NEWS: McAfee VirusScan & Photoshop Don't Play Well Together

If you use McAfee VirusScan 8.0i, and you use Photoshop CS2 (and I know you do), then check out this bug report from Security Pro News, regarding a bulletin posted by Adobe on solutions to the problem.

TIP: Faster Flattening in CS2

Want a faster way to flatten your Layered documents? If you have CS2, just Control-click (PC: Right-click) on any Layer in the Layers palette and choose Flatten Image from the pop-up menu that appears (as shown here). It's not as fast as a keyboard shortcut, but it’s faster than digging through Layers palette's the pop-down menu.

NEWS: Aperture 1.1 Announced

At PMA today Apple Computer announced a 1.1 upgrade to Aperture that addresses some of the quality issues for Raw conversions, and some new features as well. For the full scoop, visit Rob Galbraith's site.

NEWS: Over Two Million Served!

Just a quick note. Jim Gilbert, our Chief Webinator, gave me some amazing stats today. Photoshop TV has now hit well over 2 million downloads, in just the first 18 weeks of the show, and it's growing at its fastest pace yet! Many thanks to everybody who watches the show, and helps us spread the word, and to our sponsors for all the support. By the way, the latest episode (from Hollywood) is up live. :-)

COOL STUFF: Another Reason I love B&H Photo

You have to hand it to the marketing team at B&H Photo--they're thinking ahead. Get this: they heard I had a newborn baby daughter, so they sent her a pink Barbie™ 35mm Camera, and two extra rolls of 35mm film. I guess they wanted to make sure that: (a) she becomes a B&H Photo customer [just like her dad], and (b) to make sure she actually knows what traditional "film" is. How cool is that? My thanks to Manny, Gabriel, Ben, David, and the entire crew at B&H for such a wonderfully thoughtful gift. If I didn't already love you guys, I surely would now!

TIP: Getting Sharper Images in the Camera

There's a great little article ('little' meaning it's short and sweet) over at BetterPhoto.com with five great tips for getting sharper photos in camera, before you even get to Photoshop. It's definitely worth at read at http://www.betterphoto.com/blogs/insights/archives/2006/02/techniques_for.html

NEWS: I'm Teaching In Adobe's Booth at PMA

If you're going to the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) in Orlando this week, I'm teaching a couple of sessions in Adobe's booth. The sessions are called "Down & Dirty Tricks for Photographers" and I've got a lot of cool new stuff, including some cool tricks from my new Photoshop Channels Book. My sessions are on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 5:00 p.m. and Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. Hope you'll stop by.

I'm Back, Baby!

I'm back, after being out in Hollywood last week at CBS Studios with Dave and Matt (the Photoshop Guys), where we were taping a special video segment for the opening keynote at Photoshop World. While we were there, we also taped this week's episode of Photoshop TV backstage in Studio 3 (see attached photo). That episode of Photoshop TV should be online on iTunes now if you want to check it out. Had a blast, but now it's back to work.

NEWS: Very Cool Nikon 18-200mm Lens

Larry Becker strikes again. Larry brought his shiny new Nikon 18-200mm VR lens into the office today and I just fell in love with it. Unlike all my other lenses, it's small, lightweight (it weights about 1/4 of my 80-200 VR) and for general purpose outdoor shooting (like vacation shots where you don't want to lug out all your pro gear, but can't bear to use a point-and shoot), this is a great lens. I was talking with my buddy Bill Fortney who was just shooting in Maui with this same lens, and he said he had taken six different lens with him, but wound up shooting with just this one the whole time (and believe me, Bill has some awesome lens). Here's the scoop from Nikon's site, but if you want to buy it, I recommend B&H Photo.

TIP: B&W Conversions Within Camera Raw

Photoshop's Camera Raw plug-in actually can do a pretty darn nice job for creating B&W conversions (see the B&W photo of Kira below which was all done just in Camera Raw). Start by opening a Raw image, then lower the Saturation to 0% to remove the color. Then adjust the Exposure and Shadow sliders to create a nice contrasty image, then drag the Contrast slider to right to make the image have even more contrast. Next, try all the different White Balance presets, until you find the one that looks best for your particular photo. You can even add Sharpening if you like, to create a surprisingly good B&W image before it even enter "regular" Photoshop.

COOL STUFF: 3D Painted Rooms

Larry Becker turned me on to this site with some shots of this amazing idea for painting rooms with an optical illustion that makes the art appear 3D (and I guess in some ways, it's actually is 3D). This is really very clever, but you have to look a few of the photos before it really clicks as to what they're doing. Definitely worth a look, by clicking here.

Baby Kira in B&W

I know there's nothing more obnoxious than a new dad with a Camera, but I can't help it. I have a beautiful new subject to shoot, and for some strange reason every shot I take of her looks better than any shot I've taken before. I guess little baby girls are just magic that way. :-) Anyway, here's a black & white taken yesterday (she'a about 11 days old now). I would promise not to post too many more baby photos here, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't keep my word.

NEWS: In Defense of Aperture

Scott Bourne, who runs the site "Aperture Tricks.com" has an interesting article called "18 Ways That Aperture Is Better Than Lightroom" where he points out all the features Aperture has that Lightroom doesn't. Needless to say, Scott's a big Aperture fan, and it's easy to see why, because in all fairness Aperture does have some really slick features. Of course, features alone don't make any product or we'd all be using CorelDraw, but his article is worth a read (even though he refers to sites that support Lightroom [like ours] as "Adobe shills."). Check it out at http://www.aperturetricks.com/

NEWS: So You Think You Can Teach Photoshop?

If you're coming down to Photoshop World next month (March 22-24 at the Miami Beach Convention Center), and you're a Photoshop teacher, you might want to participate in a special pre-conference workshop that Dave Cross and I are conducting called "So You Think You Can Teach Photoshop" (a take-off on the title of the TV reality show "So You Think You Can Dance"). In this workshop, each participant comes ready to teach a 10 minute Photoshop tutorial on the topic of their choice (so all the participants get plenty of Photoshop training as a bonus), and then we analyze your training and give suggestions and ideas on how to go further. Then, the class votes on the best trainer of the day, and that person gets to do a full half-hour session in the Photoshop World Expo Theater. As you might imagine, this is limited to just a handful of participants, so if you're interested sign up quick at http://www.photoshopworld.com

NEWS: Adobe Posts Lightroom Beta 2

Last night Adobe posted a new update to Adobe Lightroom. This new version, Beta 2, adds new features including expanded Metadata features; Crop and Straighten capabilities, and the ability to play music with your Slideshows. If you're a Mac user, and you haven't downloaded the Free Beta version of Lightroom, you gotta (I mean gotta) go and try it out. I'm already using it to manage all my digital images and I just love it. The beta is very stable, it's a very small download (like 9MB), and it runs like a champ. I promise, you'll fall in love with it (best of all, since this is a public beta testing period, it's free and fully functional). Download it today.

NEWS: Spend a Week With Me, Hands On

For the first time ever, I'm teaching a week-long hands-on workshop out at the famous Santa Fe Workshops in Santa Fe New Mexico. The workshop, held July 11 through July 16th, is called "Supercharged Photoshop and the Bridge for Digital Photographers" and you're invited to spend a week with me learning the exact step-by-step Photoshop workflow for digital photography. We're going to be doing it all--shooting, processing, printing, drinking, dancing, streaking, etc. It's going to be a blast, and I hope you'll join me for a very special week. The class size is very limited, so if you want to be a join me, sign up ASAP because once it's full, it's full. Find out the full scoop at http://www.sfworkshop.com/digital/detail06.cfm?id=skjul06

NEWS: Matt and Dave Rock The Houseski

Even though I was off in "baby land" last wweek, Dave and Matt (flying the missing man formation) soldiered on and pulled off a top-rate episode of Photoshop TV, which went "on the air" today. Download the latest edition at http://www.photoshoptv.com or watch it via Apple's iTunes Music Store. Way to go, guys!

TIP: Setting Your Filter Gallery Defaults

Each time you open a Filter that opens in Photoshop's Filter Gallery, it opens with the default settings Adobe programmed in there. But you can create your own custom defaults so every time you open one of those filters it's got your favorite settings already in place. Just open the filter, put in your favorite settings, then hold down the Command key (PC: Ctrl-key) and you'll see that the Cancel button changes to Default. Click the Default button and from then on, that filter will use your settings as the default.

SuperBaby 2.0 Update

Just a quick word of thanks for everyone who posted such kind comments and best wishes here in the blog for our newborn baby girl Kira Nicole. She's doing wonderfully well (for such a little peanut--only 5 lbs. and 10 oz. now) and she's just one incredibly sweet little morsel. It's hard to get any work done at all--I just want to sit there and look at her all day. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to you all again. You guys are the best. :-)

TIP: Turn Your Layers Into Separate Documents

If you've got a file with a number of different layers, you can quickly convert those layers into their own separate documents (actually, you can have Photoshop do all the work for you). This is perfect for instances where you've created layers for slide presentations or signs, etc. Just go under the File menu, under Scripts, and choose Export Layers to Files. A dialog will pop-up (shown here) where you can choose which file format you want for your documents, and other interesting stuff like that.

NEWS: 10 Great Tips for Nikon D70 Users

I ran across this article on Popular Photography called "10 Things You Should Know About The Nikon D70" and I have to say, it's got some pretty slick little things in there (slicker than the usual stuff you might find). So, if you've got a D70 like my Brother, and Roddy, and Larry Becker, and well…zillions of other fine folks, check it out at http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=1732

NEWS: Got My New Channels Book Today!

I just got my first copy of my new book, "The Photoshop Channels Book," and I'm totally psyched. It just came off the press, which means if you preordered a copy on Amazon.com, your copy will be there soon. If you didn't preorder a copy yet, it's not too late. In fact, don't just buy one copy. Also buy a copy for your: friends, family, co-workers, any mild acquaintances, friends you haven't seen since high school, total strangers who look friendly, etc. Amazon.com has it for only $26.39, which if you ask me is too darn cheap (this is why Amazon doesn't ask me). Click here to order your today so you'll be the first to get this groundbreaking book by the father of superbaby Kira.

NEWS: Is Your Kid Into Photoshop?

If your kid is into Photoshop, or if you just want your kid to get into Photoshop, check out Adobe's Digital Kids Club, which is a section of their site decicated to getting kids invovled with digital imaging. The site has tips, lessons and activites for students, tutorials, and more. Check it out at http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/

TIP: The Hidden Scrubby Sliders

Back in Photoshop CS, Adobe introduced Scrubby Sliders. This is one of those features that Adobe didn't make a lot of noise about, so a lot of people still don't know they exist (but our tip takes things a bit further, how to uncover some hidden scrubby sliders). First, here's how the regular scrubbies work: when you want to change a value in field (like something up in the Options Bar for example) just hover your cursor over the field's name, and your cursor will change into a hand with atwo-headed arrow (as shown here). Now click, hold, and drag left or right to quickly change the value. Here's the catch: some fields don't have visible scrubby sliders (you hover, but nothing happens), like in the Layer Styles dialog box, for example. In that case, just hold the Command key (PC: Ctrl-key) and hover directly over the field (instead of the field's name), then click, hold, and drag left or right.

NEWS: Community Site for Nikon Users

Larry Becker (NAPP's Executive Director) ran into a NAPP member at the Tampa seminar last week who told him about an online community for Nikon Shooters called The Nikonians (http://www.nikonians.org). The site is very professionally designed, and they have different levels of membership available, and one of the benefits is a printed "Photographers ID Badge." Worth checking out.

NEWS: Linux Users Want Photoshop. Bad!

DesktopLinux.com has been running a poll asking Linux users which Mac/Windows software application they would like to have ported to Linux, and you know which app those chose? (you know which app they chose). That's right, baby--Photoshop. Before you read the whole article, when you see the list of apps Linux users don't have (everything form iTunes to Dreamweaver) it makes you wonder how they get up in the morning. You can read the whole scoop at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/06/photoshop_on_linux/

BIG NEWS: A New Photoshop User is born! :-)

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that God has blessed our family with the birth of a happy, healthy, sweet little baby girl. Her name is Kira Nicole Kelby, and she's shown here (safe in the arms of her big brother) shortly after her birth on Friday. She's a tiny little peanut, at just 5 lbs, 15 oz., and she's 18.5 inches long, but every bit of her is adorable (as her proud dad can attest to). She's in great health, and mom and baby are doing wonderfully well. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who was praying for her during this "touch-and-go" pregnancy, that had my wife hospitalized for five long weeks, and months on mandatory bed rest. Your prayers really meant a lot, and they sure did work! If I can break away from snuggling Kira, I'll post some Photoshop news and tips, but right now, I'm just floating on cloud 9 with my little angel. :-)

NEWS: Can't Bring Your Tripod? Try this!

You're enjoying a Lite beer at an outdoor cafe and suddenly you see "the shot." You can't pull out your tripod, or even a monopod. So you reach into your pocket and pull out the next best thing---a small camera mount that screws onto the top of your beer bottle like a bottle top. You attach your camera and you get the shot. Then you remove the bottle-top monopod and toast your ingenuity. Check it out at http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/bottle-cap-tripod-017939.php

COOL STUFF: Want to Feel Really Stupid?

I must, because I just went and started taking the "VR Photography" free online test at http://www.vrphotography.com/data/pages/askexperts/quizfmst.html Now, I personally don't do virtual reality photography, so I'm at a slight disadvantage, but of course, once I got into the test (actually at question one), I realized that I'm at a huge disadvantage. Go ahead and give the test a shot. It's very humbling.

TIP: How to Add Perspective to Smart Objects

If you're using Smart Objects (in CS2) and you go to Free Transform, you've probably noticed that Perspective and Distort no longer appear in Free Transform's pop-up menu. So, how do you get Distort and Perspective effects? Choose Warp instead (from Free Transform's pop-up menu, as shown here). You can fake perspective by first choosing Arc Warp, then lower the Bend amount to 0% (in the Options Bar) then increase the Height setting, and it starts adding perspective. Freaky, I know.

TIP: Histogram for Just One Layer

This is handy tip for anyone who makes collages, and needs to tweak the tone of different images on different layers. Here's the deal: By default Photoshop's Histogram palette displays the Histogram for the entire image (as if the file was flattened). However, you can change it so it display the Histogram for only the active layer. Just go to the Histogram palette, from the pop-up menu choose Expanded View, then change the Source from Entire image to Selected Layer.

NEWS: 70% of Pro Photos Shot Using Digital

I got figure from an article posted on Rob Galbraith's site a few weeks back about how the Research and Consulting firm InfoTrends is predicting by that 2010, 90% of all photos taken by pros will be shot with a digital camera. But I think that prediction isn't nearly as fascinating as what their research study revealed, and that is that 70% of all photos taken by today's pro photographers are digital. To me, that speaks volumes. Read the full InfoTrends study.

NEWS: Matt's Podcast Hits the Top 20

In just two weeks, boy wonder Matt "Rockin' the Houseski" Kloskowski's new daily video Podcast "Photoshop Killer Tips" has already reached iTunes top 20 most-subscribed Podcasts. Like I said "The Kid is Hot!" You can subscribe (his Podcast is free) at http://www.photoshopkillertips.com, or by clicking here, which takes you directly to the Podcast on Apple's iTunes Music Store. By the way, you don't need an iPod to watch the Podcast--you can watch it right on screen, full screen if you like, within iTunes. :) Congrats to Matt for once again 'Rockin' the Houseski™'