Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 8 - All You Need?

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Adobe Premiere Elements 8 represent the next significant step for the photo and video editing one-two punch that the company has been flogging for the past eight years or so. Mind you, only three years ago did Adobe decide to combine the two Elements products into a discount bundle. Is this bundle the best deal for the money on the market today? We think so. In fact, as far as photo editing and organizing goes, Photoshop Elements 8 is close enough to the grossly expensive Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 4 that only serious pros should choose CS4 over Elements 8. It's also true that Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 8 provide even seasoned pros with an easier-to-use set of powerful tools to do almost everything. That means you and me should be able to fly with Elements 8. Look for our full review soon. In the meantime, you absolutely can't go wrong for $149. Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 bundled, will get your creative juices flowing. More important, both products in the bundle are genuinely easy to use, come with a huge set of tutorials, and with just a bit of practice will help you produce superb results. Get Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 at Amazon.

Xara Release Version 4 of Xara Xtreme and Xara Xtreme Pro

Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro have been updated to Version 4. Xara is one of the fastest and easiest creative tools to use. The flexibility of Xara Xtreme with its raster and vector capabilities is something worth trying. It is capable of drawing faster than pretty much any other package out ther. You can create 3D text, edit photos non destructively, create wysiwyg websites and even export flash animations. It also supports Photoshop plug-ins. Pop on over to the Xara Website to find out more and download a demo.

Spotlight On . . . Nikon CaptureNX

CaptureNX is a non-destructive RAW photo processor developed specifically for Nikon by Nik Software. CaptureNX runs on Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X Tiger. Experienced digital photographers use a consistent process after every photo shoot. Copy photos from camera to computer; cull and delete the junk; tag, rank and sort; adjust white balance, brightness, color, etc., as needed; convert to TIFF or JPEG and file everything away; back up all the files; crop, adjust, alter and otherwise process selected shots. Using a consistent digital photo workflow often requires a couple of different programs to get everything done. For many serious Nikon photographers, CaptureNX is the software of choice for getting RAW photos through the crucially important initial workflow processes. I found that CaptureNX actually does a better job of handling dynamic lighting, sharpening and noise reduction than Photoshop CS2. A few problems have crept into NX which did not exist in the previous version (4.x). The Windows version is a slowpoke unless you've got a real fast dual core system with 4GB of RAM. The Mac OS X version is noticeably faster at thumbnail rendering, screen draws and editor updates among other things. I did some base measurements and found that LAB values don't seem to be converted properly to Adobe RGB. CaptureNX offers something called U Point Color Control Points which let you select image areas to enhance without having to use of masks, selections or layers. The software handles all Nikon digital SLR files (including D80 NEFs). CaptureNX has the potential to be a very good product, but the Windows version is marred by some glaring bugs and a lack of horsepower. 3 out of 5 stars