Trailblazer Media has announced the launch of the “Photography Trainer” app for iPhone and Android. Photography Trainer is designed to teach photographers how to operate their D-SLRs when they’re out with their cameras and taking pictures. The app is an interactive step-by-step guide on how to set the camera to capture photos with impact – users tell it the type of subject being photographed and the lighting they’re in, and the app guides them on how to set items like shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus and so on. In other words it helps users get out of “Auto Mode” to allow for more creative photography.Photography Trainer is available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android devices for $0.99 by searching on “Photography Trainer” in the App Store or Android Market.

Apple has released a Digital Camera RAW.compatibility update for iPhoto and Aperture. Version 3.3 adds support for raw files created by the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS, Olympus E-PL1, Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2 & G10, Samsung NX10, Sony A450, NEX-3 and NEX-5 (pictured) digital cameras. The update is downloadable from the website below.

Website: Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.3

Akvis has just released Akvis Retoucher 4.0 for both Windows and Macintosh. The program can restore damaged photos by removing dust, scratches, stains, and by reconstructing the missing parts of a photo automatically. It can also be used to improve composition of a photo by removing irrelevant details and even large objects that spoil the impression of a photo. You can remove date stamps, logos, wires, refuse bins etc. Akvis Retoucher 4.0 is available both as a plug-in and as a standalone program, and sells for $87. Registered users with a Home license can upgrade to Retoucher 4.0 for free.

Website: AKVIS

Topaz Labs released a major upgrade of the Topaz DeNoise plug-in, which features a double increase in speed, double the maximum image size and many additional noise reduction capabilities. “DeNoise 5 is twice as fast as its predecessor. It also introduces unique shadow tone restoration and dual-directional debanding capabilities, which enable photographers to solve additional problems caused by heavy noise,” said Dr. Albert Yang, President of Topaz Labs. Topaz DeNoise 5 works with a variety of host programs including Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Aperture, iPhoto and Lightroom. It is a free upgrade for existing DeNoise customers and retails for $79.99.

32 Float is the industry’s first HDR-specific plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that brings 32-bit colour controls and editing tools to Photoshop users. Powered by Unified Color’s patented Beyond RGB colour space, 32 Float is able to separate colour data from brightness information, to make brightness adjustments without introducing the colour shift often seen using other HDR solutions. “Photoshop has supported 32-bit images for many years, but provided only limited functionality to actually work with the images in 32-bit mode,” said Alfred Zee, CEO of Unified Color Technologies. “With 32 Float, Photoshop users can finally take full advantage of all the data in their 32-bit images and process them for colour and tone without having to first down sample them to 8 or 16 bits to use editing tools.” Starting August 23, 2010, 32 Float will be available for purchase at www.unifiedcolor.com at a list price of $99.

Peak Systems has released the first update for Diptic, a recent Top 5 paid iPhone and iPad photography app. An application that lets you quickly and easily combine multiple photos to create a new image, Diptic 1.1 features adds 14 new layouts for a total of 19 – nearly 4 times as many as Diptic 1.0. This update is available as a free download to all current Diptic owners. New users can get the app for $1.99.

Website: Diptic

DxO Labs have announced the availability of 100 new DxO optics modules for DxO Optics Pro. Covering a large selection of Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sony camera-lens combinations, the new modules are listed at the website below.

Website: 100 new DxO Optics Modules

Tiffen has updated Photo fx Ultra, its photo enhancement software application for the Apple iPad. Version 2 adds a Paint filter to the Image group with the following brushes: Color, Clone, Blur, Black and White, Mosaic, Red Eye, Repair, Scatter and Eraser. Also new is the opacity control feature of the Mask brush, along with crop and rotation enhancements and a correction to the Tint feature. Photo fx Ultra v2 is available at the Apple iTunes store for $5.99 and comes as a free update to current Photo fx Ultra users.

Skyclock Lite is a free app for the Apple iPhone that shows, on an analogue clock face, twilight times, in addition to the sunrise, sunset for any location on any day - a useful resource for landscapists and other “magic hour” photographers. “Skyclock helps you plan your activity by letting you know (easily) when sunrise/sunset is, but more importantly, how much light is available before sunrise, and after sunset,” says Skyclock developer Rob Baxtresser. Skyclock Lite can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store.

Jalbum has updated its iPhone app to include multi-selection of photos, simplifying the picture upload process. So far uploading photos from the iPhone, to any photo service, has been a repetitive task. Users have needed to select one photo at a time. This update to the Jalbum app cuts the time and effort of making a web album to a bare minimum. “Jalbums photo sharing service is primarily based on collections of photos, rather than individual photos. That is why we wanted to make uploading multiple photos in one go an easy task.” says lead developer Daniel Plamann. Jalbum for iPhone is a free download from the App Store.

Albert de Bruijn has released “Portrait Effects”, a package of Adobe Lightroom presets, developed specifically for portrait photographers. The package is made up of 54 Develop Presets and 12 Adjustment Brush Presets and comes as a digital download for the price of US$24.95. The Develop Presets come grouped in 5 sets of effects: Toning, Lighting, Skin, Softness and Basic. The Adjustment Brush Presets get loaded under the adjustment brush and provide fine-tuning tools for skin tone, make-up and eye enhancements.

Website: Portrait FX for Adobe Lightroom

Phanfare for the iPad lets you edit, organize and display your Phanfare photos and videos on the Apple iPad. Slideshows take advantage of the increased screen real estate available on the iPad relative to the iPhone, bringing down higher resolution versions. You can create albums, import photos and videos, edit captions, crop photos and perform basic edits all from within the app. Any changes made are synched back to the online service of Phanfare. Phanfare for the iPad is available immediately in the Apple App store for free.

Serif has released PhotoPlus X4, geared towards photography enthusiasts that demand a powerful yet easy-to-use and inexpensive way to organise, edit, and be creative with photos. Improvements include a contemporary new look, user enhancements to improve workflow and performance, plus new tools to accurately cut out subjects from photographs and make pixel-perfect edits. PhotoPlus X4 now also incorporates AlbumPlus Organiser, an easy-to-use program for viewing, managing and sharing photos, and a bonus copy of PanoramaPlus X4, Serif’s automated photo stitching software for creating stunning panoramic images. PhotoPlus X4 is compatible with Windows 7/Vista/XP and retails at £69.99.

PSKiss has released a range of tools and automated workflows that help users cut down on the time spent fiddling with Photoshop. “After more then 16 years of working, teaching, training, managing a college lecturing and writing about Adobe Photoshop, I realised that two of the most important things for Photoshop users are: Time saving techniques and maintaining image quality”, says Tal Ninio, co-owner and CEO of PSKiss. The tools offered by the company are essentially scripts that allow users to automate oft-performed and complicated tasks. PSKiss is launching with 10 tools already available for purchase, with many more to come next.

Website: PSKiss

Olympus has updated its [ib] image browsing and editing software. Version 1.2 adds support for colour management, enables the creation of Cinema Slideshows and gains the ability to edit videos captured with some of the company’s cameras. To update your Olympus [ib] software to the latest version, open the application on a computer with a live Internet connection and choose Update Software from the Help menu, should the program fail to look for updates on its own.

Adva-Soft has released TouchRetouch Free, an iPhone app that lets you to remove unwanted content from photos easily.The free variant is basically a trial version which works just like the full TouchRetouch application, but adds a watermark to the saved images. Featuring in-app video tutorials, unlimited undo/redo actions, smart image background recovery techniques and more, TouchRetouch Free is available now on the AppStore. Purchasing the full version. TouchRetouch 1.0.1,  will not break the bank either, as it costs a mere $0.99.

Website: TouchRetouch Free on the AppStore
Website: TouchRetouch 1.0.1

Pixamba has just released ProStockMaster, its award-wining microstock tool for stock photographers, as freeware. Available for both Mac OS X and Windows, ProStockMaster is billed as the first application dedicated to simplifying the process of submitting stock images to multiple microstock and traditional stock photography agencies at the same time. David Mail, CEO of Pixamba said: “We are proud to release ProStockMaster as free software, allowing the global community of contributing microstock photographers to easily upload stock images, selling stock photos and illustrations through top microstock agencies. For four years our microstock software has helped tens thousands of stock photographers to save time and money selling photos online. We keep working on this proven free microstock tool, bringing even more highly demanded keywording, management and stock imagery distribution functionality soon.”

Website: ProStockMaster

The Leaf Capture Remote 2.0 remote viewing application adds native iPad support, a new pause/play functionality, flip-through image browsing, support for the Mamiya RZ33 and all DM series models as well as the iPhone 4’s retina display, and improves image playback at 1:1 viewing. While shooting tethered to a Mac, the new Leaf Capture Remote 2.0 app enables one or more iPad or iPhone devices to act as remote image viewers. Clients can view images from a photo shoot from the comfort of a photographer’s Wi-Fi enabled client room. Assistants can instantly check focus and details even when at a distance from a photographer’s main computer. And stylists can see what the camera sees—all without crowding around the photographer or main computer area. The Leaf Capture Remote 2.0 client app for the iPad/iPhone can be downloaded for free from the Apple iPhone App Store. The Leaf Capture Remote server and all related instructions can be accessed via the website below.

Website: Mamiya Customer Service

Pixelmator 1.6, codenamed “Nucleus”, is a GPU-powered image editing tool for Mac that provides everything needed to create, edit, and enhance still images. Available as a free software update, Pixelmator 1.6 adds major performance improvements, 64-bit support, layer groups, an Import feature, Flickr, Facebook and Picasa support, redesigned transform tools, and more. The overall performance of Pixelmator increased up to 40%; the launch time is now twice as fast and the ability to paint with Pixelmator is four times faster than it was in the previous version. The new Import feature allows quick and easy importing of images directly to Pixelmator from cameras, scanners, and multifunction devices such as camera/phones, printer/ scanners, and such as iPhones and iPads. Pixelmator 1.6 Nucleus is a free update for current Pixelmator users.

Website: Pixelmator

ImTOO has released the ImTOO Video Converter 6, for Windows and Mac, that is able to convert between AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, MP4, MPEG-4 AVC, RM, MOV, XviD, 3GP, FLV files and more, with a grand total of 150 formats supported. The new version of ImTOO Total Video Converter also adds video profiles for the iPhone 4 and enables the output of files to iPod, iPhone, or PSP. New features in version 6 include the ability to add subtitles and soundtracks to output video, insert transitional effects between merged videos or picture items, and switch the zoom mode between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Users can also customize the program’s interface by resizing the built-in player and by choosing from different skins available for the user interface. In addition to the Windows version, ImTOO is also offering Video Converter for Mac that includes the same capabilities and handles the same files, with added support for QuickTime and other Mac supported files. ImTOO’s video converter software is available in Standard, Platinum, and Ultimate editions, each downloadable as a free trial from the company’s website. The price for the full versions starts at $35.95.

Website: ImTOO