Melville, NY—To help photographers boost their business and productivity, while building trust and customer confidence, Canon USA introduced the beta version of its first photographer matching service. The Image Connect service aids in making the process of finding and hiring a trustworthy photographer simpler.
In addition, the company launched a Photo Culling plug-in for Adobe Lightroom Classic to support the workflow needs of photographers. Both services will launch in Q1 2020. 
“With a deep-rooted heritage in imaging expertise, our company has built a trusted reputation in providing tools and services to professional photographers that help better their craft and support them in building their business with confidence,” said Kazuto Ogawa, president and chief operating officer, Canon USA, Inc. “Services, such as Image Connect, will provide professional photographers with a great value proposition; offering reliability and peace of mind for their customers that can in turn increase their business opportunities as well as their productivity.”
Canon Image Connect
Image Connect is a new photographer matching service offered through the RAISE photo community platform. The service connects customers with professional photographers, so that the customer can focus on the moment while the photographer captures it. Moreover, the new service is brand agnostic; it opens up the portal for all photographers no matter the brand of equipment they use.
In addition, the beta version of the service will launch in a limited number of markets. Initially, those markets will include Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Moreover, at the outset, Image Connect will focus on family events like newborn portraits; birthday parties; family portraits; religious events; as well as wedding engagements.
Through the platform, customers can provide basic details for the job, such as event type, location, as well as date. The platform then matches photographers with the customer. Customers review photographer profiles and invite those they like to bid on the job.
Furthermore, photographers can create an offer that allows them to set their own price (rather than adhering to standardized pricing). Image Connect will enable them to communicate their rates and value to potential customers. Clients book the job through the platform after an offer is accepted. Images are delivered electronically to the customers through a Canon customer portal.
Photo Culling Plug-in
Additionally, Canon debuted a Photo Culling plug-in. Powered by the Canon Computer Vision AI engine, the new plug-in for Adobe Lightroom Classic can save photographers hours in postproduction. They can use technical models to cull for image sharpness, noise, exposure, contrast, closed eyes and also red eyes. 
Further, analyzed images are flagged with different colored flags to remain true to the native Adobe Lightroom Classic experience. The photographer also has the ability to customize the settings within each technical model to remain in control.
Canon’s new Photo Culling plug-in will launch exclusively on the Adobe Exchange App Marketplace for a monthly subscription.
I registered as a photographer with Image Connect, they said my portfolio was approved, they sent me a link for the background check, and then the link opened a new page with a message that read Invitation Expired. I tried emailing the Image Connect Team about this, but no one ever responded.