In light of Adobe’s recent release of Photoshop CS3, many readers are wondering whether they need to spend upwards of $650 for the new program. Of course, if you’ve already got Photoshop CS2, the $195 upgrade is something of a no-brainer. But what if you’re considering buying your first editing program? Should you spring for the full monty and buy Photoshop? Or is Photoshop’s little brother, Photoshop Elements, good enough?

"Make me beautiful." Every photographer has heard this at least once. For those of us who’ve taken many fashion or glamour photos, we’ve heard it a lot. Enter Portraiture, a $169 Photoshop plug-in from. Portraiture can help you get the most out of your portraits with the least amount of work. Is it worth your money? Read the review to find out.

Over the years, we’ve reviewed bundles of bundles and sweet suites so many times, it sometimes feels like our heads are about to explode. We’ve reviewed office suites, graphics suites, media management suites, and even game suites. But, until now, we’ve never reviewed a screen capture suite like SnagIt. This isn’t feature creep, it’s feature diarhea. It slices, it dices. As Crazy Eddie would have said, this product is insaaaaane! We’d expect to have product with this many features when reviewing Photoshop, but not a frickin’ screen capture program.

If you’ve ever used Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, most likely you’ve played with the filters. Even more likely, you’ve tinkered with the various painterly effects that have long come with both programs. Back when Photoshop first came out, these were the cat’s meow. Amazingly, you could take a run-of-the-mill picture and turn it into something that seemed like you had an artist’s talent. Into this reality comes Snap Art, from Alien Skin Software. Snap art updates the Photoshop artsy-fartsy plug-ins for the modern world, adding ten new artist-like effects.

If you’re serious about digital photography, you’re serious about RAW. In this detailed Product Shootout, Chuck Lee takes a look at two RAW processing programs (plus one surprising free option) and helps you understand which program might work best for you.

Back in February, we ran an article, "ClickArt contains 1,200,000 images you can’t use", that described how Broderbund’s ClickArt 1,200,000 product contains both misleading marketing and unreasonable usage restrictions. Upon running the article, we got a number of interesting letters from readers.

Creating a "noiseless" image is easier than you might think with the Photoshop CS Noise Reduction Filter. But you may wonder how and why your images became "noisy" in the first place. In this helpful article in our Photoshop Guru series, Eddie Tapp answers these questions and shows you how to remove noise from your photos quickly and easily.

Last week, we had the opportunity to speak with Andy Patrick, a social entrepreneur and CEO of liveBooks, a resource for photographers. We learned about how you can promote your photography to how we can all save the planet. This week, we continue our interview letting him dive deep into liveBooks. You’ll learn both how it might help you promote your own photography and learn more about the inner workings of the site itself.

Here at Connected Photographer, we like to bring you information straight from leading experts on various photographic topics. This week, we had the opportunity to interview Andy Patrick, a social entrepreneur and CEO of liveBooks, a resource for photographers. In this interview, we’ll cover issues ranging from how you can promote your photography to how we can all save the planet. Never say we don’t think big.

Here at CP, we’re always looking for special deals and opportunities for our readers, especially those that are exclusive just to those of you smart enough to be reading Connected Photographer. Read this article to find out about one such special deal.