We teach clients how to manage their professional image libraries using a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Bridge. I typically don’t recommend iPhoto for most professional libraries.

Then Apple added Faces (facial recognition) in the latest version of iPhoto. I’m loath to give up my professional workflows, but easily keywording photo libraries with people’s names is a game changer for many businesses.

This week I started testing Picasa 3.5, free software from Google, which now includes face-matching. It works great, integrates easily with Lightroom or Bridge, and did I mention it’s free?

I’m always delighted when I discover basic Photoshop techniques I missed along the way. We all know you can drag selected pixels from one window into another. Somehow I missed that if you drag that same selection while using one of Photoshop’s selection tools, you can drag the selection itself (with no pixels) over into a new document.

I must have known this at some point, but I’d obviously forgotten because I have a clumsy method I’ve used for years when I needed to copy selection outlines between documents. If this little tip saves anyone those extra steps, then revealing my personal ignorance was worth it.

Source: This is one of those little details I picked up during Jason Hoppe’s 5-Week Photoshop Fundamentals course. For as long as I’ve been using these tools, I still learn something new from almost every course I sit in on.

Did you spend the extra for an "Extended" version of Photoshop CS4? If so, your copy of Photoshop sports a new 3D menu that you’ve never touched. (Tip: If you bought the bundle of CS4 that included Flash and Dreamweaver, you got Photoshop Extended in the deal.)

You’ll get your money’s worth today. This 3D Postcard trick lets your extra Photoshop investment finally pay off. This is a great trick for adding a sense of dimension to your portfolio when you need to show off flat screenshots, webpages, or examples of printed projects. Adjust your flat object in 3D space, add an appropriate shadow and you’re set!

At first glance, this tip may seem a little frivolous. Creating word-search puzzles isn’t a skill that is in high demand. Yet as we dig below the surface, this project is a great demonstration of InDesign’s ability to place Excel spreadsheets as a table. Which can be pretty handy for many types of information-heavy design projects.

This tip was written several years ago when one of our clients needed coaching in how to create word-search puzzles for a monthly magazine she produced.

Digital photography fans can download the free monthly issues of PhotographyBB e-magazine in PDF format.

Link: PhotographyBB Online Magazine

PhotographyBB is a free online magazine composed by a hardworking team of volunteer contributing authors whose goal is to teach beginners all about digital photography and image processing.

The June 2009 edition features articles on photography techniques and issues facing today’s digital photographer. Readers will learn tips on composition and how keeping things simple can lead to great photography.

The issue also examines how to overcome photographer’s block when lack of inspiration occurs. Included is also a Photoshop® tutorial on creating an urban grunge type effect for dramatic impact.

I love uncovering basic tricks I should’ve already known. This is a great one that will save me time almost every day.

Need to match a color from a web page or something else while working in Photoshop? Just click with the eyedropper tool somewhere in your Photoshop file, and drag the cursor off to sample colors from anything visible on your screen.

That’s it!

This eyedropper trick has apparently worked since Photoshop 7. Wish I’d known that a few years and a couple thousand screenshots ago!