Photosmith recently received very high praise from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA), and was awarded best mobile photography app 2014.  To celebrate, Photosmith for iPad is now half-off for a very limited time – $9.99 (or local currency equivalent) for Lightroom sync, with no strings attached, no subscription required.

TIPA membership comprises 28 leading photo and imaging magazines from 15 countries on five continents, and also has a cooperative partnership with the CJPC (Camera Journal Press Club), representing 11 top photography magazines in Japan.

Here’s our press release if you want to help spread the word about this award, and our limited-time half-off discount.  If you have friends that use Lightroom and have an iPad, but aren’t interested in ongoing subscription fees, please let them know of our discount.

Inspiration comes from the most unlikeliest of places, and this is really an incredible, and quite unexpected honor.

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We’re very happy to announce the release of Photosmith for iPad v3.1.1 – While it’s tempting to call this “just” a bug fix maintenance release, that would be selling it a bit short.

Addressed in version 3.1.1 are several app crashes introduced by iOS 7.1, including crashing after importing photos from Camera Roll and after converting imported photos to/from link/copy in Photosmith’s Dashboard. Develop changes made in Lightroom will now correctly get synced back to Photosmith, as well.

More importantly, especially for folks with the latest and greatest camera bodies, we added compatibility for 100 more cameras in Photosmith v3.1.1 – We now support camera raw files for almost 500 different camera models! Actually, 491, but who’s counting? Take a look at our updated full list of camera raw compatibility; the highlights include Nikon’s new flagship, the D4s, and even more Sony models, including the Alpha 7, and Alpha 7R, and a wide swath of the FujiFilm, and Olympus camera lines, including the gorgeous OM-D E-M1.

Our camera compatibility page only lists camera raw files for which we have personally confirmed compatibility – If you own a camera not on the compatibility list, we want your camera raw files! Please contact our Support Team so we can validate your camera.

Photosmith v3.1.1 is a free upgrade for all current users, and is now available for download in Apple’s iOS App Store. New users may purchase Photosmith for iPad for $19.99 USD (or equivalent local currency). The Photosmith for Lightroom plugin is available on our website as a free download.

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Photosmith version 3.1 is now available in the iOS App Store for iPad.  The companion plugin for Lightroom is also available, but updating requires a little extra effort this time around.  We made a quick one minute video showing how to properly update the Photosmith plugin for Lightroom:

Please note that the new Photosmith plugin requires Lightroom 4 or newer.

As we previously mentioned, the big updates this time around are native camera raw rendering and a vastly improved Lightroom sync dashboard.  There’s also more bug fixes than we care to bore you with… but probably will in a future blog post.

Also, as promised, we just released our comprehensive User Guide – over 200 pages of everything you ever wanted to know about Photosmith (but were afraid to ask).  This PDF is perfect for downloading and keeping handy for offline reference, perhaps stored in your iBooks app on your iPad.  However, be aware that like our Knowledge Base documents (from which the User Guide is based), it’s a work in progress.

Photosmith version 3.1 app for iPad and Lightroom plugin are free updates for existing users.  New users can scoop up the app for $19.99 USD (or equivalent local currency).

Posted in: Development, Marketing, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

The snow continues to fall in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but despite outward appearances, we’re not in hibernation – The past few months have been extremely productive for Photosmith. Winter (especially this season!) is a great time to stay indoors and continue work on refining what has become the daily go-to mobile photography workflow and organization solution for many thousands of amateur and professional photographers. Not a day goes by that we don’t receive very encouraging emails, Tweets and Facebook messages from enthusiastic users –  We love discussing photography and workflow, and feel fortunate every day to have such a wonderful user community behind us.

Our most recent development efforts are focused on making the next version of our iPad app and Lightroom plugin really special – refining existing functionality and carefully adding new features that will continue to set us apart from other mobile organization solutions, both today and in the future.  Of course, pouring on this extra work behind the scenes put us a little behind with blog posts, we plan to make up for lost time.

Over the next few weeks, we will become much more chatty here on our blog, and over on Twitter (@photosmithapp) and Facebook (facebook.com/photosmith) as we discuss the long list of new and refined features in Photosmith for iPad and the Photosmith plugin for Lightroom, and the myriad of bugs addressed in version 3.1. We’ll also begin posting weekly Photosmith and Lightroom tips and tricks. We’re just as passionate about photography as you are!  We will also address recent industry rumors, and talk about why we’re just as excited as everyone else is to have some major players validate the iPad as a photography workflow tool for the professional and advanced amateur.

Current Status

Final testing of Photosmith 3.1 wrapped up late last week, and we’re really excited to share the results of our many late nights and long weekends with everyone. For those keeping score at home, this puts us on track for release this week!

New and improved in Photosmith 3.1:

In-app Camera Raw Rendering

As we previously mentioned, photographers will be able to render over 25 different camera raw formats from hundreds of different cameras, right on your iPad in Photosmith! This is a big deal for folks with cameras that use raw formats which can’t be viewed directly on iPad using Apple’s Photos.app (Hello, DNG? And many FujiFilm RAF files, for example), and for raw formats that don’t contain a full-resolution JPG preview, like Sony ARW.  Leica users will be thrilled to finally have the ability to see full-resolution DNG files right on their iPad!

We’re still conducting comprehensive speed and compatibility testing against other iOS camera raw processing, but it appears Photosmith is best in class for speed: With an iPad Mini Retina (A7 processor), massive 38 megapixel Nikon D800 NEF files render in under 15 seconds!  Canon 5D Mark III CR2′s render in under 10 seconds. On the iPad Air, camera raw rendering is is even faster.

For many photographers, camera raw rendering right on iPad will be a real game-changer, as this will be the first time they can view full-resolution raw photos on iPad, without first converting to JPG in camera or computer.  And to render raw files in batch, automatically creating sized thumbnails for rapid Grid View and full-screen viewing… this is a huge step for not just Photosmith, but mobile digital photography.

Of course, Photosmith is smart enough to know if a camera raw file contains a full-resolution JPG preview, and will optionally use that if you prefer to speed things along. This means D800, 5D Mark III and other camera raw formats that contain full-res previews will import into Photosmith’s catalog in under 2 seconds each – import speeds that rival even Lightroom!

This is just the start of our adventures in image processing – We’re incredibly excited about what our camera raw rendering engine will mean for the future of Photosmith.

Smarter Lightroom Sync

New in Photosmith 3.1 is a dashboard-like Lightroom sync overview, right in the iPad app. At glance, see the sync status of all your User Collections in one place – and optionally choose one (or more) User Collections to sync by tapping a single button. Yup, more than one User Collection can be synced at once, and all right from your iPad, including metadata conflict resolution.  For photographers managing many User Collections and wishing to manage Lightroom syncs while not sitting in front of their Lightroom computer, this will be a real timesaver.

We are also performing a quick audit of metadata changes in both Photosmith and Lightroom, and you can choose, prior to starting the sync, if you want to use Photosmith’s or Lightroom’s metadata in the event of a metadata conflict. This will be a big win for folks that prefer to start a long before going to bed, so that Photosmith is ready to use during the morning commute on the train.

Better Stability

We logged over 300 “items of improvement” over the past three months – and confirmed that those issues have been fixed.  Have we mentioned lately that Photosmith is a nights and weekend project undertaken by a very small team of guys spread over three timezones?

With stability comes a couple of hurdles, which we will talk about later today on our blog.  The update for Photosmith’s Lightroom plugin will need to be updated in a certain way, and Publish Services will need to be re-saved.  This is a one-time thing, and will take less than 20 seconds, but it’s important that this update happens so that you will see our increased sync stability and new features (and bug fixes).

Thank you!

Finally, a heart-felt thank you to our incredibly supportive user community! We view your purchase as not only an investment in the future of the Photosmith app, but in independant app development. Over the coming months, we’ll talk about lessons we’ve learned over the past three years of iOS app development, as well as stories from our users: How and where they use Photosmith, unique workflow solutions, and tips and tricks. Again, it’s the user interaction and engagement which helps to validate our strong belief that iPad is a wonderful organizational tool in the arsenal of the mobile digital photographer.

We also want to thank Claudio Emmrich for helping us to identify some sync-related issues that have been plaguing us the past few versions.

2014 is already shaping up to be a great year for Photosmith… and we’re just getting started!

Posted in: Current Progress, Design, Development, Marketing | 1 Comment

Greetings from Photoshop World in Las Vegas! We’re well into day three of “the big show” and have met an amazing number incredibly enthusiastic new and existing users of Photosmith for iPad.

We’re really excited to take the wraps off of what we’ve been working on over the past few months: Native camera raw processing right in Photosmith! This will mean full resolution support for camera raw formats previously unsupported in Apple’s iOS, and will be the stepping stone for the next phase of Photosmith development.

Don’t worry, we’re still committed to refining and enhancing existing features, and are continuing to streamline existing digital photography workflows – announcements outlining our efforts to make Lightroom sync even more robust are forthcoming.

We will be at our booth, #434, for another hour – please stop by and say hello if you haven’t already.

Below is our press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Photoshop World – Las Vegas, NV – Friday, September 6, 2013 – C Squared Enterprises, developer of Photosmith for iPad, announced today that it will include native camera raw processing in its photography app for Apple’s iPad.

Native camera raw rendering, which unlocks full-resolution viewing of photos in Photosmith for iPad, is being demonstrated in booth #434, at Photoshop World in Las Vegas September 6, 2013.

“Although Apple’s iOS offers compatibility for viewing certain more-popular camera raw files on iPad, there are some pretty significant gaps, especially when working with older and narrowly-supported digital cameras like Leica,” said Chris Horne, Co-Developer of C Squared. “By creating our own camera raw rendering engine, we are able to support rendering of far more cameras, and offer never-before seen compatibility on iPad for both old and brand new cameras.”

“This is really exciting! We’re adding support for over ten previously unsupported camera raw file types covering hundreds of camera models, all of which can now be viewed in full resolution on iPad,” said Mike Wren, C Squared spokesman and Chief User Advocate. “iPad users will no longer need to rely on, and wait for Apple to push an iOS update to unlock support for brand new cameras. This also opens up a tremendous number of possibilities for photo processing in future versions of Photosmith, right on the iPad.”

Native camera raw rendering is currently undergoing final testing and will be be available in the next version as a free update for all current users. A complete compatibility list of supported cameras will be posted on Photosmith’s website at www.photosmithapp.com.

C Squared released Photosmith version 3 in April, 2013 to universally positive reviews, both in Apple’s App Store and in the tech media. Charlie Sorrel of the popular blog Cult of Mac said in a recent review, “The interface actually makes [adding keyword tags] easier to do in Photosmith than in Lightroom. You can quickly create new tags, make trees or hierarchical tags (People>The Lady) and apply tags to multiple photos at once.”

Photosmith 3 is a free update for all existing users, and is available for a one-time cost of $19.99, or the equivalent local currency.

Contact:
Mike Wren
[email protected]
(518) 288-8873

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Posted in: Current Progress, Development, Marketing | 7 Comments

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