Is now…

The forums formerly known as the Rob Galbraith Professional Digital Photography Forums have been taken over by the owners of the Digital Wedding Review web site.

The former Galbraith Forum URL re-directs to www.prophotocommunity.com.

Source: Computerworld
Written by Tommy Peterson–Geek’s Garden

Imaging chips revolutionized the photography industry, and now the chips themselves are being revolutionized by researchers at the University of Rochester.

A pair of recently patented technologies may soon enable power-hungry imaging chips to use just a fraction of the energy they use today and capture better images to boot — all while enabling cameras to shrink to the size of a shirt button and run for years on a single battery.

…yearning to blend free.

Source: John Nack on Adobe (John’s Adobe Blog)

We’d like to ask your help in improving HDR (high dynamic range) imaging in Photoshop. The halos produced by many current HDR conversion techniques (see the Flickr HDR pool for some examples) are kind of cool and wonky, but to make HDR more than a fad, we need to produce more reasonable results.

The snap-happy readers of Amateur Photographer magazine keep being mistaken for security risks. James Sturcke sees if he can get apprehended

Source: Guardian Unlimited
Written by James Sturcke

I never guessed when I bought my camera last summer, a few days after the July 7 bombings in London, that I might come to be seen as a terrorist threat.

Source: Imaging Resource
Written by Mike Pasini

You may know Julieanne Kost from her amusing Photoshop lectures (”How do you pronounce GIF? Get a life!”) or her Classroom in a Book Series for Adobe, for whom she’s worked since 1993. As a Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist, she flies all over the world, lecturing on creativity and Photoshop (and Lightroom, too, now) for Adobe.

As she flies from one city to another, Julieanne shoots photos from her window seat. And, after five years of taking pictures of the sky from the sky, she’s published Window Seat, a down-to-earth book on creativity, photography and digital imaging.

Brits will use digital trickery to look better

Source: Daily Record
Written by Samantha Booth

ISN’T it amazing what a bit of computer trickery can do for the family album?

It seems image-conscious Brits think nothing of airbrushing their pictures to make themselves look better in family snaps.

Press Release: LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 25, 2006–DriveSavers Data Recovery the worldwide leader in data recovery services, announced today at the National Association of Broadcasters annual expo the expansion of its Digital Arts Division. Specializing in the recovery of critical digital assets for studios’ video and film divisions and the gaming and recording industries, the Digital Arts Division was created over a year ago to address the loss of data from high-end storage devices and application-specific needs of its customers.

Source: Daily Yomiuri
Written by Julian Satterthwaite

Stop counting your megapixels and shut down Photoshop. All you need to create beautiful pictures is a cardboard box, a sheet of photographic paper and a pin–the three ingredients for the most basic kind of pinhole camera. And since this coming Sunday (April 30th, 2006) is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, now is the perfect time to celebrate a technique that has roots going back to the fifth century B.C.

The downloads page of the Epson Print Academy Track Two Attendee web site has been updated to include new notes and downloads.

To access the downloads page you’ll need to enter the Track Two login and password provided at your Print Academy Track Two session. Check the EPSON PRINT ACADEMY TRACK TWO INFO PAGE for access to the downloads page.

Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronical
Written by Ben Rand

(April 26, 2006) — NEW YORK — For all of its mind-boggling advances — such as letting users know instantly whether they got the shot and being able to send pictures across the world at the click of a mouse — digital photography makes you work. Hard.

Just ask yourself: How many digital images are quietly sitting on hard drives around the world, carrying strange file names such as 1000014a.jpg, perhaps never to be seen by the naked eye again?

Press Release: The Plugin Site (www.thepluginsite.com) releases the MacOS X version of LightMachine, a plugin for performing all kinds of light adjustments in photos. LightMachine combines shadow/highlight, virtual lighting and color-based correction tools for performing sophisticated corrections without the need for time-consuming selections and layer stacks. It lets you selectively correct photos taken under bad light conditions or with inadequate camera settings and achieve results that rival photos taken under the best circumstances.

OpenRAW Releases Initial Results of 2006 RAW Survey – Over 19,000 Photographers and Imaging Professionals Provide Data on their Experiences, Preferences, and Concerns regarding RAW Imaging Technology

Will the digital camera you buy tomorrow fairly serve the future of photography? Are today’s camera manufacturers making decisions that may adversely affect the preservation of photographic works for future generations? More than 19,000 digital photographers and preservationists from around the world have now weighed in with opinions on RAW imaging technology, a concept that many compare to a “digital negative.”

This Fine Art Printing Workshop focuses exclusively on improving your fine-art digital printing, primarily using Epson inkjet printers. Concentration will be on inkjet printing with color pigments and black/gray ink combinations on coated and rag papers. Learn from the digital pioneer how he obtains his impressive results during four days of lectures, printing, and feedback in the studio.

Source: Adobe Support Knolwedgebase Document 333037

Issue: When you save a PSD/PSB or TIFF file to a server or network volume, Adobe Photoshop quits.

Editor’s Note: this issue was addressed in a previous PSN Article

Source: Michael Hoppen Gallery
Tichý is truly one of the great ‘finds’ of an unknown artists who worked on the outside edges of the art world. Following the communist takeover Tichý spent some eight years in prison camps and jails for no particular reason other than he was ‘different’ and was considered subversive. Upon his release in the early 70’s, Tichý wandered his small town in rags, pursuing his obsession as an artist with the female form by photographing in the streets, shops and parks with cameras he made from tin cans, childrens spectacle lenses and other junk he found on the street. He would return home each day to make prints on equally primitive equipment, making only one print from the negatives he selected.

Source: Imaging Resource
Written by Michael R. Tomkins, The Imaging Resource

A press release posted on the Japanese website of Mamiya-OP Co. Ltd. today announces that it is to sell its optical instruments business to another company.

Mamiya-OP was formed in October 1992, after the merger of Mamiya Camera Co. Ltd. with Olympic Co. Ltd., a company that manufactured both electronic equipment and fishing tackle. The newly formed company withdrew from the fishing tackle business in December 2000, and currently sells optical equipment including both film and digital cameras in medium format, as well as lenses, tripods, golf equipment, and assorted electronics.

Source: CNET
Written by Dawn Kawamoto

Adobe Systems is gearing up to release its popular Photoshop and Creative Suite publishing software on Apple’s new Macintosh-Intel systems next spring.

Acquisition Further Extends 3D Visualization and Collaboration Technology and Expertise for Manufacturing Industry

Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 21, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced it has acquired Trade and Technologies France (TTF), makers of computer-aided design (CAD) data interoperability software. The acquisition will help build on the existing 3D visualization and collaboration capabilities of Adobe® software and solutions for the manufacturing industry and other markets. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

…with a few friends for the Epson Print Academy in Los Angeles!

The City of Angels, Hollywood, Venice Beach & the Pacific, oh yeah, and LAX :~(

From the Rob Galbraith Professional Digital Photography Forums web site:

April 20: The RG DPI forums are reopen to new posts and operating under new management!

Source: The New York Times
Written by Ivan Berger

Fervent computer gamers and the detectives on “N.C.I.S.” do it, but I had no plans to add a second monitor to my computer system — not until I bought an upgraded video card for my PC and noted it had output connections for two monitors. Once I saw that, I could not resist dusting off my old 14-inch monitor and plugging it in along with my new 19-inch L.C.D.

Source: eWeek via Reuters
Written By Chris Buckley, Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters)—”DVDs? CDs? Games? Porn? What you want?” hawkers in Beijing’s Zhongguancun neighborhood whisper to potential customers.

Source: CRN
Written by Edward F. Moltzen, CRN

Apple’s CFO said Wednesday the company saw a “pause” in sales of Macintosh systems during its most recent quarter during its transition of the computer platform to Intel processors, and the company expects that pause to continue this quarter.

Source: Forbes
Written by Maya Roney

Piper Jaffray maintained an “outperform” rating on Adobe Systems, believing the company is well-positioned to improve revenue throughout 2006 and 2007 with the new products coming from its merger with Macromedia.

Source: TechWeb
Written by W. David Gardner

Legislation calling for open data formats is gathering support in Minnesota. Passage could require proprietary software providers including Microsoft and Adobe to adhere to state-mandated documents standards. In the meantime, additional details on the proposed legislation have been disclosed.