During the opening keynote at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Scott Kelby unveiled the newest NAPP member benefit, H.E.L.P. (How-to Educational Library for Photoshop). If you’ve ever wondered what a particular checkbox, tool, filter, or option was in Adobe Photoshop, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) set out to show you just that in short <60-second videos. NAPP also launched a new project for people who are brand new to Photoshop, to help them get up to speed fast, with 2009 NAPP Photoshop Hall of Fame inductee Dave Cross as their personal guide and trainer. H.E.L.P. is free for NAPP members and is available on the NAPP member website.

Rollip.com is a new site where you can turn your digital photographs into Polaroid lookalikes. The site allows users to choose one of a number of effects, add text or decorations and upload their photos so that they can receive the “Polaroid” treatment. “It’s addictive,” says Lead Developer Maurice Sikkink. “Users who try it with one photo often end up processing their entire collection.” Rollip is a free service, and devoted users already have their own Flickr group.

Website: Rollip

PhotoshopIsland.com offers exclusive designs and elements for anyone who works with Photoshop, from professional photographers to scrapbookers. Three collections are available at launch: Distressed Background Brushes, 2010 Calendar Brushes & EPS Files and Postage-Themed Brushes. To encourage visits during its launch, PhotoshopIsland visitors who sign up for its e-news have a chance to win an Epson PictureMate PM 260 photo printer. Plus, each visitor who signs-up gets a free set of 10 high resolution Photoshop brushes.

Professional photographer and Photoshop educator, Stuart Little, has launched a brand new blog entitled ‘A Little Photoshop’. The new online publication is home to free articles, HD screencasts, training and inspiration based around the topics of Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, digital photography and off-camera lighting. Stuart Little is a professional photographer and Photoshop Trainer with over 18 years experience in the field. Over the past 7 years he has lectured in digital photography worldwide for Photo Training Overseas, Fujifilm, The Master Photographers Association and The British Institute of Professional Photographers. He splits his time between commercial, lifestyle photography, blogging, and training photographers worldwide.

Website: A Little Photoshop

Dazzboard will officially announce a partnership with the social cloud storage provider MySites, allowing anyone to upload an unlimited amount of photographs, videos or music files for free. Dazzboard is a free service, to remotely store, and share data online or on the phone.  In exchange for endless cloud space, MySites users will get access to Dazzboard’s ability to move cloud-stored files to and from portable devices, to organise files on a computer or across the social web (e.g. Facebook) with a simple drag-and-drop. The service features the ability to use Facebook Connect, to publish comments on users’ files to their Facebook stream and to post content from the phone, directly to a profile. Dazzboard currently supports Windows XP, Vista and 7, Internet Explorer version 6 (XP only), 7 and 8, as well as Firefox 3.X. In the near future, Dazzboard will be compatible with Google Chrome and Mac OS, the company says.

Website: Dazzboard

X-Rite has announced a free webinar called ‘Colour Workflow for the Photographer’. The topics include obtaining consistent colour in camera, monitor-to-print matching, digital projector profiling,  benefits of creating and using custom profiles, soft-proofing in Adobe Photoshop and other applications, and applying printer profiles in Photoshop. The free X-Rite webinar is intended for wedding, portrait and landscape photographers, photo lab professionals and anyone doing their own printing. The webinar will be held on 23 September 2009, at 10am GMT. You can sign up at the website below.

Website: Colour Workflow for the Photographer

Think Tank Photo has announced the launch of its newly redesigned website. The new website features expanded content and video related to working photographers using Think Tank camera bags and laptop bags in the field and the studio. The redesign incorporates Think Tank’s traditional branding with a bold new graphic design and navigation.  Think Tank Photo consulted with Closed Loop Marketing on site strategy, usability and search marketing. Blast Advanced Media built the site on their Motivity e-commerce platform, provided organic SEO consultation services, and advised on the best user-centred design practices.

Website: Think Tank Photo

Vanguard, one of the global leaders in photo-video accessories, today announced the launch of its new website. The website includes new product information, 360-degree and zoom product views, videos and more concise descriptions of VANGUARD’s growing collection of tripods, monopods, ball heads, camera bags and cases, binoculars, spotting scopes and associated accessories. Additionally, there are special, login-required sections for dealers, distributors and journalists for immediate access to frequently-requested information.

Website: Vanguard World

Viewbook.com now allows photographers to create complete custom portfolio websites. The new Viewbook.com website creator includes branding elements, smooth scalable slideshows, full screen views and video - all with a user’s unique web address. “We’ve built a modular system that enables people to use their creativity and create solutions their own way and not force too many conventions on them. We keep our tools and formats clean and uncluttered, so people can really implement their ideas.” commented Rien Swagerman, founder and lead developer of Viewbook.com. The new Viewbook website features are available exclusively with the Viewbook Pro account, which is available at $19 per month or $190 for an annual subscription. For first-time users, Viewbook offers a 30 day free trial with no setup fees.

Animoto users will now have the ability to easily incorporate video clips alongside their photos to create “stunning productions rivaling TV and film”. More than 3 million people currently use Animoto to automatically create dynamic, personalised videos from their own photos, music and text, and then download them or share them online through email, blogs, YouTube, Twitter, social networks, and mobile devices. Now, video clips taken straight from cameras and phones ranging from the Flip camera and iPhone 3GS to the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700 can be woven together to make a unique, personalised movie. Incorporating video clips into Animoto videos is as easy as uploading a video clip (up to 200MB) and choosing sections to spotlight. Paying users can use 10-second spotlights while free users are limited to half that. There is no limit to the number of video clips that can be used in an Animoto video.

Photogra and myPhotopipe have announced a multi-year partnership for the provision of certain new online digital imaging services via an ordering platform developed by Photogra.com. Per the terms of the agreement, myPhotopipe.com has the exclusive use of certain new online toolsets developed by Photogra.com. “It makes it less confusing, more accurate, and easier to order the photos, prints or other products customers want,” stated Darren Schiff, Chief Operating Officer of myPhotopipe.com, Inc.

Website: myPhotopipe

Gigatribe’s new and encrypted ‘Back to School’ features provide secure access to schools for sharing educational videos, photos & documents. In addition, GigaTribe recently announced its new DivX video streaming feature, which students can use to instantly stream DivX videos online. With the new DivX video feature, there’s no waiting, so users can view videos while they are still being transferred, even if they are not completely downloaded yet. Entire personal video libraries can be remotely accessed through the GigaTribe secure “Private Area” without delay and watched when traveling or away from their home, dorm, or school, with only the need of a web browser.

iSyndica users can now access iSyndica through six popular platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, AOL and Flickr.  The new feature will let new and existing users register for iSyndica’s digital media distribution services specifying only a username. The company felt it was an easier approach for consumers looking to simply and quickly sell their photos, videos and illustrations online.

Wuala, a social online storage solution, today announced the addition of new key features: backup and file restoration. The new features come just in time to mark the first anniversary of Wuala, which now has users storing and sharing over 65 million files. The new backup feature allows Wuala users to specify a folder from a local hard drive to automatically be backed up to Wuala’s secure online storage. Backup is complemented by the file restore feature that allows users to access overwritten or deleted files from a previous date and restore them, protecting the user from accidental deletions. The file restore and backup features work together to allow a user to access a local folder as it was at any desired point in time. Users that want to take advantage of the new backup and restore features must become Pro users.

ExposureManager, a customisable full-service online sales resource for photographers, announces EM Photo Day – an efficient new order placement system for photographers using handwritten order forms. ExposureManager’s latest offering to its community of photographers who cater to sports leagues, groups, schools, special events such as school dances, dance troops, theater groups or any other situation wherein orders are taken in writing by the photographer, is available now. To get started, for each photo day or event, photographers just send ExposureManager the blank order form they’ll be using for their event. EM Photo Day staff will then configure the order entry interface and set-up the price sheets. Once the photo day or event is complete, a CD or DVD of the images or an FTP link must be sent to ExposureManager for import into the system. The EM Photo Day System allows photographers to fully preview all the images to be ordered along with the capability to review any customised products too, as they will print, so as to catch any mistakes, saving time and money.

Shutterstock has launched Shuttertweet, a new tool for Twitter that empowers stock image and stock footage submitters by instantly sending out tweets announcing when new images and footage clips have been added to their Shutterstock portfolios. In addition, Shuttertweet sends an update regarding submitters’ download counts on a daily basis to share the success of their portfolios with people that follow them on Twitter. To sign up, submitters login to the submit site and click the option under “Make Money” or click here to enable Shutterstock to send tweets on their behalf. Submitters can deactivate Shuttertweet at any time.

Internet Archive has announced that high resolution files are available for download directly its the NASAimages.org website. The improved download features offer a choice of high or low resolution files for still images, allowing users to select the version best suited for their needs. NASA signed a Space Act Agreement with Internet Archive to create NASAimages.org so that NASA’s vast imagery collection would be more accessible to the public. Internet Archive’s NASAimages.org allegedly offers the first comprehensive collection of NASA imagery in a single, searchable on-line location, providing enthusiasts, researchers, news media and the general public easy, no-cost access to NASA’s vast collection of still and video imagery.

Website: NASA Images

Shutterfly’s Picture Perfect Summer microsite provides suggestions for vacationers on everything from the best light for the best pictures to how to complete fun, vacation-themed “picture projects.  In addition, site visitors can earn free prints for taking advantage of Shutterfly’s summer deals, including registering for the Shutterfly Dream Vacation Sweepstakes. The grand prize is airfare and seven nights in the Caribbean at Moon Palace Casino, Golf & Spa Resort, provided by Orbitz.com.

Website: Picture Perfect Summer

Twicli - a Twitter-based platform created by Sam Street and Sean Miller, London based co-founders of Picli - has been expanded to include a number of additional service elements. These include support for audio uploaded via the web and via email, tagging of your Twitter friends into your photos, Friend Activity monitoring, a Multimedia tweet box with full control over how your tweet will appear, mixed content sets, optional geotagging, larger file sizes and higher quality video.

JP Distribution has announced the launch of the new Lastolite School of Photography website. The aim of the Lastolite School of Photography is to provide free of charge video and written tutorials for photographers on a monthly basis, building an ‘industry leading’ library of tutorials. The new site has launched with six, twenty minute video tutorials featuring five of Lastolite’s new products. There are also 10 ‘back to basics’ PDF tutorials available.

Website: Lastolite School of Photography