Photoshop Daily has announced an amazing new competition, which challenges you to create a poster for the DVD release of the Ricky Gervais film The Invention of Lying.

With some amazing, once-in-a-lifetime prizes up for grabs, it’s worth checking it out now. But hurry! The deadline is 7 February 2010.

Find the details here

Advanced Photoshop has joined up with pro-framer (www.pro-framer.co.uk) to offer you an easy way to frame your prints.

You might have noticed that, underneath your images in your gallery, there is a new banner that offers to help you design a custom frame for a print of the selected image. Click that and you’ll be taken to the Imagine Frame Design Studio.

There are just seven steps to purchasing a frame that suits the image you have chosen. First, is to select your wall colour.

Next you can upload an image (if you haven’t already selected one), then you can pick the size of the frame that you want.

You can then get creative and pick the mount and frame that suits your chosen image.

There are then additional options if you wish, but when you’re happy with the preview, then you can go straight to payment. You’ll then be sent a beautiful frame that complements your chosen print in the exact size that you need!

A great way to show off your artwork! And a lot of fun to play around with too… Check it out now!

Imagine Publishing’s camera comparison website receives improved functionality and a whole new look

Digicambuyer.co.uk, the website of Digital Camera Essentials magazine,has received a dramatic redesign to allow for quicker and easier access as well as a powerful, simple-to-use search and comparison engine.

With hundreds of reviews to call on from the pages of Digital Camera Essentials, which is approaching its 90th issue, Digicambuyer.co.uk aims to present the consumer with the best possible advice on their next digital camera purchase, as well as giving direct links to trusted retail websites via Pricegrabber. Up to four cameras can be compared on specifications, intended usage and review ratings, giving the user an immediate, on-screen method of weighing up the best model.

Digicambuyer.co.uk also offers a plethora of features, tutorials and accessories reviews as well as the latest photography news. The redesign of the website has been a collaborative process between both the editorial team and interactive department within Imagine Publishing, completely rebuilding the previous site to better cater to
the increasing needs of the prosumer looking for impartial buying advice.

“Dedicated to helping our readers find the right kit, the Digicambuyer team have been hard at work making sure all the latest camera, lens and peripheral reviews are available free online,” said Editor in Chief, Debbi Allen. “Digicambuyer.co.uk is designed to be intuitive to use and allow visitors to compare up to four expert reviews, side by side. Coupled with new technology like the Apple iPhone, this means users can check camera reviews and be sure of expert, up-to-the-minute advice on the go.”

Head of Digital Projects (Online), Ben Spencer, added: “We are extremely happy with the decision to relaunch and have completely redeveloped the site in-house. The Interactive team has produced an extremely user-friendly and feature-packed site, making it one of the top camera review websites on the web.”

“The relaunched Digicambuyer.co.uk site reflects the brand values of our print offering, Digital Camera Essentials, and is a fantastic digital platform for our advertisers to engage with their target audience,” commented James Hanslip, Head of Sales.

Imagine Publishing
01202 586200
www.digicambuyer.co.uk

I’m a fan of reading John Nack’s Adobe blog to keep up with the latest news regarding Photoshop, so I was pleased to hear that he has been selected for the Photoshop Hall of Fame – he will be officially inducted at the Photoshop World Expo in September. Congratulations!

Adobe Lightroom 2 is now available to buy from the Adobe website. It is priced at £175 excluding VAT for the full version (£69 excluding VAT if you are upgrading). However, if you want to get the latest version of Photoshop at the same time, then you can save up to £85 when purchasing both products as a bundle.

There is a whole host of new features in this version of the software, including multiple monitor support, local adjustment brushes and better CS3 integration.

You can find out more about this release by taking a visit to the Adobe website.

PRESS RELEASE

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localised image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel processors and Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

“A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product,” said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. “We’ve considered their requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs.”

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate
The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organise images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organise images in a way that maximises an additional display.
In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust colour, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customisable templates to maximise paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/.

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology
New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimise surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favourite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customised profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.
The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.
“One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community,” said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).  “Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today’s photographers face and they’ve built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly.”

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is £175 for new users with an upgrade price of £69 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel based processor, or Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM and a 1024×768 resolution screen. Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

If you need professional-quality prints of your work, then I can think of nothing better than using the new online service from the Printspace. The London-based studio has always offered a great drop-in service, but now you can use the internet and get high-quality results delivered to your door! It’s really easy to get started on the site and all prints are made on an Epson 880 series (for Giclee inkjets) and a Chromira (for digital C-type prints), plus there is a downloadable colour profile so you can manage your images from your desktop. Check it out at www.theprintspace.com.

Can you take a good picture? If so, then why not enter the Digital Photographer of the Year Awards? Digital Photographer, our sister publication, is our favourite semi-professional photography title on the market today and the Awards promise to be even bigger and better than last year. In conjunction with Fujifilm, entrants can submit images into a number of different categories to be in with a chance of winning a Fufifilm S5 Pro among other models. See the website from 17 July for more information (www.dphotographer.co.uk).
Press release:

In the extremely competitive market, up-and-coming photographers can find it hard to get their work noticed; the Digital Photographer of the Year Awards 2008 aim to give a helping hand to talented individuals and showcase their talents. “Working in conjunction with some of the leading names in the photographic industry, our objective for these awards is to find hidden talent and expose it to the world,” explains editor, Debbi Allen. “Encompassing multiple genres of photography, the awards will showcase the high standards achieved by many enthusiasts and semi-professional photographers.”

This year’s categories will include Portrait, Landscape, Documentary, Travel, Black and White, Macro, Wildlife and Wedding, with one winner scooping the title of Digital Photographer of the Year and eight separate category winners.

All categories are open for entries from the 17 July 2008 and all categories will close to entries on 14 November. Winners will be announced in issue 78 of the magazine, on sale January 2009.

Theo Georghiades, Fujifilm’s Senior Product Manager says: “Fujifilm UK Ltd are very pleased to be sponsoring the Digital Photographer of the Year 2008.  Both Fujifilm UK Ltd and Digital Photographer share the same values in terms of quality, creativity and professionalism, and this makes the magazine an ideal partner for us to work with.”

The judging panel boasts Digital Photographer editor Debbi Allen, Imagine Publishing’s Creative Director and keen photographer Mark Kendrick, professional photographer and magazine contributor Mark Cargill and Fujifilm’s Theo Georghiades.

The overall winner will receive a Fujifilm S5 Pro with the eight category winners scooping other Fujifilm cameras, models TBC.

In issue 45 of Advanced Photoshop we had a great tutorial by Doug Sirois on fantasy painting. Now he has released his first book, showcasing his favourite paintings and sketches. It is definitely worth a look and you can see it at http://stores.lulu.com/dasillustration for the incredibly generous price of £11.02.

I love Blurb.com for creating professional-looking books, and I am sure that if you haven't already taken a look, you'll be just as enthusiastic as me when you do. Now you can enter your self-published photography titles into a competition to win $25,000 to start (or finish) a project of your choosing. Of course, the prestigious award also comes with worldwide recognition, so it's perfect for anyone who wants to get their photography seen. Entires are being judged by a pretty impressive panel of editors, publishers, curators and photographers. If you have published your photography book through Blurb, then it's all pretty easy, as you don't need to send anyone a copy of your book - Blurb will make sure that the jurors get their hands on one. And if you've published a book using a different service, you can still enter. Find out more, as well as access entry forms and terms and conditions, at www.photographybooknow.com.

The Coningsby Gallery is hosting an exhibition showing off the works of two fantastic illustrators. Jim Smith (www.waldopancake.com) is an ‘illustrator, designer and copywriter specialising in humorous, comic approaches’ and Alice Daisy Smith (www.alicepictures.co.uk) has had success with her children's book I'm SO over fairies, published by Orion, and also has her own range of greeting cards with The Artgroup. You can find out more about the exhibition at www.coningsbygallery.com.