LightZone for Linux

LightZone er et av de få programmene som hele tiden har vært dedikert for brukt til digitale fotografier. Undertegnede har i alle fall latt seg begeistre over hvordan Lightzone fungerer, samtidig som hele programmet gir inntrykk av å være "skrudd" skikkelig sammen.

Nå er det mer grunn til begeistring i og med at Lightzone nå kommer for alle de store operativsystemene: Windows, OS X, og Linux. Skal tro om Adobe svarer på utfordringen og kommer med en Linux-versjon av Photoshop? Nå ja, selv om Lightzone på mange måter banker Photoshop skal det nok mer til for å få markedslederen ned fra gjerdet.

Light Crafts Press Release:

LightZone First Professional Photo Editor for Linux Users

Free Linux Beta Version of Award-Winning LightZone Software Now Available

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - December 18, 2007) - Light Crafts, today announced immediate availability of a Linux version of its award-winning LightZone™ photo-editing software. With this open beta release, Linux users now have all the powerful LightZone tools for editing, enhancing and improving digital photos that Windows and Mac users have, including the innovative ZoneMapper and Re-Light tools. LightZone is the first and only application of its kind spanning all three major platforms. The 3.3B beta version of LightZone for Linux is free and available for download at http://www.lightcrafts.com/linux .

Every photo can be improved using LightZone regardless of camera type—from cell phone cameras, to point and click, to D-SLRs. It’s quick to learn, fast to apply and can eliminate certain repeatable tasks like red eye and back lighting. LightZone also retains the original image as well so the user is free to create as many photo variations as needed without taking up significant storage space.

Digital Editing using the Zone System
Linux users will now enjoy access to LightZone’s ZoneMapper and Zone Tools, which enable digital photographers to easily apply the powerful Zone System™, developed by Ansel Adams in 1941, to produce photos with exceptional exposure and tonal ranges. While in the past, the Zone System may have required considerable effort and skill working directly with film negatives, LightZone’s new digital photography Zone Tools effortlessly achieves the same results with no special skills. These new tools include the Zone Mapper Tool, which helps users find similar exposure areas within a photo, and the Zone Tool, which adjusts these tonal groups to desired levels.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Images
Linux users will especially enjoy access to the new LightZone Relight Tool which recaptures the High Dynamic Range (HDR) images they visualized when originally taking the photograph. Normally, limitations of digital camera sensors, display monitors and printers prevent capturing, rendering, displaying or printing such wide dynamic ranges. Other HDR technologies require multiple exposures or special purpose camera settings. Not so with LightZone.

LightZone Re-Light Tool creates HDR images from a single exposure
In contrast, with just a click the LightZone Relight Tool reveals hidden HDR detail in both the highlights and the shadows, using just a single exposure. For instance, you’ll see both saturated colors of a sunset and bright detail in the face of a back lit subject that was formerly lost. Achieving such stunning results from a single exposure without LightZone would require multiple flashes, reflectors and shades at the time the photograph—if it could be possible at all.

Light Crafts’ commitment to Linux, Mac and Windows
“The Linux release is our latest initiative to make LightZone available to as many users on as many operating systems as possible. Light Crafts serves a diverse Linux community consisting of many creative individuals who want the same high quality, robustness and powerful commercial photo-editing tools that are available for Windows and Mac users,” said Fabio Riccardi, CEO, Light Crafts. “With LightZone for Linux, we can provide even more photographers with easy-to-use and innovative software.

The new Linux version has been internally tested on such popular distributions as Ubuntu, Red Hat and Debian, with others planned.

Free Beta Version Available immediately
The beta version of LightZone Linux is available for a free download at http://www.lightcrafts.com/linux

About Light Crafts
Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Light Crafts’ patent-pending image processing technology powers LightZone’s suite of intelligent tools enabling a new level of productivity and artistic freedom for enhancing, editing and transforming digital photographs. LightZone photo editing software enables photographers of all experience levels to quickly and efficiently bring out the best exposure and lighting qualities of any digital photo. For more information about Light Crafts, please visit their website, http://www.lightcrafts.com.

LightZone Linux