I think one of my favorite things about the current state of the display tablet industry is how there seems to be a non-stop growth of affordable alternatives to the historic "major players" in the game, making it easier and much more justifiable for photographers to make the leap into not just using a pen tablet, but a large and color accurate display version suitable for proper photo editing.
XPPen's new Magic Drawing Pad is what the company calls the industry's first professional and mobile standalone drawing tablet, described as "a magic studio on the go."
Wacom has announced the addition of two new display tablets that join the Cintiq Pro 27.
There's no denying that in the last few years, we've seen a veritable explosion of pen and display tablets from competing companies. At this stage in the competitive game, the hardest part for creatives has been figuring out what makes one tablet better or different than another at each budget level.
Wacom recently expanded its lineup of entry-level pen tablets, adding the $600 Wacom One 13 Touch Tablet, the first pen display in its category to feature 10-finger multi-touch gestures.
NBP Retouch Tools has announced a new $99 SKN plugin for Photoshop that promises to transform skin editing into a seamless process that's efficient and enjoyable for retouchers, and doesn't just rely on artificial intelligence (AI) "magic" to complete.
XP-Pen has announced the second-generation, $599 Artist Pro 16 display tablet for artists and retouchers. The updated tablet boasts a 2.5K resolution with a stylus that leverages an X3 Pro Smart Chip with a "world-first" 16K pen pressure technology.
Retouch4Me has announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) plugin called Color Match that can be used to apply colors from a reference image to a second working image.
Wacom has announced four new Wacom One brand tablets designed for beginning artists seeking an affordable and portable pen tablet or display tablet solution for their creative work.
Pen display tablets have been getting better and more affordable, so it makes sense that all-in-one devices like the Huion Kamvas Studio 16 would follow the same path. But what makes this device a little different is it's a pro pen tablet made for designers, illustrators, and photographers to help them get their art created quickly and easily while also being a fully functional Windows PC.
Capture One has announced the 16.2 "spring" update that adds new features and artificial intelligence (AI) powered tools designed to speed up users' workflows.
Skylum has released update 1.9 update Luminar Neo that brings a heavily-requested Undo/Redo functionally to the artificial intelligence-powered photo editing application.
At this point in the "Tablet Debate", the argument about who makes the best tablets for photographers will shift back and forth between Xencelabs and Wacom depending on who you talk too and what deep-down preferences they have. While Wacom may have reigned supreme for a very long time, it's hard to deny that with the launch of the $1,899 Pen Display 24 Studio Series, Xencelabs has officially given Wacom a reason to worry.
Wacom's Cintiq Pro 27 might be expensive, but it is one of the most immersive, accurate, and stable display tablets ever.
There are now tons of pen tablet makers out there and the options have given new users far more power to choose from a wide variety of styles, features, and obviously prices. The new $40 Veikk Voila L gives beginners an impressively competent "bare-bones" pen tablet to learn on for scant little investment.
Every photographer tries to develop a personal look to their images, and that is no better shown than by asking a group of them to apply their style to the same photo.
Skylum Software has added several powerful extensions to the already impressive Luminar Neo application including Upscale AI, Focus Stacking, HDR Merge, Noiseless, and Supersharp AI, bringing the currently available total for the application to seven. These new tools give creatives an impressive amount of control over their images, expanding the current functionality of the photo editing program to a full-blown "suite".
Luminar Neo has a new extension available just in time to add something special to your holiday photos. The Magic Light Extension, may not be as big, flashing, and extensive as some of the others available within the system, but what it does bring is a lot of fun and adds a little (or a lot) extra sparkle to your shots.
Portrait retouching can get overwhelming sometimes with the steps you need to take to make your shots look absolutely perfect. Maybe these steps aren't that hard, but they can definitely be very time-consuming, so finding any way to speed this process up to make better and more efficient use of your time is a high priority for every photographer. Using Luminar Neo to tackle these steps can make retouching a breeze using just a few tools and leveraging some of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) built into the application.
ACDSee has released Photo Studio Mac 9, what it calls both a fully-featured Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool as well as a non-destructive editor.
Anyone who has spent any extended time editing photos with a mouse will find that often, it's just not the best experience. That's why so many editors switch to a drawing tablet (also known as a pen tablet), but picking the best one has gotten surprisingly challenging in recent years.
NBP Retouch Tools has released a long-awaited update for the Color Map X Panel for Adobe Photoshop that brings full functionality to Apple Silicon (M1/M2), new Windows, and is fully compliant with the new Adobe UXP.
The "most significant update" in ON1 history is available today. The 2023 version of Photo RAW features the Super Select AI Tool, which the company says is a "giant leap forward" in technology and makes editing tasks much easier.
DxO has announced updates to its PhotoLab 6 and Viewpoint 4 software packages adding artificially intelligent (AI)-powered features and new tools for photographers.
Photographer Anya Anti has created 2.5 Seconds, a climate change awareness project that she hopes will start a conversation about the issue and educate more people about the facts, the urgency of the crisis, and the seriousness of its consequences.
Huion says its new $160 Inspiroy Dial 2 (Q630M) pen tablet is designed to enhance and improve every feature from the previous tablet and "boost efficiency of creatives to the next level." I think the company achieved that goal.
Some may enjoy editing, but most photographers will agree that actually taking the photos is the best part of the job. So finding a way to speed up and reduce the amount of time spent at the computer is more than welcome, which is where Retouch4Me comes into play.
Retouch4me has announced the first neural network-trained plugin for DaVinci Resolve that automatically retouches skin imperfections extremely quickly and entirely on its own.
Travel photographer and content creator Pat Kay has released an extensive and detailed video on how to edit a digital image in Adobe Lightroom to make it look as though it was captured on film.
Professional photographer and YouTuber Sean Tucker -- known for his informative and inspiring content centered around street photography -- has quietly released a completely free series of focused tutorials on portrait retouching.
Skylum has announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool in Luminar Neo that it says will help eliminate the time-consuming process of masking and background removal in portraits.
DxO has released version 5 of the Nik Collection photo editing suite of plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. This latest version includes major updates for Color Efex and Analog Efex, as well as improved local adjustment tools, an overall smoother user experience, 29 new film emulations, and a brand new tool to reduce haze.
Optics 2022 from Boris FX brings some seriously impressive special effects (SFX) tools like color grades, easy masking, and impressive lighting effects in a package that can be used as a stand-alone application or as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic.
Photographer Geo Leon is known for his easily-recognizable portrait photography style full of detail and vibrancy and has shared an insight on what drives his creativity.
Not everyone needs to hire a retoucher, right? Well, that may be true, but I’d like to make the case that most people probably do need one. Let’s dive into the complex world of post-production, understand the art of it, and the time it takes to do well.
Don’t toss a photo just because the lighting isn’t the best. You may be able to bring it back alive in post-production. As photographers, we face countless different scenarios and it's nearly impossible to get the perfect shot 100% of the time.
If you're tired of the unrealistic beauty standards set by all the edited pictures on Instagram and long for a return to "the good old days," here is some bad news: people have been "Photoshopping" portraits for just about as long as photography has been around.
In this nine-minute video from Workphlo, photographer Dustin Dolby explains how to light catalog quality reflective product photos using just a single Speedlight.
In this 18-minute video, photographer Dustin Dolby explains many of the tricks beverage photographers use and shows how anyone can achieve professional-level beer photos with just a few speedlights and some entry-level camera gear.
Today, Skylum has released the fourth free update to the LuminarAI photo editing software since its initial launch in late 2020. This new update adds a new Portrait BokehAI tool along with several other features.