ExpressDigital Darkroom 8.9 photography workflow software adds fast digital output, enhanced wireless support, advanced greenscreen and more. “By working closely with professional photographers, conducting extensive photographer surveys and watching industry trends, we gauged the needs of the professional photographer and built a new version of Darkroom to fulfill those needs,” explained Graham McFarland, Founder and CEO of ExpressDigital. ExpressDigital Darkroom v8.9 is available now. The retail prices are as follows: Darkroom Core Edition - $495, Darkroom Professional Edition - $1395, Darkroom Assembly Edition (Plus 6 hours phone training) - $2995, Darkroom Assembly Edition (Plus 2 days on-site training) - $4395. Upgrade pricing is also available.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac will be demoed at Macworld this week and is now available for pre-order. “Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh allows people to organise and find photos quickly, unleash powerful editing tricks without any heavy lifting, and creatively share photos that give them all the bragging rights.” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe. Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac will cost £55 in the UK and will be available in early Q2 2008.

Photo Explorations: Infrared Effects



The infrared photography process uses special film that is sensitive to infrared light rays that exist outside the visual spectrum, in addition to visual light frequencies. Although the visual light spectrum records to the film in a standard way, the light in the infrared spectrum also records to the film, augmenting the final image design.

Photo Explorations: Image Panoramas



Great panoramas in Photoshop start with great source images. The rolling hills and azure skies of Tuscany just scream for an image that extends horizontally, taking in the full field of vision.

Photo Explorations: Shift Depth of Field



There was a time when creating extreme depth of field effects was a task reserved for view cameras with ground-glass viewing backs that could tilt and swivel to throw various sections of the image out of focus. This was important because controlling focus (or the lack thereof) was a great way to emphasize objects or specific sections of the frame.

Photo Explorations: Custom Black and White Conversions



Photoshop offers lots of options for converting photos from color to black and white. For example, you can use the Desaturate, the Convert to Grayscale, or the Hue/Saturation command to create a black-and-white image, but these options by themselves offer very little control over how the colors in the image are converted to black and white.

Photo Explorations: Dramatic Shadows



You should think about adding dramatic shadows to a photo when you want to create an emotional edge or emphasize a specific area or feature of the subject. You might want to create deep shadows that obscure certain details in darkness, or create pools of light that spotlight an area. When adding dramatic shadows, it's also likely that you'll sharpen or blur certain areas in conjunction with the lightness and darkness.

Working with Raw Files: Tagging Files



The next step in the raw workflow is tagging your images for future editing. Using keywords that make sense to you and using the rating features in your image browser will help you quickly locate the files you want to convert

The problem some people face is that they don't fully understand photographic lighting and therefore can't build a good mental picture ahead of time of how the final shadow on the image should look. Before doing any retouching, you should have a clear mental picture of the final outcome before you even start to alter the image. Otherwise, you risk failing to create the final look you're after. It's like making a movieyou don't film anything that just happens to come by, but create a storyboard before any shooting takes place so that you know the shots you'll need in advance.

I enjoy doing retouching especially when the job is really challenging. Making the impossible possible. But most of my day is spent doing routine work, the bread and butter stuff, so at the end of the day it is actually a job. If you were having fun all the time, it would be called a holiday! The following sections cover some of my basic observations about the profession.

First, let's get familiar with the relationships. If you work as a photographer, either in an ad agency or a small design house, you may deal directly with the client who is going to approve your work. If you work for a pre-press or film house, you typically deal with the client indirectly, through a coordinator and a sales person. In this case, there will be an account representative who acts as the liaison between the film house and the client or agency. That representative interprets the client's instructions and relays that information to an internal production coordinator at the film house.

I'll start this article by telling you how I set up my workspace and how I get comfortable at my workstation. Being comfortable is very important, especially when you retouch for long hours. I have had some 16-hour days in my career. That's a lot of time on the mouse! And after nearly 20 years of retouching, I haven't ever had any neck, back, or arm ailments, including carpal tunnel syndrome.

Shooting Sports Like a Pro: Set Your White Balance for Indoor Sports



If you're going to be shooting sports indoors, you can count on your photos having a yellow or green tint, caused by the indoor lighting used at most indoor events. You can save yourself a lot of Photoshop editing down the road if you change your white balance to either Fluorescent or Tungsten/Incandescent now, in the camera.

Shooting Flowers Like a Pro: Don't Shoot Down on Flowers



On an average day, if you were to walk by some wildflowers in a field, or along a path in a garden, you'd be looking down at these flowers growing out of the ground, right? That's why, if you shoot flowers from a standing position, looking down at them like we always do, your flower shots will look very, well...average. If you want to create flower shots with some serious visual interest, you have to shoot them from an angle we don't see every day.

Basics to Remember When Deciding Which Digital Camera is Right for You.
With so many models and features to choose from, first-time purchasers of digital cameras have a tendency to make one of several mistakes:

1. First-time purchasers have a tendency to ‘over-buy.’
2. First-time purchasers have a tendency to make selection based on visual appeal alone.
3. First-time purchasers have a tendency to make selection based on name brand alone.
4. First-time purchasers have a tendency to make selection based on price alone.