Bibble Labs has released the long-awaited version 5 of its software for editing and managing the raw photos higher-end cameras can take.
Bibble 5 adds a number of new features for editing, cataloging, and performance. The company had hoped to release Bibble 5 in 2008 but ran into delays.
Also new is the price. The Pro version of Bibble 5 costs $199.95, up from $129.95 for Bibble 4 Pro; those who bought Bibble 4 Pro after September 1, 2006, however, get a free upgrade. Bibble 5 Lite hasn't been released yet, but the company said Bibble 4 Lite customers may use Bibble 5 Pro until it is.
One feature of Bibble 5 is selective editing, which lets photographers change only a portion of an image. The editing is nondestructive, which means the changes don't alter the underlying raw file. Another is cataloging features to more easily manage files and sift through libraries.
Performance is a major issue for raw processing, a computationally demanding chore, and Bibble appears particularly pleased with its performance improvements. The software is able to take advantage of all the processing cores on a 32-core system, according to the company. Although the incremental benefits of more cores diminish, Bibble boasts that its software can scale even as unnamed competitors' performance doesn't get any better beyond eight cores.
Bibble's main competitors include Adobe Systems' Photoshop Lightroom, Apple's Aperture, Phase One's Capture One, DxO Labs' DxO Optics Pro, several smaller rivals, and utilities that often ship with SLRs and other cameras that can shoot raw. Raw photographs offer more flexibility and quality but take time and effort to process.
Update 2:12 p.m. PST: Bibble 5 Pro was released via the company's forums Tuesday, but the formal announcement of the software will come Monday, the company said in a statement.
(Credit:
Honest Technology)
With the proliferation of digital cameras, everybody and their mom probably has one. In fact, you may come away from parties with hundreds of images just waiting to be displayed. So why wait for the next gathering to showcase your photos?
The Fotobox Plus is an SD card reader that comes with embedded flash memory. But what's unique is that the internal memory also contains an editor that converts your images into a slideshow with music.
The finished product can be uploaded to YouTube or converted into various formats such as DVD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and WMV, as well as iPod and PSP formats. The Fotobox Plus works in Windows XP and Vista environments, though Mac and Linux users can still use this device as a memory card reader. It will be available starting next month for $79.99, excluding shipping.
The built-in editor comes in both easy and advanced modes.
(Credit: Honest Technology)(Source: Crave Asia)
Time again for Adobe's annual update of its consumer photo- and video-editing applications, Photoshop Elements (Windows | Mac) and Premiere Elements (Windows only). We're up to version 8 now, and while there's no killer must-have new capability--unless you consider automatic sync across multiple computers--the two products still provide solid mass appeal for their respective markets.
As in the past, you can buy the pair together for $149.99, which is a far more attractive buy for video-editing shoppers than Photoshoppers, and in fact the combination makes quite a nice bundle for home videographers. Independently, they're $99.99 each. Tack "Plus" to the name of the product for another $40 and you get an extra 20GB on the otherwise free Photoshop.com membership (along with ongoing new template and tutorial content), which will then cost you $50 annually to renew.
The latter becomes key if you plan to take advantage of one of the nicer new features, the ability to sync your videos, photos, music, projects, and PDF files across multiple systems using Photoshop.com as the hub. (In case you missed it, Photoshop.com rolled out video support last month in preparation for this release of Pre.) While Adobe doesn't make a Plus membership a requirement for doing so, you'll very quickly max out your free 2GB without it.
After allowing the product to languish for a while, with 8 Adobe brings the Mac version of Photoshop Elements up to parity with the Windows version and with the buzzy new features in iPhoto, including face recognition and geotagging/mapping. Unlike iPhoto, however, there's no direct upload to Facebook, though it supports a broader number of services, including Kodak EasyShare Gallery and Smugmug. Annoyingly, those choices are buried as More Options on the Share pane (likely because the interface decision was based on the technology used--implemented via an API rather than core program code--rather than where the user will look for them).
Like most current facial recognition implementations, Adobe's is only moderately accurate. For instance, in many photos it correctly identifies one person, but didn't detect others and thought inanimate objects were faces. The batch detection and labeling where you confirm different faces in groups of selected images is better, but still a little clunky.
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(Credit:
Alien Skin)
Whether it's rescuing a photo mucked up by a camera's image processing or boosting interest in an otherwise stale photo, Alien Skin's Snap Art 2 plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements aims to let users quickly turn mouse clicks into brush strokes.
The software announced and made available Monday gives users 10 natural media, hundreds of styles (oil paint, watercolor, pencil , pastels, etc.), and several canvas textures. The example above was done using the Impasto selection, giving it the look of thick paint, which would be great for hiding photo flaws. There are more than 700 presets that can be tweaked, and this version allows for greater control over detail retention than the last did.
Plus, this update leverages computers with multicore processors as well as multiprocessor systems, cutting down on rendering times and making work on larger prints possible.
The plug-in is available now for $199 or a $99 upgrade for users of the first version. (The upgrade is free if you bought version 1 after the end of March 2009.)
Lastly, I'm in the process of writing reviews for the latest versions of Alien Skin's plug-ins, including Snap Art 2. Look for them soon here on Crave.
Apple Aperture in action.
(Credit: Apple)LAS VEGAS--Apple on Monday added support in its software for raw image files from Nikon's top-end SLR, the $8,000, 24.5-megapixel D3X.
Apple's Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.5 also adds support for Epson's Epson R-D1x digital rangefinder camera, according to the Apple support page.
The software enables Aperture 2, iPhoto '08, and iPhoto '09 to interpret the cameras' raw files, proprietary formats that include more information than JPEGs. The update requires Mac OS X 10.4.11, Mac OS X 10.5.3, or later.
A full list of Apple's raw image support is available on Apple's support site.
Aperture's competitor, Adobe Systems' Photoshop Lightroom, also got D3X support Monday, which is eve of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show here.
(Via Rob Galbraith.)
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 | Episode 28 |
Indecent Exposure,
Let me first say, I love your podcast, I have been listening since the first episode.
I have a question I was hoping you might be able to help me with. I have a Nikon N80 35mm camera that I love, except for the developing of the film part. My wife and I have an inexpensive point a shoot digital camera which works, but I miss my N80.
So I have been looking at getting a DSLR, I plan on staying Nikon so I don't have to replace my Lenses. I have been looking mostly at the D80 which has come down a lot in price since the D90 came out. But with the economy the way it has been lately, I have not dared to pull the trigger on the purchase.
Recently I saw a used listing for a D100 that caught my eye. I have seen a lot of D100 (body only) selling for between $100 - $200. From the reviews I have read, it looks like the D100 is just a digital version of my old N80. Also, from what I can tell there is not a lot of major differences between the old D100 and the current D80 in the basic spec besides, 6.1 - 10.2 megapixels, CF vs. SD memory, 1.8" vs. 2.5" display.
Do you know of anything else that is different that I am missing?
What do you think of purchasing a D100 vs. a D80?
Do you think this would be a good inexpensive way for me to get a DSLR.
Thanks for any advice you can give.
--Jonathan
I am writing to request your recommendation for software for digital photography. I am an advanced amateur and just purchased a Nikon D300 camera and various lenses (previously used the Pentax LX system). Since I am starting from scratch with digital imaging, I want to know which software and which computer to use. Is Adobe Photoshop CS4 "better" than Nikon Capture NX2? (I want to spend most of my time photographing and not manipulating images on a computer). Does the software run better on an Apple MacIntosh or a PC computer? I have extensive knowledge of PC's (Microsoft XP Professional), but do not mind learning a new system if it is better.
Thank you for you time and advice.
Sincerely,
--Vick
Hi Lori,
Question: Do any of the dslr cameras that have the live view feature (Nikon d90, Olympus E3, etc.) permit one to connect the camera to a laptop computer, display the live view screen on the laptop screen, then capture the image on the laptop?
If so, which cameras and how to do this?
Thanks, in advance.
--Leslie
Phase One Capture One 4 Pro offers selective color editing controls.
(Credit: Phase One)Phase One has begun selling Capture One 4 Pro, the newest incarnation of the company's higher-end photo editing software.
The software is designed to handle the raw images from higher-end cameras--in particular Phase One's highly regarded medium-format models with up to 65-megapixel resolution, but other manufacturers' models as well. The pro version costs $399 or 299 euros, compared to $129 or 99 euros for the standard version, the Copenhagen-based company said.
Capture One Pro version has several features missing from the standard version: it can correct some lens problems such as distortion, purple fringing, vignetting, and chromatic aberration for several supported lenses from Carl Zeiss and Hasselblad; it can be used in a "tethered" mode connected directly to a camera as it takes photos; it supports use of multiple monitors; and it can be used to selectively adjust specific colors. And photographers can create customized styles that can be applied later to give a signature look.
With the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements, Adobe's laying on the Web subscription message really thick. Take, for instance, the Welcome screen, which is your first encounter with either one of the applications. The standard Organize, Edit, Create, and Share options get relegated to a task bar that's relatively inconspicuous compared with the large, rotating slide show heralding the many benefits of the free and $49.99 Plus memberships for Photoshop.com (more project templates, remote backup, and 20GB-plus of storage space). Adobe might as well have sold the space as an ad; it's that annoying. (For more on the online and mobile aspects of the Elements release, read our coverage on Download.com.) And that's too bad, because Photoshop Elements remains a very nice midrange photo editor, but all of these bells and whistles--some pretty off-key--increasingly detract from its core strengths.
Click here for a tour of Photoshop Elements 7's features
The program's main advantage is that it's cheaper than Photoshop and Lightroom, but remains powerful enough for most photo retouching tasks. Thus, the improved raw workflow is quite welcome--improved, in that you can bypass it entirely if you want. For example, to create a slide show of NEF (Nikon raw) files, it simply applies the default raw-processing settings and treats them like JPEGs.
Also quite useful is the new text search box in the organizer, which is a fast, easy way to filter by keywords or basic metadata. Very basic metadata; you can only search on time, data, camera, and caption text. But that should be sufficient for this class of user.
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