News from Microsoft’s Pro Photo Summit

At Microsoft’s third annual Pro Photo Summit, held earlier this summer in Redmond, Wash., some of my favorite parts were the “Five Minutes to Wow” segments. Basically, each presenter had five minutes to demonstrate a product or technology and elicit a “wow” from the audience.

The presenters were from Microsoft’s research group and from several other companies, and they showed some pretty amazing things. Multigigapixel images; 3-D models of landscapes and cities constructed from hundreds of images; a new image file format; new and better techniques for sharpening images – all these and much more were presented during the two-day summit...

YouSendIt has announced a new plug-in for Adobe's Photoshop. The YouSendIt plug-in allows designers to efficiently send files of any size directly from Photoshop. The plug-in is available for Photoshop CS2 and CS3 for Windows.
Eliminating the need for photographers and designers to struggle with FTP transfers, the plug-in lets the user burn a CD to mail to an overnight courier and eliminates e-mail bounce-backs from attachments that are larger than recipient networks usually allow.

Files sent through YouSendIt are secure and can be tracked with assured delivery and a receipt. The plug-in can be conveniently downloaded directly from the YouSendIt web site. Previously, YouSendIt released a direct-delivery plug-in for Apple Aperture. YouSendIt also offers beta versions of plug-ins that allow a user to send files directly from Microsoft Outlook and CorelDRAW.

As part of an aggressive growth strategy, OnRequest Images, a provider of custom imagery, recently opened new offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas.

Cindy Lee, a creative services director with more than 20 years of experience, has been hired as the senior account executive for the San Francisco office. Michele Fleury, a producer and photographer with more than a decade of experience, will serve as the senior producer in the Los Angeles office. Steve Klekamp, who also has more than 20 years of creative and photography business..

Microsoft has teamed with Fuji Photo Film USA to connect digital photographers with retailers for convenient printing of digital pictures. Fujifilm's Get the Picture Online service is now accessible through the Windows XP Online Print Wizard, MSN Photos and Microsoft Digital Image Suite. This will allow consumers to order professionally processed digital prints directly from a Windows XP-based PC for pickup in as little as an hour at participating Fujifilm retail photo centers, including those at Sam's Club, Ritz Camera Centers and Wolf Camera.

Once a photo or group of photos is selected on the Windows XP desktop, consumers can click on the Order Prints Online icon and elect to pick up their prints at the photo center of their choice or have them mailed to their homes. Pickup locations are chosen via...