A-Digital-Eye have just published a review of Studioline Photo 2, a photo management system developed to organize, optimize, edit and share your photos.

“It?s a sophisticated program that has a lot to offer. It?s fairly easy to use with hints popping up everywhere to guide you thru your steps and it has enough advanced features like RAW file and .psd file support, and EXIF file support that professionals will use it too. Online tutorials get you up and running quickly. With an online price of only $44. or a free 30 day trial, you should give it a try.”

Website: A-Digital-Eye - Studioline Photo 2 Review

Adobe have released a new free plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS.

The Adjusted Refresh plug-in addresses the time it takes to visually preview some filter updates in Adobe Photoshop CS. This plug-in reduces the size of the Photoshop image tiles. This causes the display to redraw in smaller pieces, reducing the time it takes to see the updated preview. The Adjusted Refresh plug-in will also reduce the initial scratch disk usage after you launch Photoshop. Note that overall performance may be reduced for users with multiple processors or more than 1 gigabyte of RAM.

Website: Adobe - Adjusted Refresh plug-in

Extensis Press Release 02/06/04

Cross-platform Digital Asset Management solution offers instant deployment, ease of use and affordability for workgroups and individuals.

Northampton, UK. - June 2, 2004 - Extensis Inc., today announced immediate availability of its leading Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, Portfolio 7 and Portfolio Server 7 for Macintosh. Portfolio enables photographers, graphic artists and other individuals and workgroups - from those in small-to-medium sized organizations to multiple workgroups in global 2000 companies - to organize, retrieve, repurpose, and distribute digital files quickly. Portfolio Server also provides instant access to assets across the Internet and other wide area networks, opening the communication channel between distributed team members and partner networks, making asset management and collaboration easier and more efficient than ever before.

Kodak Press Release 02/06/04

Free Trial version of the DIGITAL GEM Airbrush Professional Plug-In is now available at www.asf.com

Rochester, NY (June 2, 2004) - Eastman Kodak Company today introduced the new DIGITAL GEM Airbrush Professional Plug-In, which gives users a quick and powerful way of smoothing skin and other surfaces without blurring or affecting the detail of important facial features. This new plug-in enables users to automatically achieve meticulous airbrush and retouching effects without tedious, time-consuming masking and manual softening.

The DIGITAL GEM Airbrush Professional Plug-In joins the suite of image correction and enhancement plug-ins to provide easy and effective methods for automatically improving digital images in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP Software and compatible image editing applications. Other members of the suite include the DIGITAL SHO Plug-In for revealing hidden details in shadows or dark image areas, and the DIGITAL SHO Professional Plug-In, which adds more control, functionality, and the ability to reveal hidden detail from highlight areas. The DIGITAL ROC Plug-In restores, corrects, and balances image color, while the DIGITAL ROC Professional Plug-In adds advanced features for brightness and contrast control, as well as 16 bit support. Finally, the original DIGITAL GEM Plug-In reduces distracting noise and grain in digital images. These award-winning software products were developed by Kodak?s Austin Development Center (formerly Applied Science Fiction), which has been a leader in automatic image correction and photo restoration applications since the mid 1990s with its revolutionary DIGITAL ICE Technology for film and flatbed scanners which automatically removes surface defects like dust and scratches from scanned film and prints.

About.com have taken a look at the subject of colour correction in Photoshop, including 3 plugins (AutoFX’s AutoEye 2.0, iCorrect Edit Lab 4.0 and Curvemeister 1.1.8) that aim to give better results than the default tools.

“Photoshop is a program most of us love and hate. Dependable, stable, but at times immensely frustrating. Its built-in tool for colour balancing is one of the more limited aspects. However in the Curves dialogue it does give you a powerful tool for accessing and altering the figures in the files. Unfortunately the interface is one that gives only limited help in doing so.”

Website: About.com - Colour Balance Aids for Photoshop

PicsToBits Press Release 28/05/04

Take Control of Your Actions with ActionDex, the Action Manager for Adobe(c) Photoshop(c)

Mason, Ohio—May 27, 2004—PicsToBits (http://www.picstobits.com) announces the release of ActionDex 1.0, a powerful new tool to organize and manage Photoshop actions.

ActionDex solves a frequent problem for Photoshop users- organizing and managing hundreds or thousands of actions so they are easy to find. By using a hierarchy of user-defined categories (much like folders in Windows Explorer), users can organize their actions into logical task-based groupings to reflect their personal work style.  Actions can even be placed in multiple categories and users can add notes to keep track of favorite settings, tips, etc.  Predefined fields allow tracking of the action author, download location, description, and user assigned rating.

LumaPix Press Release 28/05/04

Professional image manipulation and distribution application delivers revolutionary performance & flexibility

Supported platforms: Windows 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP
MSRP: $89.95 USD (Free trial available)

LumaPix::FotoFusion v3 PRO provides unrivalled creative power for the creation and distribution of high-resolution photocompositions, such as collages, class composites, scrapbooks, contact sheets, wedding albums, and other complex multi-image tasks.

FotoFusion’s Fluid user interface and high-performance processing engine produce an exhilarating experience for the artist, with direct, real-time manipulation of all aspects of the composition including opacity, rotation, blurs and gamma.

New C1 RAW Workflow software with Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus and Pentax camera support

May 27, 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark: Phase One, the world leader in professional digital imaging camera backs and software, announces a new version of their C1 RAW Workflow software.

C1 3.5 includes support for new DSLR cameras and Phase One digital backs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms, as well as exciting new workflow features. New customers can get a FREE trial today. Existing users can update now to start benefiting from C1 Version3.5.

The objective of the C1 RAW Workflow software is to provide professional photographers with:
* Maximum image quality
* The fastest workflow
* The best support

Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus and Pentax shooters can now join the C1 family
New camera support has been added to C1. Canon: 1D MKII /1D /1Ds /10D /300D /D60 /D30 Nikon: D2H / D1H /D1X /D100 /D70, Fuji S2 Pro, Olympus: E1** / E10** / E20** as well as Pentax *istD users can join the C1 RAW Workflow family. The new camera support is available for both Mac and PC platforms.
** Will be available in the June release of C1 software that is free of charge to all V3.5 uses.

nik multimedia Announcement 28/05/04

nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 is now available for immediate purchase and download! nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 photographic filters offer features and functionality that are designed to make digital photographic enhancements not only easier, but better.

nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 filters have all been updated to include more functionality and better features. New features in nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 are:

? 16-bit functionality.
? nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 Selective for applying any filter selectively to an image (compatible with Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements only).
? Advanced Panel controls for protecting highlight and shadow detail.
? True Light? technology.
? Larger and expanded preview options.
? A series of Reflector filters that control and add light similar to conventional photographic reflectors.
? Infrared conversions (Color, Black and White, and Thermal Camera).
? Cross Processing filters (both C41 ? E6 and E6 ? C41).
? Over 30 new filters, 75 filters in all.

Read more about these exciting new features, as well as descriptions for each of the 75 filters by downloading and viewing the nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 User Guide. Please click here to download the user guide.

The Czech website FotoAparat.cz have recently reviewed Noise Ninja from PictureCode Software. This software package claims to effectively remove noise from digital camera and scanned images.

Website: FotoAparat.cz - Noise Ninja Review

Website: Noise Ninja

Kodak have released Photo Desk 4.0 for its DCS Pro SLR/n, DCS Pro SLR/c and DCS Pro 14nx (upgraded) digital cameras with firmware 5.0 or newer.

New Features:
- Lens Optimization Slider Control - A convenient, easy-to-use slider control enables users to adjust the degree of compensation applied for a given RAW image to minimize potential hue shift introduced by certain lenses captured with KODAK PROFESSIONAL DCS Pro SLR/n, DCS Pro SLR/c and DCS Pro 14nx (upgraded) digital cameras with firmware 5.0 or newer installed.

- A new “Paste Settings” function, available in the edit menu, is designed to speed workflow giving users the ability to copy image adjustments made to one image and apply them to other images. The “Paste Special” editing function allows a subset of individual settings (such as cropping or color balance) to be applied to other images.

- EXIF2.2 is fully supported enabling copyright, exposure, and other information to be carried forward as metadata into JPEG and TIFF files.

- Multi-Processor Support yields improved processing times when using PC and MAC hardware with two or more processors.

- In response to user feedback and to improve the overall user interface, the “trash can” has been moved to the right hand side of the toolbar to avoid unintentional file deletion.

Website: Kodak Photo Desk 4.0

Canon have made the new EOS Viewer Utility available for download for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. It supports the following cameras:

EOS D30
EOS D60
EOS 10D
EOS Digital Rebel
EOS-1D
EOS-1D Mark II
EOS-1Ds

EOS Viewer Utility (EVU) downloads JPEG and RAW files from EOS digital SLRs, can convert RAW images and allows the modification of camera settings. EVU will NOT convert RAW images from PowerShot cameras.

EOS Capture v1.0 is automatically installed with EVU and enables control of the camera from the computer. EOS Capture v1.0 only supports EOS-1D, EOS-1Ds and EOS-1D Mark II.

Website: Canon EOS Viewer Utility

Extensis Press Release 18/05/04

Digital Asset Management solution offers instant deployment, ease of use and affordability for workgroups and individuals.

Northampton, UK - May 18th, 2004 - Extensis Inc., today announced immediate availability of its leading Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, Portfolio 7 and Portfolio Server 7 for Windows (Macintosh versions will be available later this month). Portfolio enables photographers, graphic artists and other individuals and workgroups - from those in small-to-medium sized organisations to multiple workgroups in global 2000 companies - to organise, retrieve, repurpose, and distribute digital files quickly. Portfolio Server also provides instant access to assets across the Internet and other wide area networks, opening the communication channel between distributed team members and partner networks, making asset management and collaboration easier and more efficient than ever before.

“Portfolio 7 marks a new direction for digital asset management,” said Kevin Hurst, vice president of Marketing for Extensis. “While most DAM solutions are expensive, difficult to deploy, and have a steep learning curve, Portfolio is extremely affordable, has an easy to learn interface and can be seamlessly deployed in a matter of hours into an existing workflow.”

Rob Galbraith is reporting that May 20th has been set as the date for the worldwide release of Canon’s Digital Photo Professional and EOS Viewer Utility software utilities. Digital Photo Professional is a new browsing and RAW file processing software for the EOS-1D, EOS-1Ds and EOS-1D Mark II. EOS Viewer Utility is the successor to the slow and cumbersome File Viewer Utility. Both programs will be made available free of charge.

Website: Rob Galbraith - Digital Photo Professional, EOS Viewer Utility coming May 20

H&M Systems Software Press Release 17/05/04

Latest Release of StudioLine Photo 2 Entices Full Spectrum of Photographers - From Amateur to Pro

More Image Editing Power, Smarter Camera Interface, RAW Added for Pros, Additional Designer Web Galleries, and Faster Database Response - All Top Off Latest Release

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey; May 17, 2004 - H&M Systems Software today introduced the latest version of its flagship StudioLine Photo 2 digital imaging software. It’s designed for photographers, stock houses, graphic artists, hobbyists, and those requiring the ability to edit, archive, store and manage digital images. This latest release, offering added photo editing power, a smarter camera interface, professional RAW format support, new designer web galleries, and faster photo database response time will benefit current StudioLine Photo 2 users, along with those desiring an economical, yet versatile digital photo tool. 

FotoTime Press Release

FOTOTIME ANNOUNCES FOTOALBUM PRO 4.1 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SHARING AND MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

FotoAlbum Pro 4.1 new features including archiving, importing and exporting, Video FotoShows and EXIF updating

FotoTime, an online photo service specializing in sharing and organizing digital images, today announced the availability of FotoAlbum Pro 4.1. FotoAlbum Pro meets the needs of both casual users and photography enthusiasts alike by offering all the tools needed to organize and share digital pictures. FotoAlbum Pro 4.1 has many new features including archiving, importing and exporting, Video FotoShows, and EXIF updating. FotoAlbum Pro 4.1 is available at www.fototime.com.

“We have added many new and exciting features to FotoAlbum Pro,” said FotoTime Vice President of Marketing and Technology, Jeff Kelling. “A major need for our users is to ensure that their digital pictures are secure. That is why we added archiving to FotoAlbum Pro. FotoAlbum easily archives pictures to a CD/DVD along with album information, captions, keywords and other data.”

Jasc Software Press Release 13/05/04

New Application Delivers Smart, Simple Tools for Digital Photos

Eden Prairie, Minnesota (5/13/2004) - Jasc Software, Inc. announced today the release of Paint Shop Photo Album 5 - Deluxe Edition, the newest version of their award-winning digital camera software. Sporting a completely redesigned interface that follows the digital photographer’s workflow, Photo Album 5 puts the tools users need to organize, enhance, share and protect photos at their fingertips.

By integrating seamlessly with users’ lifestyles, Photo Album allows them to share their photos using today’s most popular mediums, including e-mail, camera phones, scrapbooks, video CDs and printed pictures. By offering a variety of color, contrast and brightness options as well as tools to enhance photos with text, sound, frames, edges and borders Photo Album allows novices to create beautiful photos with a few mouse clicks.

A new version of Qimage has just been released.

Qimage v2004.200 (05/14/04):

New Features:

Full IPTC support: Many of our users requested the ability to print IPTC captions with their images, so we added the ability to print a range of IPTC fields including title, author, caption, copyright, and more! In addition, you can use Qimage to manage your IPTC data since v2004.200 allows you to add IPTC data to JPEG and TIFF images, view the data, print it, and even do multi-folder searches for IPTC data using our IPTC data search facility. Looking for all images where you entered a keyword of “bird”? Just go to a folder, right click in the thumbnails, and select “Search IPTC Image Info”. Qimage will search that folder and even include subfolders based on your search criteria and will show you the results by displaying both the image and the IPTC data right beside it. IPTC data is also carried over to saved/converted images when creating new images! Keep in mind that IPTC is a standard by which data fields can be embedded in JPEG and TIFF format images, so this option is not available for other image formats…. yet. :-)

Canto Press Release 13/05/04

New Cumulus module lets users publish images as Web ready albums.

May 13, 2004, San Francisco, Berlin. Canto, a global leader in Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions, today announced the immediate availability of Cumulus WebAlbum, a tool to create Web-based albums that are built on static HTML pages. Displaying images and even entire Cumulus catalogs on the Internet in a customized and personalized album is now a simple process.

The layout and functionality of WebAlbum can be customized using different skins, such as those provided by Canto, other providers or ones created by the user. This gives the user full control of the design and look of each and every album.

DP-Now have just published their review of Roxio Easy Media Creator 7, a digital media software package .

“Practically everything you could expect for an introductory and up to intermediate level digital media asset management and project creation package is there. None of the applications are best of breed and you may quickly grow out of some of the components, but they are all competent and easy to use. Having them in one place, all at once and with a semblance of coordination means this is a good example of where the package is greater than the simple sum of its parts.”

Website: DP-Now - Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 Review