Shot from Cozumel

At sunset Matt Kloskowski, Dave Moser, Larry Becker and I headed out into the heart of the city, miles from the touristy areas and shot for about an hour on foot, where I got this shot. More to come.

Industry Update: Extenis sells plug-ins

This one snuck out, and I thought you might find it interesting. Extensis has sold it's line of Photoshop and QuarkXPress plug-ins to onOne Software (a privately held company). OnOne also recently bought up Lizard Tech (who made the Genuine Fractal's Photoshop resizing plug-in). For more info, you can check out their Website at ononesoftware.com

TIP: Camera Raw workaround for CS users

OK, let's say you're still using Photoshop CS, and you buy a new digital camera (like a Nikon DX2) and you want to shoot in raw. Well, you're in trouble, because Adobe stopped updating the version of Camera Raw that's in CS, once they started shipping CS2, so any new cameras since just after CS2 came out, are no longer supported in CS.

So, how do you open your Raw photos? I have a workaround for ya: get Adobe's free DNG converter, convert your raw files to DNG format (no loss of quality whatsoever), then you can open them in CS. Even though that works, you know you should upgrade to CS2, right? :)

Just back from Seattle

I just got back from a trip to Seattle and the shot you see here was taken on a dawn shooting trip. I coaxed Vincent Versace into getting up at 4:00 a.m., catching the ferry to Bainbridge Island, and shooting there at dawn. Here's one of the shots from the island.

I'm shooting tomorrow in Mexico--if I get anything I'll post it. :)

-Scott

Photoshop Radio is on the Air!

Photoshop Radio (formerly NAPP radio) is now being Podcast and you can subscribe to it (free) thru the iTunes Music Store (provided you have the latest version of iTunes, version 4.9. If you don't have it, you can download it free from Apple.com).

Here's how to subscribe:

(1) Open iTunes and click on the Music Store link (on the top left side)
(2) Click on the Podcasting link (from the links on the left side of the store )
(3) When the Podcasting page appears, in the Search field just below the left side links, type in "Photoshop" and hit the Enter key on your keyboard
(4) When Photoshop Radio shows up, click on the Subscribe button at the top of the page, or on the far right side.

That's it. You can listen to the show right there in iTunes, or download it to your iPod. We do a new show every week, and the latest show is on the air now. Hope you enjoy it!

TIP: Undocumented Airbrush Shortcut

If you like undocumented tips, you're going to love this one. Well, you'll love it if you use the Airbrush feature for any of the Brush tools. Otherwise, it won't enhance your Photoshop life one bit. Ahh, but if you do---this one's sweet. Just press Shift-Option-P (PC: Shift-Control-P) to toggle the Airbrush feature on/off.

An amazing workshop

When the light turns ugly, there's nothing left to do but pretend your camera and tripod are hunting rifles, and start speaking with a country twang, which is what Vinny and I are pictured doing here (photo courtesy of Lou Adzima)

I have to say, the Digitial Landscape Workshop Series was absolutely amazing. Moose Peterson, Vinny, and their guest shooter Joe McNally did an incredible job, and I learned more about landscape and macro photography in those three days than I have in the past three years. What a first class workshop from top to bottom, and if you ever get a chance to spend a few days with these guys, I promise it will change the way you work, think, and look at landscape photography forever. I can't recommend it enough. Here's the link to their site: http://www.digitallandscape.org/

I'm going to attend another workshop with them later this year--I hope I'll see you there, and when the light gets bad, we can pretend our tripod are machine guns....

Here's that daylight flash shot

Here's my final shot (the one I mentioned in the previous post), with Joe McNally directing three flashes on the subject—a Nikon SB800 master on top of the camera, and two slaves, one held low aiming up at the model, and one aiming at her from above, with the reflector on the ground aiming up at her as well.

Considering the light was about as harsh and unflattering as possible, "it ain't bad." Of course it helps if the guy setting up the flashes spent seven years shooting for National Geographic. :)

Behind the scenes shot

Here's a shot (taken by my buddy Dave Moser) at the Digital Landscape Workshop we were attending in Lake Tahoe, of an impromptu on-location lesson about shooting in harsh, direct light.

We started shooting earlier that morning at this beautiful park near the lake, but within a few hours the sun was high in the sky and the light was awful, so we were all getting ready to leave when one of the workshop instructors, legendary commercial photographer Joe McNally, suggested we look at what to do when the light just stinks, but the client is still waiting for you to come up with "the shot."

Joe is seen in the foreground holding a small reflector and instructing our group on light and flash placement (yes flashes in hard daylight--he used three total), and that's me kneeling behind the camera.

More to come! :)

Day 2, Sunrise on the lake

I got up early for this one, taken before our group went out for the first shoot in the morning. Dave and I saw this on the way to our sunrise shoot yesterday, and the light was so stunning we knew we had to get up even earlier and drive over there to shoot it this morning, before the official shoots got underway. The image shown was taken at 5:00 a.m.

Click on the photo to see a larger image. :)

I'm catching the red eye home tonight, and hopefully I'll get a chance to post so more soon.

First shoot this morning in Tahoe

We got up at 4:00 a.m. and went for a shoot at Emerald Bay for sunrise. Here's one of the shots I took this morning. I'll post more as I get to 'em.

I Get To Be A Student

Well, I'm off tomorrow for Lake Tahoe to attend a Digital Landscape Workshop, taught by Moose Peterson, Vincent Versace, and Joe McNally. I'm not there as an instructor--I'm there to learn from these three world class outdoor and nature photographers (you can read more about them at http://www.digitallandscape.org/instructors.html).

My buddy Dave Moser is going with me, and really both really excited to have the opportunity to learn from these masters. I'll be posting some photos from my shoots (if any are worth a darn) here on the blog while I'm out there, so check back over the next few days and you'll see if "the fish are jumpin" (so to speak).

Tip: Better Sorting View in Bridge

Next time you're getting ready to sort some photos in the Bridge, don't just click the "Go to Bridge" button in Photoshop's Options Bar (as shown here). Instead Command-click (PC: Control-click) that button. It will open the Bridge at full screen size, and all the panes on the left side will be hidden, giving you the maximum working view for sorting and evaluating your photos.

This is one you'll try once, and use often. Or you'll try it once, and never use it again. But if you don't try it---you'll just never know. ;-)

Another Kauai Shot

This one looks staged, but honestly it wasn't (except for the fact that I splashed water on the rocks myself, because they looked so dry), but the reed (or whatever that thing is) was there when I first walked up.

Click on the photo for a larger view. More to come.

Photoshop History Flashback

This is so cool! Last night Jon Gales emailed a link to a site about user interfaces (OK, that in itself isn't what's so cool), but what is cool is that page Jon sent me has screen shots and splash screens of every dialog from every version of Photoshop EVER! (starting with version 0.63 in 1990).

I highly recommend you stop by http://www.aresluna.org/guidebook/apps/photoshop and check it out for yourself. What may be the most amazing thing is how many things that were in Photoshop 1.0, are still in Photoshop Cs2 today, and are still among the most useful features.

Thanks to Jon for sharing this link with me (us, we, etc.). ;-)

This Plug-in May Have Some Potential

I just got contacted today by a company out of the UK that reportedly has a new way of masking objects from their background in Photoshop. It's a plug-in called "Fluid Mask" and they're getting ready to let people download a 30-day trial version (the Mac version is coming first, followed by the Windows version).

Anyway, first check out their site at http://www.vertustech.com/fm_overview.htm to see what the plug-in's about, then click on the Free Trial button on the right side of the page. You basically have to send them an email and they'll email you back when the trial version is ready for download.

Anyway, it looks like it might have some potential, so give it a look and let me know what you think. :)

The iPod Flea ad is Online!

The iPod Flea ad, created by Felix, Dave, Matt, and Myself for the opening keynote of the Mac Design Conference is online at David Pogue's New York Times Web site.

You can watch it there at http://www.davidpogue.com

And yes, I haven't figured out yet how to make the links live in blog yet. I'm (what's the word I'm looking for?) lame! ;-)

One Place For All Your Digital Photos

Moose Peterson told me about this between sessions at the Mac Design Conference. It's called a "Buffalo TeraStation" and it looks like a small safe, but it holds a Terabyte (1,000 Gigs) of photos. You can use Ethernet to plug right into it and get access to every (and I mean every) photo you've taken digitally. Best of all, it only costs around $850. Sweet!

Here's their Web site: http://www.buffalotech.com/

I'm hoping to get one for my birthday, which is coming up in a few days (I think sending my wife the link to it was a pretty good hint). :-)

Tip: A Less Cluttered Bridge

I've heard some people grumble a bit that the Bridge is kind of cluttered and messy. If you're one of "those" people, just press Command-T (PC: Control-T) and see if that doesn't work better for ya, bunky!

Hey, it's the little things. :-)

A Shot from Kauai

Here's a shot from my vacation trip to Kauai, that I processed in Camera Raw. Click on the image to see a larger version.

More to come soon! :-)

Tip: Bigger Previews in Camera Raw

Want to see a bigger preview of your image in Camera Raw? Just uncheck the "Show Workflow Options" checkbox, and watch how much bigger your preview becomes.

My Guru Awards dilemma

First, I hope I spelled dilemma right. Secondly, I need your help. In Las Vegas, we had just over 3,000 paid conference attendees, and of those only around 100 or so people entered their work in the Guru Awards competition. There's no entry fee, and it's open to anyone who attends the conference, and yet we're lucky to get 200 pieces entered (an average of about two per person--it seems like once someone does actually enter, they send in at least two or more pieces).

Anyway, I'm working with our Web team to make the Gurus Web site (http://www.photoshopworld.com/Guru.html) easier to use, and help potential entrants find the info they're looking for faster. I've also allowed more types of submissions, and larger file sizes allowed, and printed pieces as well. In short, I'm trying to make it more inviting. If you've got any ideas on how to get more attendees involved, please post a comment here.

Thanks! -Scott

Photoshop Hall of Fame

In just about 66 days, three individuals will be inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame, at the induction ceremony held the morning of September 7th, 2005 at the Photoshop World Conference and Expo in Boston. So, who are those three individuals? It hasn't been officially announced yet, but keep an eye on Photoshop Insider, because we'll have the scoop before anyone!

Help is on the way!

Our in-house buddy and Canadian wonder-boy Dave Cross just published a book called "The Photoshop CS2 Help Desk" which is packed wall-to-wall with the most asked Photoshop questions, along with Dave's plain English answers. Well, they're not really English answers, they're more Canadian, so they're friendlier than regular American answers (by the way, teasing Dave about his Canadian roots is what we Americans do for fun, while we wait to invade Canada and make it one big state). ;-)

Anyway, Dave's book is on Amazon.com and you should buy one for everyone you know who calls you and asks you to help them with their Photoshop tech support questions.

NAPP Radio is Podcasting

Last year I started an Internet radio program called NAPP Radio, which is pretty much like this blog (with news, updates for NAPP members, mini-reviews, and other Photoshop stuff) and it's hosted each week by either Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, or myself.

Well, people have been downloading the radio show as Podcasts for a while, then about a month ago we made it even easier by adding a direct link, and now we're offically Podcasting as part of Apple's iTunes Podcasting program. You can get a direct link to the radio show by going to http://www.photoshopuser.com.

That's it--I just thought while everybody is going crazy over Podcasting, I'd shout a big "Hey, me too!"

Hope you get a chance to listen soon. :)