Category: Software & Technology

I’m delighted to say that Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, along with the entire Creative Suite 4 lineup, have been officially announced! 

Check it out here.

The Camera Raw 4.6 and DNG Converter Release Candidates (RC) are now available on Adobe Labs.

Check it out here.

Nik has announced a new version of its venerable sharpening plug-in. Sharpener Pro 3.0 adds U Point-based selective sharpening, improved sharpening algorithms, a “soft proof” feature and compatibility with both Adobe Photoshop

Check it out here.

Though it’s not exactly earth-shattering news — most people already knew it was coming — Adobe is launching CS4 on Sept. 23rd

Check it out here.

Check it out here.

I am apparently the last blogger in the world to discover Cooliris. Formerly called PicLens, this is a lightweight browser plug-in that fills your screen with digital images displayed in a flying interface

Check it out here.

Camera Bits has released v4.5.3.2 of Photo Mechanic for Mac and Windows, after a public beta period. The release fixes a number of minor bugs, adds support for rendering RAW files from the Nikon D60 and Olympus E-3 in the Mac version plus it introduces product activation to the pro photo browsing and transfer program for the first time.

Check it out here.

When we look back at how things changed with the arrival of Lightroom 2, I think the new DNG Profile Editor (presently kind of a sleeper technology) will stand out as transformative.  The technology was largely developed by Eric Chan, a bright young guy on the Camera Raw team (and aspiring photographer).  I’ve always found his explanations lucid and highly readable, so I’m delighted that he’s written a guest blog post on the subject.

Check it out here.

Adobe’s Lightroom 2.0, which launched today represents a major breakthrough in the field of digital photo processing. I’ve only just begun to play with the software today, but it is clear that Lightroom 2.0 will be my new imaging software of choice. Prior to using Lightroom 2.0 I did my photo processing using Adobe’s Bridge and Photoshop. Lightroom represents a significant leap forward in the power of processing digital photographs. I thought I’d write up a post documenting my 10 new favorite processing tools that Lightroom 2.0 brings to the table.

Check it out here.

Till now both Camera Raw and Lightroom have provided a means for calibrating ones own camera, or for creating a custom look, but this has always been a tedious processes (aided by scripts, such as those by Thomas Fors), and so not many people bothered. Therefore, whereas some people choose their raw processing program for reasons of workflow, convenience, or features, others choose a particular program because they believed that the colour rendition that it produced was superior, or at least more to their liking.

But – as they saying goes, that was then, and this is now.

Check it out here.

This page contains tutorials and documentation to help photographers get started with using the DNG Profile Editor.

The DNG Profile Editor is a software program designed and implemented by Adobe. Its purpose is to enable photographers to edit camera profiles and it is being offered as a free download to the photographic community. Please note that while we welcome all photographers to try the DNG Profile Editor, this tool is intended for advanced users.

Check it out here.

Lightroom 2 is now available on Adobe.com. We’ve been very pleased with all of the feedback during the public beta and we’re happy to provide the finished version.

Check it out here.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel processors and Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

Check it out here.

I’m pleased to announce the immediate availability of MarsEdit 2.2, a free update to MarsEdit 2.

Check it out here.

There are so many amazing new apps on the iPhone store that I hope to review here (and I’ll certainly spend time on a few more over coming weeks), but today I want to point you to three applications that make me feel like I’m a music fan of the very-near-future — where personalized data flies through the air, phones play rock music based on your personal preferences, and everybody listens to Silkworm on moving sidewalks and in tricked-out rocket cars.

Check it out here.

It’s Saturday afternoon and I am having a blast experimenting with the new edit plugin from Nik Software called Silver Efex Pro.

I downloaded the trial as soon as I heard it was available and it is really addictive. For the past two hours I have been going through images I took years ago that probably would have never seen the light of day as a color image.

Silver Efex Pro allows you to easily and with great creative control, convert your color images to black and white. you can of course also work from an original B+W image.

Check it out here.

Viveza only does one thing, but it does it better than any tool I’ve ever used. If you spend a lot of time in Photoshop or Aperture editing your images, you’ll find Viveza will quickly become an integral part of your workflow, and it will repay the cost of purchase in no time at all.

Check it out here.

Adobe seems to be hard at work at Adobe Creative Suite 4*. In May, they released public betas of CS4 versions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Soundbooth. Existing CS3 owners are able to continue to use these applications beyond the initial 48 hour window.

Check it out here.

The long-awaited Mozilla Firefox 3 for Mac and Windows, which emerged from beta at 10AM Pacific today, is the latest web browser to support the colour managed display of photos with embedded ICC profiles. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s turned off by default. Here’s how to turn it on.

Check it out here.

And then there were three (at least!). After much anticipation, Matthew Drayton has shipped Iris 1.0, his company Nolobe’s entry into the “Photoshop-like” pixel-pushing market on OS X.

Check it out here.