News (Archives)

8 June 2010
Adobe have released Photoshop Lightroom 3. Not much improvement in DAM, if any. The database has been improved being more robust, reliable and efficient. Adobe concetrated on improving image quality in this version. Yes this is a must have update for photographers.

25 May 2010
Phase One aquire Expression Media (iView) from Microsoft. Until 30 June 2010 Phase One are offering Expression Media free to Capture One owners, and Capture One 5 free to Expression Media owners.

12 April 2010
Adobe have released the Creative Suite CS5. Of most interest is Adobe Camera Raw 6 for much improved image processing that is compatible with (soon to be released) Lightroom 3.

22 March 2010
Lightroom 3 beta 2 is available for public consumption. While a lot more stable than the first public beta it should still be used on test catalogs and images. A big feature is the new processing engine that greatly improves image quality. Pull out some old noisy legacy Raw images and see the difference.

5 March 2010
David Riecks from Controlled Vocabulary documents the dangers of using metadata with Apple Aperture 3. David writes:

"You should be concerned if you use Aperture to write metadata to files you use with other programs [like Photoshop], share with others or share on the Internet."

So if you live in a cave you'll be fine! Care of John Beardsworth.

10 February 2010
Apple released Aperture 3. Local area adjustments are now non-destructive (like Lightroom) and Aperture searches faces like iPhoto. More information here.

2 January 2010
Bibble Labs have released Bibble 5 after 4 years of development. Integrating DAM it can work with multiple catalogs and/or as a folder browser. Bibble 5 works on Mac, Windows and Linux.

23 December 2009
If you’re keen on a tropical break in January the Australian Institute of Professional Photography have asked for me to share some advanced knowledge on DAM on 15 January 2010. As the storm season approaches we will help prepare your backup and recovery systems ready for a busy 2010. Also speaking will be AIPP EO Peter Myers on how professional photography is changing in these times and what it means to be an AIPP member. For more information click here.

2 November 2009
No, Expression Media/iView is not dead! Microsoft moved it from the Expression Suite to the Pro Photography section.

28 October 2009
PhaseOne have released Capture One 5. Improved image quality and new workflow improvement like the Skin Tone Enhancer (Pro version only) and Focus Mask are some highlights. No DAM improvements though: Capture One doesn't offer full support for DNG and metadata is hit and miss. More in the the next DAM Workflow Newsletter.

 22 October 2009
Adobe have released a public beta for Photoshop Lightroom 3. From a DAM perspective import has been improved to match/restore the original, LR3 separates tasks (import, export, etc) for better efficiency and reliabilty. LR3 aims to offer the best quality in noise reduction, allows one click photo sharing, and a picture package option in the Print module.

If you want to try the LR3 beta consider the Catalogs disposable and only use sample images. This is a very rough beta. Adobe want your feedback. Of course there is more to come in the final release and you can help shape that.

27 August 2009
Apple are set to release their next OS X update Snow Leopard on 28 August 2009. There are many refinements including native Gamma 2.2 like Windows, soft proofing in Preview, faster back up to Time Machine, and full 64 bit support.

Be sure to check your apps support OS X 10.6 before unleashing Snow Leopard! Microsoft Expression Media 2 has an issue rendering some Raw file formats like Nikon NEF. Use "Apple" as the "Preferred Engine" if it affects you.

14 July 2009
Shayne Bowman has made some excellent vodcasts on using Microsoft Expression Media and basic DAM. You will need to install Microsoft Silverlight to view them. Alongside Shayne's vodcasts Fashion photographer Neil Latham has posted some on integrating Phase One Capture One 4 with Expression Media.

1 July 2009
The next edition of the DAM Workflow Newsletter is now available. Read it online by clicking here and subscribe for free here.

1 June 2009
Adobe have a release candidate for Camera Raw 5.4 at Adobe Labs with Lightroom 2.4 to follow. More cameras and digital backs are supported but more interesting is the new DNG 1.3 specifications (not yet published). Since my colleague Peter Krogh has let the cat out of the bag I can reveal the new specs offer lens correction. Peter explains the backward (and more importantly forward) compatibility of DNG 1.3.

30 May 2009
Canto released Cumulus 8, a DAM application for enterprise and workgroups (licenses start at US$5 000). New features include improved interface, more reporting such as asset usage, and built-in image editor. Care of: www.digitalassetmanagement.org.uk.

23 May 2009
Only a few days remain to get FREE exhibition entry to PMA Australia, the largest imaging show in the Southern Hemisphere. Register online before 27 May 2009 here and save the $20 entry fee.

18 May 2009
Friend and colleague John Beardsworth has released free Adobe Lightroom plugins that help make it more robust for DAM. Beardy Plugin #2 reveals folder size inside Lightroom, and Beardy Plugin #3 finds missing images. These essential features are built into Microsoft Expression Media but not in Lightroom. Until now. If you use them please thank John via his Amazon wishlist.

12 May 2009
Robert Edwards will be presenting a Photo Imaging Masterclass for AIPP Queensland on 20 August 2009. Click here for more information and to book.

22 April 2009
Peter Krogh has released the second edition of his authoritive The DAM Book for Photographers. Pre-order your copy now. If you live in the USA and buy before 1 May you can get free shipping and a personal inscription.

18 April 2009
PMA Australia will be held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, 25 - 28 June 2009. Robert Edwards will be presenting a keynote presentation on Sunday 28 June.

23 March 2009
Phase One update Capture One to version 4.6.3. More cameras supported and bug fixes. Of special interest in support for embedded metadata, just like in v3. IPTC support is for legacy IPTC (IIM), there's no sign of IPTC Core. Most Raw files only support legacy IPTC; Adobe and Nikon support IPTC Core.

20 March 2009
Expression Media 2 Service Pack 2 is out, again. I'm glad to report the annoying "Asynchronous previews" has gone and viewing offline images in Media view is back. More info here. Download Mac version here and Windows version here.

 13 March 2009
Microsoft have a hotfix for Expression Media 2 SP2 nearly ready for release. So far this looks to be the best, most stable build yet for iView/Expression Media.

25 February 2009
Don't update to Expression Media 2 SP2. While it has a lot of bug fixes this Service Pack introduces more. For example on Windows viewing Nikon Raw files in Media or Light Table causes them to "snap" to scale. While other bugs remain like honouring the rotation of Raw images already in the Catalog or legacy metadata.

 2 February 2009
As part of our commitment to training DAMsimple are presenting a DAM Workflow seminar at L&P in Sydney on 17 March 2009. Download the registration form (280kb) to book your place now.

 30 January 2009
Google leaks signs of their Cloud Storage GDrive: "GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone." From Google Operating System blog.

8 January 2009
Google have released a beta of Picasa for Mac. Targeted at amateurs Picasa is a lightweight, well featured, free image editor and DAM application for Windows (and more recently Linux). Care of CNet News.

 5 January 2009
Phase One have possibly the best deal for those shopping for Microsoft Expression Media 2. Buy Expression Media online from Phase One for only US$119 (AUS$165). That's over three times cheaper than some suppliers. Phase One also updated CaptureOne to version 4.6. Lots of performance improvements and updated camera support. The Pro version now supports tethered shooting with Nikon DSLRs.

 21 December 2008
Top 10 DAM Mistakes has been published in the latest issue of Better Photoshop Techniques magazine.

16 December 2008
Lightroom 2.2 has been released. Lots of bug fixes and support for additional cameras. Windows update here and Mac here, or use the Adobe Updater within Lightroom 2.

10 November 2008
A series of Lightroom 2 Workshops are being held in Australia kicking off in Queensland. AIPP are sponsoring the first workshop in Brisbane on 25 November 2008. Click here for more information.

23 October 2008
A swag of updates from Adobe. Lightroom version 2.1 is out of beta and officially released for Windows and Mac. Camera Raw 5.1 for Photoshop CS4 and its companion DNG Converter 5.1 were also updated, Windows here and Mac here. Alternatively use Adobe Updater that is installed with your apps. New camera support and minor bug fixes are the main features.

21 October 2008
The long wait is over. Phase One have released Capture One 4 Pro. Phase have lost a lot of ground to the likes of Lightroom and Aperture offering two major updates in the same time, and Bibble 5 nearing release. There is no doubt that Capture One offers an alternate RAW rendering that many love. Now if only they can get the DAM aspects looked after, like honouring embedded metadata.

4 October 2008
While this is not news recently I've found network speed a real pain to deal with using image browsers. Even on a Gb network opening and zooming high megapixel RAW files is slow. Now I use catalog apps for a first look at images instead of an image browser. The catalog app (Expression Media 2.01, Lightroom 2.1, Bibble 5) will build and store thumbnails and previews on a local drive. This makes rating and selecting images feel a lot faster over a network.

2 October 2008
Expression Media 2 Service Pack 1 has been released. Get the Windows version here and the Mac version here. Install the service pack on top of Expression Media 2. It fixes many bugs that prevented me recommending the upgrade to version 2, and polishes the user interface. Full details on David Sayed's blog.

24 September 2008
At Photokina the new Metadata Working Group released their guidelines for preserving metadata. The group consists of Adobe, Apple, Canon, Microsoft, Nokia and Sony. Josh Weisberg, director of Microsoft’s Rich Media Group, is the groups founder and has worked hard for two years to bring it together.

19 September 2008
Adobe have made public a Release Candidate for Lightroom 2.1. Treat this as a beta. If you are experiencing problems with Lightroom 2 such as miissing metadata (or have a shiny new Nikon D700) you may like to see if the RC helps. The link above lists the all the bugs addressed. Otherwise wait a few weeks for the final release.

 25 August 2008
iView Multimedia and the iView products are about to be put to rest once and for all. Email support will cease as of 1 September 2008. In 2006 Microsoft acquired iView which became Expression Media. Thankfully Microsoft will keep the iView forums running.

 29 July 2008
Adobe have released Photoshop Lightroom 2. As previewed in the beta the star feature is non-destructive local area correction. New in the final release is graduated local area correction that some may have seen used by the Lightroom Adventure photographers. Make sure you stock up on RAM as Lightroom is Adobe's first 64 bit application, and it loves RAM. There are 100+ other new features and improvements.

 19 July 2008
Kodak aquires DAM Workflow solutions provider Design2Launch, a visual cataloger for CMS (Content Management System). Kodak calls it VAM; Visual Asset Management, yet another acronym for this sector! As an enterprise level solution Design2Launch doesn't compete with single user applications like Microsoft Expression Media or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

 9 July 2008
The Microsoft Pro Photo Summit is on in Redmond. Jeff Greene has some highlights on his blog. Of special note is an update on Orphan Works by ASMP attorney Victor Perlman and Washington photographer John Harrington . Both agree the Bill was unlikely to be passed this term - but Orphan Works will come.

 9 June 2008
The second annual Photo Metadata Conference was held in Malta. Many of the presentations can be downloaded including a paper by Michael Steidl on the proposed IPTC Extension schemas. (Care of ControlledVocabulary.com.)

 23 May 2008
PMA Australia will be held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, May 30 -June 1, 2008. Robert Edwards will be presenting free talks at the Canon AIPP Workshops (stand 120). Learn the truth about Expression Media 2 and Adobe Lightroom 2 from the source!

PMA Australia is the southern hemisphere's largest, annual photographic trade show. It encompasses equipment exhibitions, conferences and workshops, the Australian Professional Photography Awards, and a gallery showing off the best in Australian photography. Entry to the the trade show is $20 at the door or free if you pre-book online here.

 14 May 2008
Adobe announced the update for DNG to version 1.2. Some features were hinted at in our MetaRAW article last year. Adobe have offered DNG to the ISO for a standardised camera RAW file format. Lot's of good stuff in DNG 1.2 including storing multiple renderings (with associated JPEG previews), custom renderings that are like custom profiles (but not really) and support for different colour pipelines. Again more info at Tom Hogarty's blog.

14 May 2008
 Phase One have released Capture One 4.1.1. A bug fix update it does add support for new cameras and Phase One digital backs.

1 May 2008
 Microsoft Expression Media 2 has been released. Now this will have a familiar ring to it: don't update yet. There are several bugs that will make it a no-go for most users. I'm sorry but for a two year update that concentrated on bug fixing this is one feature poor, buggy update!

 12 April 2008
Meanwhile Adobe releases a patch for Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1. links at Tom Hogarty's blog.

 12 April 2008
DAMsimple are amongst a group of photographers testing Photoshop Lightroom 2 in the field as part of the Lightroom Adventure.

A lot has changed in v2; look for the non-destructive local area adjustment, better Photoshop integration, keyboard shortcuts for Develop adjustments, Smart Collections, more responsive and intelligent keywording, and 100+ more improvements.

 8 April 2008
See us at the Sydney Convention Centre speaking on RAW Workflow as a part of the AIPP Blow Fish Diaries (13-16 April 2008).

 6 April 2008
Yet another "do not update"; this time to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.4 and Adobe Camera Raw 4.4. There are serious bugs for DNG users who update their settings, as well some quirks with Olympus JPEG images and EXIF capture date. Adobe have identified the bugs and Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1 are in the pipeline.

4 April 2008
Do not update to QuickTime 7.4. There is a bug that may truncate filenames in iView and Expression Media, causing them to lose their references to images. If you have already updated Apple have older versions here.

Windows users uninstall v7.4 via the Control Panel. On Mac the easiset method to install older versions is with Pacifist. The usual all care but no responsibility disclaimer applies!

 11 January 2008
Microsoft have extended their free Expression Media 1 upgrade for registered iView MediaPro 3 owners.

21 December 2007
A part of the Adobe Photoshop CS3 10.01 update includes the option to include XMP with Export for the Web & Devices. This means your JPEG images can retain copyright and other important metadata. Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom are also updated; the latter now plays nicely with Leopard.

21 December 2007
Bucking the trend I recommend Apple's Time Machine: a part of OS X 10.5 Leopard. If you have no back up strategy Time Machine is definitely better than nothing! If you use ChronoSync or Carbon Copy Cloner then stick with them. SuperDuper! is expected to be updated for Leopard by March 2008.

20 December 2007
Phase One announce Capture One 4 is (finally) available. Sporting a new interface and limited DNG support Capture One 4 is a good start. Note this is the replacement for Capture One 3 LE. The Pro version is expected sometime in 2008.

16 November 2007
Apple release OS X 10.5 Leopard - followed very quickly by 10.5.1. It's best to wait for the first update with any major operating system upgrade rather than be bleeding edge. [Edit: OS X 10.5.2 is expected at MacWorld in February 2008]

 14 September 2007
Expression Media 1 Service Pack 1 is out. This is a major bug-fix release that also adds WIC support for RAW formats on Windows, and now checks for program updates automatically.

13 September 2007
Going, going... gone! iView will stop supplying Expression Media license upgrades as of 7 September 2007. Get yours now and be sure to request both Mac and Windows.

12 September 2007
Phase One have released a public beta of Capture One 4. It will have DNG support including import and export. At this early stage from a DAM perspective it is very promising.

 John Beardsworth has released xlTransformer. It will allow you to migrate your data from one DAM application to another via Excel.

 Only a few days remaining to register iView MediaPro and receive a free Microsoft Expression Media license.

Will anyone be able to see your images in the future? BBC News warns we risk losing a generation of history due to proprietary file formats. (Care of PhotoshopNews.)

A lot of discussion at the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit 2007.

Adobe released the update to Photoshop Lightroom 1.1.

 DAMsimple will be attending the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit in Redmond from 10-11 July 2007. According to Microsoft the "Summit will provide a forum for professional photographers and digital imaging industry leaders to talk about the key issues, products, and technologies affecting the present and future state of the business".

 Since the rise of digital imaging photographers and software have been appropriating IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) standards to store information unrelated to news gathering. The first ever Photo Metadata Conference has just concluded in Florence, Italy. Industry pundits discussed the future for photo metadata. Heralded a great success there are plans for a second event in 2008 in Malta.

 Beware of Geeks baring gifts. Microsoft Expression Media licenses are hitting mailboxes now. Hold off using Expression Media for now. Microsoft have a hotfix in the pipeline with a service pack to follow.

You have until 16 May 2007 to purchase iView MediaPro through DAMsimple and receive a 15% discount.

See us at PMA Australia 2007 for a sneak peek at the future of DAM.

Testing Loyalties (or DAM, Politics, Religion and Sex).

DAM guru Peter Krogh coming to Australia.

Camera Bits announce a public beta of Photo Mechanic 4.5. This will be a major update to the world's fastest image browser.

Aperture or Lightroom? Well neither, actually. Why?

iView releases MediaPro 3.1.3. This update supports new cameras and fixes bugs introduced in v3.1.2 five months ago.

Adobe have announced Lightroom will be released 19 February 2007 at an initial price of US$199. Lightroom does not offer enough DAM features to replace applications like iView MediaPro. Lightroom is an alternative to Adobe Bridge for photographers.

Peter Attanasio's free PicProcessor AppleScript has been updated to version 2. It automatically downloads images from flash cards, annotates and creates iView Catalogs.

DAMuseful have released a set of training videos. They demonstrate Peter Krogh's workflow as outlined in his DAM Book.

Apple now offer a trial version of Aperture, their all-in-one DAM RAW converter for Mac.

Some bugs have been discovered in View MediaPro 3.1.2 Hold off for version 3.1.3 to be released shortly.

Join us at PANPA 2006: the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association Annual Conference and Exhibition.

Microsoft acquires iView Multimedia. We're still evaluating the outcome and how it will affect MediaPro, especially for Mac users.

View MediaPro 3.1.1 and Catalog Reader 3.1.1 now available.

AIPP Commercial Control: Discussion on how photographers can control their images.

ACMP & AIPP Members receive a discount on iView MediaPro and Photo Mechanic.

See us at Photo Imaging World 2006.

Orphan Works legislation makes IPTC essential.

DAM Useful release RapidFixer plugin for Adobe Bridge.

iImport 1.3.1 for iView MediaPro 2.6.5 (Windows).