Since the last post here, Lightroom 3 has moved from Beta to final release. With each Beta, we’ve covered the new features, so there’s no point in rehashing them. We will, however, take a look a the biggest new feature since the last Beta: Lens Corrections.

You probably know that, in a film, understanding the reason a character is doing or saying something - his or her "motivation" - helps an actor to express the role more convincingly. What you may not know is that every element in the production of a film needs to have its own motivation too. From lighting to lens selection, a well-thought-out production will have just as many motivated decisions behind the camera as in front of it.

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of questions from photo students, recent grads, and new assistants about what they need to do to be a good assistant. What do photographers specifically expect from their help and what can they do, as an assistant, to be best prepared. This is the million-dollar question!

Ahh... the great American roadtrip. Almost a thing of the past for many. The convenience of modern air travel is astounding. Breakfast in Nashville, lunch in Phoenix and dinner in Vegas. It is still amazing to me, even after doing it so many times. It is how so many of us do business.

I start this month’s article with a nod to the Monty Python gang because  I would have thought it was equally as absurd as their many hysterical skits if someone told me 5 months ago that I would be writing this article. Every image in this article was taken on an iPhone!

With the recent release of Adobe Photoshop CS5 I thought I'd offer a tip illustrating how one of the application's newest and most touted features (Content Aware-Fill) can help photographers in a few specific ways.

If a tree falls in the forest and no photographer is there to capture it, does it make the cover of Vogue? Nope. So how many potential magazine covers have you missed? How many shots do you have in your portfolio that were near misses? How many fleeting moments that had you not been prepared, would have slipped away?

So, you finished reading ‘HDR Best Practices Guide - Part I: In The Field’, and went out for a shoot.  You had all of your wits and your gear about you when you set up your tripod and fired off those lovely brackets.  You’ve got the raw materials (fine, pun partially intended) and now it’s time to refine them into something truly beautiful.