June 7, 2010 – 9:31 am | 2 Comments

A long time ago, in a world that only used film, a lens was developed to see the whole sky. Cloud studies for meteorological use prompted the invention of the fisheye lens. It wasn’t long …

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Review: ART TEXT v2.2.2 by Belight Software
July 28, 2010 – 7:45 am | One Comment
Review: ART TEXT v2.2.2 by Belight Software

Editor’s Note:  Wouldn’t you know? Just as we released this article, a newer 2.3 version with a vector editor has been released. Dr. Roach will review it at a later date.
Back in April, 2009 I …

Lighting On A Budget – Pt. 2
September 22, 2009 – 7:19 am | One Comment
Lighting On A Budget – Pt. 2

My 6-light CFL fixture worked well in the studio, but I wanted more light and the option to add a light modifier.  I decided to move up to 3” …

Topaz Labs DeNoise: Another Winning Photoshop Plugin
June 1, 2009 – 8:39 am | 3 Comments
Topaz Labs DeNoise: Another Winning Photoshop Plugin

UPDATE: Dr. Roach reviews the latest release of DeNoise here
A few weeks back I wrote about TopazLabs application TopazAdjust3, and I liked it so well that it obviously influenced me to …

Illustrator CS4: Gradient Reflection & Glossy Surface
March 4, 2009 – 8:45 am | 12 Comments
Illustrator CS4: Gradient Reflection & Glossy Surface

Making transparent gradients in Illustrator have become much easier with the new Gradient Annotator, a new tool in Adobe’s Illustrator CS4. It is now possible to define the opacity if individual color stops in a …

Pixelmator: The Manual
February 5, 2009 – 7:47 am | No Comment
Pixelmator: The Manual

There are some basic functions I wanted to cover before exploring Pixelmator as a tool for Photographers. I intended to publish an introduction to the gradient palette today. However, before moving forward, I thought I …

Pixelmator: Creating a Clipping Mask
January 28, 2009 – 9:25 am | 2 Comments
Pixelmator: Creating a Clipping Mask

Not to be confused with a quick mask, a clipping mask is in fact a series of layers; the dynamic between the base layer and the layers above it define the image that will be revealed. Various …

Getting Started in Adobe Illustrator’s Livetrace
January 8, 2009 – 7:57 am | 4 Comments
Getting Started in Adobe Illustrator’s Livetrace

One gazillion years ago (I call it 1989) I used a rather nifty application called Adobe Streamline.  It had the ability to convert pixel-based bitmapped images into a vector graphic image.
But why would you need …

Prometheus to the Cave Man and Now Igniting Ingenuity
November 12, 2008 – 1:50 pm | One Comment
Prometheus to the Cave Man and Now Igniting Ingenuity

At the beginning of the Disney movie Ratatouille, the main character, a small rat, says there is something interesting about humans:  “they don’t just survive; they discover; they create.”  The young child, cave woman, adult, …

ImageWell
February 28, 2008 – 5:04 pm | 4 Comments
ImageWell

Free is good for about anything!  A well-made, extremely usable, and still free application is incredible!  Check out Xtralean’s website and navigate to IMAGEWELL.
First of all it’s available in fifteen different languages and…but what does …

Green Volcano’s Photon
February 7, 2008 – 4:41 pm | No Comment
Green Volcano’s Photon

Green Volcano has announced Photon 1.0.2, a digital image viewing and sorting application for Mac OS X. Photon has an intuitive interface based upon a stacks analogy to allow the user to quickly scan …

Elgato Systems’ EyeTV Hybrid
December 28, 2007 – 6:23 am | No Comment
Elgato Systems’ EyeTV Hybrid

I like to watch TV in bed at night. Sometimes I like to record what I am watching, but this involves getting out of bed, putting a tape in the recorder and getting back in …

Memeo’s LifeAgent: AutoBackup For Your Mac
December 5, 2007 – 7:29 pm | No Comment
Memeo’s LifeAgent: AutoBackup For Your Mac

New software for backing up your files and folders crossed my desk recently and I decided to give it a try. This software, LifeAgent from Memeo (http://www.memeo.com/) attracted me by the way it could be …

Adobe Bridge
December 4, 2007 – 3:35 pm | No Comment
Adobe Bridge

Wow, what a great title for my first article on Adobe CS3 Bridge. Really, I came up with it myself. Me, you ask? Well, I’m kind of a manual/mechanical guy. I’m a photographer, and somewhat …

Adobe Bridge Revisited
December 3, 2007 – 3:14 pm | No Comment
Adobe Bridge Revisited

I’m a rambling man, but I generally ramble with a purpose. I love CS3 Bridge and Camera Raw, and can talk all day about how I use them. However, I understand that most folks kind …