LightZone Delivers the Most Significant Advance in Windows-Based Photo Editing in More Than a Decade

Palo Alto, CA -- February 23, 2006 -- Light Crafts, Inc. today announced that the Microsoft Windows version of its award-winning photo editing software - LightZone™ - is now available. Designed and built from the ground up for professionals and other serious photographers, LightZone for Windows is available as a free 30-day trial at www.lightcrafts.com.

Light Crafts also announced its Charter Customer Program. Customers who purchase and register any version of LightZone by March 31, 2006, will receive lifetime upgrades at no charge.

LightZone, which recently received a "Best of Show" award at the 2006 Macworld Expo, provides a better way to edit and correct digital photographs and create stunning photographic and fine art prints. With LightZone, a digital photograph can be developed and edited using light values and shapes in a true non-destructive editing environment. LightZone's breakthrough patent-pending technology helps serious photographers achieve professional results and is easy and intuitive to use.

"With LightZone, Windows users now have access to the easiest-to-use, professional grade photo editing software in the industry," said Dean Tucker, CEO and president of Light Crafts. "Designed for serious photographers who want to spend more time on photography and less time learning and using tedious editing software, LightZone gives photographers more time to focus on their creativity."

Photographers Praise LightZone

"LightZone has created a new paradigm for photo editing, one that is more intuitive and easier to learn than other photo editors on the market," said David Cardinal, principal of Cardinal Photo (http://www.cardinalphoto.com). "Their ZoneFinder and ZoneMapper are�intuitive to use easy to teach tone correction tools that are way ahead of other products. I also love being able to have several different renderings of an image without saving huge bitmap copies for each one."

"There's no doubt that LightZone is changing the rules of the game in photography," said Thomas Tworek, nature photographer and principal of Gold Coast Galleries (http://www.goldcoastgalleries.com). "Its simplicity, its photography metaphor design, its consistent color and predictable results are all part of making my images better, faster. And because it lets me experiment with my edits without having to review the entire history of those edits, LightZone encourages me to take chances without penalizing me."

"Finally, we have an image editing program designed for photographers," said Brad Hinkel, an experimental photographer and photography instructor (www.bradhinkel.com ). "LightZone provides tools for quickly and intuitively creating excellent images. It uses a natural image editing workflow that is easy to learn and fun to use."

Integrated Solution Optimizes Photo Editing, Workflow and Output

LightZone provides serious photographers with a tightly integrated editing environment to help them make the most efficient use of their time editing, correcting and printing their photographs.

Key features in LightZone include:

ZoneFinder. Using patent-pending technology, ZoneFinder™ analyzes and displays an image in shapes and tonal values, just as photographers pre-visualize their prints.

ZoneMapper. ZoneMapper™ provides an easier way to control and adjust the light and tonal values of an image. ZoneMapper is the most powerful way to precisely remap tonal values for color correction, to set the optimal points for highlights and shadows, and to correct contrast.

RegionMapper. RegionMapper™ simplifies selecting even the most complicated regions of an image and it expertly blends the effects of the tools and transformations with the rest of the image. This simple technique provides extraordinarily precise and accurate control of the area being edited.

StudioZone. An innovative image viewer and file browser, StudioZone™ lets photographers view, print and publish their photographs using a true digital negative format. A powerful search function, with metadata search, helps you find specific images in an instant. An integrated RAW converter provides a seamless transition from camera media to LightZone.

True Non-Destructive Editing. LightZone's non-destructive image processing engine does not alter any portion of the original image file, so photographers can modify or delete changes at any point in their workflow. Transformations made to the photograph are saved in a way that tells the application how to display or print the modified photograph. Now photographers can create multiple versions of an image without duplicating files or using up large amounts of hard drive space.

Linear color space. LightZone works in linear color space instead of a gamma-corrected color space, allowing more precise calculations for consistent color and predictable results on a display or on paper.

Pricing and Availability

LightZone is available for Windows and Mac OS X immediately at www.lightcrafts.com for $249.95 (U.S. Suggested List Price) as well as other software retail locations. LightZone for Mac OS X can also be purchased at Apple Stores. Customers also have the option of downloading a free 30-day trial version. LightZone for Windows supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP. LightZone for Mac OS X supports Mac OS X v.10.3.9 or later.

About Light Crafts, Inc.

Light Crafts, based in Palo Alto, develops digital photo processing software for professional and prosumer photographers. For more information, visit www.lightcrafts.com.