Alien Skin Software Press Release

Raleigh, NC (December 8, 2005)- Alien Skin Software today announced Exposure, an all-new plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® and other compatible host programs. Exposure brings the look and feel of film to digital photography. Photographers can now digitally simulate current and discontinued film stocks, as well as recreate a signature look as a one-click effect. Moreover, saturation, light temperature, dynamic range, softness, sharpness, and the addition of realistic grain can be managed in one step.

Foremost a film simulator, Exposure is based on the detailed analysis of real world film stocks. A photographer can now quickly and easily evoke the vivid colors of Velvia®, the rich blacks of Kodachrome®, or the sensitivity of Ektachrome®. Exposure includes presets that emulate the warmth, softness, and realistic grain of dozens of real world film stocks, both color and black and white. Plus, any preset can be the starting point for a signature look, adjusted it to suit a particular subject, or applied to a batch of images using Photoshop Actions.

Tow.com Press Release

Introducing Annoture, a metadata bridging solution for Aperture and iView MediaPro! With Annoture, you’re just a click away from sharing metadata between these two popular image management and cataloging applications. Spend more time working with your decisive moments than worrying about double-entry and incomplete metadata!

Annoture lets you transfer annotations from iView MediaPro catalogs to Aperture projects and albums and back. This two-way transfer of IPTC and metadata information means you are not tied to any one application for your image management and workflow needs. Annoture also features a modular interface that can be extended to support additional applications in the future.

http://www.tow.com/software/annoture/

Red Paw Media Press Release

Red Paw Media are pleased to announce the general release of their latest product, GradFilter.

GradFilter is a plugin for Photoshop (and compatible hosts such as Paint Shop Pro and Irfanview) that digitally adds blended color graduated filter effects to your photographs.

* Simulate solid color, single and dual-color graduated filters, and centre spot circular single and dual-color graduated filters.
* Change the rotation and hardness of the graduated effect.
* On-screen guides showing where the middle and edges of the grad filter are positioned.
* Save and load useful settings - dozens of presets are supplied.
  These include: Blue sky, Blue, Centre spot, Fluo, Magenta-Yellow, Neutral, Rebalance, Olive, Sepia, Sunset, Tobacco, and Vignette effects.
* 8-bit and 16-bit image support.

onOne Software Press Release

onOne Software Offers Substantial Savings On Photoshop Plug-In Suite

PORTLAND, Ore.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Dec. 8, 2005—Plug-In Suite for Adobe Photoshop bundles four award-winning plug-ins together, delivering substantial value to digital photographers

Independent software developer, onOne Software, Inc. today announced the upcoming availability of their Photoshop Plug-in Suite, priced at $399.95. The Photoshop Plug-In Suite is a must-have collection of professional tools that deliver professional results. In the areas of scaling, masking, image enhancement and border/edge effects, the Photoshop Plug-In Suite, hands-down, provides the best solution in each category.

PCMagazine have reviewed the image correction software DxO Optics Pro v3.5.

“Last year we reviewed DO Labs’ ground-breaking DxO Optics Pro image correction program for prosumer and professional digital cameras and digital SLRs. While we were impressed with its ability to tweak image color and compensate for lens aberrations, the utility’s limited scope and lack of control made it only moderately useful. By contrast, DxO Optics Pro 3.0 is a powerful, full-blown program that gives users precise control over every aspect of image processing and correction. Despite a few minor wrinkles, Optics Pro is one of the best tools we’ve seen for enhancing image quality”

Website: PCMagazine - DxO Optics Pro v3.5 Review

Adobe Press Release

New Adobe Design, Web and Video Bundles Combine Latest Creative Software From Adobe and Macromedia

New Product Configurations Deliver the Software Relied on by Millions of Creatives, Designers, Video Professionals and Web Developers

LONDON— Dec. 5, 2005 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced three new product bundles that combine the design and publishing prowess of Adobe® Creative Suite 2 and Adobe video tools with the interactive strength of just-released Macromedia® Flash® Professional 8 and Macromedia Studio 8 software.  Adobe acquired the Macromedia product line when the company purchased Macromedia, a transaction that formally closed on December 3, 2005.

Photographer Fazal Majid has published his initial impressions of Apple’s Aperture software.

“Aperture is not the lightning-fast RAW converter we have been dreaming of. Importing RAW files is quite a sluggish affair, taking 2 minutes 15 seconds to import a 665MB folder with 86 Canon Rebel XT CR2 RAW files. In comparison, Bridge takes about a minute to generate thumbnails and previews for the same images. The comparison is not entirely fair, as Aperture’s import process yields high-resolution previews that allow you to magnify the image to see actual pixels with the loupe tool, whereas Bridge’s previews are medium resolution at best. The CPU utilization on my dual G5 is far from pegged however, which suggests the import process was not particularly tuned for SMP or multi-core systems, nor that it even leverages OS X’s multithreading.”

Website: Apple Aperture First Impressions

ExpressDigital Press Release

ExpressDigital Expands Darkroom with Retro Color Tool, Pro Red Eye Removal and New Hardware Support

ENGLEWOOD, CO— November 30, 2005 — ExpressDigital, the leading provider of digital workflow software, internet storefronts, and lab solutions, today announced availability of an expanded Darkroom Professional Edition that adds new features such as retro color tool, professional red eye removal and new hardware support for the Nikon D2X, D2Hs, D70s, D50, Canon Rebel XT and Fuji S3 digital cameras. New direct printer support for the Mitsubishi CP-3020DU, CP-9550DW, Kodak 9810, Shinko S9045, S1245 and the Fujimoto SHP5080 digital mini-lab are also included in this version 8.5 update release.

Our new retro color tool allows professional photographers to instantly create 1960’s style photos from any digital image, regardless of age. This enhancement tool provides a simple one click powerful way to deliver the latest trends in photography, turning photos into products instantly.

PCIN have just reviewed Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.

“As with Elements 3.0, Elements 4.0 shares a similar interface and tool set to the full version of Photoshop, currently Photoshop CS2. Along with many of the same features, Elements 4.0 also has some additional features not found in CS2. Photoshop Elements 4.0 is really two programs in one. A photo editor and a photo organizer. The editor portion provides all the tools you will need to edit your photos including colour correction, cropping, lighting modification, sharpening and selective processing. The editing tools supplied in this low cost editor are outstanding. The organizer also has a great feature set, including the ability to tag photos for easy searching in a variety of ways, facial recognition to aid in tagging the photos, multiple catalog ability and grouping photos in version sets.”

Website: PCIN - Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 Review

Extensis Press Release

Extensis Portfolio 8 Centralizes Key Digital Assets for Easier Sharing Across Workgroups

Now available, Portfolio Digital Asset Management solution helps companies manage their brand more effectively.

Northampton, UK. — 1st December, 2005 — Extensis, a division of Celartem, Inc., today announced the availability of Portfolio 8, a major advance in its digital asset management (DAM) solution. The new version of Portfolio provides industrial-strength workflow features to organize and share digital files with visual catalogs and embedded metadata, making it easy to quickly find, route and distribute valuable branding collateral like images, brochures, layouts and logos within asset creation workgroups and externally with global partners. The Portfolio 8 product family includes a standalone version, Client/Server solution, as well as NetPublish and SQL Connect Modules.

1-more.com Press Release

1-more.com Releases New Version of its Popular PhotoCalendar Software

Widest choice of photo calendar layouts with 1-more.com software provides many options for individual, home made gifts.

In time for the holiday gift shopping season, 1-more Software launches an innovative software application to tailor photographic calendars from the growing number of personal digital photographs. Presenting someone with a personalized, beautifully laid out calendar with own photographs is arguably one of the greatest gift ideas this year. The new PhotoCalendar software for Windows PC can be downloaded from the 1-more.com website at http://www.1-more-photocalendar.com, where a limited edition can also be tried free of charge (though the free version is limited to monochrome printing). The layout tool allows for text and various picture formats and sizes. The PhotoCalendar application is the latest addition to the innovative range of specialist photo software applications at www.1-more.com.

InterVideo Press Release

Comprehensive 3-Step DVD Software with Advanced DVD Copying Capabilities and Enhanced Customisation Features.

Northampton UK, November 2005—InterVideo®, Inc. (NASDAQ: IVII) announced InterVideo DVD Copy™ 4, the latest release of its award-winning, three-step software for making high-quality copies of unencrypted* CDs, DVDs, video, music, photo and data files. Consistently rated as one of the easiest and most comprehensive copy and DVD burning applications, DVD Copy enables consumers to meet all of their video duplication, conversion and reproduction needs with a single solution. With the new version, InterVideo adds “most-wanted” features such as automated Internet file copy support, support for handheld and gaming devices and support for the new DivX® Media Format features introduced with DivX 6.

Two Pilots Press Release

Two Pilots has released Beauty Pilot, a Windows application that allows you to conceal skin imperfections on a photo and bring out the beauty in women’s digital portraits.

What is beauty? It is doubted whether anyone can put into words what beauty is. As Oscar Wilde said, “Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation”. Do you agree? If so, you will probably like a beauty program created by Two Pilots. This sophisticated software is so easy to use that it needs no explanation regarding its user interface. Only a gentle touch is required to erase skin imperfections on a photo: moles, warts, pimples, heat-spots, and more. Beauty Pilot shows you at your very best.

With this program, you can easily complete the most delicate retouching task. Run the demo examples from the Demonstration menu to see exactly how the program works.

DIWA member and Dansih website Digital Magasinet have reviewed the new Pixmantec RawShooter Premium 2006 RAW conversion software.

Website: Digital Magasinet - Pixmantec RawShooter Premium 2006 Review

Corel Press Release

Corel Adds Support for Digital Camera Raw in Corel® Photo Album™ 6.0 - Consumers Can Now Manage Digital Camera Raw Files with the Software They Love

Ottawa – November 22, 2005 - Corel Corporation today announced a major enhancement to its popular photo management system, Corel® Photo Album™ 6, that will enable consumers to easily work with digital camera raw file formats. With support for more than 40 digital camera raw file formats, Corel Photo Album 6 enables photographers to easily open, enhance, process and convert images into the highest quality photos.

Functioning as a digital negative, digital camera raw file formats are gaining popularity among photo enthusiasts and professional photographers who want to preserve their digital image’s authenticity. As consumers are seeking more and more ways to produce higher quality photos, they are discovering that the digital camera raw file format provides them with greater detail, true-to-life color and increased control over their image data. Now with Corel Photo Album 6 joining Corel® Paint Shop Pro® X in support of digital camera raw file formats, photographers have an easy-to-use platform for downloading, organizing, sharing, editing and protecting this valuable photo format.

FixerLabs Press Release

SizeFixer, judged the best in class by Macworld. “..the results are stunning.” says Vic Lennard in his review of the the latest product from Fixerlabs for enalarging digital images. Featuring the latest Super-Resolution technology for the first time in a commercial product it is easy to use and delivers amazing results.

(PRWEB) November 23, 2005—The latest edition of the top selling magazine Macworld features a review of FixerLabs latest upsizing solution, SizeFixer and gives it an Editors’ Choice award with 4.5 stars out of 5. In his review Vic Lennard writes:

“There are a number of Photoshop plug-ins, …, that enlarge images and post-process them to enhance sharpness and edge contrast. The results are good but still not marvellous when printed out from a high-quality large-format inkjet printer. Can SizeFixer do a better job? ..... In our test, shots from a Sony DSC-F828 8-megapixel camera were blown up to A3 and printed on an Epson Stylus Photo 1280, along with similar enlargements using other methods. SizeFixer’s results were amazing with an incredible level of detail. Even more impressive were the cropped results, effectively enlarging to A2 and even A1.”

HP Press Release

HP Introduces Digital Photography Software that Produces High-quality Prints in Just Two Clicks

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 21, 2005, HP today announced two digital photography software products that enable consumers to print high-quality photos at home in two simple steps - currently the easiest to use solutions available on the market.

Available as a free download, HP Photosmart Essential 1.9 offers a variety of photo organizing, editing and sharing tools and can be expanded with free new features or upgrades as they are released. Among the offerings are Holiday Card Packs that enable users to create personalized holiday greeting cards by dragging and dropping photos into professionally designed templates.

Preclick Corporation Press Release

New plug-in series offered by HP photo software supplier.

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, N.J., Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/—Preclick Corporation, maker of HP Photosmart Essential software, announced today free and premium add-in features and services, found at www.photoback.com. Photo backup and holiday card making are immediately available. In December, photo emailing and other features will be added to the plug-in family for HP customers.

Preclick(R)-powered HP Photosmart Essential, the easy and full-featured photo organizer, is available free at www.hp.com/go/pse. This year HP will ship Photosmart Essential worldwide in 22 languages with HP printers, scanners, cameras and selected products.

“We asked people when they last backed up family photos,” said Preclick CEO Brian Smiga. “Nearly 100% of customers wanted to backup, copy and make CDs and USB drives to share, but they needed a product to remind them and to back up automatically.”

Popular Photography have reviewed Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.

“Photoshop Elements 4.0 ($90 download, $100 box) is the latest iteration of Adobe’s photo-editing software for everyone. Version 3.0 was a giant leap forward—the program went from a pared-down Photoshop to a redesigned program in its own right. Photoshop Album, formerly separate software, merged with Elements to make the editor-organizer a super deal. Number 4 is not radically different from its predecessor, but there are a bunch of fun and useful new features that make it worth an upgrade.”

Website: Popular Photography - Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 Review

Northlight Images have reviewed DxO Optics Pro v3.5.

“If you’ve just read some of my gripes, you may wonder why I choose to use DxO Optics Pro? One simple reason - image quality. The speed means that I’m unlikely to use it converting 300+ raw files from an event that I might have covered. Whilst it works on JPEGs from a camera as well, I always shoot RAW (some of my reasons). For individual images, where quality comes foremost, it is currently my raw converter of choice. With raw files from my 1Ds it handles partially burnt out highlights in a much more graceful way than Photoshop ACR. Much better for sunsets, and since I know that others have questioned the validity of this conclusion, I’d just say ‘Try it and see for yourself’ :-) I’ve used it extensively for my black and white landscape prints, where the ‘lighting engine’ helps provide colour images that convert very well to black and white.”

Website: Northlight Images - DxO Optics Pro v3.5 Review