http://www.lightcrafts.com/index.htmlLightCrafts Endorsements!enpr@lightcrafts.comCopyright 2007 LightCrafts Inc.2008-02-06T14:11:39-08:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:47:37 -0800pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2008-02-06T14:11:39-08:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/1ca9f01932d310227abbe0547a457df0-39.html#unique-entry-id-39http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/1ca9f01932d310227abbe0547a457df0-39.html#unique-entry-id-39
Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct awards2007-12-19T12:00:00-08:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/b4fcf4c806aaf7949f91ad39db04219e-37.html#unique-entry-id-37http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/b4fcf4c806aaf7949f91ad39db04219e-37.html#unique-entry-id-37On December 19th, 2007 LightZone was awarded the prestigious Macworld's Editors' Choice award. Macworld writes, "It’s quite an impressive array of products—but a few in particular always stand out from the crowd. It’s these products that meet our high standards for quality, innovation, or value—and in some cases, all three. Because of that, they win some well-deserved time in the spotlight as winners of our annual Editors’ Choice Awards."

With Light Crafts’ LightZone, you get an efficient, streamlined piece of software that offers a unique approach to photo editing for a good deal less than what you’d pay for Photoshop. The program’s signature feature, the ZoneMapper tool, lets you easily see the tonal range of your images by dividing your photos into 16 shades of gray that represent tonal differences of half an f-stop. Mouse over any shade, and the corresponding areas show up in the ZoneFinder display, a gray-scale miniature of the image you’re working on. To change tonal distribution, simply move your mouse within the ZoneMapper—a live preview of the image lets you adjust your pictures in real time. While ZoneMapper, which gets its name from Ansel Adams’ Zone System, is a marquee feature, it’s just one of a slew of other lighting and editing tools in LightZone that are just as intuitive.]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-08-28T09:18:00-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/8aaedff713b95de7cf345c133db69f24-35.html#unique-entry-id-35http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/8aaedff713b95de7cf345c133db69f24-35.html#unique-entry-id-35 It's a great time to be a digital photographer. The price of digital SLR cameras is falling, and in the last year or so some amazing new software packages have debuted that make advanced photo editing easier and more affordable than ever before.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-08-09T16:55:32-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2a44e8bf1606ce9f73bd869f7c17449f-34.html#unique-entry-id-34http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2a44e8bf1606ce9f73bd869f7c17449f-34.html#unique-entry-id-34If you long for simplicity in photo editing in an un-bloated piece of software, give LightZone 3.0.6 a try. Its unique visual approach to editing, time-saving Styles, and well-designed help system will aid the learning process. At the speed at which major enhancements are being released, I can’t wait to see version 4.

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]]>pr@lightcrafts.comBlogs2007-08-01T10:35:00-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/b1b9e9f9c51efa1cb989034107c10ea1-36.html#unique-entry-id-36http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/b1b9e9f9c51efa1cb989034107c10ea1-36.html#unique-entry-id-36LightZone may very well be my new favorite image editing and management tool. It features virtually everything you need to view and edit your Raw images very quickly with a high level of sophistication that is laid out in a way that makes everything easy, yet logical at the same time.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-07-30T14:32:32-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/4923a375f8dd329a02aa8d86b7b1102a-33.html#unique-entry-id-33http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/4923a375f8dd329a02aa8d86b7b1102a-33.html#unique-entry-id-33 Once you become familiar with the concepts underlying how LightZone works, it, isn’t difficult to learn. There are many sliders and choices which you can choose to improve your original photo. If you do not like the result, an Undo button is always available.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-06-27T09:43:41-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/b713ae3c777753a7c86fc7744e786a32-24.html#unique-entry-id-24http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/b713ae3c777753a7c86fc7744e786a32-24.html#unique-entry-id-24There’s little doubt one can move from RAW file to optimized image in very short order without resorting to levels graphs, curves charts, and so many other previously required pixel-based tools. I’d like to make LightZone a permanent part of my workflow suite.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-06-13T13:27:15-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/e9390e91266f443b0ebaadd9f427bcb5-23.html#unique-entry-id-23http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/e9390e91266f443b0ebaadd9f427bcb5-23.html#unique-entry-id-23In an autonomous review of LightZone in American Photo Magazine, LightZone version 2 ranked as highest premium photo-editor above Adobe® Photoshop CS3 for its broad and innovative imaging capabilities.]]>pr@lightcrafts.comStore2007-06-05T10:28:09-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/caf98ffd94581a6550de5767d31e9727-25.html#unique-entry-id-25http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/caf98ffd94581a6550de5767d31e9727-25.html#unique-entry-id-25What I can tell you is that LightZone, especially in this new addition, is a great addition to Lightroom. One reason alone, combined with the program’s use of the Zone system for setting regional adjustments, makes this so: You can very quickly make very highly-controlled regional adjustments.

You can go between Lightroom and LightZone in just exactly the same way that you can go between Lightroom and Photoshop. Just designate LightZone as the secondary editor in the Lightroom Preferences dialog. Then, when you want to take the Lightroom adjusted image you’ve been working on into Lightzone, just press Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + Z.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comBlogs2007-05-24T20:27:34-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/d49b56a5c250ed0bdd72803ba3ea8979-22.html#unique-entry-id-22http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/d49b56a5c250ed0bdd72803ba3ea8979-22.html#unique-entry-id-22Lightcrafts has made version 3.0 of Lightzone available for download this week, and let me tell you, I've only played with this new version a little, but I'm in love.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-05-24T10:48:37-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/999a2465516cb8166815e4dd9892e41d-26.html#unique-entry-id-26http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/999a2465516cb8166815e4dd9892e41d-26.html#unique-entry-id-26The sooner-than-expected introduction of version 3 only a few months after the previous release, shows impressive dynamics in LightCraft's pipeline.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comBlogs2007-05-23T14:09:02-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/712bee639f30f75ee28366848b03483c-21.html#unique-entry-id-21http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/712bee639f30f75ee28366848b03483c-21.html#unique-entry-id-21As you probably know by now, LightZone has replaced Nikon Capture NX in my digital workflow since the V2.0. LightZone simply being better than NX… Also, LightZone offers way more updates and better technical support than Nikon does. That’s why I am really excited by this V3.0!

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comBlogs2007-05-22T16:10:39-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/dd07458e94092b37680fb723a2ef2793-20.html#unique-entry-id-20http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/dd07458e94092b37680fb723a2ef2793-20.html#unique-entry-id-20Professional photographer Ian McCausland writes: a few months ago I gave a demo of Aperture at my New Media user group. After that demo I also talked about using apps other than Photoshop for selective edits and had Lightzone choosen as my external editor of choice. Once I had an image in LZ, I quickly drew a region and lighten or darkened it. All the photographers in the room gasped as they saw just how quick and easy it was!

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comPress clippings2007-05-22T15:18:34-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/d45958d171f576f5aee07c66a6de5fdf-19.html#unique-entry-id-19http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/d45958d171f576f5aee07c66a6de5fdf-19.html#unique-entry-id-19LightZone is an editing, management and analysis tool for your digital images, one that brings an “intelligent,” alternative approach to photo editing.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-05-21T06:28:32-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/95290434b12f309059b4f177797f3344-18.html#unique-entry-id-18http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/95290434b12f309059b4f177797f3344-18.html#unique-entry-id-18Lightzone 3.0 is clearly a major upgrade of this interesting application. The new Style implementation is very innovative and the new Relight tool can save and improve many images. Overall we would say that this is clearly a new incarnation of Lightzone worth the 3.0 label.

Read on...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comPresentations2007-05-16T15:59:55-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/9339a6709f78e2829d02f29ad6ed095c-17.html#unique-entry-id-17http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/9339a6709f78e2829d02f29ad6ed095c-17.html#unique-entry-id-17Light Crafts founder and CTO Fabio Riccardi was invited to present at Google about Non-destructive, Selective, Non-linear and Non-modal Editing in LightZone. Check out the video here.
]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-05-12T15:26:03-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/85af698ff9d71a2b2ab5628b0038ee58-11.html#unique-entry-id-11http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/85af698ff9d71a2b2ab5628b0038ee58-11.html#unique-entry-id-11The software is a very useful tool for basic and advanced photo editing, without having a large learning curve like with Photoshop. Prime example being myself; I've been playing with this software for only a few days and already I feel a certain level of mastery over it's functions. I'm certain that, because the way in which LightZone operates is extremely intuitive, the novice will catch on quickly after going through tutorials like this :-) Already, I'm extremely impressed with how easy and fast I can do edits with LightZone!

Read more]]>pr@lightcrafts.comStore2007-04-27T20:02:39-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/0fd2c6d3a0c012e5e79aeb5e97f616f5-13.html#unique-entry-id-13http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/0fd2c6d3a0c012e5e79aeb5e97f616f5-13.html#unique-entry-id-13Tonight I downloaded the 30day free trial of Light Craft's LightZone software. What I conclude is that in 1 hour, I have learned to create a better image in LightZone than I have in 2 years using Elements.

Read more]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-04-01T10:29:39-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2ccec02af2c3c1dba6da8eca95b2b993-8.html#unique-entry-id-8http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2ccec02af2c3c1dba6da8eca95b2b993-8.html#unique-entry-id-8This application just keeps getting better at a blistering pace - updates are coming almost monthly now. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again - go download the trial version and give it a spin. It may well revolutionize how you edit your images!

Read on here]]>pr@lightcrafts.comStore2007-03-22T20:47:59-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2bcbe83f1b7c5a070d4536000f3d5473-15.html#unique-entry-id-15http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2bcbe83f1b7c5a070d4536000f3d5473-15.html#unique-entry-id-15Light Crafts have announced that their LightZone editing software is to be made available at a discounted rate to users of Apple Aperture and Photoshop Lightroom. The package will also be compatible with Apple iPhoto. The software is said to employ a simpler and more natural approach to the retouching and enhancement of digital images, allowing artists every opportunity to express themselves effectively without being bogged down in technical jargon.

Read more]]>pr@lightcrafts.comStore2007-03-22T10:57:00-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/1c5dd6e5de7146326ab805e581164ae7-30.html#unique-entry-id-30http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/1c5dd6e5de7146326ab805e581164ae7-30.html#unique-entry-id-30In LightZone - The Review I extolled the virtues of Lightcraft’s LightZone image editing software. In this post I will use 3 examples to go into more detail about how this remarkably intuitive application can quickly and easily enhance images that you may have given up on. I should say here that I have no connection with Lightcraft, I’m just a paying customer like any other. The more I learn about LZ the more indispensable it’s becoming.

Read more...
]]>pr@lightcrafts.comPress clippings2007-03-19T11:02:00-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/87a37113c4db12086f0b17009d55ee88-31.html#unique-entry-id-31http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/87a37113c4db12086f0b17009d55ee88-31.html#unique-entry-id-31Light Crafts, creators of LightZone photoediting software, today announced the integration of LightZone with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture and Apple iPhoto.

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]]>pr@lightcrafts.comBlogs2007-03-18T11:06:00-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/c78c749e9514f1d4083a3ba5f181e50a-32.html#unique-entry-id-32http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/c78c749e9514f1d4083a3ba5f181e50a-32.html#unique-entry-id-32Wayne Huang writes: When processing this in Lightzone, it started to take on a life of it's own, appearing reminiscent of the chiarascuro effect of the old master painters. I went along with it, toning the skin, darkening the background, and adjusting the contrast through Lightzones amazing zonemapper.

If you get a chance, do try Lightzone...it's quite literally the best photo editing software I've ever used.

Read more...]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-03-12T10:29:39-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/e7ec36d9dae4dde8b202b5e6987b591d-12.html#unique-entry-id-12http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/e7ec36d9dae4dde8b202b5e6987b591d-12.html#unique-entry-id-12I have only scratched the surface of what the application is capable of. You may well find that it provides everything you need for a total workflow. I strongly urge you to take a look at it - I don’t think you will be disappointed!

Read on here]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2007-02-12T18:15:14-08:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2006fc5c4c8b4e837f4802f839fc4488-0.html#unique-entry-id-0http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2006fc5c4c8b4e837f4802f839fc4488-0.html#unique-entry-id-0Lots of photographers couldn't care less about removing their ex from a photo, adding text, or taking years off the life of a subject. What they really want to do is fix the things that they could always fix in the darkroom -- contrast, tone, and color. Light Crafts' Light-Zone 2.0 is a program for those who've gotten fed up with learning software that has far more tools than they could ever use, and who instead want more control over the way their pictures look.

Read on at PopPhoto.com]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2006-12-31T20:27:42-08:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/69da70c982034e3652450459d466fbdf-14.html#unique-entry-id-14http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/69da70c982034e3652450459d466fbdf-14.html#unique-entry-id-14LightZone 2.0 is yet another intuitive RAW editing tool, but it’s actually a powerful tool to consider…

The best feature to me is the ZoneMapper tool… ZoneMapper allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of all or parts of your photo for any combination of the highlights, midtones, or shadows.

Now I am a big fan of Nikon Capture NX, which also allows to apply your adjustment to “zones” very specifically, that coming from Nikon, it’s a hard task to beat them at their own game but LightZone actually did it!!

Read more]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2006-11-15T11:13:16-08:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/577092c216be8d872976b6292e2ca8da-4.html#unique-entry-id-4http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/577092c216be8d872976b6292e2ca8da-4.html#unique-entry-id-4LightZone is a simple yet powerful image editor. LightZone is easy to learn and let's you focus on your images. We will follow the development of this editor very closely because we see a great potential using LightZone.

> LightZone provides right now the easiest way to learn and use a layer based workflow (which we recommend for some years in our e-books)
> For advanced users LightZone provides a powerful photographic tool to optimize photos.

Read on at Digital OutBack Photo]]>pr@lightcrafts.comStore2006-10-10T21:09:57-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/d6f675c0dec1d141e1d3816464e4cfcf-16.html#unique-entry-id-16http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/d6f675c0dec1d141e1d3816464e4cfcf-16.html#unique-entry-id-16This is a fine program. The results are easy to get and - from a work-flow perspective - faster than with Photoshop.

Read more]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2006-06-01T18:23:21-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/dcb0898e05bf26d7b40fb66dfc462a13-1.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/dcb0898e05bf26d7b40fb66dfc462a13-1.html#unique-entry-id-1Photoshop is a great, blundering battleship of a thing that’s not half as clever as it thinks it is. And it takes a program like LightZone to show you just where Photoshop is going wrong.

Read on at ComputerArts]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2006-04-13T10:52:18-07:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2dd70d6cf711fc868f7055acf32aab82-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2dd70d6cf711fc868f7055acf32aab82-2.html#unique-entry-id-2Correction layers, selections and blending now a part of the RAW-to-rendered process.

Read on at Professional Photographer]]>pr@lightcrafts.comProduct reviews2006-03-28T11:06:37-08:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/0fc7e34fd9e201513f2cbcb7305f04ca-3.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/0fc7e34fd9e201513f2cbcb7305f04ca-3.html#unique-entry-id-3With LightZone, all edits are non-destructive and reversible, so cropping and rotation are simply filters on the image. Turn them on and off as needed, so a single source file can be used for all your output of a particular image.

Read on imaginginfo]]>pr@lightcrafts.comPress clippings2006-02-08T11:29:07-08:00http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2d81ab71c634b2b68685b8dc61abfa9b-5.html#unique-entry-id-5http://www.lightcrafts.com/company/endorsements/files/2d81ab71c634b2b68685b8dc61abfa9b-5.html#unique-entry-id-5...this tool can work wonders for you.

Read on at Macworld]]>