Today marks the 25th birthday of Photoshop. To celebrate this  milestone, Adobe is showcasing 25 of the most creative visual artists under 25 who use Photoshop. To be considered, artists upload their projects to Behance and use the tag “Ps25Under25.” In the coming months, those selected will take over the Photoshop Instagram handle (@Photoshop) for two weeks and present their work for the world to see. Fredy Santiago, a 24-year old Mexican-American artist and illustrator based in Ventura, California will be the first to display his images. The company is also launching an advertising campaign, “Dream On," for The Academy Awards. The TV commercial includes work from Photoshop artists and iconic images from major motion pictures that used Photoshop in the making, including Avatar, Gone Girl, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Shrek.

The Voies Off Festival of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographies in Arles will celebrate its 20th anniversary from 6 - 11 July 2015. For the past two decades, the Voies Off Prize has been awarded by a jury of renowned professionals to an artist for the clarity of his vision and the high quality of his work. Voies Off night projections during the opening week of the Rencontres d’Arles festival (the first full week in July) have become an international reference for the discovery of emerging authors and the alternative venue that it creates for international photographic creation. You have until 15 March 2015 to enter the competition and win one of 3 prizes; the Voies Off Prize (€2,500), the LaCritique Award and the SAIF Discovery Prize (€2,000). As always, we recommed that you read the rules before entering your work.

The new Thule Legend Collection consists of two cases, a backpack and a sling pack. The Thule Legend GoPro Case is a durable GoPro case with smart organisation for essential accessories. It’s crushproof and has a padded compartment that holds one GoPro camera, a LCD backpack, a remote control, extra batteries and SD cards. The Thule Legend GoPro Advanced Case is the bigger version of the Legend GoPro Case, holding two GoPros. The Thule Legend GoPro Sling is a sleek and lightweight sling pack that allows you to stay in action with up to two GoPro cameras and accessories within reach. The Thule Legend GoPro Backpack is a crushproof, lightweight feature-rich GoPro backpack with integrated camera mounts to capture adventures from multiple angles. It packs up to three GoPro cameras, chargers, housing options, mounts, straps and grips. To protect the camera gear from dust, dirt, sand, and salt-water, all of these bags and cases have a removable, rinsable foam organiser unit. Additionally a compression-moulded EVA shell provides both shock protection, and a stable mounting point for a rear-facing GoPro. The Thule Legend GoPro Case and the Advanced Case are available this month, whereas the Thule Legend GoPro Backpack and Sling bag will be available in May.

Kenro has announced the UK launch of a number of new ND filters from Marumi. The company's Digital High Grade filter range has been expanded and now includes ND filters with a fixed density of 8, 16, 32 or 64 in filter thread sizes from 37mm up to 82mm. Plus,for those who want full flexibility and to save space, a new range of 'variable' ND filters have also been introduced. The Marumi Variable ND 2.5 - ND 500 filters (pictured) are available in two sizes: 58mm and 77mm. These are in addition to the Marumi DHG variable ND filter range ND2 - ND400, with sizes from 49mm to 82mm. SRPs start at £40.44 for the fixed density filters and £125.40 for the variable filters.

Schneider Kreuznach has announced the launch of the Xenon Full Frame Prime lenses in the United Kingdom. Each Schneider Kreuznach Xenon full-frame prime lens features an M95 filter thread, a focus ring with a 300° angle of rotation, robust cine-style lens mechanics, a maximum aperture of T2.1, a circular aperture with 14 diaphragm blades and an exchangeable bayonet interface. The Xenon FF-Prime lens family will eventually include an 18mm T2.4, 25mm T2.1, 35mm T2.1, 50mm T2.1, and 100mm T2.1 focal lengths.

The winning and shortlisted images of the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards will be on display at Somerset House, London this April and May. Taken from a record-breaking 173,444 entries from 171 countries, the extraordinary images showcase the world’s best and most original contemporary photography of the past year. An intimate display of both familiar and lesser known photographs, films and books by legendary Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt will also be part of the exhibition. Erwitt, who will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize at the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards on 23 April, is a master of photography recognised worldwide for his candid and often ironic black and white images capturing everyday life. For details, visit the website below.

X-Rite Photo Europe's prize draw, launched in September, offers photographers a truly unique workshop travelling across Iceland. The prize includes an all-inclusive, eight-day trip to the country, including return flights to Reykjavík from European locations, training and advice from a world leading photographic trainer, and great opportunities to capture Iceland’s stunning landscape. The promotion is for European residents only, and runs until 31st March 2015. To enter, no purchase is necessary, simply complete the form at the website below.

Kenro has announced a new entry-level two-head lighting kit for photographers wishing to set up a low-cost home studio. The Reflecta VisiLux StudioKit 130 comprises 2 x 130Ws flash heads, 2 x lighting stands, 2 x 92cm octagonal softboxes, 2 x sync cables and a carry bag. Recycle time is between half to 3 seconds and each light comes with a modelling lamp (maximum 50W). The trigger methods are: sync cable, sensor, test button and remote control. The suggested price is £227.94 including VAT.

Kenro, the UK and Ireland distributor of Reflecta imaging products, has announced the immediate availability of the new Reflecta 3-in1 scanner. Equipped with a 5-megapixel area-array CMOS sensor with 3 white LEDs, the Reflecta 3-in1 scanner digitizes your 35mm slides, negatives or photographic prints in 2 seconds. The included holders accommodate 9x13, 10x15 and 13x18cm prints, film strips of up to 6 frames or 3 mounted slides. Images can be viewed on the 2.4inch display and the scanned files then  saved on SD(HC), MemoryStick and MemoryStick Pro cards, and transferred to a PC via USB 2.0. The suggested retail price is £106.38.

UK landscape photographer Greg Whitton has emerged as the winner of the Outdoor Photographer of the Year 2014 contest. The news was announced at the Outdoor Photographer of the Year awards ceremony on Sunday 15th February at the Telegraph Outdoor Adventure & Travel Show, London Excel. Greg’s photograph was taken during a six-day wild camping trip in Iceland with four other photographers. He says: ‘I took this picture on the last night of the trip. We hadn’t had a moment of really good light during the whole six days. When we reached the top of this particular peak there was thick cloud blocking the sun. My camera battery was running out and I didn’t have any spare in my pack, so I started to make the descent back to basecamp. After making my way about 50 metres down the mountain the clouds started to part slightly. The light only lasted a few minutes. I’ve got other photographs when the light became really epic, but for me this image, where the light is building, is more successful.’
 

Photographers looking to enter the Hasselblad Masters 2016 competition will have until 31 May 2015 to submit three images in the Art, Landscape/Nature, Wedding, Portrait, Fashion/Beauty, Products, Architecture, Wildlife
Project//21 and Street/Urban categories. Now, for the first time ever each winner will pick up a brand new high-end medium-format Hasselblad camera alongside the honour of becoming an elite Hasselblad Master. "We have made some changes to the 2016 Competition - which reaches out to both professionals and young, ambitious and aspirational photographers, " says Perry Oosting, Hasselblad CEO. "We look forward to supporting all photographers with our new competition platform." As always, we suggest that you read the rules before entering your work.

Akvis have rolled out a major update to Akvis Magnifier. Available as a plug-in or a standalone application, the software is claimed to “deliver good results” when ‘uprezzing’ a photo to create poster-sized enlargements. “Resizing pictures with Akvis Magnifier yields a much higher quality image than simple bicubic interpolation,” the company says. Version 8 enables users to print super high resolution images on multiple pages, adds Dropbox to the list of publishing services and support for more raw image formats (standalone version), and fixes bugs. Registered users of Magnifier can upgrade to version 8 free of charge.

The winners of the International Garden Photographer of the Year Award have been announced. The overall winner is Magdalena Wasiczek, who convinced the jury with her photo entitled The Ballerinas (above). "I like photographing the dry hydrangea flowers on a background of colourful autumn leaves in the beautiful sunset," Magdalena says. "The sun shone through the few remaining leaves on trees forming a nice bokeh in the background. Category winners include Carol Casselden, Marianne Majerus, Patrick Goujon, Leonardo Battista, Duncan Herring, Mark Gray and Albert Ceolan.

Thomas Cook have announced their newest photoblogging challenge, Explore the Elements. "We’re looking for bloggers to publish photographs they’ve taken which best represent one of the four elements," the company says. "All the categories are open to your interpretation, so you can be free to take a picture of anything you feel showcases your chosen element." Entrants are invited to submit their photographs representing Earth, Air, Fire and Water for a chance to win a £5000 travel fund and other goodies including a Fujifilm X-T1, an iPhone 6 with Bose noise-cancelling headphones and a MacBook Air notebook.