Topaz Adjust 5 Now with 100+ Presets

Topaz Labs has released a major update to its most popular Photoshop plug-in for color, detail and exposure enhancement. Topaz Adjust 5 now includes an intuitive selective adjustment brush, over 100 new presets for a faster workflow, effect stacking, transparency control, a new finishing touches tab and many more user-requested features. The update is being …

Oskar Barnack Award 2012 Photo Competition Jan 16-Mar 1

Leica will start accepting entries to the Oskar Barnack Award 2012 international photo competition beginning January 16, 2012. The contest is open to all professional photographers from all over the world. Contest entrants should submit a portfolio of up to twelve images expressing “the interaction between man and the environment.” The winner will receive an …

New from O’Reilly: The Twitter Book, 2nd Edition

You can tweet about your breakfast, or about your dog, or just about any number of mundane things, but you can also use Twitter to tweet about your business, your passions and just about anything that’s important to you. That’s why Twitter is used by businesses, non-profit organizations, celebrities and people who want to reach …

DxO FilmPack 3.1 Offers New Rendering, User Interface

DxO Labs has released FilmPack 3.1, the latest version of its silver halide simulation software. The new version adds a line of 25 new creative renderings and an improved user interface. DxO says FilmPack 3.1 brings to photos all the emotional impact of silver halide photography. Using an intuitive interface, beginners and experts alike can …

Tamron Launches Mom-to-Mom Photo Tips

Tamron USA has launched its Mom-to-Mom Project where moms can learn and share photography with other moms. Participants on Tamron’s Mom-to-Mom panel share their own personal approaches and tips to the craft by photographing a family-centered “assignment” with select Tamron lenses, including the Tamron 18-270mm Di II VC PZD 15X lens, SP 70-300mm Di VC …

New Ricoh CX6 Compact Boasts Fast Autofocus

The new Ricoh CX6 compact digital camera boasts high-speed AF, as fast as 0.1 second, and zoom assist monitor for easier telephoto photography. The CX6 also claims to be able to do macro shots as close as 1cm and go from 28mm wide angle to 300mm zoom with its original retracting lens system, making it …

Call for Entries: Google Photography Prize

Google is calling for entries from student photographers all over the world. The Google Photography Prize will award over 100 Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphones as prizes, and the top ten finalists will have their work showcased for two months at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Grand prize is a once-in-a-lifetime photography trip to a destination …

New Firmware for Leica M9 Does Not Fix All

Leica has released new firmware, Version 1.174, for the M9 rangefinder style digital camera updating its SD card driver to fix a compatibility issue with some new SD memory cards where some users would lose photos in the camera. Despite the update, Leica still warns that the SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC I UHS-I and SanDisk …

Plateaus and Canyons by Bruce Barnbaum

O’Reily has announced a new book, Plateaus and Canyons: Impressions of the American SouthWest by Bruce Barnbaum (Rocky Nook, 220pp, $44.95 USD), an anthology of photographic essays on the remarkable colors of Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Factory Butte, Colorado River Plateau, White Cliffs, Painted Desert, and so many other Southwest American locations. In a series …

PocketWizard Launches Make It Possible Photo Contest

The Make It Possible photo contest from PocketWizard is calling for entries from photographers all over the world. No entry fees. You just have to be at least 18 years of age. Entries to the contest must have been taken with a minimum of one off-camera flash triggered using PocketWizard radios. In other wods, submit …