Mike Wong is the VP of Marketing at onOne Software, located in Portland, Oregon.
American Photo Magazine recently announced their 2008 Editors' Choice Awards and I'm happy to pass along that not one, but two plug-ins from onOne Software made their list this year.
Genuine Fractals made the list in 2006. The Plug-In Suite made the list in 2007. For 2008, our newest Photoshop plugin FocalPoint 1.0 along with PhotoTune 2.2 made the exclusive list.
I just got an email from my friend Rick Sammon about his new book Face to Face. I haven't seen it yet, but according to Rick his latest book (I think he's up to 28 or 29 now!) is going to cover the techniques that he uses to make extraordinary photographs of people around the world including important tips and strategies for engaging your subject and setting up the shoot.
I've been on a shoot with Rick before and if you haven't seen him in action, he truly has a way of engaging with people and putting them at ease which is important to then get a great photo. You can learn more about the book at the link above or by clicking on the book cover image below. When I get my copy of the book I'll post a more detailed review.
It's been a very busy time here at onOne. Fresh on last week's announcement of our new FocalPoint 1.0 plug-in for Photoshop becoming available, we've got an announcement for today with the availability of Essentials 2 for iPhoto.
Essentials 2 for iPhoto is an external editor for iPhoto and is launched from within iPhoto when you have a photo selected. When you install Essentials for iPhoto, the installer will ask if you want to set Essentials for iPhoto as the external editor for iPhoto - doing so will allow you to simply select a photo and then click the Edit button and off you will go to our app. When you're done, it will drop you back into iPhoto.
The plug-ins in Essentials 2 for iPhoto are based on PhotoTune (for color correction), FocalPoint (for selective focus and adding depth of field), PhotoFrame (for border & edge effects) and Genuine Fractals (for enlarging photos).
Be sure to check out the Essentials for iPhoto training videos.
The press release is available here.
I just got an email from Jim DiVitale and Helene Glassman announcing a hands-on digital imaging workshop in their Atlanta studio coming up in July. Specifically, July 28-30. I've been to Jim's studio before and it's a really nice, big, open space so you'll be learning in a nice environment. Plus, getting to spend a few days learning from both Jim and Helene is a treat in and of itself. Both are wonderful teachers so I highly recommend going to this workshop if you are in or plan to be in the Atlanta area at the end of July.
I am happy to share with you today that our newest plug-in for Photoshop, FocalPoint 1.0 is now available for purchase as a download. For those who have placed orders for FocalPoint to be shipped to them, discs are being duplicated and should go out soon.
I'm pleased to inform you today that after a bit of a delay, we have posted the first drop of the Liquid Resize Product Preview for you to download and start playing with. Head over to the Liquid Resize Product Preview page for details and the link to request the download.
Please note, that this first build is an early release and is not necessarily indicative of what you'll see in the final release. Specifically, the product has not yet undergone any significant speed enhancements since we originally acquired the code in January 2008. We have plans to do that before the final release, but haven't gotten there yet.
Also, the user interface is largely unchanged since we acquired the code but when we do ship the final version, there will be significant changes to the user interface. One of my biggest complaints about the current build you'll see is that for the protect and delete brushes, red is used to signify an area to protect and green is used to signify areas to delete. Seems backwards to me, but maybe it's just me - though I think it will at the very least get reversed in an upcoming build.
The application is currently a stand alone app but will be converted into a Photoshop plug-in when we're all done.
We've also included a sample image for you to play with and it gets loaded automatically when you launch the app (either Mac OS X or Windows). Here's a short QuickTime movie where you can see it in action.
If, like me, you have ever purchased a stock photo from Adobe Stock Photos via the Bridge application, you probably received (or will soon) an email from Adobe today.
According to Adobe, as of April 1, 2008, the Adobe® Stock Photos royalty-free image service will be discontinued to allow them to focus their efforts in other areas.
If you're interested, you can read more about it here.
We have officially released our Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard) updates today. For details on the releases, you can go to the official press release and read all of the juicy (or not so juicy) details.
If you just want to go and download the updates, you can go directly to the updates page and start downloading the patches that you need and you'll be good to go. The download page can be found at http://www.ononesoftware.com/download.php#updates.
Earlier today, PopPhoto.com posted on their website their October 2007 list of Top 5 Must Have Software Programs...and I'm extremely happy to share with you that Genuine Fractals 5 was on their list!
Here's the link to their site. PopPhoto.com Top 5 Must Have Software Programs.
I just read over at Photoshop News the Business Wire press release from NAPP announcing the 2007 Photoshop Hall of Fame Inductees. And the winners are...
Andrew Rodney and Kevin Conner.
Congrats gentlemen!
You can read the press release here.
Curious to know who was nominated?
Finally, you can read more about the Photoshop Hall of Fame here.
Heads up all you Canon shooters out there looking to upgrade your DSLR bodies...Canon's finally announced (as anticipated by many) that the 40D is on it's way. Check out the release on the Digital Photography Review website.
I was thinking I'd save my money for the 5D, but at a list of $1299 (and I would think the street would be less than $1000 to compete with the D80), this could very well be my next camera.
Hmmm....now if only I can convince my wife that I need to buy a new camera. :-)
I got an email earlier today from Jay Nelson about a new site he is contributing to. It's called Planet Quark and as you might have guessed, is about all things related to QuarkXPress 7.
If you are a QuarkXPress 7 user, you should definitely check the site out.
We're both honored and excited to have found out recently that the onOne Plug-In Suite 3 was recently named an American Photo Editors' Choice for 2007 in the category of Top Imaging Software.
This makes two American Photo Editors' Choice awards in a row for onOne. Last year Genuine Fractals received the award!
James Dempsey over at Macworld.com did a nice write up today (or was it yesterday - why am I up so late?) about plug-in updates for the Adobe CS3 apps.
James mentions a handful of plug-ins and their CS3 savvy status for InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3 and of course, Photoshop CS3. He also mentions the status of some font management apps including Extensis' Suitcase.
Being from onOne, I was especially happy to read James' comments on our plug-ins.
"I consider all four of OnOne’s Photoshop plug-ins to be the best on the market for what they do."
Thanks James! It's always nice to hear those kind of words. We work hard to deliver great products to users and we appreciate the mention!
I am happy to share with you that we've partnered with Dave Cross (Senior Developer, Education & Curriculum for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals) to create another Digital Frame Collection add-on for PhotoFrame Pro 3. The Dave Cross Digital Frame Collection is now available for immediate purchase (requires PhotoFrame Pro 3 or PhotoFrame 3 Elements) for $39.95.
Dave has created 20 great new frames that I think you're really going to love. Here's a sample of a few of his frames on his own images. All photos copyright Dave Cross.
Be sure to check out these frames. They're really good. You can learn more about Dave at his website at http://www.dcross.com.
Adobe has officially announced their biggest product launch in company history today with their Creative Suite 3 announcement. You can read their official press release here. For a PDF specifically outlining the Photoshop® CS3 family, including Photoshop® Lightroom, you can read this PDF.
Acme Educational (a.k.a. Vincent Versace & crew) have announced a new upcoming title from his DVD tutorial series. The new title is on Capture NX which is available from the Nikon site.
From the site:
"Using the critically acclaimed "Why to of How" approach pioneered in the Welcome To Oz: Following the RGB Road series, Vincent takes a look under the hood of Capure NX. This multi-DVD tutorial goes for the basics of how Capture NX is set up and works through advanced workflows of several of his most iconic images. In each lesson, Vincent will take you through how he created, or recreated in Capture NX, each image. In every lesson the viewer will be using the actual raw file that came off the camera, not a low resolution JPEG or TIFF. This multi-DVD set is designed to get you up to speed with an understanding of both why and how to use the most powerful RAW processor on the market today.
This series was shot at 720p High Definition Resolution along with a computer screen capture set to record at computer resolution, so not only will you be able to see how Vincent actually works on his Cintq® interactive pen display, but also watch the tutorials on your television and play the lessons back on your computer at computer resolution as well."
Pre-orders are currently being accepted for $44.95.
If this series is anything like the original Welcome To Oz lessons and book, you'll want to get a copy.
More news from onOne Software last week...we announced the immediate availability of 85 presets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom that we're calling PhotoPresets with One-Click Wow! that everybody can download for free.
We worked directly with Photoshop Guru and Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis. The presets are unique from others in that they do not try to be everything to everybody or a one-size fits all. Presets that were developed by someone with some image may not necessarily work on your image (were the white balance corrections the same, what about HSL settings? the list goes on). This doesn't mean that we won't come out with other presets that help you recreate a specific look, but in general for color correction, the feedback we've gotten from most users out there who are over-whelmed and somewhat intimidated by the numerous sliders and curve adjustments available in the Develop module, welcome these kinds of presets with open arms.
As such, the PhotoPresets that Jack developed for us help walk you through the process of fixing and properly adjusting your photos. Start with a White Balance correction, then move into Tone Curve adjustements. Next, HSL (hue, saturation & luminosity) where you can push everything to grayscale except a color (i.e. blue eyes). Next, you can change to black and white, add a custom hand-tint and finally a variety of vignettes can be added. It's really quite simple when you go through the presets. The cool thing is that once you find a look that you like by combining these presets, you can save that preset as your own and in one-click, you're there!
So if you're using Photoshop Lightroom, go download a copy of our PhotoPresets for Lightoom. They're free! In the next few days, we'll be posting several video tutorials that Jack Davis created specifically for these presets.
If you're not a Lightroom expert and don't know where the presets go, don't worry, we've created an installer that puts the presets in the right place. Just run the installer and relaunch Lightroom.
This is a few days late (last week was pretty busy) but I wanted to post a quick note that we posted the first beta of Mask Pro 4.1 for Adobe Photoshop CS3 last week on our labs site.
This new version (which, by the way is free to all existing, registered owners of Mask Pro 4.0) adds native support for Photoshop CS3 (it is a Universal Binary for Mac OS X) as well as 16-bit support. We've been asked for 16-bit support for a while now, so we're happy to be offering this to Mask Pro 4 users at no charge.
Go to the onOne Software labs site now and download your copy today. Again, you must have a licensed copy of Mask Pro 4.0 installed in order for the beta to run.
It's been a very busy start to 2007 for us here at onOne, so busy that it dawned on me last night that I have been a bit remiss about posting to the blog! So I'll try to make up for that today.
On the heels of the Genuine Fractals 5.0 public beta, we're happy to share with you a preview release of PhotoFrame Pro 3.1. The new update (free to all registered users of PhotoFrame Pro 3) sports a couple of new features as well as compatibility with Photoshop CS3 running natively on Intel-Macs (also referred to as a Universal Binary).
New features in PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 include 16-bit support so you no longer have to convert files to 8-bit and a new Auto-Rotate feature that will automatically adjust the orientation of a frame to best fit your image. Some of the frame content was developed and set by default to be applied in a portrait orientation, some was done for landscape. At the time we developed, we essentially had to flip a coin as to which one we did (rather than developing two of everything). The problem was if you wanted a landscape oriented frame on your portrait oriented image. Sometimes you couldn't see a difference but other times you could - it all depended on the frame.
But PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 fixes that. The plug-in will automatically detect the orientation of your image and compare it to the frame you are applying and make the necessary rotation so the frame looks good the first time and gives you a better user experience.
The beta will only work if you have a licensed version (meaning you bought it, not just downloaded a demo) of PhotoFrame Pro 3 on your computer. Full install instructions are available on the beta site so make sure you read through the release notes. This version is sooooo much faster on an Intel-Mac under Photoshop CS3 than it was running in Photoshop CS2 running under Rosetta.
Enjoy!
Capture NX has been updated by Nikon (or perhaps more specifically Nik Software) to version 1.1.
The new version brings Intel-Mac compatibility, Windows Vista optimizations and sports some new user interface elements according to the press release. More from the release...
Capture NX 1.1 is available for download immediately and can be purchased for an estimated selling price of $149.95* as a full boxed version or downloadable key. A 30-day trial version is available, for new users, and can be downloaded at http://www.nikonusa.com, in the Software Download section. Current users of Capture NX will be also able to download an update to version 1.1 at no additional cost. A special limited-time upgrade price of $89.95 will be offered to current owners of Nikon Capture 4 software in the U.S. market. This upgrade will only be available online at http://www.nikonmall.com/captureupgrade/ for registered Nikon Capture 4 owners and will be limited to one upgrade per Nikon Capture 4 product key. The upgrade will require certain customer verification of ownership. Customers who have not already registered their version of Capture 4 will receive instructions to do so at the site.
It's official, Adobe today made the official Lightroom 1.0 announcement. You can see all of the final official details here including the introductory pricing of $199 which seems like a very reasonable price.
We are very excited today to announce the availability of Genuine Fractals 5.0 Public Beta. This is a great new release and we're happy to share it with you before it is actually 100% complete. Keep in mind that this is not the final release candidate, things will change (including a lot of further refinement to the user interface) between now and the final release date.
That being said, go over to our main beta site to login and download the beta. You'll need to create an account to login, so be sure to do that as well if you haven't already.
Source: Reuters
January 23, 2007 – After a torrent whirlwind of events following Reuters’s release of doctored photos of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in the summer, the global news agency’s Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger released new Photoshop guidelines for its photojournalists. Reinforcing Reuters’s values for accuracy, independence, freedom from bias, and integrity, according to their Trust Principles, the new Photoshop rules include specific limits to altering images with particular editing tools.
Reuters does not permit auto levels, selective area sharpening, in-camera sharpening, or in-camera saturation. In addition to the eraser tool, photographers are not allowed to use the airbrush, brush, or paint tools. External Photoshop plug-ins for sharpening is prohibited and use of third-party noise reduction plug-ins is limited.
The Reuters rules also mentioned caption guidelines. Photo captions should include mention of the type of specialty lens used such as tilt-shift lenses or Lensbabies. Photographers should also spell out if visits are escorted, organized tours.
Attention all photographers! The Art of Photography show is back again!
The Art of Photography Show 2007 is a world-class international exhibition featuring all forms of photographic art -- images shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, etc. The Art Of Photography Show will be exhibited at the two-level Lyceum Theatre Gallery, a perfect venue for exhibiting a large showcase of awesome photographic art.
The online entry process is very easy, simply filling out a short registration form and then uploading your digital files. Entry deadline is February 11th at 11:59 pm (California Time).
If you live in the San Diego area (or maybe you'll be vacationing there) be sure to check out the exhibit which runs April 14 - May 28, 2007.
If you're a subscriber to Digital Photo Pro magazine, you'll find in the January/February 2007 issue a story on up-rezzing your images in Photoshop. It's one of the better articles I've read and talks about the 10-percent step method as well as Adobe Camera Raw's upsampling method. Perhaps though, and selfishly so, my favorite part of the article is when it talks about Genuine Fractals. Be sure to read the article in your monthly subscription or go pick up a copy on the newsstands!
Hasselblad Master Photographer Elizabeth Carmel has recently opened a new gallery exhibiting her fine art photographs as well as the work of her husband Olof. If you're ever in Truckee, CA be sure to stop by and see her work.
Also, check out the latest edition of Outdoor Photographer as one of Elizabeth's pictures is featured in a two page spread.
From the good people over at NAPP comes a new magazine specifically for Adobe Photoshop Lightoom called Darkroom Magazine. From the site...
"When you look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, you're looking at the future of the pro photographer's workflow, and a year or so from now if you're not using Lightroom, you're going to be left behind," said Scott Kelby, editor and publisher of Darkroom, NAPP president and the #1 top selling computer book author worldwide. "The integration between Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS2/CS3 creates the seamless, consistent, and efficient workflow that today's professionals need, and we launched Darkroom magazine to help these pros make the most of using these two amazing tools together." - Scott Kelby
Another day, another announcement. Earlier today, we announced our plans for updating Mask Pro 4, Intellihance Pro 4 and PhotoFrame Pro 3 to be compatible with Photoshop CS3. Yesterday, we talked about our plans for Genuine Fractals.
If you're using Photoshop CS3 in it's public beta form on Mac OS X and want/need to use any of our plug-ins you'll have to run Photoshop CS3 under Rosetta (which pretty much defeats the purpose of the CS3 public beta) for the time being. Rest assured we're hard at work on making the Mac versions of our plug-ins Universal Binaries and plan to share more on that in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
As you may have already seen, today, we announced a new version of Genuine Fractals 5.0 which will be available in the spring of 2007 right around the time that Photoshop CS3 will be commercially (not in beta form) available.
Be sure to check back in the coming weeks as we'll post some screenshots and will have much more to talk about with this new version. For now, here's a quick recap of the new features you can expect to see in Genuine Fractals 5.0.
iView Multimedia has released a free update to its flagship digital asset management program iView MediaPro. The first comprehensive update since iView’s acquisition by Microsoft this summer, iView MediaPro 3.1.2 delivers significantly more robust performance, including clearer error reporting and improved memory handling for both Mac and Windows customers, as well as a number of minor feature enhancements. [Read more]
Since I posted earlier about the new 10MP Samsung mobile phone, I figured I might as well post this news about Adobe purchasing Actimgine, a French developer of video and interactive vector graphics technology. [Read more here]
Adobe last week released the Public Beta of Camera Raw 3.6 (Macintosh | Windows®) with support for several new cameras. Version 3.5 (Macintosh | Windows®) is still the latest certified version of ACR, but if you've got one of the cameras listed below, you might want to check out the beta.
The new cameras that are now supported in Camera Raw 3.6 Public Beta are:
Canon
EOS 400D / Rebel XTi
Leica
D-LUX3
Digilux 3
Nikon
D80
Panasonic
DMC-LX2
Pentax
K100D
Check this out. I'm a big fan of Samsung televisions, but never liked the Samsung phone my wife had for a year until her service contract ran out and I replaced it with a Motorola. But this phone might make me reconsider if nothing else than for the insane 10MP camera that it comes with.
Directlly from the email from Adobe sent this morning on the new release, here's an overview of what's new in the Adobe Lightroom Beta 4 release.
Beta 4 is our biggest milestone to date, with several enhancements and additions, including the achievement of full feature parity between the Windows and Mac OS versions of Lightroom. No matter which platform you prefer, you can now bring the full power of Lightroom beta to your photos.
Lightroom Beta 4 also features:
Seitz Phototechnik AG has an insane 160 megapixel camera that they are now taking reservations for. Worried about not having enough space on your CF or SD cards (or needing 100 more!)? Don't worry, they've set it up so you can transfer directly to a computer (like a Mac Mini) via gigabit ethernet like so:
And in case you're wondering what a 160 MP camera looks like, here's a picture from their site.
I read this over on John Nack's blog and had to repost. Of course, this begs the question, spend $36,653 on this camera or $159.95 on Genuine Fractals? :-)
Adobe has announced today that there is a new version of Adobe Camera Raw as well as a Universal Binary version of the DNG converter available for download.
Cameral Raw 3.5 adds support for several new cameras including: Nikon D2Xs, Kodak EasyShare P712, Panasonic DMC-FZ50 and DMC-L1, and the Sony A100.
I love Omni Outliner and there is a new update available. It's clean, simple, streamlined and completely customizable. I use it all the time to keep track of launch schedules, projects that are in progress and also for a place to store miscellaneous things that I need to keep track of.
Adobe has used the opening keynote at Photoshop World as a platform for showcasing new and emerging Photoshop technologies, and this year's conference is no exception. John Loiacono, senior vice president of Adobe's Creative Solutions Business, will take the stage on the morning of September 7.
During his presentation, Loiacono will give a sneak peek at some of the new Photoshop technology being developed by Adobe. Loiacono has responsibility for the development, delivery and marketing of Adobe's entire creative software portfolio.
Vancouver, WA – Aug. 29, 2006 — Wacom Technology Corporation's patented new Intuos3 4x6 pen tablet is designed for serious photographers, designers and artists seeking optimal pen control and comfort when working with a widescreen display. The Intuos3 4x6 joins Wacom's Intuos3 6x11 and 12x19 models to form a complete range of professional pen tablets that feature active areas matched to the screen aspect ratio of widescreens and dual monitors. This latest Intuos tablet provides 20% more active area than the model it replaces (Intuos3 4x5) and it's available immediately at a suggested retail price of $229.95.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 26, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced it has acquired the technology assets of Pixmantec ApS, makers of digital imaging software that provides advanced workflow management and processing capabilities for digital camera RAW files. The acquisition strengthens Adobe's leadership position in RAW processing.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
For the month of December, you can save 50% off any full version (upgrades excluded) of any of the onOne Software plug-ins. If you've been on the fence about buying, this should help push you over. :-)
Check it out at our site.
