Zoner Software has announced the addition of 10-bit colour support to Zoner Photo Studio Professional. This support enables users with compatible graphics cards and displays to view images with 10 bits per colour channel, for a total of 30 bits. “Displays with 10-bit color can express over a billion different colors—64x more than normal, 8-bit displays can offer. In practice this means truer colors, smooth gradients, and a better representation of what a photographer wants to express—but only when the user’s graphics card and software support 10-bit display,” says Ales Hasala, Development Manager. Note that only the Professional edition of Zoner Photo Studio supports 10-bit display devices.

Website: Zoner

Artensoft today introduced Artensoft Photo Mosaic Wizard 1.0, a software tool specifically designed to let anyone create a mosaic picture from hundreds of smaller tile images. The program offers a simple wizard-driven interface that allows the beginner to create the first photo mosaic project in a few minutes, without opening a manual. Following the instructions of the wizard, the user first selects a photo to be used as a template for a photo mosaic, adds folders with photos, and then clicks the “Create Photo Mosaic” button. A photo mosaic is generated automatically and displayed on the screen. If necessary, the user can move, resize or replace individual tiles to fine-tune a mosaic picture before saving it to file. Artensoft Photo Mosaic Wizard 1.0 is available immediately for $49.95.

Adobe has released the final versions of Lightroom 3.2 and Adobe Camera Raw 6.2. Originally posted as Release Candidates, these software updates extend raw file support to over a dozen new camera models including the Panasonic Lumix LX5 and Pentax 645D, improve on several of the lens correction profiles introduced as part of the Lightroom 3 and Camera Raw 6.1 releases, and add more than 120 new lens profiles to help photographers automatically correct for a number of distortion and aberration effects.

Website: Adobe Downloads

Kubota Image Tools has launched a range of Vintage Delish Lightroom presets. Fully compatible with the recently-released Lightroom 3, the Kubota Lightroom Presets help professional photographers save time in their existing work. This latest edition of the Kubota Lightroom Presets includes 42 custom Develop Presets for Lightroom 3. Evoking nostalgia from decades spanning as far back as 100 years, these presets will “transport images with fashionable, highly sought-after looks that consumers desire”, the company promises. Available now for $39.00, the Vitage Delish Lightroom presets can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: Kubota Lightroom Presets - Vintage Delish

Canon has announced an update for its EOS Movie Plug-in for Final Cut Pro. Scheduled to be available for download from mid-September, Canon’s EOS Movie Plug-in E1 for Final Cut Pro version 1.1 adds support for the Canon EOS 60D digital SLR camera. The plug-in will allow users to view metadata and EXIF data for movie files. It will also provide support for multi-core processing, allowing even faster conversations with the latest generation of Macs.

AKVIS has released a Photo Kiosk version of AKVIS Sketch, a program which converts digital photos into pencil sketches and watercolour drawings. Thanks to this, those who are not familiar with photo-editing can convert their photos into drawings and then print them immediately. One license ($750) permits the installation of the software on five digital photo stations.

Website: AKVIS

The free Alamy Photo Collection iPad app is a gallery of “breathtaking and intriguing” imagery sourced from Alamy’s large network of photographers and international agencies. Alamy’s CEO, James West says “The Alamy Photo Collection app is beautifully simple - it’s free, it looks great, it’s updated every day, and it brings the Alamy brand to an exciting new device for a global audience of photography enthusiasts.”

Website? Alamy Photo Collection

Nik Software today announced HDR Efex Pro, a completely new HDR imaging toolkit “designed to help photographers quickly and easily achieve the full spectrum of HDR enhancements from the realistic to artistic”. Key features include U Point powered selective tools for fast precise enhancements of contrast, shadow, structure and saturation adjustments, a proprietary tone mapping technology enabling a wide range of HDR styles and capabilities, automatic image alignment and reduction of “ghosts”, integrated video-based help system including education on HDR photography techniques, and more. The suggested retail price of HDR Efex Pro is $159.95. The software will be available in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Nikon has released an update for Capture NX. Version 2.2.5 adds support for raw files produced by the Nikon D3100 DSLR, fixes bugs and implements changes to Picture Control Utility specifications. The Macintosh version also adds compatibility with Mac OS X version 10.6.4.

Website: Nikon Capture NX 2.2.5 for Mac
Website: Nikon Capture NX 2.2.5 fot Windows

PictoColor has released the Windows version of the iCorrect Portrait 2.0 plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS5. Based on PictoColor’s point-and-click color correction technology, iCorrect Portrait 2.0 offers professional portrait, wedding, school, sport, and event photographers a fast and easy way to color correct their digital photos. The newest version offers full compatibility with the Adobe Photoshop CS5 in both 32 and 64-bit Windows environments, while remaining compatible with CS2, CS3 and CS4 too. iCorrect Portrait 2.0 may be purchased at PictoColor’s secure on-line store for $124.95 as a software download.

Website: PictoColor

ShutterSnitch is an app allows users of Eye-Fi cards to transfer photos from their Eye-Fi compatible cameras to an iPad. Apart from the app,, card, compatible camera and iPad, the solution also requires a mobile wireless router to create an ad-hoc network between the WiFi-enabled Eye-Fi card and the iPad. This allows photographers to pass the iPad to models, the crew, art directors etc. to discuss the photos and make any necessary changes to set up on the spot. Once all parties are happy, photos can also be emailed using the iPad’s mail app, exported to Flickr, an FTP server, or edited by exporting to other photography apps. ShutterSnitch is available in the AppStore priced at £4.99.

The new ‘Portrait Classroom: Baby and Child Photography Tutorials’ App by Kim Binfield teaches camera owners how to take portraits of babies and children like a professional photographer. Available now from the iTunes App Store, priced at $1.99, ‘Portrait Classroom’ expertly describes from start to finish how to create portraits of babies and children. Ten example portraits with detailed tutorial text and ‘before and after’ images describe how users can create similar portraits using their own digital SLR camera.

ViewNX 2 is a comprehensive new version of Nikon’s bundled software package that enables users to easily import, browse, edit and share images and D-movies captured with its digital cameras. In addition to basic data importing and browsing, ViewNX 2 incorporates various frequently used adjust menus and tools such as resize, brightness control, crop and straighten, as well as sophisticated raw image processing and D-movie editing functions. The software allows you to trim and then merge D-movie clips together, apply a variety of attractive transition effects with the addition of still images and soundtracks of music. The free Nikon ViewNX 2 software can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: ViewNX 2

Adobe has rebranded its Photoshop.com Mobile application to Adobe Photoshop Express, and released an iPad version alongside the iPhone and Android variants. Photoshop Express for iPad has the same Crop, Rotate and Flip features as well as the same filter effects and one-touch adjustments as the iPhone app, but goes beyond these by offering iPad-specific features such as sequential editing and simultaneous upload of multiple images, or the ability to change screen orientation from landscape to portrait and vice versa. Adobe Phtooshop Express for iPad/iPhone can be downloaded from the App Store free of charge. The Android version has also been updated and rebranded, and is available now in the Android Market.

Website: Adobe Photoshop Express

Easypano Holdings has released a Beta version of Panoweaver 7 for the Macintosh platform. Panoweaver is a professional photo stitching tool, which can combine photos into high-quality full 360-degree or partial panoramic images. It supports HDR creation and manual stitching for inserting matching points. Output formats include Full screen Flash VR (based on html), QTVR, standalone swf, and Java-based player. In version 7 of the software, you can insert hotspots in panoramas and add actions to them, remove tripod marks, add buttons to the scene viewer etc. Panoweaver 7 Beta can be downloaded from the website below.

Website: Panoweaver 7 Beta

onOne Software has announced its upcoming schedule of free Pro Series Live Webinars. The hour-long online seminars willbe hosted by photographers and postprocessing experts. Topics will include lifestyle, landscape, portraiture, travel and HDR photography, with new sessions being added regularly. The first webinar, Creating Fine Art Children’s Portraits, will be held today at 1pm PDT and on the 17th at 11am PDT. The other August webinar, Creating Images with Impact, will start at 11am PDT on 25th August, and will also be held on 8th September. In this webinar, travel photographer Scott Stulberg will show you how to make your images truly stand out using onOne’s FocalPoint, PhotoTools and PhotoTune. A third webinar, Live from Las Vegas, will go on air on 2nd September, again at 11am PDT, when Vincent Versace demonstrates how he uses Plug-In Suite 5 to achieve an iconic look to his photos. Finally, on 14th September professional photographer Dave Cross will be hosting a webinar titled Enhancing Your Portraits, which is jam-packed with tips and tricks for getting the most out of your portrait images using PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition.

Website: onOne Webinar Registration

Phase One has launched a survey designed to better understand the needs and preferences of all Expression Media owners. All registered customers of Expression Media are eligible to participate in the market research, which will run until 31 August. For more information and to participate in the survey, visit the website.

Website: Phase One Expression Media Survey

Adobe has posted new release candidates for Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Lightroom. The updates extend raw file support to 12 new camera models, improve on several of the lens correction profiles introduced as part of the Lightroom 3 and Camera Raw 6.1 releases, and add over 50 new lens profiles to help photographers automatically correct for a number of distortion and aberration effects. The Lightroom 3.2 Release Candidate is available as a free download for Lightroom 3 customers, and the Photoshop Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidate is available as a free download for Photoshop CS5 customers.

Corel has released a free Service Pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5. Service Pack 1 (SP1) includes new functionality to Corel CONNECT that enables users to instantly browse millions of free and for purchase stock images on leading online photo sites including Fotolia and iStockphoto from within the CorelDRAW creative environment. The update also extends file import support for the latest Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5 formats as well as raw support for new Canon, Casio, Pentax, Fuji and Sony models. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 Service Pack 1 is available as a free download from Corel’s website.

Daemgen.net has recently released version 2.8 of ProCamera. The app has been modified to support all features of the iPhone 4 smartphone (switching cameras, using the LED flash) and to use multitasking features of the iOS 4 software update. Furthermore, ProCamera is ready to take a snapshot the second you open the app, upgrading the iPhone to the fastest point-and-shoot camera available, the developer claims. The ProCamera iPhone application is available in the App Store priced at $2.99.