Confused by Tariffs?

Tariffs have been on everyone's lips since the US began slapping uninvited taxes on imported products in the hope that the world will drop what they are doing and move manufacturing to the United States. Or that's what I think this policy is about. I'm pretty sure that's not entirely going to happen, certainly not in the next three and a half years.

Also, I'm pretty sure that many folk, on both sides of the Atlantic, are going to experience a lot of financial pain - for a period that no one can really predict with any degree of accuracy. And while this unwanted and idiotic policy remains in place, it's hard to imagine an equitable solution being reached.

Since retiring from a teaching career in 2020 I've looked around for decent software that I could buy rather than rent, because firstly, I don't like any subscription model but perhaps more importantly, I see a heap of confusion about how these tariffs are going to affect simple processes like downloading photo editing software. Adobe has always had what appears to be an uneven pricing structure - software downloaded in the USA might be quite differently priced to the same product being available in another country. So do you now pay an even higher price for the same (digital) product if you live in a country that hasn't settled on a solid trade agreement? It's confusing, and pricing might end up by being very volatile. So, there's a cloak of uncertainty hanging over this area that might last months or possible years.

If you want to take a step sideways and avoid all the tariff woes, here are a few suggestions that might provide more reliably positioned and equally priced professional products sourced from outside the United States...

Adobe, Adobe, Adobe. You can't get much more American than this graphics software giant. At the time of writing it was worth a staggering US$160 billion. I've never felt comfortable with its pay-by-the-month subscription model for its software because it drags enthusiast image makers into what is essentially a professional pricing model. That said, at least it offers Adobe Photoshop Elements, a standalone editing application, that's both incredibly powerful and affordable in its own right (about $130, but with tariffs, this might change). It's a perfect product for both professionals and amateurs alike.

But if you'd prefer to support image making companies that are not located behind a tariff wall, or maybe just want an alternative to Adobe's expanding world dominance, there are many awesome and very capable alternatives:

Affinity Photo 2 (Serif, UK, purchase for A$96, Mac/PC)

Produced by Serif, a UK-Based business that started life bundling its editing software with new computers. Several few years ago it released Affinity Photo, a serious high-end photo editing package designed to directly challenge Adobe Photoshop.

Serif has also released a page layout application called Affinity Designer 2, software that's in direct competition to Adobe's excellent InDesign. Like InDesign, this program is packed with very powerful features for graphic designers, photographers and anyone working in prepress and publishing.

DXO PhotoLab 8 (France, purchase for $229)

OMG, my current go-to photo editing software. DXO Photo Lab is a single payment software application that's primarily designed to work with RAW files. It comes with an incredible range of image improvement features - it's not quite as fully featured as Photoshop, but its tone correction and colour editing tools are second to none. Plus its noise reduction capabilities are the best in the business.

DXO PureRaw 5 (purchase for $119) is a standalone application that's designed to supercharge RAW files. That's all it does; no layers, no fancy presets or quirky masking capabilities. It's just a tool that's designed to improve the quality of your RAW files, and it does an amazing job of that task. Your files end up looking as though they have been shot with the latest camera - it's a tremendously powerful tool, is easy to use - just set it to bulk process all your RAW files straight out of the camera. It's an ideal product for those that don't need all the bells and whistles of layers, masking, selections, etc.

Nik Collection (France, purchase for $167)

This is a standalone/plug-in product that's been around for years - during that time it has changed hands several times. Originally all these 7 plug-ins cost around US$700. Then Google bought the products and, for a while, offered it for free! Now it's being further developed and updated by DXO Labs - all seven awesome products can be had for $167. It features an HDR plug-in, Silver FX (BW), Noise Reduction, Sharpening plus four more Apps. This is a really excellent series of products capable of expanding your creative toolbox. I particularly like Silver FX, an App that beautifully reproduces the look of original black and white film. For example: Ilford FP4, Kodak Tri-X, Pan-X, Kodak TMY 3200 and many, many more.

Zoner Photo Studio X (Czech Republic, subscribe for US$60 per annum)

Although this software is only available for Windows, and is priced as a subscription of US$60/year, I think it's very reasonably-priced offering considering that it comes packed with incredible features. Zoner includes a very efficient catalog feature, an advanced database capability (some might say it's better and faster than Adobe Lightroom) plus it has tons of powerful editing features including the usual masks, selections, layers and more. Photoshop eat your heart out!. Interestingly it's designed for both still and video artists. If you just want one software application that does it all, Zoner Photo Studio would be a great choice.

Skylum Luminar Neo (Ukraine, subscribe for A$99/year)

Another amazing software company, based in Ukraine, that produces Neo, a software application designed for all creative photographers. Neo has morphed from previous Skylum applications such as its amazing Aurora HDR software (OMG, the BEST HDR software surely!). Neo is available via a subscription model for A$99 a year or, as seen occasionally as a special offer, at a one-off purchase of US$170.

Brave Browser (California, free)

Brave is my go-to internet software because, although developed in the USA, it's designed to block advertising and ad trackers so you don't get hassled by stuff you don't need or want to see! It does that job very well. I have used Brave for several years now and have successfully avoided nearly 62,000 trackers! Ha, ha, peace at last.

Proton mail (Swiss)

I never considered this product, having used Gmail for years without a thought about online privacy or how many other applications might get a look-see at what I was using. Proton Mail is based in Switzerland (sounds good already) and is essentially an encrypted email provider that's very secure, is free and ad-free. Say no more...

Blogging with WIX (Israel)

Again, like Firefox, I have used Google Blogger for many years and eventually gave up on it two years ago for the simple reason that, for a product managed by such a huge company, it had remained old fashioned and stagnant. For the last 10 years or so I don't think Google has spent a dime on its development so I moved over to WIX, a very dynamic web site provider, offering a massive range of free and beautifully designed websites. Choose from the hundreds on offer - all its sites can be (easily) modified to suit your requirements - and of course, you can also pay for a unique domain name for your hobby or business should you wish.