the boundaries of what’s possible, but they also make photography more accessible, enjoyable, and immersive. Simply put: They make us excited to make pictures.

A refreshing Instagram alternative 

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Remember when Instagram was a fun place to go check out your friends’ artsy photos? When it wasn’t fueled by algorithms, ads, and influencers? We barely do, either. If you long for those simple days, we’ve got some good news for you: The Glass Photography app is a photo-sharing platform launched earlier this year with an emphasis on simplicity. In fact, in many ways, it’s the antithesis of Instagram. There are no ads and no algorithms; images are presented in chronological order, and addictive features like “likes” and follower counts are hidden away. Glass caters to both professional and amateur photographers alike—i.e., anyone who loves sharing their photos and finding inspiration from the work of others. More importantly, anything shared on the app remains solely owned by the poster. That’s because the app is user-funded; Glass costs either $5 a month or $30 for a year, but you can sign up for a free 14-day trial right now. Glass may still be still very much in its infancy, but we’re already impressed by what the space is cultivating: a creative community without a commercial angle.

A bag for all body types

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Shimoda—a bag manufacturer less than five years old—understands that what’s comfortable for one person’s body, may not be for another’s. The brand’s new Explore v2 backpacks are proof of this. Available in three sizes, the collection offers four versions of Shimoda’s super-comfy shoulder straps. There’s the standard set that comes with the bag, as well as three others designed to more comfortably contour to curvier body types—these are available upon request, free of charge. In addition, the bag offers a height-adjustable chest harness and a removable hip belt for added comfort and stability. But comfort isn’t the only game. You’ll find plenty of pockets—including storage for a tripod, water bottle, and laptop—as well as a luggage pass-through. And its main camera compartment is modular and removable, so if you’re rolling with less gear, you can swap it out for a smaller storage option. It’s also an incredibly handsome and lightweight pack that doesn’t scream “I have a camera in here!”  

The evolution of hybrid strobe and constant light

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Lighting for video comes with a unique set of challenges. Light and Motion equipped the Reflex and Reflex S LED units to pump out flicker-free constant light for video, or to strobe at up to 20 fps with a flash duration as low as 0.5 milliseconds to freeze action in photos. Both modes draw power from the built-in battery, which can run for 30 to 600 minutes depending on the power level. Even beyond its lighting specs, the Reflex series goes out of its way to offer maximum versatility: Built-in receivers allow Godox and Elinchrom transmitters to wirelessly control the output; the rotating lens can adjust beam width between 12 and 120 degrees; and, because Light and Motion has years of underwater gear chops, the Reflexes are IP65 certified rugged and waterproof, so they’ll survive brutal shoots in the field.  

The best action camera gets better in just about every way

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GoPro has been refining its HD Hero action cameras for more than a decade, and some updates have been bigger than others along the way. The HD Hero10 isn’t a revolution from the camera that came before it, but it brings a cadre of smart and very useful upgrades that make it worth buying over its predecessors. The new GP2 processor allows it to crunch more image data than ever, so it can shoot 4K footage at 120 fps without hiccups. (That speed also bumps its 120 fps slow-motion capture up to 1080p HD.) It can even go beyond 4K to 5.3K footage at 60 fps, which may not sound like a big leap, but it actually nets very nearly double the pixels of 4K—in case you want to crop or use software to stabilize your footage in post. You likely won’t need that second option very often, though, since GoPro’s HyperSmooth 4.0 tech offers the best active image stabilization we’ve seen so far. 

A flexible budget prime for Nikon

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Nikon launched its mirrorless Z-mount system in 2018 and since then has added an impressive number of full-frame bodies and lenses, including the budget Nikon Z5 in 2020. But affordable Z-mount lenses have lagged— that is, until this year, when Nikon rolled out the Z 28mm f/2.8 ($299) and Z 40mm f/2 ($299). The former is a great bargain option for wide-angle shooters, but it’s the latter that has us hyped: 40mm lenses are fairly uncommon in the digital era. They ride a fine line between focal lengths considered “wide-angle” and “normal,” which means a 40mm can effectively be used as either in a pinch, making it a darling for street photographers but also a sweet piece of kit for a range of photographic disciplines. Its f/2 maximum aperture is also just fast enough to be used in low-light. At the same time, it’s nice and sharp wide open, lightweight, and quite compact A truly modern nifty fifty…we mean, forty…indeed. 

A petite system camera with big image quality

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The Fujifilm X-E4 is the brand’s smallest and lightest system camera on the market. It features paired-down controls, a simple rectangular design, and classic film rangefinder stylings, but don’t let its minimalism fool you, the $849 (body-only) X-E4 still has all the moxie of its flagship siblings. Everything from its 26MP APS-C sensor to its 4K video capture to its autofocus system and processor match that of the X-T4 and X-Pro3—for much less coin. But it’s the X-E4’s petite footprint, especially when paired with the optional 27mm f/2.8 WR kit lens ($1,049 for the kit), that makes it so gosh darn appealing. It’s the kind of camera you can easily sling around your neck and forget it’s there. Image quality is outstanding, and you’ll find 18 of Fujifilm’s retro-inspired film simulations built-in. A 3-inch tilting touchscreen adorns the back, along with a solid electronic viewfinder. It can charge over USB, features in-camera RAW editing, and can share images to a smart device. Overall, it’s a fabulous camera for travel. 

The best photo and video editing laptops

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Modern digital photography is tough on computers. With skyrocketing megapixel counts and editing programs increasingly reliant on AI-powered utilities, processing a single image takes serious computing power. This year, Apple released its M1 Pro– and M1 Max-powered MacBook Pros, laptops that can handle photo and video editing with the same acumen you’d expect out of a maxed-out desktop workstation. Apple’s secret sauce involves building its own system-on-a-chip, which integrates essential components, including the CPU, graphics processor, machine learning cores, and even the system memory. By cutting down on data transfer time and system redundancies, Apple created laptops that can blast through full-res, 45-megapixel RAW files in Capture One Pro as if you were simply swiping through your smartphone’s camera roll. Any computer that saves this much time in the editing process absolutely deserves an award.

The largest pocketable travel printer

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Fujifilm’s Instax printers have been on the market for a while now, but could only tap the brand’s  “Mini” sized film. But no more. After listening to customer feedback, Fujifilm unveiled the Instax Link Wide printer ($150) this fall, the only pocket-friendly, battery-powered printer capable of producing images larger than a business card. It’s fun and easy to operate: Simply pair it with a mobile device and get printing. You can customize images or make edits using the Instax Link app, the battery is good for up to 100 shots per charge, and prints cost around $1 a shot. It functions equally well as a party companion as it does as a dedicated printer for greeting cards and/or thank you notes. A truly delightful analog alternative to staring at photos on a screen. 

A dual-camera drone that ups aerial quality

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DJI’s foldable and semi-affordable Mavic line of drones has a well-earned spot in the kits of enthusiasts, semi-pro, and professional photographers. The latest Mavic 3 model represents a complete redesign and major improvement over its predecessor, thanks in part to a new twin-camera module. The drone sports both a large sensor, wide-angle camera, and a smaller-sensor telephoto camera with a 28x zooming capability (optical+digtial). Both are mounted on the same 3-axis gimbal for super-smooth capture. The former uses a sizable Four-Thirds sensor, providing impressive image and video quality, even in low light. The Mavic 3 captures 12-bit RAW stills—in addition to JPEGs— and up to 5.1K/50p video (or 4K/120p footage for a slow-motion effect). Omnidirectional obstacle sensors, plus a slew of design improvements, help ensure the drone both stays in the sky and returns home in one piece after flying for as long as  46 minutes and as far away as 9.2 miles. 

The most accurate photo printer

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While on one side of the Pop Awards spectrum we have the consumer-friendly Fujifilm Instax Link Wide printer, on the other we have the museum-quality Canon imagePROGRAF GP Series of large format printers. The new professional models excel where others often struggle most: at printing highly accurate, perfectly saturated, neon and pastel colors. In fact, Canon says it supports the widest color gamut of any of its printers to date, not to mention, near-perfect tonal accuracy, according to Pantone. How does it achieve this level of printing perfection? By using the world’s first 10-pigment, Pantone-calibrated liquid neon ink set—in addition to its standard liquid inks. It’s also the only printer out there to utilize liquid neon pink, which is layered onto other colors during the printing process, to enhance color reproduction. The technology is called “radiant infusion” and the results truly belong in a museum.

An affordable alternative to pricy Leica glass

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There’s plenty of beautiful glass to attach to a Leica M-mount camera body. Unfortunately, most of it costs as much as a used—or sometimes new—car. The 35mm Summilux, for instance, provides exceptional sharpness and color rendition for the hefty price of around $6,000. Voigtlander’s new APO-LANTHAR 35mm f/2 is a little bigger than the Leica, and a stop slower, but it’s also nearly $5,000 cheaper and still does justice to the quality and simplicity of the M-series rangefinders. Voigtlander’s apochromatic lens design (hence the “APO” in the name compensates for the fact that different colors of light focus at slightly different distances from the lens itself. Left unchecked, this effect could create ugly colored fringing, especially around high-contrast edges. That’s not an issue here. Combined with superb sharpness and smooth manual-focus only performance, this relatively affordable lens truly feels at home on Leica’s high-end rangefinders.

A smartphone built for computational photography

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Google equipped its new flagship Android phone with a trio of camera modules, all of which come with relatively familiar stats: The main 50-megapixel sensor sits behind a wide-angle lens, the one behind the ultra-wide glass checks in at a typical 12 megapixels,  and the telephoto lens sits vertically inside the device, offering 4x optical zoom on a 48-megapixel sensor thanks to periscope-style folded optics. The real advancement inside the Pixel 6 Pro, however, starts with the chip inside. Google’s custom-built Tensor chip eschews the typical Qualcomm silicon found in most Android phones in order to max out its performance during AI tasks. As a result, the PIxel 6 Pro offers some of the most effective and natural-looking HDR in any smartphone. Its digitally-assisted zoom looks sharp without muddying up fine details or oversharpening images to ruination. And Google even expanded its HDR tech to every frame of video the camera shoots, so the motion has the same look and feel as the photos. Add in cool features like a simulated long exposure mode, and you get a truly impressive smartphone photography experience.

New life for old, low-res RAW files

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With simple names like 4K and 8K, it’s easy to forget just how many pixels ultra-HD screens really pack. A 4K picture works out to 8 megapixels, while you’ll need 33 megapixels to fill an 8K screen. Those numbers sound daunting for your old digital camera images—or even modern 12-megapixel smartphone files. The new Super Resolution feature in Camera RAW relies on Adobe’s Sensei AI tech. Engineers trained the neural network that underlies the process on millions of image pairs, each containing one low-res and one high-res version of the image. Over time, the model began to understand how to increase resolution without simply guessing what the extra pixels should look like. As a result, small RAW files can grow up to 4x while maintaining sufficient image quality for large prints or displaying on pixel-dense screens. And, because the learning model can improve, Super Resolution should only get better over time.

A lens to shoot VR on a single sensor

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Shooting VR or 3D content requires multiple points of view slightly offset from each other in order to trick a viewer’s eyes and brain into seeing depth. With this quirky lens, Canon has given its RF-mount cameras the ability to do that with just one camera. The 5.2mm fisheye relies on folded optics, which bend light through the lens barrel to send two complete images to a single full-frame sensor like the one inside the R5 mirrorless camera. The unique glass provides a 190-degree total field of view, and using the R5’s 8K capture, can churn out super-high-res footage that viewers can immerse themselves in with help from a VR headset. It’s a niche lens, but it adds an entirely new functionality to Canon’s RF cameras, and illustrates some of the benefits shooters will enjoy as we move further into the mirrorless era.

Affordable primes for Sony mirrorless

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We love to acknowledge fancy technological advancements as much as we do sensible, consumer-friendly ones. And Sony’s new line of G prime lenses is the perfect example of the latter. At $599 apiece, the Sony 24mm f/2.8G, 40mm f/2.5G, and 50mm f/2.5G each provide a delightful balance of versatility and affordability in modern, compact, and lightweight packages. Optical performance from each is impressive with excellent central sharpness wide open and super-fast autofocus. The G-series primes are also nearly identical in terms of size and weight, which means a video shooter using a gimbal can swap one for the other without needing to make adjustments. And, unlike other budget primes, these are dust and moisture-sealed, and the body of each is constructed of aluminum as is the baseplate. In short, they are among the most-practical full-frame primes for Sony shooters. Full stop. 

The first step toward movie-worthy footage on a smartphone

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Adding fake blur to simulate depth-of-field effects in smartphone images has been around since the dawn of portrait mode in the mid-2010s. It started off extremely awkwardly with jagged edges and weird blur showing up where it shouldn’t. Since then, it has gotten really good. Apple’s new Cinematic Mode in the iPhone 13 Pro could have a similar trajectory. Cinematic Mode employs Apple’s machine learning algorithms to create shallow depth of field effects in video capture. With two subjects in a frame, iPhone shooters can move focus between them in real time to simulate a movie-making technique called racking. The feature still has plenty of bugs to work out, including slight halos around human subjects, but it’s easy to see the potential as the algorithms get smarter and hardware gets burlier. It could be a very useful tool for video shooters down the road.

 An accessible mirrorless camera

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The modest EOS M50 Mark II certainly lost the spotlight to the sports-and-wildlife-focused EOS R3 this year. This little mirrorless body is among the most affordable ($599 for the body, $699 with a kit lens), capable, and easy-to-use cameras in its class. It boasts a 24MP APS-C sensor, packed inside what looks like a shrunken-down DSLR. Control points are ample, and a fully-articulating touchscreen—as well as a solid electronic viewfinder—add to its versatility. The M50 Mark II uses Canon’s latest Dual Pixel autofocus, the same found in its flagship, which includes an eye-tracking mode for tack-sharp images of friends and family. Image quality is outstanding, with punchy, vibrant out-of-camera JPEGs. 

An impossibly handy light for any situation

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At six inches wide and just over three inches tall, this 7-ounce panel manages to cram in a total of 263 individual LEDs. Together, they can produce 1,500 LUX at 0.5 meters, which is 50 percent more than Lume Cube’s original Panel Go—and plenty of illumination to act as a key light for a portrait in a dark setting, or just throw some fill on a subject in strong backlight. In a pinch, it can even make smartphone selfies a lot more flattering. The Panel Pro’s built-in Bluetooth connection enables simple wireless control from an app: Easily adjust the power from 5 percent all the way up to full blast, or change the light temperature to match the ambient light. Outside the natural colors, the Panel Pro can produce an array of vibrant colors, and even flash in preset patterns for video capture or creative long exposures. 

A street photography classic, refined

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The original film Ricoh GR first debuted in 1996 as a sleek, pocketable camera with a super-sharp fixed 28mm lens—an instant classic for street photography, even to this day. Since then, 12 GR models with similar designs and fixed 28mm (or wider) lenses have come out. This year’s Ricoh GR IIIx is the exception. Though almost identical in principle to 2018’s GR III, this new model sports a 40mm f/2.8 lens, paired with a 24MP APS-C sensor. This combination means the GR IIIx is the only large sensor, fixed-lens camera on the market with a “normal” lens, rather than a wide-angle. It also means street photographers who love the GR III’s design but dislike 28mm now have the perfect little camera to call their own. And, despite its throwback roots, you’ll still find modern conveniences like a 3-inch touchscreen and USB charging. 

A super-fast zoom ready for anything

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For most zoom lenses, f/2.8 is the magic number when it comes to aperture. It’s fast enough for many low-light situations, but not so spacious that it makes the lenses huge. Any time a zoom goes below that threshold, it’s exciting, especially when it’s a lens as versatile as Tamron’s 35-150mm f/2-2.8 Di III VXD. It’s the first zoom lens for Sony full-frame cameras to break the f/2.8 barrier. The 2.5-pound glass is the pro’s equivalent to a walk-around lens, combining the most useful parts of a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm zoom into a single lens that can handle everything from wide-angle exposition shots to standard coverage to telephoto portraits. With those stats, it’s easy to cover an entire wedding or event without ever having to swap lenses. 

A serious update to a classic shoulder bag

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Tenba’s DNA line of messenger and shoulder bags has been a photographer favorite for years. So when we heard the brand was doing a complete design overhaul, we were a tad nervous. But we were thrilled to see the changes brought about in the new DNA line. Functionally, there’s a lot to love: The bottom of the packs are now completely waterproof, and a quick-access zipper on top makes it easier than ever to deploy your camera in a pinch. The main compartment is also removable/swappable, and an updated memory foam strap should ensure lasting comfort. There’s also an additional “security strap” to keep the bag in place while biking or running/walking. And exterior loops allow you to expand storage or attach accessories with ease. Bringing a classic into the modern age is never an easy feat, but Tenba pulled it off. 

 A new ‘holy grail’ zoom for Micro Four Thirds

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Micro Four Thirds shooters have long enjoyed a wide range of fast-aperture primes. But the number of fast-aperture zooms before 2021? Just one: the Panasonic Leica 10-25mm f/1.7. As a companion to that lens, Panasonic released the Panasonic Leica 25-50mm f/1.7 earlier this year. At $1,800, it’s a pricey piece of glass, but it’s also a lens we couldn’t keep our hands off of. With a 50-100mm equivalent focal length and an f/3.4 equivalent max aperture, it’s especially well-suited for portraiture but can handle pretty much anything—wide-angle shots being the only notable exception. You’ll get excellent sharpness and subject separation when shooting wide-open with eye-pleasing bokeh and silky smooth out-of-focus regions. It also looks great up-close. In short, it’s a holy grail lens for Micro Four Thirds shooters and worthy of its heady price tag. 

A high-speed mirrorless for working photographers

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There’s no official runner-up position for our Camera of the Year award, but if there was, this would certainly be it. Canon purpose-built the EOS R3 for the needs of working photographers. It has a new 24-megapixel sensor that produces outstanding image quality, especially in low-light situations. It’s simply one of the best low-light cameras we’ve ever used. It’s the best example of Canon’s already excellent Dual Pixel AF II autofocus system, and the full-sized DSLR-style body is lighter than it looks—nicely balancing large lenses like telephotos. Unlike the upcoming Nikon Z9, it still employs a mechanical shutter, but it offers super-fast sensor readout. Sports photographers can get 12 fps with the mechanical shutter banging up and down, or turn it off and get 30 fps at full resolution. Its massive, high-res electronic viewfinder also houses the eye-tracking that gives the R3 a modern version of Canon’s eye-controlled AF—something you won’t find in any other camera at the moment. We expect to see it in the bags of photojournalists, sports shooters, and plenty others in the next few years.

Camera of the Year: 0ne mirrorless camera to rule them all

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Last time Popular Photography crowned a Camera of the Year, it was the Fujifilm X-Pro2 way back in 2016. That year also saw the release of two flagship DSLRs, the Canon 1D X Mark II and the Nikon D5. At the time, those chunky, mirror-toting cameras promised super-fast shooting and AF performance mirrorless cameras still couldn’t touch. Since then, the digital camera world has changed rather profoundly, and there’s no better example than the Sony A1: It shoots faster and bigger than anything that has come before it, tipping a future filled with big, beautiful images.

Sony built its flagship, full-frame mirrorless camera as an exercise in superlatives. It’s the first camera with an electronic viewfinder that hits 240 fps refresh rate with 9.44 million dots of resolution for super-smooth viewing. It’s the first to integrate anti-flicker tech into its electronic shutter mode to prevent ugly lines from showing up on indoor shots. It’s also the first with Sony’s dual-drive mechanical shutter mechanism for flash syncing as fast as 1/400th second, which is faster than just about every other non-leaf-shutter option around. 

Those features are great on their own, but they’re not the real story. The A1 can pump out 30 50.1-megapixel images in compressed RAW or JPEGs per second, while performing 120 focus and exposure calculations at the same clip. That’s the same rate as Canon’s sports-oriented R3, which only has a 24.1-megapixel sensor. 

The secret to the Sony A1’s speed comes from its guts. Sony built a totally new stacked sensor and paired it with two of its most powerful Bionz image processors. The sensor employs built-in memory and a revamped analog-to-digital conversion process to pump data off the chip as quickly as possible. As a result, the sensor readout dramatically cuts down on distortion and wobbly video experienced by slower chips. Even if you’re not shooting at maximum speed, you’ll still enjoy the benefits of all that processing power. 

The A1’s video skills similarly border on absurdity. It captures 4K footage with no crop factor or pixel binning—at up to 120 fps. For shooters that prefer even higher quality, it can shoot oversampled 4K at 5.2K resolution. It will even do 10-bit 8K at 30 fps. 

Going into 2022, the dawn of the do-it-all camera is firmly upon us. Nikon has already shown off its impressive Z9 (which we haven’t had a chance to test, so it wasn’t in contention for our top award this year), and rumors have been teasing the existence of Canon’s R1 flagship mirrorless camera for more than a year. The A1 is here now. Sure its $6,500 price tag puts it out of reach for most shooters, but it offers a glance at what’s coming. The A1 is like a Formula 1 race car, loaded with cutting-edge tech that Sony can tweak and refine as it works its way down the line. Five years from now, we may all be shooting lots of giant images in a hurry, and we’ll have the A1 to thank for kicking things off.

The 2021 Pop Photo Pop Awards panel:

Wenmei Hill
Wenmei Hill is a photographer based out of Seattle, WA. The former editorial manager at DPReview, she continues her work in photography as a photographer and board member for the non-profit organization Soulumination. She is also co-founder of Mamas with Cameras, through which she loves making photography accessible and exciting to women from all creative backgrounds.

Jeanette Moses
Jeanette D. Moses is a New York-based filmmaker and photographer known for capturing the intimacy of New York City’s creative communities. She loves shooting music, tinkering with new technology, all things analog, and learning about archaic photographic processes. In 2021 she was selected as one of Dr. Martens Filmmakers of the Year to direct a film about New York City’s DIY music scene.

Bob Rose
Bob Rose has photographed on six continents and underwater in four oceans. He served as Editor-at-Large for Photo District News and Rangefinder magazines for 17 years, has published countless articles and has two patents to his credit. After a full and satisfying career in the photographic industry, he returned to his alma mater RIT as an Assistant Professor in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, bringing full circle more than 35 years of experience in the industry as a photographer, educator, editor and consultant. In 2019 he was the recipient of the prestigious Chuck Westfall Technical Education Award.

As well as…

Dan Bracaglia, News & Features Editor, Popular Photography
Stan Horaczek, Senior Gear Editor, Popular Photography, Popular Science
Corinne Iozzio, Editor in Chief, Popular Science, Popular Photography

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I’m often asked, “What’s the best way to learn photography?” to which I tend to reply, “Pick up a camera and go shoot!” After all, you’ll learn more about photography from the act of doing it than you will from studying it on its own. But what if you could do both? Adobe’s new interactive learning courses—available for free in the new Lightroom Academy—are centered around the act of learning while shooting. 

17 courses on composition 

A year and a half in the works and available in 27 languages, the first set of Lightroom Academy courses are live right now. There are 17 in total, all on the subject of composition. These initial courses cover everything from the basics, including the “Rule of Thirds,” to more complex subjects, like “juxtaposition” and “composing in visual layers.”

The courses offer a combination of text, visual examples, interactive elements, quizzes and challenges to help teach each lesson. The material is non-gear-focused and intended to be consumed while on the go, i.e. while exploring with a camera in hand. Each course also offers additional resources, should you want to challenge yourself further. 

‘Frame within a Frame’

Just for fun, I made my way through the “Frame within a Frame” course. The material is presented in an easy-to-read, bite-sized manner. So even if I only had a few free moments, I could glean something. Plus, the overall design is slick and easy to navigate. That said, I found the 10-question “pop quiz” a bit harder than expected.

Other courses coming in 2022

Lightroom Academy won’t just teach the basics of composition, though. In fact, Adobe tells us quite a few additional courses will be rolled out through 2022. These will cover topics including post-production, visual thinking, the business of photography, travel photography, food photography, how to work with photo galleries, and the importance of representation in photography. 

The wrap

All-in-all, Adobe’s initial take on teaching photography appears to be top-notch. And we look forward to checking out future courses in the Lightroom Academy. In the meantime, I’m going to make my way through the rest of the material on composition. I need to improve my quiz scores!

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