Epson has posted “Public Beta” print drivers for recent Epson Stylus Pro printers to provide full Macintosh 10.5.x (Leopard) compatibility.

These drivers provide enhanced functionality as well as the potential for 16 bit/channel printing–just as soon as imaging applications can actually send 16 bit data. Neither Photoshop CS3 nor Lightroom 1.3 do yet.

The drivers that are currently available are:

Real World Camera Raw for Adobe Photoshop CS3 written by Bruce Fraser and myself just hit #1 on Amazon’s category of Adobe Photoshop books! Yeah! Must have been that glowing (but biased review) Michael Reichmann of the Luminous Landscape posted today. Read the review here.

Thanks Michael! But wait, there’s more…

The MPS Digital Photography Department of the School for Visual Arts (SVA) is presenting a lecture by renowned landscape photographer Stephen Johnson, a pioneer who has helped shape the technology for today’s (and tomorrow’s) digital photographers.

Source: Detroit Free Press
Written by Patricia Ansetett

A little-known field of ophthalmology soon will get work space in Ann Arbor that matches the stature a University of Michigan team has achieved.

A $1.5-million grant awarded in October by the Harry A. and Margaret D. Townsley Foundation will help U-M build a state-of-the-art Ophthalmic Imaging Center in the new Kellogg Eye Center under construction.

Scheduled to open in 2010, it will house six camera rooms, a photo studio, a waiting area and a larger work space.

Source: Freelance UK
Showing reality through a picture is generally accepted as photography’s main purpose.

But popular and easy-to-use image editing software is calling that reality into question.

Last month, Culture Secretary James Purnell was unable to make it on time to a photo-shoot with other MPs to promote a new development at a hospital in Tameside. See the PSN story James Purnell in fake photo row.

In Chapter 1 of my Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers book, I provided a brief example of how one might apply the Lens Blur filter to a Smart Object in Photoshop CS3 and keep the background blur settings editable. However, it was pointed out to me just recently that the Lens Blur filter is actually disabled in CS3 when you seek to apply it to a Smart Object. This is one of those things that I failed to notice as I was finalizing the book and it seems that I am not the only author who got caught out by this late change to the program. Fortunately there is an easy remedy for accessing Lens Blur as a Smart Filter.

There has been confirmation of an issue with the most recent version of Camera Raw (4.3) and Lightroom version 1.3 when processing Nikon D100 raw captures(additional cameras that use compressed NEFs are also effected including; D1H, D1Hs, and D1X) when the camera is set to compress the NEF file. The results are incorrect color casts. The suggested work around is to either:

1. Set the camera to use uncompressed NEF files. (The bug is limited to compressed files.)
or
2. Use the DNG Converter version 4.2 (not 4.3) to convert the compressed NEF files to DNG, and then use them with Camera Raw 4.3 or Lightroom 1.3.

Indication are that there is going to be a Camera Raw 4.3.1 interim update to address this issue in the very near future. It’s expected that a minor update to Lightroom will also be released. No exact time table has been indicated other than “soon”.

The Lightroom User to User forum had a post outlining the issue with confirming posts by Thomas Knoll regarding the problem. See: v1.3 and Nikon D100 NEF files - Not so good!

Alien Skin has released a variety of updates that provide improved compatibility with Max OS 10.5.x (Leopard) and certain Alien Skin plug-ins.

The Mac Updaters are available at Alien Skin Support.

DxO Optics Pro v5 features a breakthrough RAW Engine, dust/blemish removal, improved user interface, support for the Canon EOS 40D as well as expanded Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® compatibility, and an exciting new ‘Snapshot’ feature 

Press Release: Paris, France – DxO Labs has announced the immediate availability of DxO Optics Pro v5 for Windows, the latest version of its award-winning flagship automatic image quality enhancement software application for Digital SLR camera users. DxO Optics Pro v5 can be purchased via download on the company’s e-store (www.dxo.com) as well as from several well known retailers (a full list of resellers is available at http://www.dxo.com/intl/photo/Resellers). DxO Optics Pro v5 for Macintosh is scheduled to be available towards the end the year. All purchasers of DxO Optics Pro v4.5 on or after August 1, 2007 are eligible for a free upgrade to DxO Optics Pro v5.

Source: Perthnow

A CANADIAN man who used a well-known Photoshopped image circulating on the internet to prove a cat charity owner had been abusing animals has been ordered to have a psychiatric assessment.

Enhanced set of five Photoshop plug-in filters provides one intelligent, easy-to-use toolset for photo restoration, compressed JPEG repair, object removal, blemish concealment, and skin softening for under $200

Press Release: RALEIGH, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Alien Skin® Software (www.alienskin.com), the award-winning developer of photographic and graphic design plug-ins for Adobe® Photoshop® and other compatible host programs, today announced the release of Image Doctor® 2, the new version of its powerful yet easy-to-use software for photo restoration, retouching, and repair. Image Doctor 2’s five plug-in filters offer users a complete toolset for photo restoration, compressed JPEG image repair, smart object removal, blemish concealment, and skin softening in one very affordable package that is also a great gift idea.

Since the release of a slew of updates late Thursday night, November 15th, 2007, many users have downloaded updates for Photoshop CS3, Bridge CS3, Camera Raw 4.3 and Lightroom 1.3. However, many people seem unable to get to the product updates because regional servers have been slow to get updated URLS.

Usually, going to the New Downloads urls will allow users access to all the recently uploaded updates for all of Adobe’s products. However, many users from outside of the US and Canada are reporting that when they attempt to access the same download links, they are getting “not found” errors.

The problem is thought to be a failure of mirrored servers getting properly updated urls throughout Adobe’s extensive network. While some people in northern Europe like Sweden don’t seem to have a problem, users in the UK can not seem to get to the same download pages.

In the meantime, if your Adobe Updater can’t seem to find the updates or your locale’s local country servers haven’t been updated, you should still be able to access Adobe’s public FTP servers. The main public FTP is ftp://adobe.com.

To access Photoshop updates (including Camera Raw) go to: ftp://adobe.com/pub/adobe/photoshop.

To access Bridge updates, go to: ftp://adobe.com/pub/adobe/bridge.

To access Lightroom updates, go to: ftp://adobe.com/pub/adobe/lightroom.

Source: George Jardine on Lightroom and Digital Photography
Author: George Jardine

Amidst all the attention over the new 1.3 update, we forgot to post a link to another new Lightroom video tutorial by George Jardine. This one offers some more great tips on working with the Library module and some of the less well-know aspects of photo synching behavior in Lightroom.

“A new tutorial that covers the Sync command, and a few ins-and-outs of working with Lightroom’s selection logic.”

Photograph © 2006 George A. Jardine

In this tutorial I outline the basics of Lightroom’s Synchronize command. You’ll learn how to apply Develop settings across multiple photos, in both the Library and the Develop modules. I also cover some of the new selection logic in Lightroom that is required to make working with large numbers of files, well…. logical!”

Duration: 11:56

Read full story and download the video tutorial…

Adobe has posted the first Lightroom SDK on Adobe Labs.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3 Export SDK

Short on the heels (in fact, the smoke is still coming off Adobe’s FTP servers) comes a post by John Nack on his Adobe bog that drills down into the printing fixes included in the Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1) update. Read the post by John. Click here to download the PDF (04.9KB download) outlining the changes.

Adobe has announced that the Photoshop CS3 bug running on Apple’s Leopard where entered values in numerical fields won’t stick still exists for the new Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1) update and the Leopard 10.5.1 update.

Adobe Also Updates Bridge CS3 to 2.1.1

It seems like Adobe is in a frenzy to update everything in the Photoshop family and now the Bridge CS3 update to version 2.1.1 is available for download (no word yet on Adobe Updater).

The Macintosh Bridge CS3 (2.1.1) Update is here.

The Windows Bridge CS3 (2.1.1) Update is here.

Adobe Photoshop 10.0.1 update for Adobe Photoshop CS3

The Adobe Photoshop 10.0.1 update addresses a number of issues discovered after Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended (10.0) software were released.

The update should be showing up in Adobe Updater but the patcher/updater is available for download from Adobe.com now.

The Windows Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1) update is here.

The Macintosh Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1) update is here.

Camera Raw 4.3 Update has been released (it may take a bit before the update shows up on Adobe Updater). The Camera Raw 4.3 update is suggested by all users of Camera Raw under Photoshop CS3, Elements 5 & 6 for Windows or Elements 4.01 for Mac. Adobe DNG Converter has also been updated to version 4.3.

Lightroom 1.3 has also been released for Mac and Windows. Both updates offer new camera compatibilities as well as bug fixes and in the case of Lightroom 1.3, certain new functionality.

Source: CNET
Written by Tom Krazit

The first update to Mac OS X Leopard has arrived, with fixes for bugs in Time Machine and Finder, among other things.

Version 10.5.1 is now available through Software Update or on Apple’s Web site. It’s a 110MB update that smooths out some of the more notable bugs reported in the first three weeks of Leopard’s life on the planet, and it arrives just one day after Apple shipped what will probably be the last update for Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4.11.

Read entire article

John Nack, Photoshop’s senior product manager only posted a few words on his Adobe Blog, but the words have kept reverberating for days… It all started with a post entitled Photoshop, as seen through Johnny Cash.

As a direct result, a host of articles have sprung up around the net taking John’s post and examining it in minute detail to try to read the tea leaves of Photoshop’s future:

Interactive Design Drives Expanded Award Categories

Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — Nov. 13, 2007 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the call for entries for the eighth annual Adobe® Design Achievement Awards (ADAA). The awards honor talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from the world’s top institutions of higher education.

Adobe Systems CEO Bruce Chizen found the right moment to leave.

Source: CNET
Written by Martin LaMonica

The company continues to rack up double-digit earnings growth as it rides a very successful introduction this year of its media-authoring package, Creative Suite 3. Looking forward, the picture looks good as well, financially and strategically.

Company Expects Q4 Fiscal 2007 Revenue Near High End of Targeted Range; Targets 13 Percent Revenue Growth in Fiscal 2008

Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE - News) today announced its Board of Directors has appointed current president and chief operating officer Shantanu Narayen as its president and chief executive officer, effective December 1, 2007.

Narayen will also join Adobe’s Board of Directors at that time. Narayen replaces Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, who will serve the remainder of his term on Adobe’s Board of Directors through the Spring of 2008 and continue in a strategic advisory capacity through the end of fiscal year 2008.

Bruce Chizen at the Creative Suit 3 launch in New York City on March 27th, 2007. Photo ©2007 by Seth Resnick

Source: Forbes
Written by Rachel Rosmarin

LOS ANGELES - Folk wisdom says to quit when you’re ahead. Bruce Chizen seems to be listening.

On Monday, Chizen said he will step down as chief executive of Adobe Systems (nasdaq: ADBE - news - people ) on Dec. 1, to be replaced by the company’s president and chief operating officer, Shantanu Narayen.