ASMP

The organization that governs World Cup soccer has backed down from new rules that would have limited the online use of news photographs shot during soccer matches.

FIFA had proposed a two-hour embargo on photos taken during the World Cup, a serious limitation for web sites that cover sports. FIFA later reduced the embargo to one hour, then to immediately after the end of the match. The rules also banned publishing photographs shot in a sequence and limited the number of photographs that could be published online to five per half and two per extra time.

News agencies had to agree to the terms to get photo credentials to cover matches. The proposal would have benefited web sites and cell phone services that have licensing deals with FIFA to run live soccer coverage.

News organizations have been fighting the new rules since they first appeared last fall. The World Cup, played every 4 years, begins June 9 in Germany.

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At the PMA trade show in Orlando today, Apple unveiled a significant update to their professional photo editing program, Aperture.

Version 1.1, which will ship in March, will bring many user-requested features to the application. The update, which will be free to 1.0 users, will be made available when Apple updates its suite of Pro applications, making them available on the Intel processor Macs. The update for Aperture will work with both PowerPC based Macs (G4, G5) and Intel based Macs (currently Intel based iMac and MacBook Pro).

We’ll have the official press release as soon as it’s available, but in a private hands-on meeting this morning Apple Product Managers showed off the new software to PDN.

Changes to this version revolve first around the issue of raw processing. Thanks to feedback from PDN users, Apple was able to massively enhance their raw processing engine, providing a level of raw quality they feel is equal to or superior to other systems. While they acknowledge that some users might prefer the default conversion of other systems, they’ve gone out of their way to bring new power to raw processing.

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Press Release 1/23/06

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced an update to Camera Raw plug-in for Photoshop® CS2, extending raw file support to 17 additional digital camera models. Available as a free download from Adobe’s Web site, the plug-in builds on the raw file support integrated in Photoshop CS2 for digital cameras from leading manufacturers such as Canon, Fujifilm, Kodak, Mamiya, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, and Sony.

With the addition of the new plug-in, Camera Raw functionality in Photoshop CS2 now supports more than 113 different camera models and allows professional photographers to easily manipulate raw files without sacrificing any image quality. Now professional photographers can more quickly and easily import and manipulate raw data, saving time while increasing artistic control.

New cameras supported by Adobe Camera Raw 3.3 plug-in and DNG Converter include Canon EOS 5D, Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, Canon EOS 20Da, Fujifilm Finepix E900, Fujifilm Finepix S5200/5600, Fujifilm Finepix S9000/9500, Kodak EasyShare P850, Kodak EasyShare P880, Mamiya ZD, Nikon D200, Olympus E-500, Olympus SP-310, Olympus SP-350, Olympus SP-500UZ, Pentax *ist DL, Pentax *ist DS2, and Sony DSC-R1.

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