Do you work magic with image-editing software?

Think you can spin photographic dross into pure gold using Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Picture It!, or other programs? Here’s your chance to put your creativity to the test with Pop Photo’s 2008 Digital Wizard Contest.

You could win the $1,000 grand prize and have your work published in the magazine — and there are cash prizes for runners-up, too! But hurry up — the contest ends March 31!

Download the 12 photos and then prove your wizardry. You must use elements from at least 4 of the shots. You can’t add any other images, but you can apply any filters or plug-ins your software can handle.

The deadline for entries is midnight (ET), March 31, 2008. The winners will be published in the July 2008 issue and on PopPhoto.com.

Cotest rules: PopPhoto.com

Canon has released Digital Photo Professional 3.0.1 for Windows and Mac. The only change to the program on both platforms is a bug fix:

• When significantly adjusting the tone curve for RAW images taken with specific models* and executing [Convert and Save] or [Batch Save], gradation was partially lost. But this problem has been fixed. * EOS 5D, EOS-1D Mark II N, EOS 30D, EOS 400D, EOS-1D Mark III

But also the following functions are not available on Windows Vista PC:
* Trimming tool
* Quick check tool
* Prints with detailed settings
* Contact sheet prints

Following CS3 announcements from Adobe, Total Training has today unveiled five new DVD-ROM based training series covering Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign and Dreamweaver.
The 5 Total Training Adobe CS3 products ship in April 2007 and vary in price from $149 to $199.
Total Training Helps Adobe Creative Suite 3 Users Get Up to Speed Video Tutorials Demonstrate the Software Essentials.
“Adobe Creative Suite 3 is the biggest launch in Adobe’s history,” said Caleb Belohlavek, director of product management for Adobe’s Creative Solutions. “Training is vital to the success of this release so we’re excited that Total Training will be releasing their exceptional in-depth video training content across these products to help customers quickly get up to speed and make the best use of Adobe Creative Suite 3.”
The Creative Suite 3 training series offers a visual learning experience, hosted by Total Training’s industry experts on Adobe products.Each video tutorial is filled with useful tricks of the trade to help viewers further discover the software’s extensive capabilities.

Because we started these posts about Photo manipulation I want to tell you about: KODAK PROFESSIONAL Image Enhancement Plug-Ins

KODAK PROFESSIONAL Image Enhancement Plug-Ins let you quickly and easily improve the most common problems associated with digital images. Whether you are a professional photographer or an ADOBE PHOTOSHOP Software enthusiast, choose from four professional and three standard versions depending on what you need to achieve. You can quickly and easily optimize images to improve quality and create even more compelling results.

The DIGITAL GEM Plug-In automatically reduces image noise/grain without sacrificing image detail or excessive softening.

The DIGITAL GEM AIRBRUSH software allows users to create an airbrush effect by automatically smoothing areas of a digital image without blurring or reducing fine detail. It minimises the imperfections of skin and other surfaces whilst fully preserving details like hair, eyebrows and the true character of the subject’s face.

The DIGITAL ROC Plug-In restores, balances and corrects the colour of almost any digital image by removing colour casts that have been caused by coloured lighting or fading.

The DIGITAL SHO software automatically adjusts the dark areas in a digital image so that more detail is visible. The plug-in corrects exposure problems in images with backlit subjects and uneven flash illumination, as well as partial shade.

The plug-ins work with ADOBE PHOTOSHOP Software and other compatible image-editing applications (including ADOBE ACROBAT Elements Software and COREL PAINT SHOP PRO Software). They also work with both MACINTOSH and WINDOWS Operating Systems. All offer straightforward action and batch command options, one-click corrections, and advanced customizable controls.
The professional versions offer greater flexibility and control over the final result. The standard plug-ins have fewer modification options and are geared for the type of adjustments commonly found in enthusiasts’ images e.g. the removal of ‘noise.’

WINDOWS OS

* PENTIUM II or better with 128 MB of RAM
(for typical size images; very large images will require more memory)
* WINDOWS 98 SE, NT 4.0 (Service Pack 6a), 2000, ME, XP Home, XP Professional
* Minimum monitor display resolution: 800 x 600 pixels

(Note: Use only the Small Fonts display font size at 800 x 600 resolution.)

MACINTOSH OS

* POWERMAC G3 or better with 128 MB of RAM
(for typical size images; very large images will require more memory)
* Macintosh OS 8.6, OS 9x, OS X
* Minimum monitor display resolution: 800 x 600 pixels

With ACDSee 9 Photo manager you don’t have to worry about messing your photos as this program is managing photos super quick and easy, so you can work with and share all the photos you’ve got.
Get photos fast from any storage device, and ACDSee 9 automatically categorizes your shots based on metadata information (e.g., keywords, size, date taken). You don’t even have to lift a finger. You can also use new password protected Private Folders to store confidential information.

Here is a list of what ACDSee 9 can do for you:
- Faster viewing with the Quick View mode.
- Powerful Shadow/Highlight tool for instantly correcting poor exposure.
- Lock up photos with Private Folders.
- Organize photos by date and event with the Calendar Events View.
- Auto Categories automatically matches your photos into categories based on camera information like IPTC and EXIF metadata.
- ACDSee Showroom displays photos right on the desktop.
- Print Layouts reduce the complexity and confusion of printing multiple photos, and make it easier than ever to print from home.
All this for just $39. Sounds really well. You can get it from here:

Later edit: right now I’m playing with the trial version which is available for download. It’s a pretty powerfull soft, I love it.

Over 80 presets for Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom designed by Jack Davis.

If you like to use Lightroom and you are in a hurry or simply don’t have time to waste then you can use these wonderful presets.Also these presets,made by Jack Davis, allow you to expand the creative possibilities of Lightroom PhotoPresets, with One-Click Wow! . And the best part is the price, free.

“Designed to work the way you work, the PhotoPresets with One-Click WOW! tackle only one development parameter allowing you to optimize your image at each step to create the look you really want without sacrificing any quality.”

Curious how to get started? Full movie (26:30, 40 Mb)

Some times it’s hard to believe that cameras are with us for centuries. They have traveled in time with us and evolved in great variety depending upon our requirements. There was a time when we used to know pinhole camera. Then as the technology advanced video cameras surprised us. And now journey of cameras continue when we see internet camera bringing live pictures exclusively at our screen from places we never would have seen.

This is a list with online free photo editor.You don’t have to install this software on your personal computer so their are very useful when you want to edit a photo from other computer the yours.For example let’s also assume that you are at some internet cafe in a country far from home and want to email the photos you’ve just taken with your digital camera to your friends and family at home to share the unique experience.
There is only one problem. These photo files are huge. And a nice border around the photo would be nice, apart from some color adjustments. …. Too bad.. this computer doesn’t have any image editor installed so it’s comes handy to use the list bellow.

AliMagic - you can import photos to your image document or as firstly open an image from your computer to edit. the online photo editor can insert filter effects on your photos, for example with Grayscale filter you can make your colorful photos to grayscale photos, or you can use of negative filter on your photos or blur filter. alimagic have possible to change brightness and contrast on your photos easy just by select it from menu. with colorize mod you can made the grayscale photos colorful.the online photo editor have a great color picker to generate any color you want easy exactly like photoshop colorpicker.

Quick Thumbnail -a fast way to resize your images.

Prelodr -the way to upload and optimize photos to Flickr.Better colors, better sharpness, better contrast.

XMG Image -simply upload your images, edit (simple functions like, crop, rotate, resize, and constrain images with 1-click), organize and share them as you wish.

Pic2color -extract color schemes from any image.

Phixr -a complete image editor that works within your web browser.

FaceFilter -lets you easily refine facial images in photos to your satisfaction.

Mypictr -crop your pictures.

Snipshot -basic editing tools like crop, rotate, resize.Basic image adjustments like contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpness and hue.Nondestructive editing—we always work from the original and much more options!

WebPicTool -brightness, sharpen, black&white, resizing,crop,watermark, etc. And these site has foreign languages like:Dutch, Espana, Francaise, Italiano, Portuguese.

Picnik -easy way to fix underexposed photos, remove red-eye, etc.Works on Mac, Windows, even Linux.

OnlinePhotoTool -Resize, crop, add text, sharpen, rotate, flip, color balance, saturation, levels, paint, add icons, sepia, black and white.If you want to save your images online you need to register.