Ricoh Supports DNG in-camera

A fourth digital camera manufacturer (joining Hasselblad, Leica, and Samsung) now produce Adobe DNG Raw files from right within the camera. Way to go Ricoh! (Ricoh Suavve!). In a side note: Today on Photoshop Product Manager John Nack's Adobe Blog, he notes that Apple's new Aperature application also supports Adobe DNG.

A fair shot

Took this Saturday night at the carnival near our house. My son did the "Dad, do you always have to bring your camera thing?" to which I replied a resounding "Yes!"

My photos on Flickr

If you've been reading this blog for a while, from time to time you've seen me post some of the photos I've been shooting, but if you want to see them again, you'd have to search through the blog. That's why I'm now using Flickr (the free photo archive service from Yahoo!) so you can see them all in one place, with one click (once you go there, click on the view "View as Slideshow" link in the upper right hand corner). They're at http://www.flickr.com/photos/83124837@N00/sets/1244900/

My regular photography portfolio is at http://www.scottkelby.com, then click on the Portfolio link

We're #2, We're #2, We're #2, etc.

OK, it's not the chant most people are familiar with, but we're pretty excited to have the #2 ranking of ALL Podcasts on Apple's iTunes Music Store. If you haven't watched Photoshop TV yet, check it out at http://www.photoshoptv.com

If enough of you subscribe to it (via iTunes), we could conceivably be shouting We're #1, We're #1. :)

TIP: Smarter Resizing

If you've got an image on a layer, and you're thinking of scaling that image down in size, before you just open Free Transform and shrink it down, make it a Smart Object first. That's right, even though the image is already on its own layer, you can still make it a Smart Object. In the Layers palette, just Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the layer, and from the pop-up menu that appears, choose "Group into Smart Object" (as shown). Now, if you have to scale that layer back up, you'll maintain the original quality. Sounds like cheatin', don't it? ;-)

Photoshop TV Kicks off Monday!

That's right, Dave, Matt and I ("The Photoshop Guys") are replacing Photoshop Radio with Photoshop TV (a video Podcast you can watch from right within iTunes), and it kicks off Monday. The first show like the radio show, in that we have lots of tips and techniques, plus we'll be having giveaways, on-location shots, and lots of other cool stuff we couldn't do on the radio. Look for its debut on Monday, October 24th.

Plug-in for Fixing Blurry Photos

Here's one I haven't heard of before. It's a Photoshop plug-in called FocusFixer (for Mac and Windows) and basically you tell it which make of camera and lens you used, and it then creates a sharpening algorythm that removes the blur. At least, that's the theory. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm about to, because you can download a free 30-use demo at http://www.fixerlabs.com (let me know what you think of this one if you try it out).

TIP: Two clicks to bigger Camera Raw Previews

When you're working with multiple images in Camera Raw, there are two clicks that give you a dramatically larger preview of your raw image. (1) Turn of the Show Workflow Options checkbox. Chances are, you're going to set this once for your entire batch of images, so once it's set, hide it and you'll get a much deeper preview (perfect for portraits). And (2) double-click on the divider line that separates the film strip of open images on the left side of the dialog. This tucks it away, giving you an even bigger preview, and now you can use left/right arrows at the right bottom of the Preview window to move through your open Raw images. Click the screen capture shown here to see a larger image.

Free Photoshop Script

Have you ever drawn a path with just two or three points, and then said to yourself, "Ya know, what I really wish was that there was a quick and easy way to create a circular selection that circumscribes these points?" Sure you have, everybody has, probably several times a day, in fact (right after you asked yourself "What does the word 'circumscribe' mean?). Anyway, if you're that one-in-a-million circumscribe point wisher, you're going to love this free script from the AV Bros. that does just that. By the way, if you're using CS2, before you install this script (in your Photoshop CS2 folder, look in your Presets folder and then put it in your Scripts folder), make sure you add an 'x" to the end of file extension (so it ends with jsx) so it works in CS2 (CS didn't require the extra letter at the end). Have fun, weird geeky science person. Download the script at http://avbros.com/english/downloads.html

TIP: Finding the Right Filter Fast!

Have you ever seen a photo online, and you could tell they applied a Photoshop filter to get that look, but you're not sure which filter they used? Well, here's a pretty quick way to find out: Open one of your photo, then go under the Filter menu and choose Filter Gallery. When the Filter Gallery appears, go to the Artistic folder and click on the first filter in the list (Colored Pencil), now just press the Right Arrow key on your keyboard, and each time you press it, the next filter will be applied to the Preview, and it will go through every folder of filters uninterrupted, until you see every possible Filter Gallery filter applied to your image. Great for tracking down a photo effect. Try it--it's cooler than it sounds.

Catch the latest Photoshop Radio

OK, if you haven't been listening to "The Photoshop Guys" on Photoshop Radio (our weekly Podcast), it's time to start. The show's format now features Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, and yours truly, and each weekly episode (posted each Friday afternoon) is full of Photoshop tips, news, interviews, and some rather lame attempts at humor. Anyway, if you haven't subscribed yet (it's free) launch iTunes, go to the iTunes Music Store, click on the Podcasts link, then in the search field, type in Photoshop. When you see Photoshop Radio, click on the Subscribe link, and then you can listen to show right within iTunes (or by downloading it to your iPod). Then, each week, the new show will be downloaded into your version of iTunes. Sweet! :-)

Dave's weird update dialog

Dave Cross sent me this, this morning, and I just had to laugh. He got this version of the "Adobe Updater" dialog in Adobe Illustrator CS2. Apparently, the dialog that dies using the word "update" the most, wins! :-) (click on the graphic for a larger version).

TIP: Faster Bridge Thumbnail Previews

I had heard this tip once before, but completely forgot about it until I read it today in Anne Marie Concepcion's "DesignGeek" email newsletter. It's about how to speed up the Bridge's slooooowwwww process of drawing thumbnails. If you're like me, you've got a lot of images on your hard drive, and if that's the case, you can have the Bridge silently create all the thumbnails for you, and put them in a cache so when you go to those folders again, the full size thumbnails will appear instantly (this process takes a while, so you might want to let it "do its thing" overnight). Here's how it's done: Go to the Bridge and click on your main folder of photos (Your "My Pictures" Folder, or Photos folder, whatever), then go under the Bridge's Tools menu, under Cache, and choose Build Cache for Subfolders, as shown in the capture above (click on it for a larger view). Then, go to sleep. In the morning, the Bridge will seem very, very fast. Cool, eh? Thanks Anne Marie! :)

Photoshop Soup2Nuts

OK, remember last week when I mentioned the "Machine Wash" plug-in filters for Photoshop? Well, I can't swear that these were used on the site I'm about to send you to, but it sure looks like. The site is for a wonderful Photoshop conference that I did the keynote for this past year (organized by Ruth Knoll, Photoshop widow and wife of Photoshop inventor Thomas Knoll), and it's coming up again in 2006. Go check out the main site graphic and see if you don't agree it's been "Machine Washed." Oh yeah, mark the conference dates, too! :) It's at http://www.photoshopsoup2nuts.org/

Photoshop doesn't recognize itself?

OK, I got this from NAPP member Mary Lou Johnson, who got it from Ruth Knoll (wife of Photoshop creator Thomas Knoll). You know how Photoshop has a built-in spell checker, right? Here's the weird thing: if you type the word 'Photoshop' and run Photoshop's own spell checker, it flags the word Photoshop as an unknown word. Makes you stop and think, doesn't it?

NEWS (Kinda): Order your Adobe bag!

This is going to sound like made up fake news, but I swear this is true (to the best of my knowledge), but Adobe commissioned Medium Design Group to design a leather bag (they call it a "Messenger Bag") with the Adobe logo blind-embossed into the bag. According to the press release: "This must-have bag has multiple compartments that hold all accessories and technology necessities designers use everyday." Funny, I was just saying to Dave Cross "I wish I had something made of leather to hold all the technology necessities I use everyday." Anyway, it is pretty cool, and it's available at Barneys (not the coffee company), and online (for $250 smackaroos) at http://store.mediumfootwear.com/Product.aspx?p=MDM01326&l=00050000000000000000&pn=&k=