ProShow Producer 3.2 slide show software for professional photographers now supports direct uploads to YouTube. “With the new version of Producer photos, slide shows and videos can be easily uploaded to any device allowing photographers to carry around a portfolio slide show or client proof in the palm of their hands, anywhere they go.” said Paul Schmidt, President of Photodex Corporation. ProShow Producer 3.2 is available immediately for $249.95. A free 15-day trial version of the software is available for download.

Photo enthusiast Henrik Paul has taken an in-depth look at what the latest update to the Mac OS, nicknamed Leopard, has to offer to the photographer.

“Perhaps the most interesting and/or useful feature in Leopard, for me at least, is Time Machine. In a few words, it’s a no-brainer backup system. In technical terms, it’s an incremental backup service that takes a backup once an hour (or the next time your backup target is connected). The backup target is most usually an external hard drive disk, but it can be another internal hard drive disk or even a separate partition in the same hard drive as well.”

Website: Henrik Paul - Leopard and You

Essentials 2 for Adobe Photoshop Elements from onOne Software includes Mask Pro, PhotoFrame, PhotoTune and Genuine Fractals. These four tools incorporated in Essentials 2 allow amateur and advanced amateur photographers to spend less time in front of their computer screen correcting their digital images and more time behind their camera taking pictures,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. Essentials 2 for Adobe Photoshop Elements costs $59.95 for new users, and is a free upgrade for all current users of Essentials for Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Picaboo today announced the availability of Picaboo 2.0, a new version of its popular software. Picaboo 2.0 includes the most customizable photo greeting cards available today, customizable photo book covers, and StoryFlow, a revolutionary tool for quickly making meaningful photo books. Picaboo also announced a special promotion of $25 off on greeting card orders of 100 or more, and $10 off any large photo book purchase, available until November 15, 2007.

Windows Live Photo Gallery makes managing your photos easier than ever. Windows Live Photo Gallery lets users easily organize, edit and share their lives in photos and videos. With new sharing capabilities, you can share photos via Windows Live Spaces, or Flickr with just a few clicks. New digital camera owners rank sharing photos as a top feature they’re excited about. Microsoft’s research shows that 6 months after purchase, sharing ranks 8th or 9th on the list of uses because for many people it’s still too hard. Windows Live Photo Gallery can be used to touch up photos; stitch multiple photos together into amazing panoramic shots; tag photos by date, keyword, star rating or any identifying label for easy and quick finding and sharing; and much more.

Bling! It from Vertus lets you prepare professional-looking images of products for publishing on the Web or on an online auction site. Bling! It comes pre-loaded with 50 background images worth over $99, and ships with the same edge finding technology found in Fluid Mask 3. Vertus Bling! It costs $49.95, and there’s a free 15 day fully functional trial version.

Turn digital images into fun comics with Comic Life from plasq, now available for Windows as well as Mac. Use speech balloons, panels, captions and lettering to turn family, friends and pets into sensational comic book stars. Comic Life for Windows is compatible with XP Service Pack 1 & 2 and and Windows Vista. Comic Life Standard costs $24.95 and $29.95 for Comic Life Deluxe.

Phase One have released a second Beta version of its Capture One 4 RAW workflow software. You can try beta 2 for free until January 31st 2008. Capture One 4 beta 2 is much more stable than the previous beta, though it is still not the final product. Other changes include improving the user interface to improve the daily work for professional photographers and adding RAW file support for a number of new cameras.

Website: Download Capture One 4 Beta 2

Camera Module for Windows is a new photographic tool calculates various optical equations such as depth of field or hyperfocal distance. The Camera module solves optical equations such as angle of view for selected lens and film format combination, depth of field, including near focus, far focus, total depth of field and hyperfocal distance as well as image width and height, and covers 37 digital formats including 9 digital backs and 12 conventional film formats. Camera module for Windows runs under Windows 95 or later and costs $39.

DxO Optics Pro 5 will be released in the 2nd half of November 2007, following an extended testing and quality assurance phase. Version 5 of Optics Pro was originally slated for release at the end of October. A revised release date for the MAC version will be provided towards the end of November. DxO Optics Pro 5 will add dust/blemish removal, improved user interface, increased speed and expanded camera support, and is priced from £99. All purchasers of DxO Optics Pro v4.5 on or after August 1st, 2007 are eligible for a free upgrade to DxO Optics Pro v5.

A new version of Serif PhotoPlus X2 Studio Pack offers automatic image fixing, photo album sharing and more. “Serif PhotoPlus X2 Studio Pack makes powerful image editing capabilities even more easily accessible to all PC users, thanks to the innovative usability improvements in this latest version,” said Gary Bates, Serif’s Managing Director. Serif PhotoPlus X2 Studio Pack costs £59.99 and is available now.

Apple have just released Apple Aperture 1.5.6. Recommended for all licensed Aperture customers, the Aperture 1.5.6 Update addresses issues related to performance, improves overall stability, and supports compatibility with Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.

- Resolves some minor compatibility issues with iPhoto 7.1, which organizes images by Event rather than Roll.
- Addresses issues related to metadata and sort order when sharing previews with iLife Media Browser.
- Improves reliability of queries based on Import Session.
- Addresses reliability when recovering an Aperture Library from a Vault.

Website: Apple Aperture 1.5.6

Olympus Studio 2.1 is a new version of Olympus’ professional workflow software, with added support for the E-3 DSLR. Studio 2.1 provides various functions and powerful tools to assist your workflow, such as examining and selecting the best shot from a large number of images, searching for a desired image from folders and albums, editing and processing images you have shot. Olympus Studio 2.1 includes the following improvements:

- Support for “E-3”
- Added “Add IPTC Information” function under Transfer Images, RAW Development and Batch Processing.
- Added New skin (Professional) which is the most suitable for viewing and sorting photos.
- Added the function to show Pop-up Information for a file.
- Improved the function to narrow down by Color Mark.
- Improved the operability of the function to sort images.
- Added the function to display the background processing status in the status bar.
- Added the function to select the next operation after saving files.
- Improved the display speed in Thumbnail Area (Windows).

Website: Olympus Studio 2.1

Color Efex Pro 3.0 is the latest version of Nik Software’s award-winning Color Efex Pro collection of photographic filters for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. The new Color Efex Pro 3.0 filter collection now integrates Nik Software’s patented U Point technology for precise selective editing control, includes new and updated filters, and features a completely redesigned user interface. “Color Efex Pro 3.0 is the biggest advancement in the way photographers work with digital photographic filters and will change the way that photographers edit images,” said Michael J. Slater, CEO of Nik Software. “We have always been committed to placing creative control in the hands of photographers and the new filters in Color Efex Pro 3.0 and our U Point technology does exactly that,” Slater concluded. Color Efex Pro 3.0 is available in three versions The suggested retail price for the Complete Edition is $299.95; the Select Edition is $159.95; the Standard Edition is $99.95.

Capture NX photo editing software from Nikon and Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 digital photographic filters for Capture NX can be purchased separately for $329.95 or together for a limited time at a $30 discount. “Professional photographers and advanced amateurs have recognized Nik Color Efex Pro as a big part of their photographic workflow because of its simplicity and power. Bringing Color Efex Pro 2.0 and Capture NX together offers photographers an easy to use and complete photo editing solution,” said Michael J. Slater, president and CEO of Nik Software, Inc. Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 2.0 for Capture NX includes 75 award-winning filters that offer a tremendous range of traditional and stylistic photo enhancements.

PhotoFrame 3.1 and PhotoFrame 3.1 Professional Edition include thousands of frame and matte selections that add a professional finishing touch to any digital image. The choices are endless with PhotoFrame’s selection of border and edge effects such as drop shadows, bevel, glow, border and texture. Photographers at all levels of expertise will appreciate the creative finishing touches that onOne Software’s PhotoFrame 3.1 and PhotoFrame 3.1 Professional Edition provides,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 has been renamed to PhotoFrame 3.1. PhotoFrame 3.1 Professional Edition is identical to PhotoFrame 3.1 in feature set but includes the additional digital frame content that was previously only available in onOne Software’s Pro Digital Frame Bundle.

Blurb BookSmart 1.9 Beta is free bookmaking software which enables you to make professional-quality books. New design elements, more than 45 new layouts in each of Blurb’s four book sizes, and the ability to create community books are included in this version. “This version of BookSmart is our most ambitious product release in company history,” said Eileen Gittins, Blurb’s founder and CEO. “Blurb users make several thousand books each week, and are very vocal about their experiences and what they’d like to see next. We listen, prioritize, and develop based on this ongoing conversation with our users.” Blurb’s BookSmart software is free, runs on a Mac or PC, and offers a wide variety of book layouts created by professional book designers.

The Travel and Landscape Workflow Action Pack from website That’s My Monkey is a new set of Photoshop actions aimed at photographers who work in the outdoors. The Action Pack includes tools for improving skies, mimicking the effects of traditional filters like polarizers and graduated neutral density filters, and offers several options for monochromatic and toned conversions. The Travel and Landscape Workflow Action Pack is available for $89.95.

Knoll Light Factory 3 allows you to create lens flares and other lighting effects, including lasers, explosions and suns. “Knoll Light Factory offers a great way of painting with light, when you need to add some flare and sparkle to an image. Improving and speeding up the workflow was a major emphasis for this release, because we know photographers don’t want to spend lots of time at the computer.” said Jim Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy. Light Factory was originally written by John Knoll, the co-creator of Photoshop, to create the Photon Torpedoes in Star Trek First Contact. Knoll Light Factory 3.0 is priced at $149 USD. The product is on sale for $129 through October 21, 2007.

VSO Software has added several new features to its range of photo software, including support for the Canon EOS 40D RAW format. VSO Image Resizer, PhotoDVD and PhotoOnWeb all now support the 40D camera.