Photoshop Seminar Thanks!

Just a quick note of thanks to everybody (over 600 of you--photo by Larry Becker) who attended our "Photoshop CS2 Power Tour" seminar yesterday at the Tampa Convention Center. Dave Cross did most of the work, but I was able to sneak in and do a session on "Photo Finishing" before I had to race off to a pre-natal visit with my wife who's due any day now with a little baby girl. I had a blast and it was so great seeing so many NAPP members, old friends, and making new ones. Thanks again for a great day! (You can still catch Dave Cross on the road with this tour, at http://www.photoshopseminars.com)

COOL STUFF: You've never seen photos like this!

Now this is cool! My buddy Jon Gales sent me this link to an article from Metropolis magazine on the photography of Olivo Barbieri, who uses a special tilt-shift lens in aerial photography. The kicker is, this lens makes his shots of real life look exactly like tiny handmade models (It's just one of those things you have to see for yourself). Check out his aerial shots of vegas--they're just amazing. Definitely worth seeing at http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1760

NEWS: Lightroom First Adobe App to Go Intel Native on Mac

Adobe announced that Adobe Lightroom, their new workflow application for professional photographers, will be the first Adobe application to take advantage of Apple's new Intel architecture. According to Adobe, the Mac Intel support will be included in an upcoming update of their free public beta version of Lightroom. They also indicated that support for the Creative Suite products is coming---they just didn't say exactly when. By the way, if you're a Mac user and haven't downloaded Lightroom yet, go to http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/ and download the free public beta version today (the download is fast--only 8MB).

TIP: Better Results From the Extract Filter

When you use the Extract filter to remove a person (or object) from their background, you're better off to NOT drag the extracted person onto a different background. Instead, drag the “new” background into the document with the person, then move the background behind the person in the Layers palette. The reason is, if you do it this way, you can still use the History Brush to fix any drop outs or missing areas in the extracted person that you didn't notice were missing until you add the new background.

NEWS: Is 22,000 Gradients Really Enough?

Are you feeling like you're a little short on Photoshop gradients? Has the perfect gradient eluded you long enough that you're willing to fork down a paltry $12 on the chance that in a collection of literally 22,000 gradients, the gradient you've been longing for is there? If that sounds like you (and you know it does), then check out this extensive (crazy ludicrous extensive) collection of Photoshop gradients from Graphicxtras.com Ya know, if you used one new gradient every day, you'd have enough gradients to last you more than 60 years. Makes you stop and think, doesn't it?

TIP: Clearing Your Type Settings

If you tweak your type a lot, you're changing values in the Character palette quite a bit, and you've probably already found that Photoshop remembers these settings with a vengance (what I mean by that is, if you baseline shift a character, unless you go back and "zero that field back out" all your type will be baseline shifted from that point on). Basically, Photoshop remembers whatever settings you last used to format type. Luckily, you can quickly reset Photoshop’s type to its “default” standard settings. Just go to the Character palette, and choose Reset Character from the palette’s pop-down menu (as shown in the capture--click for a larger version).

NEWS: Defending Aperture

Apple's pro-photo workflow tool Aperture has taken a lot of heat since it shipped late last year. In fact, so much so that Scott Bourne has posted an article in defense of Aperture called "What the Critics Don't Get About Aperture" where he points out Aperture's strengths and where "The critics went wrong." Mr. Bourne runs a Web site called Aperturetricks.com, so he's obviously a big Aperture fan (and quite honestly, there are a lot of very slick things in Aperture that have been overlooked because of some of Aperture's other shortcomings), so it's worth a read to hear the other side of the story. Check it out at http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2006/01/25/aperture.html

TIP: Bypassing Camera Raw

If you're in the Bridge, and you double-click on a raw photo, it opens in Camera Raw, right? But what if you just want to open the photo as is, using the default Camera Raw settings (meaning the photo will be auto corrected before it's opened)? Just hold the Shift key and then double-click on the photo. It will bypass the Camera Raw dialog and your photo will open directly in Photoshop. By the way, if you had previously made adjustments to the image in Camera Raw, those last settings will automatically be applied before the photo opens. Not too shabby!

NEWS: Reviewer Says "Don't Buy Aperture!"

David Nagel, from Digital Media Designer, just released a review of Apple's Apeture and warns photographers not to buy it. He writes "he first time I saw Apple's Aperture 1.0 in action, I couldn't wait to get my own copy and dig into it. Its looks were gorgeous, and it was blazingly fast at opening and manipulating raw files. With Apple touting Aperture as "the first all-in-one post-production tool for photographers," my expectations were high. Sadly, Aperture did not live up to those expectations." Read the full review at http://www.digitalmediadesigner.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=37016

NEWS: Photoshop "Family Beach Photo Generator"

OK, this isn't really "News" but I didn't know what header to put it under. My buddy David Cuerdon sent me this one, and it's a must-see if you need a good a laugh. It's a parody on Photoshop, as it pretends to announce a new filter that enables you to create "the perfect family beach photo", by dropping in ideal family dogs, background elements, different ideal beach locations as backgrounds, and for "maximum cuteness and togetherness" it can dress your family in matching preppy beach clothes. Plus, it sounds so real that while you're reading you keep wondering, "Is this thing for real?" It's at http://www.usedwigs.com/weekly_65.html

NEWS: Terry White's Tech Blog Goes Live!

My buddy Terry White has always had some of the most insightful comments on the industry and just great spot-on tips and advice on tech stuff in general, and last week I was giving him a load of grief about not having a blog. Well, it musta worked because the very next day he had one up and running, and no big surprise--it's great. Terry's blog isn't just Photoshop stuff, it's a tech-blog so it's everything tech, with a heavy slant on design and Macintosh stuff. He's got lots of very specific info on tech gear and although his blog is brand new, it's already off to great start. I know a lot of you know Terry from his sessions at Photoshop World, and his training for Adobe, so stop by his blog and say howdy (by the way, I don't hear Terry using the term "Howdy" very much. I don't know why, but it's just not popular in Detroit). ;-)

TIP: Great Source of Photoshop Tips

Actually, it's more than just Photoshop tips: it's tips on all things creative (including Creative Suite tips, and stuff other than the usual apps). It's from a site called CreativeTechs (which is a Seattle-based company that offers tech support to Creative Professionals), and they have a great page where they post some very useful tips each week. Check 'em out at http://www.creativetechs.com/tips/index.html

NEWS: Making Photoshop Faster

ExtremeTech.com has posted an excerpt from Shangara Singh's "Hacking Photoshop CS2"book on how to optimize Photoshop CS2, including how to reduce start-up time, setting your preferences, and more. Read it by clicking here.

NEWS: Matt's New Killer Tips Video Podcast

My buddy (and Photoshop TV co-host) Matt "Rockin' the Houseski" Kloskowski has just launched a daily Photoshop video Podcast called "Photoshop Killer Tips." Each weekday Matt posts a short (1 to 2 minute) Photoshop tip or trick, and as you might expect, they rock (well, they "rockski"). You can subscribe to his free Podcast from the iTunes Music Store or by clicking here. Congrats to Matt--"the kid is hot!"

NEWS: Adobe Releases Camera Raw Update

The updater to Version 3.3 of Camera Raw has been posted for free download on Adobe's Website, and includes support for a slew (that's right, a slew) of new cameras, including the Nikon D200, so Dave Moser can finally open his shots. ;-)

You can download the updater at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html

NEWS: Cool Photoshop Actions (and they're free!)

PanosFX has some pretty darn cool Photoshop actions you can download for free (you have to register with them before you can download them, but the registration is free and takes just a few seconds). The also sell actions (they're even cooler than the free ones, but honestly, the free ones ain't half bad). Definitely worth the download. Check 'em out at PanoFX.com

NEWS: Peachpit's got a blog!

My esteemed Publisher, Peachpit Press, has just hatched a blog of their own. It's called "About Frickin' Time" I mean, it's called "Nectar--fuel for creative computing" and they've got some great video clips from some of the Peachpit authors at Macworld Expo. Check it out at http://peachpitconnect.com/blogs/

NEWS: 10,000 Brushes for 30 Bucks!

If you're ready for a Photoshop brush fiesta, have I found a site for you! They're offering literally 10,000 Photoshop brushes for a crazy-cheap price (around $30.00). You'll be loading brushes for six to eight weeks, 8 to 10 hours a day. OK, that's a slight exageration, but suffice it to say, you'll have plenty to choose from at http://www.graphicxtras.com

NEWS: Adobe Releases Update for Lightroom

Adobe has just released a minor update to the public Beta 1 version of Adobe Lightroom (Beta version 1.1). According to Adobe the update "Removed the possibility of file deletion after a duplicate file is imported into the Library using the "Move Files to Lightroom Library" option. It also updated the processing algorithms for the Panasonic DMC-LX1 and Panasonic DMC-FZ30 cameras". You can download the latest build (Beta 1.1) at http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs_lightroom

TIP: Get 10 Little Known Camera Raw Tips!

I recently wrote an article for Microsoft's Pro Photography site called "10 little known Camera Raw Tips" and you can check them out at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/raw_tips.mspx

TIP: Duping Multiple Layers in CS2

Want to duplicate more than one layer at a time (hey, it saves time). First, select the layers you want to duplicate, then while they're selected, drag any one of them to the New Layer icon, and it makes a duplicate of each selected layer. Not bad eh? Note: This one only works in CS2.

Just for Mac Fanatics

This would only be interesting to Mac fans, but if you're "one" you'll get a kick out of this site. It's a Flickr site with screen captures of every Apple home page going back to when Apple first posted a Web site. Pretty amazing to see the design progression, and remember back to when we thought 25MHz machines were "blazingly fast! Check it out by clicking here.

TIP: Handy "New Document" Tip

In Photoshop's New Document dialog there are pop-up menus to choose your unit of measure (inches, pixels, etc.). If you change the Width to Inches, the Height field automatically changes to Inches as well. But what if you want the Width measured in inches, but the Height in pixels? Here's the trick: hold the Shift key before you choose your unit of measure, then you can change each one individually. [Historical note: having to change each individually was the default setting for years, until Julieanne Kost convinced the engineers that 99% of the time most people wanted both settings the same, so they switched it to the more convenient default we use today. Yea Julieanne--advocate of the "Photoshop People!"

NEWS: Find Your Inner Font

OK, now these guys are onto something. Fontshop.com believes that everyone has a typeface that matches their personality, and they're letting you share your inner font with the world. Basically, here's the scoop: you take a photo of yourself, add the font (in Photoshop) that best describes your personality, then show the world your "inner font" by posting your image on their "I am" Web site. Hundreds of people have already done it, and it's very cute (and definitely worth checking out just for the sheer fun of it). See other folks inner font (or post your own) at http://www.fontshop.com/IAm/

NEWS: Canadian Photoshop Users Rejoice

That's right, we're sending our official Canadian emissary back to his homeland of Canada, as we (Well...NAPP) bring Dave Cross and the Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour to Canada for the first time ever. That's right, Canada's native son returns to the frosty north for a triumphant tour of Ottowa, Toronto, and Vancouver with the Photoshop CS2 Power Tour. Check PhotoshopSeminars.com for tour dates and locations, eh.

NEWS: Nikon drops most film cameras and lens

The end of the era of traditional film cameras drew nearer today. Wired news posted an article quoting camera maker Nikon saying they were discontinuing nearly all their traditional film cameras. Here's a quote from the article, which references a statement Nikon officals make to a UK web site, "Nikon will discontinue production of all lenses for large format cameras and enlarging lenses. This also applies to most of our film camera bodies, interchangeable manual focus lenses and related accessories." So basically, it looks like they're dropping everything but their high-end film SLR the F6. Read the full article at Wired News.

NEWS: The Real Story Behind Lightroom's Development

I've seen a number of comments around the Web by people who think that Adobe Lightroom is a last minute knee-jerk response to Apple's Aperture software, as if Adobe saw Aperture, rushed back to the office and quickly cranked out a competing product. In reality, Lightroom has been in development for quite some time, and an in-depth article at PhotoshopNews.com gives a fascinting insight into its development, and how much time it takes to create a powerful program like Adobe Lightroom. You can read it at clicking here.

TIP: Selecting Similar Layers

One thing I love about Photoshop is, you can always learn something new, and I just did, thanks to a tip from Anne Marie Concepcion in the latest issue of Design Tools Monthly. The tip is for quickly selecting all layers in your document that have similar attributes (for example, instantly selecting all your Type layer, or all your vector shape layers, etc.). You do this by clicking on the kind of layer you want to select all of, then go under the Select menu and choose Similar Layers. That's it--it then select all the similar layers. Kudos to Anne Marie and DTM!

TIP: Some Little-Known Layers Shortcuts

I don't know if these are really little known--it's more like they're "little used," but they can save you a lot of time on a daily basis. The first is how to create a new layer without clicking on the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. It's Shift-Option-Command-N (PC: Shift-Alt-Control-N). Another handy one is for choosing a Blend Mode for your current layer. Want to switch the Layer to Multiply Mode? Press Shift-Option-M (PC: Shift-Alt-M). Want Screen Mode? Try Shift-Option-S (PC: Shift-Alt-S). How about Overlay? Shift-Option-O (PC: Shift-Alt-O). Get the drift? OK, one more, but this is just for CS2 users: if you want to create a new layer that is a flattened version of your entire layered document, try Shift-Option-Command-E (PC: Shift-Alt-Control-E). If you're not already using these, give 'em a try. :)

NEWS: Apple's New MacBookPro and Photoshop

Yesterday Steve Jobs unveiled a replacement for Apple's PowerBook line of laptops that is reportedly 4-times faster than existing PowerBooks. But don't run out and place your order thinking Photoshop is going to run 4x faster--it won't. Before Photoshop can take advantage of the new Intel chips in these MacBookPros, it has to be recompiled by Adobe first (which I imagine is highly unlikely that it will happen this year--we'll most likely have to wait for CS3 for that). So, until then Photoshop will run in an emulation mode, which Steve Jobs commented probably wouldn't be fast enough for pros. Just a heads-up to keep you from jumpin' the gun.

NEWS: Daily Photo Critiques in Photoshop

Matt mentioned this site on last week's episode of Photoshop TV, but if you haven't checked it out, it's definitely worth a look. The site is called RadiantVista, and what they do is a video photo critique (via a QuickTime video clip) but they're not just critiquing the photo--the instructor is actually showing how he would crop, edit, color correct, sharpen--you name it, to a different reader supplied photo each day. It's really very cool, and best of all (for me anyway), it's from a NAPP member. Definitely check this site out.

NEWS: Adobe Releases New Photography App!

Big, mondo big, crazy big news!!!! Adobe has just released "Adobe Lightroom," a kick-butt new workflow tool for professional photographers, but here's even bigger news: you can download the free public beta version, today (for Mac OS only at this point), right now--from this link. That's right, you'll be able to test this amazing new app, and give Adobe your feedback, suggestions and ideas, and actually have a voice in the best thing to happen to Photoshop users since Camera Raw (and by the way, it includes a new updated and expanded version of Camera Raw). Download it start working with it today (note: only the Mac version has been released so far--the Windows version will released later this year with any luck). To learn more, visit NAPP's just released "Adobe Lightroom Learning Center."

Adobe Lightroom featured on Photoshop TV

Hey, just a heads-up: on this week's episode of Photoshop TV we (me, Matt, and Dave) did a special feature segement on Adobe Lightroom. It's kind of a "first look" thing but we dedicated 17 minutes of the show to just Lightroom. Now, because of that the show ran a little long (and by a little long, I mean about 17 minutes long). Check it out at Photoshoptv.com or by going to the iTunes Music Store, click on the Podcast link, then do a search for Photoshop and you'll find Photoshop TV.

NEWS: Adobe Lightroom vs. Apple's Aperture

We just posted (in NAPP's just released "Adobe Lightroom Learning Center") a Photoshop Radio panel discussion from "The Photoshop Guys" (Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, and myself) called "Adobe Lightroom vs. Apple's Aperture" who comes out on top?" It's an insightful, balanced look at the pros and cons of both of these groundbreaking applications. No special software is required to hear the Radio Podcast, just click the Play button. You'll find it, and the entire Lightroom Learning Center" at http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom/index.html

Setting Up Your Room For Color Managment

If there's on area of color management that most people seem to completely overlook, it's how the lighting in the room where you do yohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifur color editing in Photoshop affects your color (and the overall success of color management). If you want to learn how important this aspect of the overall scheme is (and learn how to best set up your room), Adobe has posted a free downloadable (PDF) white paper from Color Scientist Karl Lang. The PDF is called "Calibrating the Digital Darkroom Environment" and you can download it

TIP: Find Out More Info In The Bridge

I'm not a big fan of the "Tool Tips" feature found in both Photoshop and The Bridge, but here's one case where they can pay off. If you have them turned on (in the Bridge preferences), and you just pause your cursor over a thumbnail in the Bridge, in a moment or two a little yellow window will appear (as shown here) with background info on your image (like the file size, dimensions, when it was last modified---stuff like that). It saves you a trip to the Metadata panel if you just need some quick details about your image. Give it a try and see what you think.

NEWS: Free Photoshop Brush Viewer

I had heard of this before, but a viewer of Photoshop TV posted it on the blog, and it reminded me how cool this thing is. It's a free Photoshop Brush viewer (created by freelance Italian software developer Luigi Bellanc), so you can preview different brush sets before you import them into Photoshop. In fact, you don't need Photoshop running at all to use this open source viewer, and you can change the size of the thumbnails, etc. to get a really good look. It's called ABRviewer. Check it out at http://abrviewer.sourceforge.net/

TIP: Layer Mask Quick Tips

I've found myself using these Layer Mask shortcuts more and more lately, so I thought I'd pass 'em on just in case you might find them useful: (1) If you want to see just the Layer Mask itself, hold the Option key (PC: Alt-key) and click on the Layer Mask thumbnail itself (as shown here--click for a larger image). I use this one to quickly see if I've missed any areas when painting in an area of my mask. (2) Since I sometimes accidentally find myself painting on the image instead of the mask, I use Command-\ (PC: Ctrl-\) to toggle between the image being active, and the mask. (By the way, that's the Backslash key). Lastly, there's Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) which inverts the mask from white to black (the same as holding the Option/Alt key when you first create the mask). That's it--three from me.

Cover Shot of My New Channels Book

My Channels book is due to hit shelves in just a few weeks, and I thought you guys might like a sneak peek at the cover, which was designed by Jessica Maldonado (the latest addition to our Design Team). She decided to give the cover a retro feel (click on the cover shown here for a larger version), and the chapter intros inside of book carry on that same theme. You can preorder the book on Amazon.com, but they still show the temporarily "working" cover, so don't let that throw you. By the way, the official name is "The Photoshop Channels Book" and Amazon has it for 34% off the cover price (at $19.79). Congrats to Jessica for the cool design, and to Felix Nelson for being clever enough to add her to our team. :-)

Photoshop TV Nears 1 Million Download Mark

Photoshop TV logged over 519,000 downloads in December alone, and by next week we'll be over the 1 million download mark (not bad for only 11 weeks)! I think the thing that really spiked the downloads this month was either: the Kung Fu Finger Shooting moment from last week's show, or the moment when a light on the right side of the set blew the week before, and we just kept taping as if nothing happened (because we didn't have a back-up bulb). I'm not sure which. ;-) Thanks to everybody for helping us spread the word about Photoshop TV

TIP: Crop One To Crop 'Em All in Camera Raw

If you’ve got a number of images open in Camera Raw, you can crop any one of those images and then have that exact same cropping applied to as many other open images as you’d like instantly. Just crop on photo, then Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on any other photos you want cropped the same way. Then click the Synchronize button. When the dialog appears, from the op-up menu choose Crop, then click OK. All your selected photos will now be cropped the same way you cropped the first photo. Pretty darn sweet!

NEWS: Kung Fu Shootin' on Photoshop TV

The first 2006 episode of Photoshop TV is on the air (watch it from the iTunes Music Store, or at PhotoshopTV.com). It's just me and Matt this week (Dave was on a holiday break), but the key thing to look for in this episode, is the moment at which I lose control of my hands, and it becomes a Kung Fu/Pistol Shooting, rootin' tootin', finger pointin', karate chopin' love fest. If you love distracting hand movements, you'll dig this episode. Oh yeah, there's some Photoshop tips, too! Watch it with someone you love.

TIP: Side-by-Side Photo Review in CS2

This little feature must have slipped under the radar, because most every time I use it, somebody always asks how I did it. It automatically lets compare two similar images side-by-side from right within Photoshop. Just open both images in Photoshop CS2, then go under the Window menu, under Arrange, and choose Tile vertically, and they'll be instantly lined up side-by-side. Now, take it step further--go under that same menu and choose Match Zoom and Location. Now, hold the Shift key down, and when you scroll or zoom-in on one photo, the other side-by-side photo will move and zoom at the exact same time. Give this one a try.

NEWS: Makeup For Digital Photographers

OK, that headline is a bit misleading. It's not really for the photographers themselves, it's for their subjects when they're shooting them using digital. It's a specially developed skin makeup called "Numeric Proof" that bills itself as "Quality Maskup for Professional Images." You can buy it online from their Website, and since it apparently also works for video as well as still images, I'm buying quite a bit for Matt and Dave, who need it badly (I'm going to pay for that one).

I'll bet Rick was cold

Our buddy (and fellow Photoshop trainer) Rick Sammon just came back from a trip to Antarctica and he's posted some of the amazing photos he took in an article posted on TakeGreatPhotos.com. If you know Rick (and my guess is, you do), you should definitely check out his shots, by clicking here.