onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced a free, Lite version of PhotoTools 2 Standard Edtion. PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition is a flexible yet powerful plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® CS2, CS3 and CS4 that utilizes the power of Photoshop Actions to provide a range of imaging tools including effects, corrections and production automation in a full-featured interface.

Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 have graduated from Adobe Labs and are now available as final releases on Adobe.com. These updates include camera support for the following models:(Previously provided in the release candidates of these updates)

Focal Point is OneOne Software’s newest Photoshop plug-in that allows you to create images with selective focus and edge vignette effects. Using these techniques you can guide the viewer’s eye to the spot in the image that you want them to look at. Using an easy to use “focus bug” you can control the sweet spot, the amount and kind of blur. These types of effects have only been possible with expensive specialty lenses before. Does Focal Point deliver on the goods? We decided to try it out for ourselves and see what we thought about it.

MELVILLE, N.Y. (Nov. 30, 2008) – Nikon Inc. today announced the D3X, an FX-format digital SLR featuring extreme 24.5-megapixel resolution and superb low-noise capabilities, which provides professional photographers with commercial-quality image performance in a familiar and extraordinarily versatile D-SLR form factor. In conjunction with the groundbreaking Nikon FX-format D3, the D3X tops off a collection of flagship level, rugged, professional caliber digital single lens reflex cameras engineered to excel in all types of professional photographic disciplines from photojournalism and sideline sports, to commercial in-studio applications.

We are beginning a series we are going to call photography basics to help explore the basics of digital photography. While the focus is on digital photography, all of the concepts will apply whether you are shooting film or digital. In this first installment we are going to look at how to control exposure by manipulating the different settings on the camera such as ISO, Shutter, and Aperture. Upcoming installments will focus on other areas such as depth of field, motion control, and specific shooting scenarios.

Let’s face it, Adobe seriously dropped the ball on watermarking within Lightroom. Many of us got hints about potential new watermarking features for Lightroom 2.0 but were disappointed when there was nothing added. For many of us, Lightroom is the tool that we use for 90%+ of our workflow including prepping images for use on the web so the last thing we want to do is run some action in Photoshop or have to run an additional application to apply watermarks which reduces the image quality because the jpeg image has to be saved a second time.

It seems like we just got into our groove with Photoshop CS3 and now CS4 is out and everyone is wondering if its really a signifigant upgrade or not. I just spent the day with the folks from Adobe to get a deep dive into the entire CS4 family and let me just say, one day was not nearly enough time to learn about everything. There are very cool changes in virtually every product in the entire suite. Today we are going to go deep into Photoshop CS4 and find out what some of the new features are and try to explain in layman’s terms what each of the new features can do for you.

Move over Nikon with your piddly 780p D-Movie, Canon attacks back with a consumer grade camera that can do 1080p! The new SX10 IS features a 10 megapixel CMOS sensor, face detection, motion detection, and a plethora of outstanding features.

While today’s cameras do a pretty good job when in fully automatic mode, in order to make the most of your camera you should learn how to use your camera on the manual setting. To go full manual you will need to have an understanding of shutter speed, aperture settings, and ISO speed. In this article we will get you going and get you shooting like a pro.