NVIDIA has announced that CyberLink MediaShow 5, a new program that organises digital photos based on who is in them, is utilising the CUDA parallel processing power of NVIDIA GeForce graphics processing units (GPUs) to search and sort photo libraries. CyberLink MediaShow 5 searches and organises your photo collection using a sophisticated face recognition algorithm. By utilising co-processing – which leverages the parallel processing power of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs in tandem with the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) – CyberLink MediaShow 5 provides up to a 70% improvement in application speed so you can find the photos you want faster.

CyberLink has released CyberLink MediaShow 5, a program that provides a fast and easy way to organise, fix, and share videos and photos. MediaShow 5’s face recognition technology and smart tagging feature provides a speedy way to tag faces in large photo collections, while one-clink fixes allow consumers to quickly enhance videos taken in less-than-ideal situations. Additionally, the optimisation for CPU and GPU hardware acceleration enables fast conversion of videos for enjoyment on a range of portable media devices, including iPod, iPhone, PSP, PS3, Xbox and Zune. MediaShow 5 retails for $49.95, while upgrades are available starting at $24.95.

Now available at your local Camera Phone Zone - Fantastic new Vodafone Pay as You Talk Freedom Packs. Vodafone’s new Freedom Packs are bundles of great Pay as You Talk value that are bursting with minutes and texts. A £10 pack gives you 100 minutes + 300 texts. That would cost you £50 with a normal TopUp! For even greater value there is a £15 pack with 200 minutes + 300 texts and a £20 pack with a fantastic 300 minutes + unlimited texts*. Each pack lasts for 30 days and it’s so simple to get one - just call 2345 from your Vodafone mobile using your calling credit. Calls to standard UK mobiles and landlines are covered and voicemail is included too so you can stay in touch with pretty much everyone.

This competition is now closed.

Alison Maclean is the lucky winner of a stylish, compact, 5MP, LG Viewty Silver camera phone with 3” touch screen worth around £100.

To find your local stockist visit www.cameraphone-zone.co.uk

Vodafone Freedom Packs: A Vodafone Freedom Pack lasts for 30 days and is not available with other tariffs or promotions. Pack minutes and texts are used for standard UK landlines beginning 01, 02, 03, UK mobiles and voicemail. Packs are non refundable and non transferable. Terms apply - see www.vodafone.co.uk/freedompacks or call 2345 from your Vodafone mobile.

*Unlimited texts have a cap of 3000.

Photography Blog is delighted to offer readers the opportunity to enjoy the full version of Serif PhotoPlus 9 for free. PhotoPlus is an award-winning image editing suite designed to improve, enhance, and restore your photographs. Combining ease of use with a powerful set of image correction tools, PhotoPlus is ideal for editing images, whether for the web, multimedia, or the printed page. Download today and enjoy a host of powerful features including: unlimited editable layers, easy image extraction, artistic effects, PSD support and more. This offer expires on 3rd October 2009.

Website: Download Serif PhotoPlus 9

Whether you’re looking for creative inspiration, the tranquillity of the Welsh coast, or an epic adventure further afield, Light & Land has just a few last minute places up for grabs on three of their Autumn workshops. The ‘Finding Your Vision’ Leading Lights workshop is designed to enhance and develop your vision through the creation, editing and discussion around a series of your own images. The workshop gives participants the chance to work with accomplished photographers Eddie Ephraums and David Ward, who are also two of the UK’s best-known photographic ‘thinkers’. Alternatively, you can join Nik Jenkins for an escape to Wales, where photographic opportunities abound. Or, if its castles and coastline you fancy, then head up to the stunning area of Argyll with David Ward and Richard Childs. Click through / read on for the exact dates and other details.

AKVIS Software has released AKVIS ArtWork 3.0, a program that lets you apply different painting techniques to digital pictures. Version 3.0 offers a new painting style – Pen & Ink, as well as the possibility of converting photos into Oil Paintings and Comics.The program combines advanced painting techniques with a touch of an artistic approach to ordinary digital snapshots, making your digital pictures look as if they were real oil paintings. The program lays brush strokes naturally using the original photo as a reference, allowing creative persons to touch-up the painting by selectively changing the direction of the strokes. Available in Mac and PC versions as a stand-alone or a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, AKVIS ArtWork Home License sells for $72 USD, downloadable from http://akvis.com.

Datacolor has just introduced the new easy-to-use Spyder3Express monitor calibration system. Datacolor’s Spyder3Express ensures accurate, reliable and consistent colors every time so photographs, including tonal ranges in black-and-white photos, will always look their best and brightest.  The Spyder3Express monitor calibration system provides an intuitive user interface for easy use in a few simple steps. The suggested retail price is $89.

HP today announced the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer as part of its new range of HP Photosmart TouchSmart printers. The HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer makes it simple to view, edit, create and personalise photos – without having to connect to a PC – by combining an easy-to-navigate menu on the printer’s HP TouchSmart control panel with an extra-large TouchSmart screen. Users can print images in whatever size they want up to 13 x18 cm, with or without borders. In addition, 30 editing and enhancing options from the HP Design Gallery, such as ‘pet-eye’ fix, ‘slimming’ feature, blemish removal and sepia tones, enable users to edit photos so friends and family look their best. Also, the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer allows photos to be printed direct from Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. The estimated retail price for the HP Photosmart A646 Compact Printer is €149 and it is expected to be available for purchase across Europe, the Middle East and Africa from October 2009.

HP today introduced a range of new HP Photosmart printers with unique HP TouchSmart touch-sensitive technology. The HP Photosmart C4680, HP Photosmart and HP Photosmart with Wireless, HP Photosmart Plus and the HP Photosmart Premium (pictured) are the latest products to complement the HP Photosmart series and come with a number of new features. The HP Photo Print Gadget allows users easily drag and drop photos to a desktop icon from virtually anywhere – folders, applications, e-mail and websites. Many of the printers in the new HP Photosmart series, including the HP Photosmart with Wireless, HP Photosmart Plus and the HP Photosmart Premium, have built-in wireless features. Apple iPhone or iPod touch users can enjoy wireless printing photos using the HP iPrint Photo application, the first of its kind available for free on the Apple App Store. The new HP Photosmart printers will become available in September/October 2009 with prices starting at €79/£79.99 depending on model.

Bogen Imaging has announced two new retro styled tripods made by Gitzo. The Gitzo GK1380VQR and the Gitzo GK2380VQR both have a classic look, but both are high-tech pieces of equipment. The legs are made up of four segments, while there is a two-segment telescopic centre column that allows seamless height adjustment. The new Ground Level Set feature lets you remove the centre column to get the camera closer to the ground. The G-Lock leg locking system provides fast operation and safe locking. A new Power Disc, made of machined solid aluminium, features two locking screws - one to lock the head, the other to safely lock the disc onto the column. The GK1380VQR and GK2380VQR tripods differ from each other chiefly in their weight (1.9kg and 2.5kg, respectively), payload (4kg and 6kg) and price (€770 and €889).

Via photoscala

The Eizo ColorEdge CG243W is a new LCD monitor for pre-press, digital photography, video editing and post-production. This 24.1-inch widescreen monitor features an in-plane switching LCD panel with a native resolution of 1920x1200 pixels, and an aspect ratio of 8:5. The Eizo ColorEdge CG243W has a maximum brightness of 270 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 850:1. With a DisplayPort connection, the monitor accepts 10-bit PC video signals and can display 1.07 billion colours, 64 times more than the typical 16.7 million colours most screens are capable of displaying. The Eizo ColorEdge CG243W offers hardware calibration, so the monitor itself is calibrated rather than the computer’s graphics card. The monitor is now shipping and available for €2079.

Via photoscala

Update: we have added Eizo’s official, English-language press release issued on 24 September 2009.

DxO Labs have announced the immediate availability of version 5.3.5 of its DxO Optics Pro software, which adds support to the new Sony A850. Another feature is better noise control for images taken at high ISO with the Sony Alpha 900. Plus, there are 85 new DxO Optics Modules that cover fisheye lenses, wide-angles, and prime lenses as well as many zooms such as the 15x Tamron AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro - a lens type for which DxO Optic Pro’s optical corrections are particularly efficient along its entire focal range, the company says. DxO Optics Pro v5.3.5 and upgrades are available immediately for Mac and Windows platforms from the DxO Labs e store (www.dxo.com) and from quality resellers. All customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro since August 1, 2007 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 5.3.5.

Speculatio in Vis, a photographic exhibition by Jason Pietra, is an investigation into the beauty, diversity and fragility of the natural world. “Pietra changes what would normally be seen as a grotesque subject matter of organs and insects, transforming them into beautiful objects. The viewer becomes lost in the beauty of the final image and begins to become blind to the subject. The juxtaposition of such beautiful depiction versus ugly object, encourages comparisons and parallels, creating and endlessly and transforming dialogue about our value system of nature, history and man,” says Nadia Vellam, photo editor of W Magazine. The exhibition runs from 18 September until 5 October 2009 in theprintspace gallery, London.

The lucky winners of our fantastic July 2009 Newsletter contest have been randomly selected from the PhotographyBLOG Newsletter subscriber list.

Kathryn McGrath wins a Unibind PhotoBook Creator, kindly provided by Unibind.

julie earnshaw, shihyen lo, Neal Humphris, peter marvelley and stacey treloar each win a GigaTribe.com 1 year Ultimate Version, kindly provided by GigaTribe.

James crampton, IA Brown and vind Mler each win a Unibind MyBook Collection, kindly provided by Unibind.

The winners of the August 2009 Photography Blog Competition have been selected by a panel of judges. The theme for August was “Curves” - you can view all of the entries in this gallery. Here are the 5 winners:

1st Place
Light spiral by blinds

Prize: i1Display 2
Kindly donated by X-Rite
http://www.xrite.com/

Professional Photographers of America (PPA) has announced its Super Monday photo event, featuring educational classes around the U.S.A., hosted by professional photographers for photographers. These classes are designed to be hands-on and deliver practical knowledge that students can put to work immediately. Getting photographers face-to-face in a small group, lab-like setting allows them to better learn techniques and practice with professional photographers who have successfully used the skills being taught. PPA members who teach classes earn merits toward photographic craftsman degrees. The Super Monday classes will be held on 26 October 2009.

Blurb, the creative publishing platform that allows anyone to design, publish, market and sell bookstore-quality books, and Twestival, a global series of events organised by volunteers, will publish the first-ever Twestival Global Event book, featuring the stories of the 150 participating cities and their event organisers. Each event will have a two-page spread in the book to tell their story and showcase their official Twestival charity. The book will be available for purchase in the Blurb Bookstore at http://www.blurb.com/twestival, and Blurb will donate $1 per book sold to a Twestival-approved non-profit organisation.

The final lecture in the PhotoVoice Lecture Series will be delivered by photojournalist Tom Stoddart. During a long and varied career he has witnessed such international events as the war in Lebanon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the bloody siege of Sarajevo and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Stoddart is represented by, and works closely with Getty Images, to produce powerful photo-essays on the serious world issues of our time. His lecture will be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 6 October 2009, in Conway Hall, South Place Ethical Society, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Tickets are available for £10 in advance or £12 on the door.

Hahnemühle’s new Fine Art paper, Baryta FB, is a bright white inkjet photo paper with an extra smooth surface and glossy coating. The Baryta FB paper has allegedly been created at the request of traditionalist photographers who wanted something reminiscent of the traditional fiber based Baryta paper. This new Hahnemühle paper will be officially introduced at Photo Plus Expo in New York in late October. Meanwhile, Photo Rag® 460 gsm will be replaced by a Photo Rag® product with a base weight of 500 gsm, which will be available soon in the following formats: 24 x 30” and 35 x 46.75”, both as 25 sheet packages.