California-based Indeeo today announced Camtastic 1.1.1 for iPhone 4, 3GS, and iPod touch. Camtastic lets users take photos using a variety of film style effects, which range from “Vintage” to “Lomo”. Version 1.1.1 brings several new features including photo geo-tagging, randomization of film and frame effects, a new Facebook sharing interface, and a detailed photo information view.Camtastic 1.1.1 is available for $1.99.

Website: Camtastic

Arca-Swiss has launched the d4 and d4m pan-tilt heads that “put an end to setting levers of 3D heads that extend in all directions and always get in the way”. The innovative design unites the pivot points of the X and Y movements at the same point, resulting in identical rotational radii. Every tilt movement has its own fine tuning knob and a lockable free wheel button.. When both knobs are unlocked, the tilts can optionally be carried out in freewheeling modus. The possibility of free movement in both axes using the freewheeling modus then ensures free movements similar to those of a ball head. The Arca-Swiss d4 (800 grams, €790) has separate gear mechanisms for X- and Y-axis movements, while the d4m (640 grams, €490) has no gears.

The shortlist for the 2011 Sony World Photography Awards has been announced. The 2011 competition has attracted more submissions than ever before, reaching all corners of the globe, with over 105,000 entries from 162 counties. The winners will be showcased as part of the World Photography Festival and Exhibitions at Somerset House in London.

Anthropics have launched Portrait Professional 10, a new version of their popular portrait airbrushing software. Billed as “the world’s first commercially available software that is trained in human beauty”, the program has analysed thousands of photos to “learn” what makes people look attractive or unattractive. Version 10 offers a new UI, improved face beautification, enhanced slider controls, better Saved Slider presets, improved brushes, a new Child mode and a new Enhance Skin Only mode. Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 as well as MacOS X 10.4 or better, Portrait Professional 10 is available in three different editions priced from $39.95/?29.95/€34.95.

Datacolor has released a step-by-step guide to using its SpyderCube calibration device. The SpyderCube helps photographers obtain accurate white balance as well as exposure readings and apply these to a series of shots. The white face of the device helps define highlights; the grey face serves as a grey point target as well as a mid-tone reference point; the black face defines shadows in relations to the Black Trap; and the Black Trap defines absolute black. Photographers simply need to take one reference shot with the SpyderCube, adjust the settings in the SpyderCube software and save them as a preset, which can then be applied to an entire series of raw files. The video below guides you through these steps.

Pictinal today released TrueHDR 2.2, an update to TrueHDR, a high-dynamic-range photography app. TrueHDR enables users to take HDR photos on iPhone 4, 3GS, and iPod touch 4G, with two distinct styles - Natural and Enhanced. TrueHDR’s latest release includes geo-tagging, improved image alignment, and improved light metering for automatically setting exposures. To accompany the new release, TrueHDR has been placed on limited time sale for 0.99$, 50% off of its regular price.

Pad Folio is a simple and elegant portfolio program for the Ipad. It allows users to set up unlimited individual portfolios through an easy-to-use back-end. The back-end is password protected, and the user can sync through their computers or the cloud system dropbox. The program allows the user to set metadata, client information and thumbnail selections. Folios can be turned on and off depending on what you want your client to see. Pad Folio 1.3 is now available on the App Store for $9.99.

Website: Pad Folio

A two-day photography workshop run by SF Photo School has just been announced with multi award-winning photographers Kevin Wilson, Martin Grahame-Dunn and Uzair Kharawala. Topics to be covered include posing, composition, lighting, off-camera flash, work flow, editing, simple post-processing and business/marketing concepts. Taking place in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, the workshop costs £150+VAT per participant. Places are limited.

Website: Masters of Light

Practice for Everyday Life is a new exhibition presented by Calvert 22. Opening on 23 March and running until 22 May 2011, Practice for Everyday Life showcases new work from a selection of emerging artists from Russia, including Tanya Akhmetgalieva, Olga Bozhko, Alexander Ditmarov, Julia Ivashinka, Sergey Ogurtsov, Taus Makhacheva, Anna Titova and Arseniy Zhilyaev. The title for this exhibition is loosely derived from the seminal text by theorist, Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life. “As a way of framing this group of artists, it felt both an appropriate and playful reference point, with the double meaning evoked by the word ‘practice’ nicely conveying both a conviction of intention as well as a sense of ongoing experimentation and development,” the organisers say.

AKVIS has just released Version 12 of AKVIS Sketch for Windows and Macintosh. The software converts photos to colour and black-and-white pencil drawings and watercolour paintings. Version 12 introduces the new Smudging parameter which creates the effect of smearing hatching in midtone areas without affecting the contour lines of the drawing.This technique looks like a result of rubbing across a drawing in soft pencil with a stump tool, smooth paper, or a finger. As the value of the parameter is increased, shading becomes similar to soft graphite. It is a fast and simple way to add a soft and blurred texture to a sketch.  AKVIS Sketch Home Licence sells for $72 or €55.

The Panasonic GF2 is now available at retail. Successor to the popular GF1, the new 12 megapixel Panasonic GF2 is 19% smaller in size and 7% less in weight than than its predecessor. The DMC-GF2 has a touch control 460,000-dot LCD screen and a new Graphic User Interface (GUI) and full HD movies at 1920 x 1080 at 60i (NTSC) / 50i (PAL) in AVCHD format. The Panasonic Lumix GF2 retails at $499 body only, $599 with a 14-42mm lens, or $699.95 including a 14mm “pancake” lens.

Review: Read our review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2

The official programme of the fifth Format international photography festival has been announced. Taking place at various venues in and around Derby, 4th March – 3rd April 2011, Format Festival will show curated exhibitions and new commissions by leading international artists within the practice of street photography. Outside in Derby Marketplace, Magnum Photos and Format will present “Take to the Streets” – a major outdoor survey show of 140 large-scale street photos by seven leading Magnum photographers working around the world. The premier exhibition strand also includes Mob Format - an international mass submission online project in association with Flickr. Submissions will be shown on the BBC Big Screen in Derby Market Place, and on mobile screens around Derby, while a Hype-style gallery in a central pop-up location will print and display the best submissions daily in a constantly-evolving exhibition. The full programme brochure will be available to download from the official Format Festival website from mid-February 2011.

The winners of Canon’s Why Do You Love Football? photography competition have been named. The grand prize winners are Heidi Yowell, 45, of La Habra, Calif., awarded the honour for the Adult Division and Michael Pronzato, 17, of Warrington, Penn., winning for the Teen Division. Each has won a trip for four to attend Super Bowl XLV in North Texas along with a trip for four to the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Celebration this summer, and they will also have their winning photos displayed in the Hall of Fame for a full year.

Sample 11 is the fourth annual group show of theprintspace clients’ work. London’s theprintspace was launched in October 2007 in Shoreditch, and has quickly become a favourite with London-based commercial photographers, artists & students. The staff at theprintspace are in a unique position to oversee an extraordinary number of images produced for portfolios and exhibitions all around the UK and they now invite you to view a little glimpse of the talent that they see week after week. Presented by Exhibit X, Sample 11 has an emphasis on portrait photography and the various styles it encompasses. The exhibition runs from 10th to 28th February at theprintspace gallery, 74 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DL. Admission is free.

The 36th issue of the free PhotographyBB Online Magazine is now available for download. This edition features a number of articles including a look at Google’s new Chrome OS Notebook, from a photography and social media standpoint. The magazine also has a new column on wedding photography techniques, an in-depth look at the crop tool in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, and a tutorial on learning “to see the impressionist way”. In their Photography Around the World feature they visit Keystone, Colorado, “a destination locale for both cross-country and downhill skiers, snowboarders, and adventure-seekers from all over”. PhotographyBB magazine is available in PDF format for immediate download from the website below.

Website: PhotographyBB

Lomography have released special Valentine’s Day editions of the Diana Mini, Diana F+ and Fisheye 2 film cameras. The Diana Mini “Love Is In The Air” is the perfect companion if you want to give your date a retro-touch, Adam and Eve have turned their attentions to the medium format Diana F+ “Take My Heart”, and the Fisheye 2 “I Love You” will make your heart race. Possibly. The three new models are priced between £79 and £99 in the UK.