There’s no question that some interesting technology is coming down the pipe to help produce the perfect photo. First off is the Israeli ‘beauty button’ which makes faces in digital images appear more attractive quickly and easily. Weird stuff? You bet. I fully expect to see an ‘instant Photoshop’ button appear on cameras and/or image editing software before the decade is out. It’s inevitable really, isn’t it?

Slightly less controversial is the ‘blur remover’ tech, which was demonstrated recently at Siggraph. It’s still early prototype as yet – each image requires 10 to 15 minutes processing – but hey, it’s a start, and again as inevitable as red eye removers and image stabilizers.

 Image processing is a big business, and compensating for human and camera error is a significant part of this. Image-editing software products, and even some cameras, can routinely remove red-eye problems caused by flash photography. A big selling point in new cameras is technology to counteract the unsteady hands of photographers as the photo is being taken.