www.cewe-photoworld.co.uk

London-based creative production studio Taylor James has announced the launch of its new website .  The site presents advertising decision-makers who have access to a diverse source of high-end still and motion imagery,and an in-depth look into innovative techniques that form part of the company’s bespoke 360° production.

Taylor James’ rebrand follows the company’s continued expansion and successful diversification into the broadcast arena. The new breed of production studio offers a complete multi-disciplined service providing innovative content solutions for print, interactive and broadcast media.

Aimed at advertising creatives and decision makers, the site hosts an extensive library of CGI, live-action, photography and creative post-production work through an HTML-based interface combining HD quality video and sound functions. The user-friendly layout, clean design and simple navigation were designed to enhance the viewer’s experience of the visuals. Glen Taylor, founder and Managing Director of Taylor James said, “Our aim was to provide an insightful resource for creatives and commissioners, where our high-impact stills and videos can speak for themselves.

“We know our clients don’t always have time to view the hundreds of projects available, so work can be filtered by discipline, technique or subject matter and the Lightbox also provides a bookmarking function to enable agencies to build a bespoke selection of images which they can then share with colleagues and clients.” There are many carefully considered features on the site that enhance the rich multi-media experience, including an integrated interactive blog, social networking interaction, production breakdowns and related project links. Utilising HTML5 capabilities, the site is designed to work across all the latest platforms, from smart phone to iPad.\

The site is unique in offering viewers an in-depth understanding of how complex multi-part productions are built, from ‘Behind the Scenes’ footage to the continuation of Taylor James’ renowned step-by-step scene build videos. This particular feature was retained due to popular demand, having been an essential reference to creatives and students alike on the previous incarnation of the Taylor James website. A section dedicated to individual business studies also explores some of the fundamental issues that face advertising professionals, from CGI photorealism to innovative solutions to meet client budgets and schedules.

Christian Thoresen, co-founder and Creative Director of the award-winning interactive design agency, Soulpolice, said: “The simple but well thought out filtering options make it easy for me to drill down on the content, and the Lightbox feature is invaluable when reassuring clients that Taylor James is the right studio early in the development process. The deep and logical URL’s is evidence of good planning and correct web development throughout. This is exactly the way this kind of site should be done.” Taylor concludes: “Seeing all of the great work we’ve done over the years displayed on the new site is great! We’ve always strived to innovate and we needed a site that reflects our diverse creative services and kept up the pace. It was important that our new site reflected all of our capabilities as a full production studio whilst still being intuitive to use. I believe it aptly reflects the dynamism of our brand and includes key Taylor James touches that make us stand out from the rest.”
To view Taylor James’ new site please visit www.taylorjames.com

At booth G031 in Hall 4.1, visitors to the trade fair will not only see high-performance LC displays in the MultiSync^® PA series, but also the SpectraView^® Reference 241 and 271 Colour Management monitors. Both SpectraView^®models have now been approved as  Fogra PreCert Class A monitors.

The leading international trade fair for the photographic and imaging industry will this year showcase the latest generation of high-end monitors for prepress, softproofing applications and demanding photo and video editing. Both of the series being shown by NEC Display Solutions set new standards in terms of image quality and colour fidelity. These include a high-performance wide gamut 10-bit P-IPS* panel, a 3D LUT** for precise colour space emulation and a 14-bit LUT for outstanding hardware colour calibration control.

The NEC SpectraView^® Reference 241 and 271 models, which can be hardware-calibrated, have recently passed the test procedure of Germany’s Graphic Technology Research Association, Fogra, to earn the status Fogra PreCert Monitor conformity class A. The in-depth testing procedure analyses the monitors’ viewing angle stability, brightness uniformity, colour hue accuracy and gray scale control, which together provide a reliable and consistent visual component in a FograCert soft-proofing system.

“As one part of the overall photographic imaging and hard copy print colour workflow, our display solutions provide the reference basis for successful working by professional photographers, media designers or graphics designers,” explains Christopher Parker, Product Line Manager – Professional Displays at NEC Display Solutions. “Photokina is both a platform and a source of inspiration for us, with the intense dialogue between industry stakeholders and representatives enabling us to develop ever newer solutions, which are even more tailored to the needs of our customers.”

*P-IPS = performance in-plane switching, **LUT = lookup table

NEC Display Solutions at Photokina in Cologne from the 21^st to the 26^th of September 2010: hall 4.1, booth G031.

Visit Photokina online to see what else the event has in store this September.

onOne Software, experts in photo-editing plug-ins, is offering its industry-standard enlargement software at a tasty discount. Genuine Fractals 6 Pro Edition can be purchased for $159.95, saving $140, and $99.95 for the Standard Edition for the plug-in. The generous offer expires 1 September. www.ononesoftware.com

Features of Genuine Fractals 6 include:

• Enlarge an image to any size or resolution you desire

• Maintain fine image detail and eliminate edge halos

• Crop and resize images in one easy step

• Now works in Photoshop CS5, CS4, CS3 and CS2. Pro Edition integrates with Lightroom and Aperture.

Inkygoodness acts as a showcase for new creative talents beside more established professionals, offering a unique opportunity to develop professional careers through self-promotion and networking.

Now in its fourth year, the Inkygoodness team are promoting their latest show, PLAY. This takes place at the EAST Gallery, London from 2 September – 6-9pm private viewing – running until 12 September.

Showcasing artwork by 38 international artists and illustrators, including mcbess, Good Wives and Warriors, Stephen Chan and Toy Factory, this one promises to be the best yet!

Log on to www.inkygoodness.com for more info or download the flier below.

Fotolia is super excited to celebrate two  major milestones: ten million images and two million members. These are complemented by  several other expansion projects and partnerships already announced this year, including one with Microsoft.

Since entering the market five years ago, Fotolia has quickly emerged as one of the leading global providers of affordable HD photos, vectors, and videos.  Co-founder and CEO Oleg Tscheltzoff credits Fotolia’s success to key competitive advantages. He explains, “Localised and custom sites provide our customers with content and styles relevant to their regions. Usability also sets us apart. We’re one of the only major microstock sites to offer a royalty-free licence that allows images to be used without limits on print quantities, geographical placement, or length of use.”

Developing innovative solutions for contributors and buyers quickly shot Fotolia’s membership to two million. The company was the first to partner with Microsoft on a free image plug-in for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and just rolled out a Fotolia Desktop AIR application that supports one-click image downloading, along with drag-and-drop lightboxes.

With ten million images and two million members, the Fotolia team remains focused. “This is a very competitive market. We are determined to keep expanding and localising. Fotolia will be a household name when it comes to downloading images,” says Tscheltzoff.

Revolutionise how you search for images.  www.fotolia.co.uk/desktop

“We used a subtle motion blur and dark vignette in the image except on her face.  The result is not obvious enough to be a distraction.  Instead, the eye is simply drawn to the bride’s glowing face.”

Raleigh, North Carolina – 24 August 2010 – Alien Skin Software, maker of simple photography tools that render beautiful pictures, today announces the immediate availability of Bokeh 2, the new version of its lens simulation plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.  Bokeh provides a wide range of creative focus effects and accurate lens simulation in a simple interface.  Photographers use Bokeh to draw attention to their subject by manipulating focus, vignette and depth of field.

“Bokeh has grown beyond lens simulation into a creativity tool, especially with the addition of motion blur,” said Terence Tay, the architect of Bokeh. “Now photographers can get sophisticated focus effects without the hassle and expense of using tilt-shift or special effect lenses.”

Creative focus

Bokeh gives photographers a wide range of tools to focus attention where they want it.  The focus region is easily placed over the subject and then the fun begins.  Every aspect of the lens blur can be customised, from highlight intensity and shape to motion blur and vignette.  The vignette can change the mood of the scene through darkening or desaturation.  The new motion blur can give the illusion of movement like expensive creative lenses, but it is even more flexible, allowing spiral and rotational blurs.

Accurate lens simulation

Bokeh accurately simulates the distinctive blurring and creamy highlights of real lenses.  This was achieved through careful experiments with lenses famous for their bokeh highlights, such as the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 II and the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Macro.  Now Bokeh renders film grain to match the original photo which makes defocused regions look completely natural.  Bokeh can even change the depth of field of a photo even after it was shot by realistically blurring the background.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 64-bit and Lightroom Support

Bokeh 2 now works in Lightroom, including batch processing.  The 64-bit version of Photoshop CS5 works great with Bokeh on both platforms.  Bokeh provides multiple techniques for non-destructive editing in Photoshop, including Smart Filter support and rendering effects on a duplicate of the original layer.

Ease of use

Bokeh has a slick new interface for easily placing focus regions.  Now multiple focus regions are supported and there are new focus region shapes.  The preview is now much faster and more interactive, making experimentation easier.  To help get started and for advanced techniques, the Web site has a large library of tutorial videos and example images.

Pricing and availability

Bokeh 2 sells for $199 USD.  Owners of Bokeh 1 may upgrade for $99 USD.  Online or physical delivery is available through the Alien Skin website at www.alienskin.com.  Free upgrades will be automatically sent to purchasers of Bokeh 1 who purchased in April 2010 or later.

Host Requirements

Bokeh 2 is a plug-in and requires one of the following host applications:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 or later
• Adobe Lightroom 2 or later
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later
• Corel PaintShop Pro Photo X3

The Dell Precision series is an integral machine, used by global creative experts and engineers alike. Unsurprising when you consider its new Intel Xeon architecture and up to 72GB of DDR3 Registered ECC memory – offering high performance, power and scalability at comprehensive prices. Now the family’s T5500 series compact powerhouse is being used to visualise F1 engine design, and the machine has met praise from the media and teams within the F1 paddock.

Dell customer Cosworth (www.cosworth.com), leading provider of high-performance technologies in a diverse range of industries including aerospace, defence, energy, marine and automotive, currently works alongside four independent teams in the 2010 FIA Formula One Championship.

A crucial part of Cosworth’s communications programme is the development of high-quality visualisations of the engines and high-performance electronics that it supplies, which enable Cosworth engineers, customers and fans to see the complex designs in a visually clear and accurate way.

To create these photo-quality digital images, Cosworth worked with Dell and AMD to select a bespoke Dell Precision T5500 workstation system configuration, including two Quad Core Intel Xeon Processors and ATI FirePro v8800 1GB graphics card supporting Eyefinity technology. This workstation hosts 24GB RAM with the option to upscale to 72GB. The T5500 was configured with AMD’s ATI graphics card to specifically address Cosworth’s need to work across three screens – this allows for a faster and highly efficient workflow when manipulating 4,000+ components that make up one visualisation of Cosworth’s latest CA2010 engine design.

Essentially, using this bespoke T5500 for rendering allows the business to market and display engine designs in lifelike accuracy, with the machine providing this graphics support alongside immense processing power, which has directly impacted the speed and quality of producing renderings.

To see the machine in action, check out the video below:

http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2010/08/09/cosworth-drives-f1-engine-rendering-with-dell-precision.aspx

Click here to view the embedded video.

ViewNX 2 is the latest comprehensive new version of Nikon’s popular bundled software package. This is a great advantage for designers as it enables you to easily import, browse, edit and share images and D-movies.

Building upon the success of its predecessor ViewNX software, ViewNX 2 is a feature-packed, user-friendly suite supplied with Nikon digital cameras and available for free download. The software now offers an updated range of tools dedicated to editing D-movie files captured by today’s DSLR and compact cameras.

In addition to basic data importing and browsing, the software also incorporates frequently used adjustment menus and tools, practical for digital photographers and artists – including resize, brightness control, crop and straighten, as well as sophisticated RAW processing functions.

Present movies in style
ViewNX 2 includes several simple and intuitive editing tools which enable users to create great looking movies. The software allows you to trim and then merge clips together, apply a variety of attractive transition effects with the addition of still images and soundtracks of music to generate stylish and animated films to share with family and friends.

Refined, intuitive user interface
The UI has been redesigned for maximum efficiency. Smooth graphics and an intuitive layout make it even simpler to access and use its wide range of creative tools. Different display options have been added to perfectly suit the task at hand; in addition to the Browser and Edit options, GeoTag allows users to view images on a map relating to where the images were taken. And to make viewing and editing even easier on the eye, the background colour can be altered according to the brightness of the images.

Take Control
ViewNX 2 features many image-editing options, such as Crop, Straighten, Auto Red-Eye Reduction and Auto Lateral Color Aberration, along with crucial features including file-format conversion and a wide range of labelling and rating options, making it easy to navigate and sort through countless images. Integrated RAW image processing allows further control over the final output with numerous useful editing functions, such as white balance, exposure compensation, contrast, brightness, sharpness and many more. The software also increases the printing choices available, with new options such as background colour selection and metadata inclusion.

Sharing made simple
ViewNX 2 is closely integrated with my Picturetown, Nikon’s popular online digital image storage and sharing service. Images can be easily uploaded to the service with a simple drag/drop operation, and users can browse my Picturetown images online as well as directly in ViewNX 2.

With the addition of many new features based upon the feedback of Nikon’s users worldwide, ViewNX 2 takes Nikon’s already impressive free software package to the next level and empowers creative image makers of all levels to get the very best from their shooting.

Please visit http://nikonimglib.com/nvnx/ to download the free software.

Advanced Photoshop issue 73 is on sale now from www.imagineshop.co.uk.

The best features, interviews and artist profiles:

- Create the cover – photorealistic portrait paintings

- Infographics explained

- How to work on commercial branding projects

Challenging and inspiring tutorials including:

- Use CS5’s new blending modes

- Create 3D text-based compositions

- Master dynamic lighting effects

Plus:

- Inspirational artist showcases and interviews

- Reader’s questions answered in the Helpdesk

- Exclusive ‘Advanced 3D type’ CS5 video tutorial