In the strictest technical terms, Color Efex Pro 3.0 may be a compatible plug-in but in reality it's an imaging environment that clings remora-like to Adobe's Photoshop, extending its capabilities and allowing you to produce incredible effects in little time. In that respect, Color Efex Pro 3.0 becomes a major productivity tool as well.

Interface...

In a world of oversaturated color, I’m always surprised at the popularity of black and white images. There is something magical about a well-crafted image in monochrome that is more expressive than any color image could ever be. In fact, it was black and white that first interested me in photography. So, with digital photography, I’ve often done black and white conversions with a...

The original Nikon Capture NX could be compared to a four-cylinder vehicle: it would take you where you wanted to go when it came to raw conversion of Nikon NEF files, but it wasn’t the best ride for image editing. Compared to that, the newly released Capture NX 2 can be described as a six-cylinder roadster—sleek, yet powerful enough for a long drive. The additions and changes add...

Noise in digital photographs is the visual equivalent of the static you hear in AM radio signals and the unvarnished truth is that most digital cameras add some level of noise to image files.

You don’t need a back-up drive, you need a back-up plan. Backing up image data is an attitude, not an accessory. I preach the Three Rs of File Safety; to be effective, your back-up storage solution must be Regular, Reliable, and Redundant.

High-capacity external hard drives cost less than a steak dinner these days. And you can buy a name brand 4x...

The onOne workspace contains toolbars on the left and modifications and working options on the right, #1. Once you have selected an image or images from an organizer such as the Library in Lightroom, they load as separate Layers in the center screen. You choose the images to be used by selecting them from the Library or Browser, then going to File>Plug-In Extras>Perfect Layers. Here’s the selection process shown in Lightroom 3, #2.

The onOne FocalPoint 2 plug-in software offers you a powerful option to speed and simplify the process of controlling focus “post exposure.”...