Birmingham’s NEC once again played host to the UK’s largest photography trade show this September, The Photography Show 2022. Our very own Mathew Browne was an exhibitor and speaker for our friends at Skylum.
Skylum unveils Luminar Neo
Mathew has worked for Skylum for 3 years, first as an ambassador, then as a developer for their marketplace products. He joined his Skylum colleagues Robert Vanelli and Thomas Karagiannis, plus special guest Eliani Miranda, to demonstrate the incredible editing features of the flagship product Luminar Neo.
The product is available as a standalone editor, or as a plugin for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Users love its innovative tools which include:
- Erase AI, which automatically detects and removes sensor dust and power lines
- Powerful tools for portrait editing such as Skin AI and Face AI
- Relight AI, which gives you a tool to apply exposure changes to the background and foreground independently of each other
- Sky AI, offering simple one-click sky replacements and a library of high quality sky assets to use
Skylum is headquartered in Ukraine. Due to the war, myself and colleagues from Kyiv were unable to attend the show this year. We look forward to meeting you at the next edition of The Photography Show in 2024.
Anna Koval, head of PR and communications at Skylum
Meeting PhotoHounders
Our co-founder Julie Renahan travelled from London to join Mathew at Tuesday’s show.
It was a great treat to meet some of our wonderful contributors at the show. We loved hearing your feedback and know that we’re doing everything we can to make a product you’ll love.
Daniel James Phillips is one of our top contributors in Wales. He made the journey from Llandeilo to catch Mathew’s talk and was a welcome guest at the Skylum stand.
I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to The Photography Show. I was introduced to new companies and connected with the brilliant people at brands I’m already familiar with such as Skylum and PhotoHound. Next time I’ll visit on multiple days. One day isn’t enough to make the most of all of the brilliant talks or visit all the stands. I left with a wealth of new knowledge and motivation. It was also great to meet so many other like-minded people within the industry. I look forward to connecting and hopefully working with them in future.
Daniel James Phillips, founder of Dinefwr Studios and PhotoHound contributor
Pete Zalabai has contributed lots of images to PhotoHound, however we didn’t realise he is such a tough interviewer! He and his wife Alyssa present Hold My Lens Cap on Youtube.
Talking about travel photography
Mathew’s talk on the Editing stage was a half hour whistlestop tour of travel photography. Visitors learned how he plans his shoots with PhotoHound, how he executes his shoots on location, and how he uses Luminar Neo to achieve his signature looks when processing the images afterwards.
The Photography Show 2022 was my debut performance at this trade show. It was a privilege to finally speak to an audience of enthusiastic travel photographers. The world is opening back up after the pandemic, so the time is perfect to revive our interest in shooting on location. PhotoHound proved to be a huge hit with the audience – many guests signed up there and then.
Mathew Browne, Skylum ambassador and PhotoHound co-founder
Mathew’s parting comments about Luminar Neo generated a groundswell of interest in the product. With Skylum’s stand just steps away from the Editing stage, many guests visited afterwards to register their interest in Luminar Neo.
Talks and education
Visitors to The Photography Show 2022 could choose from hundreds of displays, demonstrations and talks. Talks at the show are free to attend, with the exception of Masterclasses and Super Stage sessions. Here are just a few highlights.
Dave Clayton took to the Editing stage before Mathew, showcasing his methods to turn your images to social media templates in minutes. Practical tutorials such as these were available all weekend.
Kaylee Greer is a renowned dog photographer who presented a session on the Super Stage. Her talk shared her insights and journey towards television appearances and her own book, Dogtography. The book sold out completely during the show!
Samyang UK ambassador Alyssa Zalabai presented a fascinating talk about portrait photography, including a live demonstration on stage.
Beauty and fashion photographer Siân Elizabeth‘s made her well-received and inspirational debut performance at the show. This talk titled This is ME: Living with chronic illness as a photographer was on the Behind The Lens stage. She is also one of the hosts of the Epic Photography Podcast.
In addition to talks on stage there was a chance to meet world-class educators such as Richard Harrington and Elia Locardi.
I’ve known Richard and Elia professionally for years but it was a pleasure to thank them in person for the knowledge I’ve absorbed from them over the years. In particular, Elia’s Photographing The World series on Fstoppers was a great inspiration for travel photographers like me. All that remains is to twist their arm to get them contributing to PhotoHound!
Mathew Browne, Skylum ambassador and PhotoHound co-founder
The biggest names in photography
The biggest names in the industry were on hand at The Photography Show 2022 – Nikon, Canon, Sony and DJI all boasted huge booths with lots of equipment to try and buy. These booths also hosted a selection of guest speakers throughout the weekend.
As a recent convert to the Nikon Z mirrorless system, Mathew made a beeline for the Nikon stand. Here he enjoyed browsing the latest lenses and discussing Nikon’s future releases with their staff.
Incredible optics
We’re big fans of Samyang‘s growing lineup of lenses so we visited their UK distributor Holdan to check out what’s new, as well as check out the other brands they distribute, such as Slik and Hoya, and their ambassadors such as Alyssa Zalabai.
I’ve been a big fan of Alyssa’s portrait photography for a long time, so it’s a no-brainer to check out the gear she uses to achieve her signature dreamy look. Samyang’s 85mm f/1.4 Mk2 lens looks like a fantastic lens for Sony users, I just wish it came in a Nikon Z mount!
Mathew Browne, Skylum ambassador and PhotoHound co-founder
We also visited Sigma‘s busy stand showcasing their vast array of optics for almost every camera system. Mathew is already a huge advocate for their 14mm f/1.8 as the best astrophotography lens that money can buy, so we were intrigued to see how their other lenses perform. Their Art series of prime lenses offer incredible optics at an attractive price point.
Tripods and accessories
Huge congratulations to Platypod who won The Photography Show 2022 Best In Show award from Digital Camera magazine with their range of ultra compact mini tripod bases. (By the way, we learned their name is inspired by the duck-billed platypus, an animal with flat and broad feet.)
Benro were another star of the show. When Mathew’s tripod was damaged in transit, Krish Nagar was very gracious in offering Vanelli and Mathew a loan of Benro’s new Rhino tripod to record a livestream for the Luminar Insiders community.
Their new Polaris electric tripod head was on display and available for preorder at the show. This product is a sturdy and reliable tool for star tracking with an easy to use app for calibration – astrophotographers will love this!
It’s been another great show for us at Benro. Products flying off the shelves and lots of preorders for the new Polaris… I’m sure we’ll be seeing you in Carmarthen Cameras to pick one up before long!
Krishan Nagar, sales at Benro and Carmarthen Cameras
It was great to meet the very friendly team at Loupedeck, the Finnish company specialising in consoles for creators, editors and streamers.
Meeting the team required patience because the stand was always swamped with curious visitors, but we did get a glimpse of Solarcan, a fun product to capture an extreme long exposure of the sun over the course of months or even years!
Interviews and podcasts
As the biggest photography and video show in the UK, it should be no surprise that it is a mecca for podcasters and Youtubers.
We enjoyed the company of some of the hosts of Epic Photography Podcast – international wedding photographer Peter Treadway and travel photographer Dave Williams.
Skylum were also visited by Kersten Luts of Camera Shake Photography Podcast, make sure to check them out in all the usual podcast locations.
Pete Zalabai enjoyed grilling Mathew about Luminar Neo for the Hold My Lens Cap Youtube channel. When he’s not the toughest interviewer in the business, you can find him right here on PhotoHound contributing his photo spots. Thank you for mentioning PhotoHound to your Youtube audience and we hope you didn’t get Mathew fired!
Exhibitions
It was a welcome surprise to discover that just behind Skylum’s stand was a beautiful exhibition of images from the SheClicks community.
We are really grateful to the SheClicks community for supporting us by testing out the PhotoHound app during their Birmingham photo walk on Monday and for sharing some of their favourite locations and shots. I feel very privileged to be part of this supportive community of female photographers. If you didn’t see their exhibition at the show, do look them up on Facebook or take a look at the gallery on their website to get an idea of the inspirational work they produce. All female and identifying as female photographers are welcome to join for free.
Julie Renahan, PhotoHound co-founder and SheClicks member
Travel
There were far too many tour operators to list but special mention must go to Aurora Expeditions, whose stand just steps away from Skylum offered insights into their epic sea journeys, most notably to Antarctica, with onboard photographers to help guide you towards your images of a lifetime.
Vanelli and Mathew were visited at the Skylum stand by Brian Jones, who supplied an incredible macro image for testing their Luminar Neo software. As a thank you, Vanelli arranged for his good friends at Epson to blow the image up as a 24×24 inch square!
Elsewhere in the hall, we spotted Fotospeed, who are known for their range of papers and printers. They also organise the weekly #fsprintmonday competition on Twitter for the UK photography community.
About The Photography Show 2022
The Photography Show 2022 took place at the NEC in Birmingham, which is conveniently located a few minutes from Birmingham International train station and Birmingham International Airport.
If you took some photos while visiting Birmingham you are welcome to add these photo spots and images to PhotoHound – they will end up in our Birmingham photo guide.
The Photography Show now takes an 18 month hiatus, returning in March 2024 at the same venue. We hope to see you there!
