Amazon has reduced the price of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 from nearly $300 to less than $170. The offer is valid on U.S. orders only, as the retailer explicitly states that this “item can be shipped only within the U.S.”. There is no information provided as to how long the deal will last.

Website: Amazon

Via John Nack and 1001 Noisy Cameras

Ed Nash, a young and promising entrepreneur from the UK, has created an iPhone application for measuring the attractiveness of one’s face - or at least a photo thereof. The ‘Fit or Fugly’ application uses the golden ratio - also called the golden mean or the golden section -, to “scientifically calculate” how attractive a photo of a human face is. Research has shown that the golden ratio - which pops up in the most unexpected places in nature, from the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants to the proportions of chemical compounds and the geometry of crystals - does indeed play a role in human perception of beauty. When key “anchor points” in someone’s face, such as the ears, eyes, chin, mouth and nose, are arranged more or less in accordance with the golden ratio, the face is likely to be perceived as beautiful. (On a side note, the Rule of Thirds, well known to photographers, has also been derived from the golden ratio by way of simplification.) Ed Nash encourages you to try out his app on a photo of yourself or anyone else to find out if you - or they - are “officially” fit or fugly.

Website: Fit or Fugly

Jessops have decreased the price of its own 7” digital photo frame by more than 35%. The device, which features a 480x234-pixel display, USB port, interval timer, slideshow facility, and interchangeable surrounds now costs £25 at www.jessops.com.

The University of the Arts London has announced 28 Stories, a group show by graduates of the MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication.  The exhibition includes a poetic exploration of a maverick spaceship designer, a reflection on elderly love, a study of the first female Indian soldiers deployed to the Indian-Pakistan border in Kashmir, a daughter’s interpretation of her father’s escape from Hungary and the former eastern bloc, remarkable and dignified bodies of work about loved ones living with illness, and numerous other exceptional essays, pieces and stories, the organisers say. 28 Stories runs from 10-23 December and 4-15 January, Monday to Saturday 10am-5pm.

According to DC Watch, the launch day of the Ricoh GXR system will be 18 December in Japan. The Ricoh GXR body, GR LENS A12 50mm f/2.5 Macro and RICOH LENS S10 24-72mm F2.5-4.4 VC lens units will all go on sale that day, along with a range of accessories. The international launch date has not yet been confirmed.

Source: DC Watch via 1001 Noisy Cameras

Panasonic has announced that its Lumix cameras have been used to capture 109 images for The Caravan Gallery’s latest book, Is Britain Great? 2. The Caravan Gallery is a mobile exhibition and visual arts project run by artists Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale who are on a mission to record the ordinary and extraordinary details of life in 21st century Britain.Looking carefully at cultural trends and paying attention to juxtapositions, the pair take a detailed glance at today’s society asking the question is Britain really that great? Panasonic’s relationship with Williams and Teasdale began with the purchase of the DMC-FZ30 camera. The pair now use the Lumix DMC-G1.

Three teens have been selected as national winners in Sightsavers International’s i-click competition 2009. Emily Tudor, aged 13 from Buckinghamshire, won first prize in the 11-14 category, Stacy Leigh Stewart, aged 16 from Scotland won first prize in the 15-16 category and Lolita Cameron, aged 17 won first prize in the 17-18 category. Their photos, selected from hundreds of entries submitted by young photographers from across the UK, will be displayed in a special exhibition alongside photos by Harry Potter star Katie Leung and X-Factor pop sensation Same Difference. The exhibition, ‘i:click – when actions speak louder than words’ will be held in the gallery@oxo on London’s South Bank from 10 December 2009 – 10 January 2010 and entrance is free of charge.

Website: i-click

Photo Productions - a London-based company that designs and produces premium photobooks for photographers - have opened up their service to the wider public. They claim that their Premium Photobooks are a world away from the low quality, mass-produced, design-it yourself products that have become increasingly common. Photo Productions have developed an innovative and user-friendly website. Customers upload photos, and through a simple order process can choose from twelve photobook sizes, three graphic design styles, and various personalisation preferences. There’s even the option to drag photos into a specific order or choose which are to be most prominent. Once the order has been placed it’s sent to Photo Productions’ in-house graphic designers, who get to work creating a bespoke storybook narrative.  Each premium photobook arrives in its own presentation box, free courier delivery is included within the UK, and they also offer 10% off subsequent Photobooks ordered at the same time.

Website: Photo Productions

Silkypix UK has released Silypix Developer Studio 4.0.27.2 and and Pro 4.1.27.2. Like the latest Release Candidates announced last month, these “final” updates provide support for cameras with Foveon x3 sensors, including the Sigma SD14, DP1, DP1s and DP2. Additionally, they support the new Sony Alpha DSLR-A500 and A550 models too. Exisiting Silkypix UK customers can obtain updates from the Downloads section of the Silkypix website.

Website: Silkypix UK

Praktica has launched the luxmedia 12-Z5, a new, 12-megapixel digital compact camera with a 28-140mm equivalent zoom lens.. The Praktica luxmedia 12-Z5 features a 2.7” TFT LCD screen, smile detection, face tracking, blink detection and intelligent scene recognition. Images are stored on SD and SDHC cards, and there is 32MB of internal storage available, too. Weighing in at just 120 grams, the Praktica luxmedia 12-Z5 is available now for €120.

Via DCVIEWS

The Mail Tribune is now accepting reader submissions for its Rogue Valley 2009 Photo Contest. Mail Tribune readers are invited to submit photos they snapped in Southern Oregon during 2009. Images can be of anything from neighbours and places, to regional events and familiar valley icons, as long as they depict the photographer’s unique take on life in the valley. The submission period is open now and will continue through December 31, 2009. Voting will begin New Year’s Day and continue through January 7, 2010. Reader votes will be collected via online balloting, and will be counted along with votes by a panel of expert judges. Winning photos will appear on an In Focus photo page in the Mail Tribune in January. Grand Prize will be a Vixen VMC 1-10L Telescope from Bach’s Camera. Other prizes will include: a Tamrac 5210 Camera Bag & Digipod 550 tripod to the first runner-up, and a 17x24 gallery wrapped canvas print for the second runner-up. Make sure to read the rules before entering your work.

Website: Rogue Valley 2009 Photo Contest

Now in its second year, the CB Richard Ellis competition sets a brief for photographers to explore “cities at work” at any time during a 24-hour period. The organisers split the day up into 24 hours and allow for up to 24 images per photographer, but only one per hour of the day. Winners for each hour are chosen by their judging panel, and the prize for each hour is sponsored by an international brand. The winner and two runners-up will be given prizes sponsored directly by CB Richard Ellis. The grand prize will be a week’s holiday for two in Jordan. Whereas the previous competition was only open to contestants from the UK, this year they are opening up the competition to all photographers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As with every competition, we encourage you to read the rules before entering your work.

Update: |Due to popular request, entry has been extended for the 2009 competition until Midnight on 31st January 2010.

Kenro has released a new CD folio case aimed at professional photographers. Made from a leatherette material the CD folio comes with a frame on the front for a photo or message. The folio inside has been designed to hold a single CD and has a designated space for a photo. The folio has a magnetic closure and is supplied in a presentation box. The CD folio is available now with an RRP of £8.95.

onOne Software has released its new Plug-in Suite 5 for Adobe Photoshop, which is now available for download. Announced almost exactly a month ago, Plug-in Suite 5 includes FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune 3, PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition, PhotoTools 2.5 Professional Edition, Genuine Fractals 6 Professional Edition and MaskPro 4. Plug-in Suite 5 is available now to new users for $599.95 and to existing users of previous versions of the Plug-in Suite for $199.95.

Website: onOne Software

Widgetize has announced FantasyLens 2.3, an update to their portrait generation app for iPhone and iPod touch. With innovative features like one-touch automatic colour matching, FantasyLens makes it easy for anyone to create composite portraits using photos of friends, family alike, the company claims. Turn anyone into an astronaut, the Mona Lisa, a sunflower, the Statue of Liberty and more - all without any prior image editing or Photoshop skills. Requiring an iPhone or iPod touch 2.2 or later, FantasyLens 2.3 is available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Photography category priced at $0.99.

Website: FantasyLens 2.3

Nikon have released a new version, 2.7.0, of Camera Control Pro. This software allows photographers to control a camera remotely from a computer using either a wired or a wireless connection. Changes in this version include added support for the new Nikon D3s DSLR, Mac OS X version 10.5.8 and 10.6.1 as well as 32- and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. Note however that in a 64-bit environment the software operates as a 32-bit application.

Website: Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.7.0

Olympus has announced a limited-edition E-P1, whose body is covered in Swarovski crystals. According to Pocket-lint, the Olympus E-P1 Swarovski edition will be available exclusively to order from Harrods’ Micro Anvika department. The two-lens kit, which comes complete with a flash and a wooden box, can be yours for £1999.99.

Via Pocket-lint

Anna Fox, Zoe Leonard, Sophie Ristelhueber and Donovan Wylie have been nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010, and their work will be on display in The Photographers’ Gallery, London, from February. The exhibition opens on 12 February 2010 and runs until 18 April. The winner of the £30,000 annual award wil be announced on 17 March. The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010 rewards a living photographer of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography in Europe between 1 October 2008 and 30 September 2009.

Nikon has released version 2.2.3 of its Capture NX software. The new version adds support for the Nikon D3s DSLR and fixes a few bugs related to GPS data, flash exposure compensation data and unexpected software terminations. Additionally, the Macintosh version fixes an issue with the verification of most image profiles in the Profile First Aid panel of Mac OS X’s Color Sync Utility.

Website: Nikon Capture NX 2.2.3