Silver Efex Pro

For fans of Nik Software’s intuitive U Point-powered Control Point technology, creating black-and-white images is made easier with Silver Efex Pro.

By The Editors

For fans of Nik Software’s intuitive U Point-powered Control Point technology, creating black-and-white images is made easier with Silver Efex Pro. If you’re new to Nik Software, Control Points let you apply adjustments selectively to particular areas of an image without needing to create complicated, sometimes time-consuming layer masks. With Silver... Read more

Buyer’s Guide 2009: Software Plug-Ins

Plug-ins are one of the best tools photographers have in the digital darkroom.

By Ibarionex R. Perello

Plug-ins are one of the best tools photographers have in the digital darkroom. They extend the power of our primary photo application—some by adding new functionality and others by making complicated adjustments much faster and more intuitive. There’s a plug-in for just about every essential task, from color correction and noise reduction to... Read more

Buyer's Guide 2009: Online Sharing & Services

What’s the best way to share, print and store your digital images? For millions of photographers—from casual shooters to pros—the answer can be summed up in one word: online.

By Jon Sienkiewicz

What’s the best way to share, print and store your digital images? For millions of photographers—from casual shooters to pros—the answer can be summed up in one word: online. Over the past 10 years, web-based photo services have honed their skills and become an essential part of many photographers’ workflow. Even pros who routinely perform... Read more

Tiffen Dfx Digital Filter Suite

Known for its glass optical filters, Tiffen has taken some of its most popular filters and translated them into digital equivalents.

By Kim Castleberry

Known for its glass optical filters, Tiffen has taken some of its most popular filters and translated them into digital equivalents. Tiffen’s Dfx Digital Filter Suite offers an enormous array of options for postprocessing creativity. And this suite of tools goes far beyond approximating common glass filters—you can simulate up to 1,000 different... Read more

Short Report: The Perfect Cut

The technique of masking usually involves neck-straining precision and a tedious amount of time refining your edges to get the perfect outline.

By Adam Crawford

The technique of masking usually involves neck-straining precision and a tedious amount of time refining your edges to get the perfect outline. This requires a variety of brushes or selection tools and loads of time to get right. That’s where software like Vertus Fluid Mask 3 can drastically cut down on the time you spend masking. Get Fluid ... Read more

First Look: Nik Viveza

By Wes Pitts

Fans of Nik Software’s intuitive U-Point technology (which is everybody who has used it in applications like Color Efex Pro or Capture NX) are in for a big, happy surprise with Nik Software’s newest application, Viveza. If you’re not familiar with U-Point powered Control Points, they allow you to apply adjustments selectively to particular... Read more

Trade Tricks: In The Dark

Digital noise is perhaps the Achilles heel of digital photography, but it doesn’t have to be. Noise happens when not enough light reaches the image sensor.

By The Editors, Photography By Adam Crawford

Digital noise is perhaps the Achilles heel of digital photography, but it doesn’t have to be. Noise happens when not enough light reaches the image sensor. The less light that falls on the sensor, the more noise will be found in your photos; higher ISO settings may exacerbate the problem. There are ways to mitigate and correct for digital noise.... Read more

First Look: Aperture 2

By Wes Pitts

If you’re a Mac user, there’s a lot to like about Aperture, and its version 2 includes new features that greatly improve the efficiency and capabilities of this powerful imaging application—all at a new, lower price of $199. There are more than 100 new features, but we’ve focused on some of the more important changes that make this... Read more

Trade Tricks: Color Harmony

The path to getting a better print starts with a color-managed workflow.

By Adam Crawford

The path to getting a better print starts with a color-managed workflow. Calibrating your monitor is an important first step, but for the ultimate in control, you’ll also want to create ICC profiles for your printer. An ICC profile is a small data file that tells devices how to interpret each other’s data. Since no two devices (i.e.,... Read more

Photo Finish

By Adam Crawford

Fine-art effects can add a lot of visual excitement to your photography, but mastering the illustration tools to achieve those effects can take a lot of time and practice. That’s where creative software filters and effects can be a terrific help. The Photographer’s Edge Library from Graphic Authority—a set of DVDs with more than 185 custom... Read more

Buyer's Guide 2008: Software Plug-Ins

While you can do just about anything to an image with Photoshop, some tasks can be fairly labor-intensive or tricky to accomplish unless you know exactly what to do.

By Dave Willis

While you can do just about anything to an image with Photoshop, some tasks can be fairly labor-intensive or tricky to accomplish unless you know exactly what to do. Plug-ins are applications that extend the capabilities of Photoshop, most often by providing a more automated, simplified approach to an otherwise complex Photoshop task. They typically... Read more

First Look: Photoshop CS3 Beta

By The Editors

The long-awaited upgrade to Photoshop CS2 is finally on the way, which is especially great news for Mac users, as Photoshop CS3 will run natively on the latest Intel-based Mac systems. For Windows users, it’s ready for Vista, too. The official release of CS3 is coming soon, but in the meantime, get an early look at the upgrade by downloading... Read more

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