Tag: software

Security holes in Photoshop CS2 & CS3, fixes available

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Adobe says:

Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in Photoshop CS2 and CS3 that could allow an attacker who successfully exploits these potential vulnerabilities to take control of the affected system. A malicious BMP, DIB, RLE, or PNG must be opened in Photoshop by the user for an attacker to exploit these potential vulnerabilities. Users are recommended to update their installations with the patches provided below, and Adobe encourages all customers to be cautious before opening any unknown file, regardless of which application they may be using.

Software fixes for both Mac and Windows available from Adobe’s security bulletin, Photoshop CS2 and CS3 updates to address security vulnerabilities.

iView MediaPro v3.1 update

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iView Multimedia Press Release:

iView Multimedia has released iView MediaPro 3.1 for both Windows and Macintosh. MediaPro is now a Universal application and runs natively on Intel-based Macs. Version 3.1 also features the new Notepad Tool, designed to enable communication between creative professionals and their clients.

Notepad Tool
Notepad enables communication between a MediaPro user and his/her client. The client simply drags and drops selected catalog items onto the Notepad palette, adds comments and then e-mails the Notepad file. This Notepad file imports easily into the creative professional’s original catalog where he or she can view the client’s feedback and execute the appropriate actions.

Improved Catalog Reader
iView also announced an improved Catalog Reader, the free utility that allows MediaPro users to distribute and share iView catalogs with anyone using a Windows or Macintosh machine. The addition of Light Table functionality enables Catalog Reader users to view and compare up to 6 images on-screen and mark items with labels and ratings to aid the image selection process. iView Catalog Reader supports all 100+ media file formats of MediaPro, offers slide show and search functionality and supports Notepad. iView customers can now include a MediaPro catalog and copy of Catalog Reader on a CD or DVD and their clients can launch and run the catalog directly from the disc, without installing an iView application.

Designed for creative professionals, iView MediaPro 3.1 is a FREE UPDATE for MediaPro 3 users and also delivers features such as:

  • Increased maximum number of images on-screen in the Light Table to six.
  • Enhanced slide show support for more than 32,000 items.
  • Import/export of color label metadata in XML files.
  • Toolbar text searches are now asynchronous — search results are displayed as they are found.
  • Improved overall performance on both Macintosh and Windows systems.

For a complete list of improvements, please download this version history document (PDF, 28KB):

DOWNLOAD MEDIAPRO 3.1 NOW:
http://www.iview-multimedia.com/downloads/

This update is free for registered users of MediaPro 3.x. This update works best with the latest version of QuickTime (7.x) from Apple, which is strongly recommended to both Windows and Macintosh users.

An updated manual for iView MediaPro 3.1 is now available on the iView support page.

Via PhotographyBLOG

GREYCSTORATION: insane, open source image scaling, denoising, and inpainting

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

GREYCSTORATION inpainting sample
(Before & after: inpainting (type removed))

"GREYCSTORATION is an image regularization algorithm which processes an image by locally removing small variations of pixel intensities while preserving significant global image features, such as sharp edges and corners. The most direct application of image regularization is denoising. By extension, it can also be used to inpaint or resize images."

The results of the resizing tool look a lot like Polaroid Time-Zero emulsion manipulations.

Check it out at www.greyc.ensicaen.fr/~dtschump/greycstoration, it’s quite impressive (and free!).

Image gamma redirector (open source PHP)

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

This open source PHP script will choose from two different gamma-corrected images based on whether the page is being viewed from a Windows/*nix machine or a Mac. Macs generally have a target gamma of 1.8 while Windows and non-Apple *nix has a target of 2.2 or 2.4 (which usually nets out to about 2.2 in average lighting). The result is that images made on Macs look too dark on everything else and images made on everything else look too light on Macs. This script solves the problem by detecting which platform the browser is running on and automatically redirects the request to an appropriate gamma-corrected copy that you’ve prepared ahead of time.

This is free and open source software and is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

More info and download here in the Tools & Reference section.

Adobe Lightroom: Adobe’s answer to Aperture, free public beta for MacOS X

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Today Adobe announced Lightroom, their answer to Apple’s Aperture, a soup-to-nuts RAW workflow program (keywording & metadata, cataloging, RAW conversion, and presentation). Looks like it’ll work with TIFFs and JPGs as well, which will make it dead useful for film photographers who scan their work and need a better way to manage it.

From the Lightroom Page:

"Lightroom Beta lets you view, zoom in, and compare photographs quickly and easily. Precise, photography-specific adjustments allow you to fine tune your images while maintaining the highest level of image quality from capture through output. And best of all, it runs on most commonly used computers, even notebook computers used on location. Initially available as a beta for Macintosh, Lightroom will later support both the Windows and Macintosh platforms."

You can download a free public beta (build 1) for MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) from Adobe Labs.

Michael Reichmann has written a First Look and Primer on Luminous Landscape. You can also read the PDF press release from Adobe UK and the FAQ (via PhotographyBLOG, who have copied the FAQ out of the not-directly-linkable version on Adobe’s site).

I’m about to give it a go. I’ve been demoing every media manager I can get my hands on and haven’t found anything I like so far. I really hope that Adobe have nailed this one.