When Gus Mueller released Acorn, his fundamentally rethought bitmap image editing app, I was excited. Partly because it filled a void in my tool belt, but more because I knew it was the start of something big.
For this lovely little app, good things are starting to come. Congratulations to Gus on today’s release of Acorn 1.1! I’m already looking forward to the next episode.
Check it out here.
Without a doubt, the new official Apple Aperture 2.0 website is a truly excellent primary resource.
My favorite section in the newly revamped site is the Tutorials. In this section, Apple presents more than 50 excellent compact video tutorials, that is somewhat similar to a lot of the fantastic iPhone tutorial videos. There are also about 10 text tutorials in the same page.
Check it out here.
EOS Utility 2.3 for Mac corrects a remote shooting problem that under certain conditions led to photos not being saved to the computer. The update is for Mac only, and the bug affects only Canon’s shipping digital SLR models that have Live View: the EOS 40D, EOS-1D Mark III and EOS-1Ds Mark III
Check it out here.
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Volume 2, Issue 1 of Adobe Magazine, the company’s quarterly design and technology mag, is available for download. The new issue features Photoshop being used for concept art, architectural illustration, and scientific imaging.
Check it out here.
Digital photography experts Rob Sheppard and Tim Grey have created a wide range of Lightroom tutorials for the Adobe Design Center.
Check it out here.
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(Photo in screenshot by Rob Galbraith/Little Guy Media)
A chat today with Apple’s Kirk Paulsen, Senior Director of Applications Product Marketing, and Joe Schorr, Senior Product Line Manager for Photo Applications, revealed a number of interesting things about Aperture 2, the most significant upgrade to Aperture since the fall of 2006.
Here are notes from the call:
Check it out here.
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While that all changes with Aperture 2 which can read RAW files from the Nikon D3, D300, Canon 1Ds Mark III, Hasselblad H3D-II and other cameras, some photographers may already be wondering about the future. Will Aperture 2 be ready for the coming wave of digital cameras or will photographers have to wait until the next version of OS X comes out first?
We got a chance to talk to Kirk Paulsen, Apple’s senior director of Application Product Marketing, and Joe Schor, Apple’s senior product manager of Photo Applications; about this very issue. Read what they said after the jump.
Check it out here.
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Aperture 2 delivers over 100 dramatic, new features including advanced image processing,
a streamlined interface, faster performance, and unprecedented Mac integration
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Apple this morning has released Aperture 2, a new version of its pro imaging application for Mac that boasts over 100 new features. The application is available for the cost of shipping to those who purchased Aperture after January 1, 2008; otherwise it’s a US$99 upgrade, or US$199 for a new license.
Check it out here.
Mac OS X 10.5.2, released today as a free update to the current version of the Mac operating system, adds support for RAW files from the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, Canon PowerShot G9, Hasselblad CF-22, Hasselblad CF-39, Leaf Aptus 75s, Nikon D3, Nikon D300 and Sony Alpha DSLR A700.
Once installed, applications such as Apple’s Aperture, iPhoto and Preview should be able to view and convert RAW files from these cameras. Non-Apple applications that draw on the same OS-level code may be able to as well, though some may require updates of their own to utilize the expanded RAW file support.
Check it out here.
GridIron Flow, a new workflow management technology designed to work with Photoshop, the Creative Suite, and other tools. Since then the product picked up a Best in Show nod at Macworld, and now you can see it in action in a video on their site. In it company CEO Steve Forde shows Flow managing a workflow spreading across Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and InDesign.
Check it out here.
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“Reality is a lie,” said Mr. Baldassi.
Automated tools like Mr. Baldassi’s are changing the editing of photography by making it possible for anyone to tweak a picture, delete unwanted items or even combine the best aspects of several similar pictures into one.
Check it out here.
It is with great pleasure that I announce the immediate availability of MarsEdit 2.1, a significant update to Red Sweater’s Eddy-Award winning desktop blog editing application.
Check it out here.
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The image adjustment technology, which first appeared in Nikon Capture NX and is that program’s standout feature because of how much simpler it makes the process of applying selective corrections to a photo, will soon be available for both Mac and Windows versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements in the form of a plug-in called Viveza.
Check it out here.
Extensis has released updates to its Portfolio suite of photo cataloging and web publishing applications. Portfolio v8.5.1 and Portfolio Server v8.5.1 for Windows and Mac add support for the RAW files from the Canon EOS 40D, EOS-1Ds Mark III, Nikon D300, D3 and other models, plus improved import and use of XMP-format metadata. The Mac version also introduces full compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 and later.
Check it out here.
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PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen slideshow experience. With just one click, PicLens makes photos come to life via a cinematic presentation that goes beyond the confines of the traditional browser window. With PicLens, browsing and viewing images on the web will never be the same again.
Immerse Yourself.
Why mundanely flip through online photo galleries or squint at thumbnails from Google Image Search when you can sit back and get an immersive, full-screen experience instead? Come on and let yourself “be transported to a wonderful and magical world.” (Review by Lifehacker)
Check it out here.
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Several times now I’ve expressed my appreciation for PicLens, a beautiful (and free) little browser plug-in that enables full-screen, hardware-accelerated slideshows from Google Images, Flickr, MySpace, deviantART, and other sites. It’s changed my whole online photo viewing experience.
Check it out here.
For those not familiar with DNG, it’s the archival raw format that Adobe created to address the proliferation of proprietary raw formats. With hundreds of undocumented formats introduced since the advent of raw capture, it’s no wonder that the concept of a raw standard has elicited quite a bit of discussion. Much of the discussion revolves around the topic of file format obsolescence: Will I be able to open my raw files in 50 to 75 years from now? This is a good question and a valid reason why photographers choose to use the openly documented DNG format but there are other more immediate benefits to using a DNG workflow:
Check it out here.
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New Tools to Bolster Mac’s World – New York Times
The other Mac software news this month is more exciting.
For years, the industry’s most amazing speech-recognition program has been Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows. In its latest version, I got 98.9 percent accuracy right out of the box, without even reading the training scripts.
On the Mac, though, the only speech-recognition option was a program called iListen, which was built on far less sophisticated speech technology from Philips. Seven years ago, I asked iListen’s creator, a former Dragon engineer named Andrew Taylor, why on earth he’d based his Mac program on the Philips software instead of Dragon’s.
The answer, it turns out, was that the Dragon technology would cost too much, and the conditions for using it were too onerous, in Mr. Taylor’s view. He went with the Philips software, but never gave up his dream of bringing Dragon technology to the Mac.
Eventually, the Mac’s popularity rose, new bosses took over at Nuance (the current owner of the Dragon technology) and Mr. Taylor finally landed a deal.
The new program, MacSpeech Dictate ($200 with headset), is a big deal, especially for the thousands of Mac lovers who have been running Windows all these years just so they could use Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
