Eastman Kodak Company is also announcing an update to the DIGITAL SHO Professional Plug-In that will now support 16-bit color images. The update is free to all existing owners of the plug-in. As in the past, owners of the standard DIGITAL SHO Plug-In can upgrade to the new professional version for 50% off or $49.95US ( normal price $99.95US ).

The DIGITAL SHO Professional Plug-In enables users to automatically optimize the contrast and exposure of an image to reveal details hidden in shadow or dark areas, as well as details hidden in highlights or bright areas. Users can easily make further adjustments to highlight and shadow detail levels independently and can also control the threshold which defines how much of the overall image is shadow information and how much is highlight. With the new support for 16-bit, digital camera and film scanner users can take advantage of the extra color information from their original high bit depth captures while using the professional plug-in.

DIGITAL SHO Professional Plug-In automatically increases the color saturation of the image data that is lightened or darkened and provides a slider control to manually adjust the saturation level. Users can also select the source of their images, film or digital, for enhanced results.

“These new Actions will empower our customers to create new and beautiful effects with our professional plug-ins,” said Wayne Galella, Director, Kodak’s Austin Development Center. “We will continue to develop and make available more Actions in the future. We also plan to continue the no charge improvements to our existing plug-ins like adding 16-bit capability to the DIGITAL SHO Professional Plug-In. We believe in adding value while creating exciting new plug-in applications for automatic image enhancement.”

The free Actions, the new DIGITAL SHO Professional Plug-in upgrade, and trial versions of all the plug-ins are available for download at www.asf.com. The fully functional trial versions of the plug-ins apply digital watermarks to the resulting images. To disable the watermark, users may purchase a software key via a secure, e-commerce site. Plug-in product CD-ROMs are also available for purchase at www.asf.com. The special, limited-time offer for existing DIGITAL SHO Plug-In owners to purchase the newly updated, Professional version for only $49.95 will be available until 6/01/05, use offer code SHODISC5 to take advantage of the existing DIGITAL SHO Plug-In owners special offer.

KODAK, DIGITAL GEM, DIGITAL ROC, and DIGITAL SHO are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company. All other trade names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Source: i-Newswire