Friday Hacker Blogging: digiKam 7.1 Released, Fully Supports Canon CR3 Format

Digikam 7.1

The open source and free software digiKam 7.1 has been released. Full support for the Canon CR3 format has been added.

Release notes for digiKam 7.1 are here.

When you buy an expensive camera, such as the latest Canon devices, you should expect the image provided to be seriously pre-processed by the camera firmware and ready to use immediately. This is true for JPEG, but not RAW files, where the format changes for every new camera released, as it depends on the camera’s sensor data. This is also the case for the Canon CR3: the RAW format produced by this camera has required intensive reverse-engineering that the digiKam team cannot always support well. This is why we use the powerful Libraw library to post-process the RAW files on the computer. This library includes complex algorithms to support all kinds of different RAW file formats, including the Canon CR3.

You can download digiKam 7.1 for 64-bit or 32-bit systems from their website.

As usual you can use this post to discuss about whatever you want.

Save 30% On DxO Nik Collection 3 ($99 for limited time, reg. $149)

Nik Collection 3 Photo Editing Software

DxO Nik Collection 3 is currently discounted by 30%.

Click here to get DxO Nik Collection with a 30% discount.

Nik Collection 3 won an EISA award for “Best Product” in the photo software category:

Nik Collection 3 by DxO is a suite of eight powerful photo-editing plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab, that helps photographers take their images to the next level. Together the plug-ins allow a wide range of effects to be applied quickly and easily to images, such as great black & white conversions, attractive colour adjustments and creative treatments, and new in this version, comprehensive geometric corrections. A new non-destructive mode allows you to export images as TIFF files and tweak your edits, while keeping your original images safe and your adjustments reversible.

Click here to get DxO Nik Collection with a 30% discount.

Nik Collection 3 is an awesome photo editing software. The video below tells you more.

Skylum Announces LuminarAI, A Novel Way To Edit Photos With Artificial Intelligence

Luninarai

Skylum announced LuminarAI, the “first image editor fully powered by artificial Intelligence“. If you want you can preorder LuninarAI at the special price of $69 (limited time). Learn more about LuminarAI here.

Press release:

Skylum aims to reinvent traditional photo editing, announces LuminarAI

LuminarAI empowers visual communicators to make great photos with unique AI. Everyone can create amazing images faster while having fun.

NEW YORK, NY – September 3, 2020​ —​ ​This morning, Skylum unveiled a revolutionary approach to photoediting, LuminarA​I​.​​ Unlike other photo editors that takea time-consuming approach based on tools, LuminarA​I ​focuses on results. This revolutionary application and plug-in will be released this holiday season.

LuminarA​I makes complex editing easier than ever before thanks to unique AI-powered tools. LuminarA​I removes boring and complex tasks without sacrificing professional quality. Artificial intelligence lets the visual artist focus on results and not the process. Everyone can make amazing photos free of complexity, yet full of creativity, thanks to artificial intelligence.“

LuminarA​I​ will bring an entirely new,non-conventional approach to the world of photo editing, focusing on the results instead of the process,” said D​ima Sytnik, CPO of Skylum​. “We’ve designed LuminarA​I​from the ground up to change how people interact with their images. We’re really excited to see what Luminar​AI​ can do for creatives everywhere.”

LuminarA​I is designed for visual communicators, every day people and professional photographers alike. It’s made for those who rely on pictures to communicate their important messages and grow their opportunities or reputation: Bloggers, entrepreneurs, educators, marketers, small and medium-sized businesses, and many others. It lets everyone tell their story with rich and expressive images like never before. With LuminarA​I everyone can make amazing images in an efficient way.

Artificial intelligence is the core of LuminarA​I

Compared to traditional image editors, LuminarA​I​offers acompletely different approach. Built from the ground up to leverage artificial intelligence, LuminarA​I ​simplifies complex tasks and removes boring manual work.

Portraits take on new life​.

  • Use​ BodyA​I ​and ​FaceA​I ​to gently sculpt and refine a portrait.
  • Create eyes that are rich and expressive with ​IrisA​I​.
  • Remove blemishes and imperfections naturally with ​SkinA​I​.

Landscape photography has never looked better.

  • Add depth and detail to skies with ​AtmosphereA​I ​and SkyEnhancer​.
  • Transform a photo and add an all-new sky in seconds with​ SkyAI
  • Bring warmth with ​Golden Hour​ or even enhance the sun with ​Sunrays.​

Professional finishing with less hassle.

  • Looking for more detail and texture? Then​ StructureA​I​ is the perfect addition.
  • Get the perfect crop with​ CompositionA​I ​and fix crooked images
  • With AccentA​I​, a photo has perfect exposure and color.

With LuminarA​I​, amazing photos are just two clicks away.

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Giveaway: Win A Macpaw Gemini 2 License, Find Duplicate And Similar Photos

Macpaw Gemini 2

If you have a large photo library chances are good you have plenty of duplicate or similar files. Ever wondered how to find them? MacPaw Gemini 2 is what you need.

MacPaw Gemini 2 does exactly that: it finds duplicate and similar files on your hard disk or storage medium. And it’s very fast in doing it. Gemini 2 can not just find photos, it can scan through all sort of files, like documents, movies, and music files. Duplicate files might hide there too. Gemini 2’s interface is as easy it can get. Gemini 2 runs only on a Mac.

Gemini 2 interface – as simple as it can get

Macpaw Gemini 2 sells at $19.95 (trail version available), but we give you the opportunity to try your luck and win one out of five licenses. Use the widget below and remember: the more points you gain the more chances you have to win a license.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I used Gemini 2 on my library of over 40,000 photos and it was surprisingly quick to go through it. Nothing to blame on the accuracy either. You can review the list of duplicate files and will see that Gemini 2 is on spot. However, if you have photos in both JPG and raw format and selected the “similar files” option in settings, then Gemini 2 will list the raw/JPG couples as similar files. If you have a lot of raw/JPG couples then you might deactivate this setting.

The video below gives a quick overview on Gemini 2, a more detailed review is here. In my opinion it’s a simple and very effective and accurate utility.

Get MacPaw Gemini 2 at $19.95.

Free Luminar 4.3 Update Released (and you can get Luminar at $57 instead of $89)

Luminar 4

Skylum released a free update to its award winning photo editing software, Luminar 4.3. Luminar 4 has become the main hub for all photos downloaded to my computer. I quit Lightroom because I couldn’t get along with the forced subscription.

You can get $10 off the price of Luminar 4 by using our code WATCH at checkout. And since there is still a promotion going on, plus our discount, Luminar 4 is yours at $57 (instead of $89) and you get a lot of bonus items too. Don’t forget to apply the code.

Skylum press release:

Luminar brings search, user experience improvements, 500px integration in the latest update

Luminar 4.3 adds a new crop interface, faster Looks experience, photo search, sharing through 500px, and performance improvements.

NEW YORK, NY -July 14, 2020—Today, Skylum released the latest update for Luminar, version 4.3, focusing on enhancing the overall experience for creatives through several refinements and performance improvements.

“With its vast AI-centric features, Luminar 4 has become a state-of-the-art program for photographers and other creatives,” said Dima Sytnik, Co-Founder and CTO of Skylum. “With Luminar 4.3, we continue to optimize the user experience and focus on performance. We know that, with this update, post-processing workflows will become faster and will help photographers be able to get started quicker and easier than ever before.”

Available as a free update for all current Luminar 4 users, the latest update adds the ability to search photos, a user experience improvement to Looks, 500px integration, a new crop interface, and several performance improvements. It also brings a new space shuttle object, along with several improvements, for the AI Augmented Sky too.

Luminar 3 users will also see the search function added in the program’s next update.

Photo search

With the new Search tool, photographers can find images in their library with ease. Search lets photographers find photos by name, folder, date, or extension, allowing for quick management of photos.

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Save On Topaz Gigapixel AI And Upscale Your Photos Up To 600%

Gigapixel Ai

Topaz’ new Gigapixel AI lets you upscale your photos, up to 600% from the original.

Gigapixel AI is discounted over the Easter Holidays and you can get an additional discount by using the code RUMOR at checkout. At the end instead of $99.99 you pay just $67.99.

The new edition of Gigapixel AI has:

  • New Face Refinement tool to enhance facial features
  • Updated user interface with batch workflow
  • A ton of general improvements in all areas

The short video below gives a quick introduction to what you can do with this software.

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