My Digital Photography

As with all the other components of Adobe’s Creative Suite of programs, the CS4 version of Bridge features a host of refinements. One of my favorites is the Review mode that provides an exciting new way to view your images and pick out the very best from a selection of similar shots….

Continue Reading New Review Mode in Adobe Bridge CS4

Adobe has made enhancements both big and small throughout Photoshop with the release of the new CS4 version. The changes in the area of color management aren’t earth shattering, but they will make your life easier if you know about them….

Continue Reading Color Management Changes in Photoshop CS4

It’s hard to capture the range of brightness and the diversity of color found in the natural world. That’s why masks are such a useful tool for optimizing images in Photoshop. And now Photoshop CS4 makes working with masks easier than ever with the introduction of the new Masks Panel….

Continue Reading The Photoshop CS4 Masks Panel: Another Great Innovation

I’m sometimes asked what the best aperture is for a given lens. The problem is though that lenses tend to have adjustable apertures for a reason. Not every situation calls for the same settings. The lens itself is but one factor….

Continue Reading What is the Best Aperture to Use?

In the beginning, Photoshop was just Photoshop    there were no “editions” and there were no “suites.” The introduction of Photoshop CS gave us a handful of “Creative Suite” options a few years back now and as of CS3 Adobe split Photoshop itself into the Standard and Extended editions. CS4 continues that pattern making the upgrade options less than simple for many of us….

Continue Reading Choices, Choices: Photoshop CS4 Standard versus Extended versus the Creative Suite Options

Upgrading versions of Photoshop isn’t cheap and some people may be wondering whether skipping a release might be a good way to save money. If you’ve been trying to decide whether to spring for the CS4 upgrade I’d advise you to carefully review the new features on Adobe’s website. But one new feature that is hard to fully appreciate without seeing it in action is the use GPU and OpenGL acceleration to speed up screen redraws….

Continue Reading GPU Acceleration: A Killer Reason to Upgrade to CS4

Way back when, Photoshop came with printed manuals. Once we got to the Creative Suite days, the standalone version of Photoshop still included one, but the suite versions dispensed with printed manuals and included only a PDF file of the relevant documentation. If you’ve upgraded to one of the CS4 suites, you’ve no doubt noticed even that is gone, replaced only with links to Adobe’s website. If you long to have a real manual again, there is an answer….

Continue Reading The Missing Photoshop Help Manuals

Some topics in digital imaging seem to create more confusion than others. The use of in camera sharpening is definitely one such topic. In the end, it comes down to what you shoot and how experienced you are, and the best choice for one person may not be the best for someone else….

Continue Reading In Camera Sharpening: The Case For and Against

From time to time the question comes up of whether or not the use of Photoshop and similar image editing programs means that digital photography isn’t “real” photography anymore. While Photoshop is a great tool to help overcome the limitations of the photographic process, it can also be used to change just about anything if you want to. So in order to answer the question, I guess it all depends on where you draw the line….

Continue Reading Digital Editing: Where Do You Draw The Line?

When saving an image as a TIFF file in Photoshop, you have to pick whether you want to use IBM PC or Macintosh byte order. While you might think your choice would depend on which platform you use, such is not really the case….

Continue Reading TIFF Byte Order: Mac or PC?