Latest Lightroom Update Restores Import Screen and Fixes Bugs

Adobe today released Lightroom CC 2015.3 and 6.3. As was promised last month, this latest update restores the old Lightroom Import experience that was found in Lightroom prior to the tumultuous 6.2 update, which Adobe ended up apologizing for. “The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom,” Adobe says. In addition to new camera support (e.g. Leica SL, Sony RX1R II, Canon EOS M10), the update also contains fixes that address the “instability, functionality, and performance issues introduced in Lightroom CC 2015.2.x/6.2.x.” If you reverted your Lightroom after updating to 6.2 in order to get the old Import experience back, you can go ahead and update to 6.3 now.

This Selfie Stick Gives You Ridiculously Long Arms

Over in Japan, a guy named Mansun has invented an arm-extension selfie stick. Instead of being a stick that you hold, it’s shaped like an extra long arm. He bought some plastic hands on Amazon, mounted them to the end of selfie sticks, attached a phone to the palm, and then created a shirt with extra long sleeves to wear while holding the sticks.

Here’s what Mansun looks like while taking selfies out in public:

Photos of the Strange ‘Crooked Forest’ in Poland

German photographer Kilian Schönberger recently shot a series of photos showing one of the most unusual forests in the world. Located near the city of Gryfino in West Poland, the so-called “Crooked Forest” has a grove of pine trees that are curved at the base. The grove was planted sometime around the year 1930, Schönberger says, and it’s generally believed that some kind of tool or technique was used to make these trees grow in this strange way, but the exact method or motive isn’t currently known. Some people believe that the trees were used to harvest naturally curved timber for building things like furniture and boats. Others think the trees took on this shape through some natural event such as a snowstorm or flood.

Apple Surprises Photographers with Ultra Fancy ‘Shot on iPhone 6’ Photo Books

Earlier this year, Apple launched a global ad campaign called “Shot on iPhone 6” that featured the company’s favorite iPhone 6 photos, which were captured by 77 different photographers. The iPhone 6S has since replaced the 6, but Apple hasn’t forgotten about how the photographers helped the phone become yet another hit. The company has begun shipping out fancy cloth-covered coffee table photo books to the photographers as a special “thank you” gift. Cult of Mac reports that the photographers have been surprised by the packages that are arriving in the mail. Each sleek photo book comes with a pair of white gloves that are used for handling the ultra-limited-edition books with care. Cork, Ireland-based photographer Brendan Ó Sé was one of the 77 photographers who participated in the ad campaign and who received the new photo book. This was the photo of his that Apple selected (we also featured it back in March):

“Shooting from an unexpected angle can add an interesting twist. Here, it creates contours in the lines that convey a sense of movement to the viewer.” –Apple Ó Sé shared a number of photos with PetaPixel that show that there were two photo books included in the box set. One is titled “The Photographs” and one is titled “The Gallery.

The Gallery documents how and where the photos were used around the world. The photographers were also paid for the use of the photos for the campaign, Cult of Mac says. So far, there’s no word on whether the photo books will ever be made available to the general public.

How to Make Realistic Fake Blood in 60 Seconds for a Halloween Shoot

Want to make some realistic fake blood for a creepy Halloween photo shoot? Here’s a short video tutorial by HouseholdHacker on how you can do so with household things in just a minute. You’ll need some flour, red and blue food coloring, and corn syrup. “Stir up your mixture like crazy and in no time it will start looking like Dracula made a deposit in your mixing bowl,” writes HouseholdHacker. “Boom! That’s it! Realistic fake blood… and it’s edible too so don’t worry about getting it in your mouth.”