Category: Software & Technology

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.

I’ve been getting quite a few inquiries about problems saving files from Photoshop directly to network drives when using the recently released Mac OS 10.5.3. (I’m told the issue can affect InDesign and maybe other apps as well.)

The short story is that we’ve been working closely with Apple to troubleshoot the issue and have identified the cause. Apple is working on a fix, and we expect they’ll release it in the next System Update.

Check it out here.

Every time a new version Aperture or LightRoom gets released/announced you always have a big flurry of ‘which application should I choose?’ posts on all the digital photography forums, and the release of the LR2 beta has been no exception.

Check it out here.

The idea behind Nik Software’s Viveza is quite simple. It implements what they call the U Point technology that allows for really easy and fast as well as precise and smooth color refinement, light adjustment and image enhancement that was previously possible only through a somewhat difficult and tedious editing process that involves a lot of layer masking or complicated selections. The U Point technology in Viveza now makes it painless to absolutely control certain portions of an image.

Check it out here.

Software updates for almost all of its digital SLR software has been posted by Canon. Among the programs updated are Digital Photo Professional (DPP), EOS Utility and Picture Style Editor.

Check it out here.

Adobe today released an update to the Adobe Digital Negative specification (DNG), a publicly available archival format for the RAW files generated by digital cameras.

This update provides new and expanded specifications that provide the digital imaging industry with increased flexibility and improved workflow for their RAW images. A DNG Codec for Windows Vista has also been released on Adobe Labs, allowing photographers utilizing the Windows Vista platform to work with raw files in a more seamless manner.

Check it out here.

The subject line pretty much says it all: you can now browse and edit your photos stored on Flickr right from within Photoshop Express. 

Check it out here.

Well I’ve been using PicLens for a few months now, and I’m a bit late with this post, but if you haven’t installed PicLens yet for browsing photos on the web you are missing one of the most beautiful ways to view photography on the internet yet.

The screenshot above does not do justice to the visual experience. PicLens is hands down the best I have ever seen photos look online.

Check it out here.

Microsoft has today released Expression Media 2 for Mac and Windows, an update of the program formerly known as iView MediaPro, as well as a metadata editing and geotagging application called Pro Photo Tools for Windows.

Check it out here.

So we’re happy to announce our the updated PhotoShelter plug-in for Aperture 2.0 that supports uploads to both the Personal Archive and the PhotoShelter Collection.

Check it out here.

Snapture basically takes the ultra-minimal contorls of the iPhone photo application and beefs it up with some new features. With Snapture you can do things like zoom, tap any button on the phone to take a photo, change your photos to grayscale, or even have a timer

Check it out here.

I’m delighted to announce that the beta of the 64-bit-native Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 has been posted to Adobe Labs.  Everyone is free to download the beta build and try it for 30 days, while customers of Lightroom 1.x are free to use it for the duration of the beta program.  (This build expires Aug. 31.)

Check it out here.

The Aperture changes keep on coming: Apple today has released Aperture 2.1 for Mac, an update that incorporates various bug fixes and feature tweaks. But the centrepiece of this version – the seventh Aperture-related software release from Apple in a little over six weeks – is the rollout of image editing plug-ins to Apple’s pro photo management and RAW conversion application. While Apple has included an example plug-in of its own, the roster of outside developers already working on plug-ins is the real story: among early plug-in creators are Nik, with Viveza, and PictureCode, with Noise Ninja.

Here’s a first look at Aperture 2.1.

Check it out here.

I’m happy to report that Photoshop Express, Adobe’s new online tool for organizing, editing, and sharing images, has launched in beta form. Some highlights at a glance:

Includes tools for applying spot healing, distortions, sharpening/softening, color tweaks, image filters, and more
Offers 2GB of storage space for storing images
Supports tie-ins to Facebook, MySpace, and Picasa
Runs in any browser on Mac, Windows, or Linux using the Flash Player (v9)
Will include an AIR-based desktop version (useful for editing images offline) and printing services
Will remain free, with paid service adding more functionality

Check it out here.