REVIEW: Peak Design Everyday Sling 5L

by

Not too long ago I reviewed the Everyday Sling 10L from Peak Design, and now they’ve launched a smaller 5L version. This new, smaller version comes in either all black, or the light grey Ash colour of the 10L one that I tested a couple of months ago. At only $100, this Everyday Sling 5L is hitting their lowest price point yet, and I don’t mind saying that they’re onto a winner here, right off the bat. Over the last few years I’ve used and reviewed the entire Everyday lineup from Peak Design, and in the review of the Sling …

Read more

The BEST Way to Move Files Between Lightroom and Luminar

by

Luminar from Skylum Software is one of my absolute favourite photo editing applications. You can use it as a standalone editor, or you can integrate it into Lightroom in a couple of ways. Most people are aware of the regular way in which you can use Luminar as a Lightroom plugin, but in this video tutorial I’m going to show you a second way that gives you MUCH more control over how your images are opened in Luminar, and how the edits are then organized in Lightroom. If you’re a Lumniar user, it’s a quick one, don’t miss it. If …

Read more

Really Right Stuff TA-3 Series 3 Leveling Base Review

by

Really Right Stuff makes leveling heads for their Series 3, Series 2, and Series 4 tripods. In this review, we’ll be taking a look at the Series 3 TA-3 leveling head, which sells for between $195 and $310 depending on the handle options and clamp that you specify. The head weighs 12.2 ounces and with the twist of the locking handle you can tilt it up to 15 degrees in any direction. When you set up your tripod, all you have to do is roughly level it with the leg locks, and then use the leveling head, with built-in bubble …

Read more

Macphun Changes Its Name to Skylum Software

by

In the last couple of years, Macphun have emerged as a huge player in the photography software industry, and they seem to be gaining momentum every month. The company started life by creating iOS apps, but then quickly moved into image editing with a number of task-specific plugins for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. In the last couple of years however, the company has switched gears and produced two incredibly powerful programs called Aurora HDR and Luminar which operate as standalone programs, or plugins for other pieces of software. In my opinion, Aurora HDR is the best HDR program out there …

Read more

REVIEW: Cecilia Leather Camera Straps

by

It’s pretty hard to stand out from the crowd in the camera strap market and it seems that every couple of months I get another press release from someone that claims to have the “next big innovation” in this sector. I also get my fair share of requests from people to test their latest straps, and usually it’s pretty hard to get excited about that prospect. Recently I got an email from the folks at Cecilia though, and what struck me right away was the fact that they weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel with some form of clever sliding …

Read more

CanvasPop Print Service Review

by

Printing images on canvas has become very popular over the last few years and CanvasPop has emerged as one of the more prominent online companies to offer this service. They recently reached out to me and asked if I’d like to test their services, and given that I’d never reviewed a print service before, I thought it would be fun. Up to now I’ve always had my own prints created locally in Vancouver, BC, so I haven’t had a good answer for people when readers have asked for an online printer recommendation. Armed with a credit for about $100 to …

Read more

How to Recover Deleted Photos From Your Camera’s Memory Card (Stellar Photo Recovery Review)

by

Accidents do happen, and if you take photos for long enough, at some point you’re probably going to find yourself in a situation where you’ve accidentally deleted images from a memory card. This sounds like a total disaster, but actually you might be surprised to find out how easy it is to get those photos back. Whether you delete a single image, or format an entire card, most of the data actually remains in place and all you need is a piece of software that’s smart enough to dig it out. You can’t do this forever, eventually the data will …

Read more

How to Auto Import Multiple Edits into Lightroom From Photoshop Round Trip

by

Video Tutorial Get it on YouTube here, or scroll down for the full text description. Auto Importing Photoshop Edits into Lightroom At some point in the development of Adobe Lightroom CC an important change has been made that is sure to please a lot of photographers. So far this doesn’t seem to have been reported on, and Adobe’s own online resources still teach a now outdated methodology for this particular important piece of workflow. What we’re talking about today is the process for round tripping a photo from Lightroom into Photoshop and then back into Lightroom again. Most seasoned Lightroom …

Read more