Software How To

For years, anyone serious about photography has viewed Corel Paint Shop Pro (PSP) as the low cost alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Originally developed by a tiny company in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Paint Shop has grown up into a full-featured photo workflow tool with a built-in photo organizer that includes tagging options and fast previewing, an advanced image editor, and handy integration with Flickr and Facebook.

For $70, PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate is a smart addition to a virtual photo toolbox. A few performance problems and some slightly questionable editing capabilities puts PSP in the uncomfortable position of still being in the tall shadow of Adobe. That said, if you want to skip the $700 purchase price, PSP is on the right track.

The idea of loading an image and pushing a button and seeing what happens may be anathema to some photographers, but for certain images where you might want an extra-special touch done easy it might just do the trick.

Photographing tall buildings is often a difficult task that results in a skewed perspective with structures appearing to fall away and vertical lines converging. That’s because we often have to use wide-angle lenses and point the camera upward to capture the entire scene.

We often discuss how to fix distracting backgrounds in outdoor scenes, and one way to do that is by using small apertures to minimize depth of field. Another approach involves blurring the background in post processing. But if you’re looking for a more creative approach, read on.

Today's tutorial from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel demonstrates how easy it is to use a Color Balance adjustment layer in Photoshop to refine colors in outdoor photographs and create a spectacular yet realistic look. Be sure to download the sample Raw file with the link beneath the video so you can follow along and make the changes yourself.

Serge Ramelli is a professional Paris-based landscape photographer who’s always willing to share his “secret sauce” for creating better images. In the tutorial below he provides some great advice on composition, camera settings, and retouching that will definitely improve your results.

You’ve probably noticed there’s been a trend for editing portraits lately that favors a bright, high key look. While there is some visual appeal to processing portraits this way since it gives them an eye-catching, ethereal color palette there are some trade-offs to this method.