Digital Outback Photo have reviewed 2 new software plugins for Photoshop and other compatible programs, which they consider to be an essential part of their digital workflow. Colour Washer makes it easy to improve the contrast and the exposure of an image, whilst Focal Blade is a very flexible sharpening plugin. They are both priced at $49.95 download only, or $59.95 on CD, and both are only available for PC.

Website: Digital Outback Photo - Photoshop Plugins Review

Microsoft are continuing their quest for world domination by announcing Microsoft? Digital Image Suite 9, which the software giant claims is “the first digital imaging software package on the market to combine all the tools consumers want and need to organize, archive, edit and share the soaring number of digital photos accumulating on their PCs.” I wasn’t aware that there had been 8 previous releases of the Digital Image Suite - if anyone has been using them then please let me know what you think of the software.

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9 is available for an estimated retail price of $129 (U.S.).

Website: Microsoft Press Release

Pictographics International Corporation has just released as stand-alone version of iCorrect EditLab 4.0, which is already available as a plug-in for Photoshop. Here’s an excerpt from the press release that explains what iCorrect EditLab does:

“iCorrect EditLab offers a revolutionary, yet simple and straightforward way of color correcting any digital picture. iCorrect EditLab leads you through a simple four step process including:

- color balance - Removes unwanted color cast
- white/black point - Improves tonal range
- brightness/contrast/saturation - Corrects Exposure settings
- Hue selective editing - Refines colors on a hue selective basis including predefined Memory colors such as Skin tones, Blue sky ad Foliage green.”

iCorrect EditLab Application, version 4.0, is compatible with the following operating systems: Macintosh 9.2, and 10.1and 10.2 in both Native and Classic modes and Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP. iCorrect EditLab is available for $79.95 (software download) at www.picto.com. iCorrect EditLab Plug-in for Adobe(r) Photoshop products is priced at $99.95 (software download) and is available for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

Website: iCorrect EditLab 4.0

A new version of Cerious Software’s “ThumbsPlus” has just been released. If you haven’t heard of ThumbsPlus before then here’s a quick summary of what it is:

“ThumbsPlus is a highly customizable image database / thumbnails / graphics editor application that makes it easy to catalog, locate, maintain and modify all your graphics and multimedia files.”

I’ve not used this program before, but I’ve just installed the demo version to give it a try. I’ll let you know what I think in a few days.

Website: ThumbsPlus

You have two options when you want to want to make big prints of your photos. Either lower the dpi to obtain a larger print size and accept a loss of quality. Or try to interpolate up in size using Photoshop or another image editor, which can lead to artifacts and loss of sharpness.

SmartScale is a new Adobe Photoshop plug-in from Extensis that claims to be able to “Scale images up to 1600% with no discernable loss in printed quality”. You can preview different scaling options in real-time and refine the quality of your scaled image by controlling the overall sharpness, edge contrast and edge detail. At $199 it’s perhaps a little on the expensive side for home-users, and unfortunately there’s no trial version available to test it out.

Website: Extensis SmartScale

Website: Extensis

Fred Miranda has released 2 new Digital Darkroom Essential Plugins, which are compatible with Photoshop Elements 1.0 / 2.0, Photoshop 5.5, 6.0, 7.0 or higher, and available for PC and MAC platforms.

Stair Interpolation Pro allows you to customize your own image interpolation output, giving you options to choose from any paper size, pixel dimension, printer resolution and interpolate your images by scale.

Web Presenter Pro allows you to customize image downsampling with high quality results. Choose from any pixel dimension or even downsample your images by scale through the use of smart algorithms.

I’ve been using one of Fred’s plugins, the Canon 10D CSpro Plugin (sharpens 10D files), since it was released a few weeks ago. It’s an excellent bit of software that takes all of the hassle out of sharpening your photographs, both for output to a printer and to the Web. Well worth the $15 price tag.

Website: Fred Miranda

FastTrak Software have announced the release of Photos on CD and DVD 2.0 DeLuxe by MAGIX, a software package that enables you to create slide shows and burn them onto CD or DVD. Here’s some details from the press release:

“Photos on CD & DVD 2.0 DeLuxe, priced ?39.99 and available from PC World from July 11th it is the ideal software package to create professionally produced slide shows with ease.  Packed with a number of new features it is the perfect partner to your digital camera. Just read in your photos, add 3D crossfades, music, commentary and text and burn slide shows onto all leading disk formats (VCD, SVCD, DVD, Mini-DVD, CD-ROM) to watch them comfortably on your TV or PC).

Gather the family around the television or the PC to once again re-live photo memories. It only takes 3 steps: Use images imported from a scanner, the PC and the Internet. Play and create masterpieces for home entertainment.  Or play with the numerous features to make the experience even more gratifying and lively by utilising 3D effects, speech, music, text, menus, dynamic zooms, video clips etc. and burn your masterpiece for home entertainment to view on your own PC on CD & DVD. 

It also incorporates a new feature called Media Manager Gold enabling you the user to organise, manage, archive and experience photos, videos and music on your PC. Users of the software will enjoy the benefits of MAGIX advanced audio technology with Audio dubbing CD. (MAGIX is renowned throughout Europe and the USA for its excellent audio, a reputation built over many years producing award winning music software products).  It provides more than 400 exciting background melodies, jingles and dubbing sounds to add further highlights to your slide show.”

The US company FlashFixers have just announced the release of ImageRecall, a new software program that recovers lost and corrupted images from all kinds of memory cards. There is a trial version of ImageRecall available to download (limited to recovering 10 images), and if you like what you see the full version retails for $39.95.

“ImageRecall is an easy to use, fast and universal image recovery software package designed for amateur and professional digital camera users alike. It can be used to recover lost or erased images from all types of digital film cards including CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MMC, SD, xD, Memory Stick and Microdrive, from ANY manufacturer. All you need is a computer with a card reader or USB enabled digital camera that names a logical drive. This package can also be used to recover erased images from formatted cards, Jazz, Zip, hard and floppy disks and does not require any expert knowledge.”

Website: ImageRecall

Version 1.1 of Capture One DSLR Pro for the Macintosh platform has just been released by PhaseOne. A 30-day trial version of this RAW conversion software, which currently supports the Canon 1Ds and 1D cameras, is now available to download. PhaseOne are promising that support for the Canon 10D, D60, D30, Nikon D100 and D1X will be added in October 2003.

Website: PhaseOne

Version 1.2 of Capture One DSLR LE has just been released by PhaseOne. A 15-day trial version of this RAW conversion software, which supports the Canon 10D, D30, D60 and Nikon D100 cameras, is available to download. I’ve been using it for the past few days and am pretty impressed so far - it’s a marked improvement on Canon’s own RAW conversion software, the slow and cumbersome File Viewer Utility, and at $99 Capture One DSLR LE won’t break the bank.

“Phase One has just released the latest version (V1.2) of their breakthrough Capture One DSLR Limited Edition RAW conversion software. The C1 LE version has the identical high quality RAW conversion engine as the Pro version of as well as the same real time feedback that allows a virtually instant preview display of all conversion settings including White Balance, Exposure Compensation, Contrast, Sharpening, Saturation, etc. The identical conversion quality that has been hailed by professionals as the best available is assured, while the unique background conversion capability ensures fast throughput during each processing session. Images can be “tweaked” at will, while the previous images convert in the background.”

Website: PhaseOne

Website: PhaseOne - Download Capture One DSLR LE 15-day trial

A Digital Eye have published the first part of their review of the image-managment software Picasa.

“Picasa is truly a great way to name and organize your photo library.  If you?re a digi or regular camera shooter Picasa is for you.  On a scale of 1 to 10 (1- being best) I give Picasa a 9.  Now that all my photos are in order it will make running my business a snap!  No more hunting for just the right photos.”

Website: A Digital Eye - Picasa Review

As a relatively in-experienced Photoshop user who predominantly uses the Levels command to tweak photographs, I’ve tended to ignore the Curves command, which is supposed to be the better tool. However, the well-written, in-depth “Introduction to the Curves Command” article at GurusNetwork (found via digicamera.net) may well change my mind.

“I’m going to start this essay with a provocative statement: Anyone who is, or wants to be doing image editing at a professional level needs to be as comfortable with Curves as they are with breathing. Is that bold enough? Do I have your attention now? If I were forced to give up all but one image adjustment tool, the one I would keep would be Curves. Think of Curves as your one-stop-shopping source for improving images the way the pros do.”

Website: GurusNetwork - Curves Article

If you post images on the web and resize them down from their original dimensions, you may have noticed that the resulting image is often, well, a bit blurry and not that sharp. Photo-i have just reviewed the Resize Magic plug-in for Photoshop which “is designed to reduce images with the maximum quality too. It’s hard to believe, but Photoshop and similar programs are really weak when they reduce the size of images: if you reduce a lot you obtain a blurred image. Most resizing plug-ins and programs do not create good images when reducing, too.” Read Photo-i’s review to decide if this specialized software is for you.

Website: photo-i - Resize Magic Review

PC Magazine’s group test of 8 sub-$50 image management applications, including Adobe Photoshop Album and Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 4, is essential reading for anyone who’s trying to make sense of their digital photo collection (once again found via digicamera.net). I still haven’t decided on a particular software package to use, so this article is particularly well-timed. I’ll let you read the full article to find out which application came out on top…

Website: PC Magazine - Image Managers Review

A new version of the popular alternative to Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro from Jasc Software, has just been released. Version 8 includes several features aimed squarely at photographers, including the Perspective Correction, Straighten, One Step Photo Fix and Scratch Remover tools. There’s a free trial version available to download so that you can try before you (maybe) buy, although at a whopping 54Mb this is perhaps only an option for broadband users!

Website: Paint Shop Pro 8

iView Multimedia Ltd. have just released iView Media - “essential software for managing your digital photos, music and videos. It’s a cross-platform solution, suitable for all who need a way to manage their growing inventory of digital media.” Retailing for $29.95 and now available for both MAC and Windows, this new software product competes with the likes of Adobe Photoshop Album and IMatch. There’s a free, time-limited download (2.5Mb), so there’s no reason not to try out iView.

Website: iView Media

There’s certainly a lot of news today…Luminous Landscape has reviewed NeatImage, another of those indispensable programs that should be part of every digital photographer’s toolbox, at least according to Michael Reichmann:

“The Bottom Line: If you have a digital camera that is noisy, or you need to use a digital camera at high ISO settings, then Neatimage needs to become part of your software arsenal. End of story.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - NeatImage Review

Version 2 of the excellent Archive Creator from PictureFlow has just been released. I reviewed version 1 of this indispensable archiving software back in February. You can download a trial version via the following link:

Website: Download Archive Creator 2

Digital Outback Photo have posted their own enthusiastic review of Archive Creator 2 here:

Website: Archive Creator 2 Review

Phase One have released Capture One DSLR (Limited Edition). Download the 15-day trial version (15.5Mb) at this address:

Website: http://www.phaseone.com

photo-i have reviewed ACDSee 5, digital camera software which makes it easy to get, view, organize, print, enhance and share your digital photos.

Website: photo-i - ACDSee Review

Website: ACDSee Website