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Tom Hogarty, Senior Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe joins host Scott Sheppard for an update and discussion on the latest release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. Tom explains the background and differences between image tools in Adobe Photoshop, Bridge, and Lightroom. Lightroom was specifically developed to meet the needs of professional photographers and has many features to help optimize your non-destructive workflow. Unlike Photoshop for example, Lightroom does not work at the pixel level but within the metadata of the image.All Lightroom’s editing tools do not actually modify the original image file so experimenting with adjustments is easy and safe - and available in batch mode letting you apply adjustments on the fly. Lightroom is built to handle multiple image files where Photoshop focuses more on the detailed editing on a single image.

One of the key new features, Tom discusses is the new version’s built-in local adjustment brush that includes a "dodge and burn" tool which allows you to selectively modify images rather than apply changes to the entire images. In addition, Lightroom 2 also features 64-bit processing support that optimizes the available memory on both your Mac and Windows version making working with your images faster and more efficient. Tom assures us that some of the performance issues including camera support have been updated and are available online.

Another feature inherent to RAW image capture is color management and camera profiles. Lightroom 2 includes improved camera profiles for a large range of popular systems including Canon and Nikon. Tom explains that Adobe Labs has also released a free camera profile editing tool "DNG Profile Editor" which allows you to completely customize your profiles on various levels.

For more information visit: http://www.adobe.com/lightroom/ or Tom’s blog at: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/

For additional resources and training on Lightroom visit: http://www.adobetv.com or http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshoplightroom/

The McNamara Report on Inside Digital Photo with Michael J. McNamara
This week’s topic: Kodak + Motorola = 5MP Camera Phone

Camera phones have been part of the digital imaging landscape for the last five years, but you don’t see any landscape photographers using them! That might change soon as decent cameras start appearing in affordable camera phones (they’ve been around for a while, but who could afford $500 or more for a 5MP or higher phone?) The Motorola MOTOZINE™ ZN5 camera phone, priced at only $99 with a two year contract, might be the first of a new breed with its 5MP camera engine designed and manufactured by Kodak. It also features an autofocus lens, 2.4″ LCD screen, and many other features that appear to make it a camera first, phone second. Plus, it integrates with Kodak’s online photo sharing and processing tools. Ok, it’s not an iPhone 2.0 or a Nokia N95, and its missing a fast 3G internet connection, but for the price and image quality potential it might be worth considering. Find out more on the phone at: http://tinyurl.com/motozine , and listen in on the McNamara Report segment to get more insights and analysis from Mike McNamara at: http://www.mcnamarareport.com/kodak-motorola-hot-5mp-camera-phone/

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Diederik van Heyningan, Manager & Photographer, Lightworkx Studio joins host Scott Sheppard for a lively discussion on their commercial studio work based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Diederik discusses some of the challenges but also some of the amazing opportunities and variety of work they have mastered based in a fairly remote location on the South Island. Diederik explains they were one of the first digital production studios and have won numerous color awards for their work. Lightworkx is a studio and also do their post-production work in-house. Diederik shares some tips about how they were able to use a locally developed color proofing system called "AbsoluteProof" that has, in his opinion, solved their color management and contract/remote proofing problems.

For more information about Lightworkx and their work visit: http://www.lightworkx.com or to check out their proofing solution, AbsoluteProof, visit http://www.absolute-proof.com/

The McNamara Report on Inside Digital Photo with Michael J. McNamara
This week’s topic: Another RAW camera format? How are we going to handle it?

It happened again, just when most photographers had been lulled into thinking we had seen the last new RAW file format. But noooo! Nikon surprised us by giving birth to a new one called .NRW that’s found exclusively in the high-level COOLPIX P6000 (This hot $500 compact boasts a 13.5MP CCD, 28-112mm f/2.7-5.9 stabilized zoom lens, built-in GPS, and up to ISO 6400.)Unfortunately, the Nikon engineers forgot something when they created this new RAW format—and it’s called Mac compatibility! Guess we should have seen that coming with a file extension called .NRW (Nikon Raw Windows).
So while photographers with PC’s running Microsoft Vista (and nothing prior to Vista) will be able to open and adjust .NRW files, the rest of the world is out of luck—unless popular RAW workflow programs like Apple’s Aperture, Adobe RAW converter, and Adobe’s Lightroom come to the rescue as they have in the past.

Read more insights and analysis from Mike McNamara on: http://www.mcnamarareport.com

Oliver Breitenbach, CEO, Boinx Software joins Inside Digital Photo for an update on their latest release of FotoMagico 2.5, the digital storytelling applications built for photographers. Oliver explains that at it’s most basic level is to create slideshows, but in the hands of creatives, wedding photographers, and journalists FotoMagico quickly generates very compelling short clips that incorporate your images, high-end transitions, synchronizes them to audio, and other effects which can be exported in a range of formats from web video to high definition Blu-ray format. Winner of multiple Apple Design Awards, FotoMagico currently runs only on Apple Mac OS leveraging the best development tools available on the platform that deliver an intuitive drag-n-drop interface.

For more information and to download a demo version today visit: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/

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