Beyond Color Control – Color Efects
The image color is great, but if an image fails to convey the mood or emotion, the story behind the image falls flat. One of the filters in Color EfexPro 3.0 may be just the tool for adding just the right effect to enhance the image’s story power.
Nik Software’s U [...]

Consider Black and White
Not every photo looks its best in color.  Some images just look better in black and white.  Similarly, some stories demand dramatic black and white images.  The drama and contrast of a snow or desert scene is often highlighted in black and white.

Nik Software’s U Point® control points in Silver Efex Pro [...]

Digital Noise Tamed
Digital noise is inherent in digital images, much like grain is inherent in film images.  Sometimes, digital noise can enhance the mood of the image, and helps set the stage for the story behind the image.  More often, however, noise distracts the viewer from the subject and the story.  If the noise is [...]

Keeping the Subject Sharp
Does a busy background distract the eye from a photo’s subject and confuse the communicated story? If blurring a busy background makes the subject “pop” and enhances the story, try Alien Skin’s Bokeh.

Visual Defects in Images
What do you do with images that show scratches, dust, spots, pimples, wrinkles, or even the dreaded ex. Get Alien Skin’s Image Doctor 2.0. This Photoshop plug-in provides a set of five cool filters that clean up visual defects in digital images.

If a painted image tells your story better than digital pixels, Alien Skin’s Snap Art 2.0 is just the tool to convert photos to an image with that hand crafted look. Students, teachers, marketing and web designers can experience a variety of painting styles, with just a click of the mouse using Snap Art 2.0.

Photos Just Keep Getting Sharper
Adobe has some great products, and I’ve enjoyed reviewing a number of their applications (Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 1 & 2, Acrobat 8).
For photography classes, or plain photo buffs, Adobe just released Photoshop Camera Raw 5.5, Photoshop Lightroom 2.5 and DNG Converter 5.5, available immediately for download at Adobe Updates.

Press release from Adobe.
“Adobe is introducing Photoshop Marketplace to its customers, connecting them directly to the Photoshop community and helping extend the value of their Adobe software purchase. Photoshop Marketplace is a centralized hub on Adobe.com where visitors can find the most up-to-date listing of Photoshop resources including products, tools, services, communities and events.

Here’s a press release from Adobe.
Adobe has released its Photoshop Camera Raw 5.4 Release Candidate, available immediately as a free download from Adobe Labs at labs.adobe.com. The “release candidate” label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all customers.

Great Tool for High Dynamic Range Imaging
Sometimes it takes more than one photograph to create that perfect image.  High dynamic range imaging (HDR or HDRI) has increasingly been used to improve the apparent dynamic range of digital photographs, or make the photo look closer to what you see.  And Photoshop CS4 Extended offers detailed tools [...]