Diane Miller

Article: DxO Film Pack Version 3.1.Product Review

DxO Film Pack 3.1 is now available as a free upgrade to version 3.0. Here's why you should buy Version 3.0 and upgrade!

Article: Product Review: OnOne Perfect Layers.More power for Lightroom and Aperture users?

OnOne claims Perfect Layers lets you work in layers even if your image-editing software doesn't have this option. Is it a low-cost way to do layers, or too buggy for prime time?

Article: Curves and Levels in Photoshop.An advanced image-editing tutorial

Learn good practices for adjusting images and the advantage of working in 16 bits.

Article: Corel Painter 12 for Photographers.Taking “beyond the ordinary” to the next level

Turn your photos into paintings? Corel Painter—plus a Wacom tablet—offers endless possibilities.

Article: Adorama Photographs America: Birding in South Florida.When and where to get great bird shots in the sunshine state

Birds are beautiful subjects for photography, but getting close enough for good pictures is often frustrating. One of the best places for getting close is south Florida.

Article: Adorama Photographs America: Yosemite National Park.Is this iconic photographic destination a victim of its own success?

How to avoid choking crowds, tiptoe around rattlesnakes, and keep bears out of your food, and still capture fresh photos in the park that Ansel made famous.

Article: Amazing multiple fireworks photos...with a little help from Photoshop.100 in 100/IV, Day 71: When the rockets stop, the magic begins

Once you know how to get the best possible fireworks shots, you can work some magic on your computer.

Article: Bringing Your Workflow on the Road With Lightroom.The Traveling Digital Photographer

Wherever I travel, photography is a major interest even if it’s not the primary reason. My top priority is to protect my images with backups so I won’t lose anything.

Article: Control Depth of Field in Macro Photography.Multiple shots plus Photoshop gives you focus flexibility

I love to shoot macro, especially of flowers. As I focus on a macro subject I am always enchanted by the soft background due to the very shallow depth of field I see through the viewfinder at macro magnifications.

Article: Getting Consistent Color from Monitor to Print – an Update.Get it right the first time

Is there a disturbing difference between what you see on your monitor and your prints? Here's how to fix it.

Article: Handling Noise in the Digital Darkroom.How to reduce noise, carefully, in Photoshop, Lightroom, and beyond

Noise always increases with ISO and there is no magic bullet for it, but it is controllable with a little care.

Article: How to Assess Your Progress Adjusting an Image .Layer Comps in Adobe Photoshop

When you work on a file in Lightroom and Photoshop, you may end up with a lot of layers. Here’s how you can quickly compare before-and-after versions with no muss or fuss.

Article: Making an Action in Photoshop.Learn how to create an Orbital action

Do you ever tire of doing repetitive tasks in Photoshop? Let me repeat: Do you ever tire of doing repetitive tasks in Photoshop? There is a handy remedy.

Article: Getting Started in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, Part 3.Using the Develop Module and Output

This final part of my three-part tutorial on Lightroom 3 is devoted to the Develop module, where adjustments are made to images, and to the Print, Slideshow and Web modules, where images are exported to various uses.

Article: Getting Started in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, Part 2.An Overview of Lightroom

In a previous article I discussed what’s new in Lightroom 3. A complete tutorial would fill a book, but this should give you a foundation. In this article I will present a more detailed background for using Lightroom and its organizational capabilities.

Article: Fun with a Lensbaby.Optic swaps, sweet spots, and selective focus for in-camera effects

In an earlier tutorial I showed how to create a faux Lensbaby effect in Photoshop. But like many digital darkroom techniques, it can’t quite replace the real thing.

Article: Black and White in the Digital Darkroom.Digital B&W is more flexible than film. Here's why.

In the last few years there has been renewed interest in black and white images, partly because good desktop printers can now render beautiful neutral tones and can equal the tonal qualities and longevity of silver gelatin prints.

Article: What’s new in Adobe Lightroom 3.A guide for Lighroom 2 veterans

Adobe has updated its popular and successful Lightroom to version 3, adding many new features based on extensive feedback from users. This is an application I couldn’t live without and I am excited to see it evolve.

Article: Tutorial: The New Lens and Perspective Corrections in Adobe Camera Raw 6.1.Here's a great reason to upgrade to Photoshop CS5

I recently wrote a review here of Adobe Photoshop CS5. Since then Adobe announced Camera Raw 6.1, that incorporates a feature I am really excited about.

Article: Product Review: Adobe Photoshop CS5.This version rocks! Here's why.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 is out, and it incorporates too many improvements to name, providing new power with basic adjustments for the user who wants the out-of-the-camera look, and offering some amazing new tools to the user who wants to go wherever his or her imagination leads.

Article: Retouching Portraits in Photoshop.Retouching Portraits in Photoshop

Even when you don't have control of lighting, you can still make flattering and natural portraits in Adobe Photoshop.

Article: How to create a Time Lapse Video.All you need is a digital camera, an intervalometer, Photoshop or QuickTime Pro, and a dream

Many digital cameras can now shoot video, and quite a few can do true high definition. But even if you don’t have video capability, you may be able to make time-lapse videos.

Article: Tutorial: Basic HDR with Photomatix.More than a trend, it can really improve your photos

We often photograph high-contrast scenes in which a camera can’t capture the full dynamic range of the detail our eyes can see in shadows and highlights. But that's changing.

Article: The Shadows/Highlights Adjustment in Photoshop.Stretch your image's dynamic range

Sensors are limited as to the range of light that they can capture. Is there more information in a single "flat" digital image that you can tease out in Photoshop? You betcha!

Article: A Faux Lensbaby Effect.Faking it in Adobe Photoshop

The dramatic, unique look generated by Lensbaby lenses can be created—sort of—with Photoshop. Here's how to do it.

Article: How to shoot stunning aerial photos.Get a natural high as you and your creativity take flight

Airplanes provide some unique photo opportunities. You can get some wonderful shots from the air, and at airshows and airports (with permission) you can shoot airplanes on the ground and in flight. Here’s how you can maximize your chances of success.

Article: How to read a histogram.The key to understanding exposure

Low key? High key? Learn how to read histograms and you’ll understand how to manipulate them until you get the kind of digital image you want.

Article: How to get vivid reds with good detail in your digital photos.Photoshop Tutorial: Reds that rock

Learn to tame a problem that plagues color in digital images. Get fine-detailed, vivid, saturated reds, oranges, and yellows by following these Adobe Photoshop tips and tricks.

Article: How to fake a glass polarizer filter effect digitally.Create a Fauxlarizer in Photoshop or Lightroom

It won't reduce reflections, but you can deepen blue skies--just like a polarizer does--in your favorite image editing program.

Article: Digital Polarizer, Part III: Make Clouds Pop.Emphasize the clouds in the sky

Make those puffy little clouds pop off the printed page with this simple Photoshop technique

Article: A Digital Polarizer.You can fake the effect of a glass polarizer

It won't reduce reflections, but you can deepen blue skies--just like a polarizer does--in your favorite image editing program.

Article: Product Review: A “300-600”mm Lens for Sharp Wildlife Shots.How a matched tele-converter and telphoto lens can create magic

I had an older 500mm lens and began to wish for something better.

Article: Setting up a New Version of Photoshop.Optimize your preferences and settings

Here's how to make sure the transition from one version of Photoshop to another goes smoothly.

News: AIRC: Simulating Shallow Depth of Field in Photoshop.

AIRC feature: A rose I had planted recently bloomed for the first time and I was struck by the beauty of one of the buds. I wanted to shoot a shallow depth of field image with only the center o

Article: Simulating Shallow Depth of Field and Sharpening.How to use Adobe Photoshop's High Pass for selective focus

A rose I had planted recently bloomed for the first time and I was struck by the beauty of one of the buds. I wanted to shoot a shallow depth of field image with only the center of the bud sharp.

Article: Adobe Photoshop CS4 User Report.Diane Miller puts the latest version through its paces

Read this before you buy.

News: 100 in 100: Plane-to-plane photography.

Day 50: This involves formation flying, but not at close quarters. You need to be sure both pilots are experienced at it and trust one another. Your pilot will be directing the target plane and

Article: 100 in 100: Air-to-air plane photography.100 Photographic Tips in 100 Days, Part III: Day 50

News: 100 in 100: Photographing planes on the ground.

Day 49: Today we'll look at shooting planes on the ground at airports and airshows. First, the do's and don't's: • Always respect any ropes around planes on static display at public events unl

News: 100 in 100: Photography at airshows.

Day 48: The last two days I have talked about shooting from airliners and small planes. Today we'll do airshows. Zooming in on single airplanes is long lens territory, often 500mm plus. If you d

News: 100 in 100: Taking pictures from small planes.

Yesterday I talked about shooting from airliners. Today we'll look at shooting from smaller planes such as a floatplane charter to a fishing lake in Alaska or the helicopter ride to the top of a

News: 100 in 100: Taking pictures from Airliners.

This week, 100 in 100 takes off--literally. Diane Miller, our resident Photoshop Guru and licensed pilot, will show you how to shoot from and around airplanes of all sizes and shapes. We're clea

News: Product Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.

Is it good enough to replace full Photoshop? There has been a great deal of interest in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which has just (August 2008) been upgraded to Version 2. Even though Photosh

Article: Product Review: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.Is it good enough to replace full Photoshop?

Find out what all the fuss is about.

Article: Lift the Fog Off Your Photos.Using Adobe Photoshop's Black and White Point Adjustments

In the past I've said a black and white point adjustment is the first thing that should be done with most images. I’ll show you how to do it here.

Article: Look sharp with Unsharp Mask.Unblur your photos

"What is Unsharp Mask, and how do you use it to sharpen pictures?" is a question that we get often from readers. This tip provides the answer.

Article: How to work with Adjustment Layers.A look at Photoshop Layers, Part II

Layers is one of the most powerful features of Photoshop and I use them in every image. Here's one reason why.

News: 100 in 100: Layers Part II: Adjustment Layers.

Day 47: I gave some background on layers in my last article “Introduction to Layers, Part 1.” Layers are one of the most powerful features of Photoshop and I use them in every image. I covered p

News: 100 in 100: Look sharp with Unsharp Mask.

Day 48: "What is Unsharp Mask, and how do you use it to sharpen pictures?" is a question that we get often from readers. Today's tip provides the answer. Almost any image can profit from sha

Article: Photoshop Layers: Beyond the Basics, Part I.Everything you need to know to start mastering pixel layers

One of the most popular Photoshop features, explained

Article: View Camera Moves in Adobe Photoshop.Tilt and shift your pixels

Those of us who don’t lug view cameras around get perspective distortion in our subjects whenever we point the camera up or down (even slightly) or diagonally towards a flat surface.

News: AIRC: View Camera Moves in Adobe Photoshop.

Those of us who don’t lug view cameras around get perspective distortion in our subjects whenever we point the camera up or down (even slightly) or diagonally towards a flat surface. A typical e

News: 100 in 100: Layers: The Basics.

Day 56: What's all this fuss about Layers, anyway? Layers is a powerful part of Adobe Photoshop. This feature lets you apply special effects and fine-tune their intensity and location, make digit

News: 100 in 100: Low-Key Histograms.

Day 44: A low-key image contains primarily dark tones, and its histogram will be skewed to the left, with fewer numbers of lighter-toned pixels. Here is an example...[Read it all]

Article: How to work with low-key histograms.Tame muted shots

A low-key image contains primarily dark tones, and its histogram will be skewed to the left, with fewer numbers of lighter-toned pixels. Here is an example image and its histogram in Adobe Photoshop.

Article: What a High-Key Histogram Looks Like.Grading the curve

Note: If you are new to histograms check out the background information in the previous tip, How to Read a Histogram.

News: 100 in 100: What a High-Key Histogram Looks Like.

Day 35: A high-key image contains primarily light tones, and its histogram, which you can view either in some digital cameras' LCD monitors, or by opening the image on your computer in Adobe Photos

Article: How To Know Your Sensor is Dirty.See and eliminate dust spots

If you have a digital SLR and change lenses, you have spots on your sensor (and images.) Want to see?

Article: The Rule of Thirds.A basic composition concept

It is often tempting to put the subject in the center of a shot, but in many cases moving it off-center can produce a more interesting image.

News: 100 in 100: The Rule of Thirds.

Day 16: It is often tempting to put the subject in the center of a shot, but in many cases moving it off-center can produce a more interesting image. If the main subject is off-center it needs to b

News: 100 in 100: Shooting The Breeze.

Day 8: Did you ever go out with your photo buddies and find it too windy? You can stand around and shoot the breeze until the wind dies down, or you can, well, shoot the breeze...[Read it all]

Article: Shooting the Breeze.Work the wind

Did you ever go out with your photo buddies and find it too windy? You can stand around and shoot the breeze until the wind dies down, or you can, well, shoot the breeze.

Article: How to read a histogram.Know your curves

How do you read a histogram? Glad you asked!

Article: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Tutorial: Changing Colors Selectively.If you rue the hue, here's what to do

A friend, Marcia Hart, showed me this image she shot in Mexico. She wanted to change the color of the shirt to something that looked a bit more rustic. The challenge? How do you change the color without affecting the underlying tonalities of the folds in the fabric.

News: AIRC Feature: Refining Selections in Photoshop.

What's the best way to select an area of an image in order to make changes--especially if the selected area needs to be carefully refined? A lot depends on the kind of image editing you are doing, b

Article: Image Editing Workshop: Refining Selections.A selective look at selecting an area of an image to work on in Adobe Photoshop

What's the best way to select a sky (or any other area, for that matter)? Sometimes selecting an area to work on is simple but more often it is not. The best selection method depends on the problems presented by the area.

Article: Image Editing Advanced Workshop - Fixing a Washed-Out Sky.Use a virtual graduated filter--and a mask

The soft light of a day with light clouds or fog is wonderful for photography, but if you include any of the sky in your composition it will be boring and washed-out white.

Article: True Color: Optimize Your Monitor.The trials and tribulations of displaying accurate color

Article: Advanced Digital Printing: Take Control!.It's better to manage your print quality from inside Photoshop

For most of us, the goal of digital darkroom work is to produce great prints that accurately represent the adjustments we have made in the computer.

Article: Fixing a Broken Wing....and learning how to extend a canvas size and add missing elements

I've been having fun and frustration shooting at an egret rookery.

Article: Invisible Touch.Cloning in dark and light areas may look fine on screen, but can be a disaster in print. Here's my work-around.

Did you ever want to remove distracting background elements from an image? If they are in very dark areas, you can encounter problems because monitors often don't show subtle differences in dark tones.

Article: Digital Spot Remover.How to remove sensor dust spots from your DSLR's images after the fact

Clean-up time.

Article: The Pitfall of Darkening a Sky, Part 2.Prevent "posterization" (banding) when darkening landscape skies

In Part 1 of "The Pitfall in Darkening a Sky" I showed how over-darkening a washed-out sky (or similar light area) could lead to posterization. Now I want to show you how to avoid this problem when darkening an area fairly strongly.

Article: The Pitfall of Darkening a Sky, Part 1.Avoid a typical image-editing gotcha by understanding your histogram

I often have an image in which I want to darken a sky, such as this one from my tutorial "A Split Neutral Density Filter on Steroids."

Article: Virtual fill flash.Use masking and layers in Photoshop to make up for poor lighting

Open up those shadows!

Article: Artistic photomontage effects.Blending layers in Photoshop and other image editing programs can lead to wonderfully creative surprises

Download these three images and follow along with me using these low-res versions of my working files and your image editor as I show you how to create some stunning effects that rely on blending interactions between image layers.

Article: A slide sandwich--with a dash of digital.Digital composites are easier to put together than slide sandwiches--all you need's a blender!

I was shooting at a wetlands area at sunrise--a target-rich environment--with my Canon 20D and Sigma f/4.5 500mm lens. The full moon was about an hour away from setting. Wouldn't it be great if I could get a shot of birds flying in front of the moon?