Hi {name},

Welcome to Lenscraft in Focus, October 2022.

This month’s newsletter is going out a week early. I’ve decided to take a break from sitting behind a desk. Instead, I’m getting on with other important things like finishing the steps I’ve been building in the garden (for two years). I’ll still be around, but I’m only answering urgent emails.

As always, I would like to start by sharing an image, which this month is from April 2019.

This is one of several panoramas that I shot on a week-long trip to the Scottish Highlands. Until now, I haven’t stitched many of these and I’m wondering why. It was only because I was rewriting an old article about the Lightroom Panorama Merge feature that I found these. Here’s another one from the same trip.

If you read last month’s newsletter, you might recall I shared a photo of the heather taken at Carl Wark in the Peak District. I was very pleased with the shot but then received an email from a reader questioning why (I hope he doesn’t mind me mentioning this). In the email he pointed out that the image had no foreground, despite what I thought was an interesting and prominent rock. After a further email exchange, I realised the image was being distorted and cropped when viewed on his phone. I checked my phone and found I had the same problem. Wow! Technology strikes again.

Also, whilst speaking of technology, you won’t find any mention of the missing images problem in this newsletter. The main problem is now resolved with only two people reporting the issue, both of which appear to have other causes from what I can see. Fingers crossed.

And with that, I’ll stop waffling and let you read this month’s newsletter.

I hope you enjoy it.

Robin

New Lenscraft Content

Over the past month I’ve focused on publishing new tutorials and updating old ones. Here’s the list of what you can find on Lenscraft.

From Around the Internet

A selection of interesting photography related resources from the internet.

DxO Developments

DxO, which develops the excellent PhotoLab and PureRAW software, along with my favourite editor, the Nik Collection, has announced support for additional cameras and lenses. If you use these products, you now have access to more than 75,000 camera and lens combinations. DxO has also synchronized its Optics Modules across the full range of its software. Previously you would find differences in supported cameras and lenses depending on the software you were using. For me, this is a big improvement and something that I’ve wanted to see for a while.

New Nik Version

I also noticed that the Nik Collection 5.2 was available the other day. For some reason my existing software didn’t alert me to the update. More importantly it’s fixed a very annoying problem. After upgrading the Nik Collection to v5.1, I was experiencing regular crashes in three of the plugins (Viveza, Silver Efex and Color Efex). This would happen when I worked quickly using the sliders or Control Points. Having upgraded to version 5.2 the problem has vanished.

If you’ve had similar problems, log into your account on the DxO website and download the latest Nik installation.

Photography News

The latest issue of Photography News is now available to read online using the link below. You will find lots of interesting stories including the release of the new Fuji X-H2 with a 40Mpixel sensor and 160Mpixel high resolution mode. I’m hoping this will find its way into the Fuji XT5 when it’s announced.

https://online.bright-publishing.com/view/463947063/

And if you are interested in the Fuji X-H2 specification and performance, I found another article on DPReview https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-x-h2-initial-review.

ACDSee Free

Recently, I noticed a surge in visitors to one of my older YouTube videos explaining How to Manage your photos using ACDSee. Initially I couldn’t work out why. But then I spotted that they had released a free photo browser which you can download from this page of their website.

https://www.acdsee.com/en/products/acdsee-free/

I’ve installed the software on an aging Windows PC and it’s excellent. It appears to have the same features as the photo manager in their full software (covered in my video). Unfortunately, it’s only available for Windows, but if you are a Windows user looking for an excellent free photo manager, this could be it.

Abandoned Places

Do you like photographs of abandoned places and things? If so, you might like this collection on Instagram. There aren’t too many posts yet, but I have seen new photos being added from time to time.

https://www.instagram.com/abanplace/

iPhone Photography

I don’t do much phone photography but probably should given that my phone’s always in my pocket. Whilst this video was published by Apple, and promotes the capabilities of their phones, it still has some useful tips. See if it inspires you to get your phone out more often.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otQF0wkvuwI

Photographers You May Not Know – Aritz Atela

I don’t know much about Aritz other than two things. First, he is a landscape and travel photographer from the Basque Country, Spain. The other is that his photography is stunning. I particularly enjoyed looking through the landscape work on his website. It’s well worth a visit.

https://www.aritzatela.com/

Books & Course News

Latest book and course news.

Can You Help Me?

Have you read my recent book “The Easy Way to an Organised Photo Library”? So far, I’ve received three emails about the book. Two were positive and one was very negative. In the case of the negative feedback, I believe there was an expectation that the book would give answers on topics that it was never intended to cover.

Since then, I’ve noticed two very negative rating for the book on Amazon. Unfortunately, the people leaving the ratings haven’t left a review, so I have no way of knowing what their issue is with the book.

The reason that I’m asking for help, is that I need to understand if there is a significant issue with this book, or perhaps if it’s failing to meet expectations for some reason?

If you have read my book and can share any feedback, please email [email protected] to let me know.

Thank you

Robin Whalley

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