Graphics Asset Mgmt./Workflow Features

The Best App for Managing Digital Assets

Most designers and photographers rely on Photoshop. But to save ourselves from drowning in an ocean of digital assets, we also need an app dedicated to managing those assets. If you want to stay in an Adobe workflow, that means either Lightroom or Bridge. Which one is right for you?

Free For All: Spring into Photoshop Freebies

This installment of your favorite freebies feature is all about Photoshop. I'll point you toward resources that optimize the app and add a grid tool. Then I'll give you a huge assortment of textures and some useful image-editing actions.

Free For All: No Payment Necessary

Discover an online service that lets you create smoke and flame images; browse thousands of fonts; import and export Photoshop workspaces; and set up conference calls for as many as 95 users that can last for up to 6 hours. And as always, it's all free.

Free For All: Photoshop Brushes, Fonts, and Image Tools

One free online tool lets you easily extract colors from images and share them. Another resizes, renames, and convert folders full of images. I also have lots of free Photoshop brushes and fonts -- everyone's favorites!

Free For All: This Stuff's Worth Paying For, But You Don't Have To!

There's something for everyone this month: designers of iPhone Web sites or iApps; type lovers; business owners; and people who just want to compress the heck out of online images.

Photo Murals Make You Think Big. Really Big.

For this children's museum in California, one intrepid creative pro produced an 18-gigabyte HDR Photoshop file, a 19-foot-long printout, and a 9-foot-high neon sign.

HerGeekness Says: Convert a File, Any File

When clients hand you files so ancient or obscure that they're unreadable, don't despair. Part 1 of my file conversion survival kit will have you repurposing those files lickety split -- without asking the client to lift a finger, and without forcing you to buy every application under the sun just to open the occasional weirdo document.

Learn Wedding Photography from the Pros

What gear do you need? What settings are best? What shots are must-takes? And how do you protect your media and your business? Three professional wedding photographers spill their secrets.

Set Them Free!

Find and use the free images and photos hidden in common applications.

Going with the Flow

A Visual Designer Transitions from the Silver Screen to Your Computer Screen

Do You Need Pricey Photo Software?

If you're a digital photographer who shoots regularly, you can benefit from workflow software. But if you already have Bridge (which comes free with Photoshop), do you really need to pay for Aperture or Lightroom? Read this and find out.

Captain, Please Report to the Bridge

In CS3, the Bridge is a better command center.

Shedding Light on Lightroom

The release date of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 is now public. But how much do you really know about the app itself? Read this interview with Mark Hamburg, the founder of the Lightroom project, for the inside scoop.

66 Simple Ways to Be Green

You are just one person. But we, the creative professional community, are a significant force. The choices we make matter. If you follow through with just one of these 66 tips, you'll have improved the environment we all live in.

First Look at Aperture 1.5

Let our expert take you on a in-depth tour of the just-announced Aperture 1.5, Apple's pro-level digital imaging software.

Find Your Photos Fast

Is your hard drive overflowing with photos? Can you locate specific pictures quickly? If you answered yes to the first question or no to the second, you're a candidate for this digital photography workflow.

Framed & Exposed: A First Look at the Nikon Capture NX Beta

Aperture, Lightroom, and the rest of you guys, look out: Nikon's Capture NX (now in beta) is a simple, powerful, non-destructive image editor and manager. And as this Canon shooter can prove, it's not just for Nikon users, either.

Framed and Exposed: What a Difference a Dot Makes

A dot-update usually doesn't warrant more than a yawn. But in the case of the just-released Aperture 1.1, there are many improvements, new tools, and a dramatically lower price.

Photoshop, Industry Giant

Photoshop is far more than an application -- it's an entire industry. It dominates the image-editing world because it's a worthy tool created by a team that responds to user input and can keep pace with rapid technology shifts.

Take a First Look at Adobe's Lightroom

Photographers are getting a lot of attention these days. Adobe has just released a public beta of Lightroom, a new application for organizing, editing, and outputting images. Ben Long takes you on a tour and advises you on whether this in-progress program is worth installing.