Just sharing the excitement about currency conversion using Spotlight. There’s one trick that didn’t seem possible to me, but is. That is, you can also convert the currency for results of calculations. So I’d often do 49+99 and want to then convert the USD to INR.
So usually just typing 148 usd would show me the result in INR. That doesn’t work with 49+99 USD. It does however work if I type in the full conversion– 49+99 usd to inr and it shows me the result. Apple’s stuff is always full of such workarounds and hidden ways of doing things! Thought someone else here might find this helpful.
I use the Topaz tools occasionally, but I much prefer DXO’s noise reduction tools for my raw files. If you don’t want to spring for DXO’s full Photolab app, you can just buy DXO Pure Raw to denoise your files and then process them in the app of your choosing. If I had to choose a noise reduction / sharpening tool for my raw files, it would be DXO, not Topaz.
I haven’t used the new Lightroom tool yet, but I’ll report back once I give it a whirl.
Update: I just read through the details of the update, and the thing I’m actually most excited about is being able to make tone curve adjustments to masks. For my image processing workflow, that’s huge.
I just did a quick test of DXO vs LR’s new AI denoise feature.
I will stick with DXO for now, at least, for the following reasons:
The resulting LR DNG was 2x the size of the original file and the DXO DNG. I don’t think that the image has been upsampled as part of the process, but I haven’t yet been able to find any clarification of this in Adobe’s documentation. I don’t think the results justify doubling the file size.
When you denoise a file, LR automatically invokes its “Raw Details” functionality. I found the resulting image over-sharpened and contrasty for my taste, but your mileage may vary.
It is possible to dial the amount of denoising up and down, so it might be possible for me to get results that are more to my taste. I still don’t think the increased file size is worth it.
PS - I should add that I’m using DXO PhotoLab 6 (i.e., the full editing app) not DXO PureRaw 3 (intended for use as a plug-in with LR, so it has no additional editing features). Although I do most of my image processing in LR, there are a few instances where PhotoLab is the better option.
Notes: Apple Notes (switched back from Bear and Craft)
Editor: Neovim with Lazyvim
Terminal: Wezterm (used Kitty but switched to Wezterm because it’s awesome)
Simple picture editing: Pixelmator
Complicated pic editing: Affinity Photo
Creating vector cliparts: Affinity Designer
Making worksheets for school: Affinity Publisher
Passwords: Apple Passwords / Bitwarden
Automation: Keyboard Maestro & Hazel
Stuff I’m using the Terminal for:
bottom (better Activity Monitor)
ncdu (like Daisydisk but way faster)
ranger (file manager)
tree (to get treelike file listing)
fd (it finds just everything, very fast)
Short notice why I’m using terminal apps instead of GUI counterparts:
I’m a teacher… I always used like 10 or so websites to create stuff for school. Like I had a website that created word search worksheets. Another one creates word scrambles. And so on. Either there are websites that want money or they are crowded with ads. So, with the help of ChatGPT I was able to create simple python scripts that did the same. But editable, in a nice to look at way, without licensing issues.
Then I noticed how awesome the command line can be. And that there are tools that are way faster and way better than any GUI app. Like ranger. I can’t use drag and drop in finder anymore. Or searching a file. I’m so into CLI…
I switched from Windows to Linux with my gaming PC and I couldn’t be happier. Everything makes so much sense and is so much easier…
I don’t know because I never used v1.
Don’t upgrade if you are using it on Windows beside your Mac or iPad. I have constant crashes on Windows with it.
