NEWS: No Photoshop CS3 Until 2nd Quarter 2007

It's official: Adobe's CEO Bruce Chizen, in a March 24th Forbes article, outlined Adobe's launch path and stated that CS3 is slated for release in the second quarter of 2007. Read the full article here.

NEWS: Live from Photoshop World, It's Photoshop TV!

If you thought our weekly show was loose and unscripted when we shoot in the studio, then you can probably only imagine what it was like when we shot an entire episode live on the Photoshop World Expo floor. It was a lot of fun having a lives studio audience, but outside of that, it was pretty much a clamamity. This episode just went up yesterday, and you can watch it right from the PSTV Website at http://www.photoshoptv.com

NEWS: Adobe Gives Sneak Peek of New Tool For Uncovering "Digital Fakes" During Photoshop World Keynote

Last week, during the opening Keynote at Photoshop World, Adobe gave a sneak peek of some amazing new technology that uncovers whether a photo has altered using the Clone Stamp tool. During the Sneak Peak, Dave Story, Adobe's VP of Engineering [shown pictured here during the keynote], had me remove some people from a beach scene (while he back was turned), and then he was able to use the filter to see exactly where the photo had been retouched. No release date for this technology has been announced, and Adobe didn't indicate that this would be included in the next verison of Photoshop---they just wanted to give Photoshop World attendees a peek inside the Adobe Labs, and some of the amazing technology they're working on. Very cool stuff. Thanks to Adobe for a peek behind the curtain. :-)

NEWS: Great article on photographer Jody Dole

There's a great article on Apple's Pro/Photo website called "Jody Dole: A Master of Digital Photography" that's definitely worth checking it. It's not a tutorial--it's about the inspiration, creativty and process and Jody's work (and story) are both very interesting. Check it out at http://www.apple.com/pro/photo/dole/

NEWS: Photoshop TV Tops One-Million For Month of March

We had just arrived down in Miami for Photoshop World when we got the news: Photoshop TV had already topped one million downloads for the month of March (our first time hitting over one million in just one month). We don't have the final figures yet (there's still a few days left in March), but we're really excited at what they might be. On behalf of everyone at NAPP, and the Adobe Photoshop TV crew (Pamela Hennessy, Tami Fry, Dave Moser, Jim Gilbert, and of course Matt, Dave, and myself), thanks for watching, and for helping us to spread the word about NAPP and Adobe Photoshop. (note: if you haven't caught the show, you can watch it right now in your Web browser at http://www.photoshoptv.com. Just press the "Play Episode" button on the top right side).

COOL STUFF: The Handy Megapixel Calculator

This is one to bookmark: it's a megapixel calculator that answers all sorts of questions when it comes to measuring megapixels, and comparing the ratio of digital cameras to other digital devices (like how many pixels are in a DVD image). Check it out at http://www.forret.com/tools/megapixel.asp (thanks to Kevin Ridgway for sending this one my way). :-)

NEWS: My New Adobe Lightroom Book Now Available!

Another book released at Photoshop World was my brand new book, the "Adobe Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers. In case you hadn't heard, Lightroom is Adobe's new workflow software for professional photographers (Lightroom is in a free public Beta-testing period--if you're on Macintosh, you can download it and starting using it today for free at http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/)

Weirder yet, you can actually buy and download my book right now, today online, because it's my first eBook (well, it will be an eBook until the product leaves beta and finally ships, but the advantage of the eBook is that it will be updated as Adobe updates each version of Lightroom). You can it at http://www.peachpit.com/title/0321437365

NEWS: Update from Photoshop World

Honestly, I wish you were here. We are having such a blast, I can't even tell you--it's an absolute Photoshop love-fest; I've met so many great members, and I've had about the best time yet at any Photoshop World. There's just such a great buzz around the show this year--everybody is so "in the zone," and there's loads of learning and laughing around every corner (the photo shown here is NAPP Executive Director Larry Becker during his hosting duties for the Photoshop World Guru Awards). Today we're wrapping up the show with our Photoshop Wars session, where the instructors team up to create projects chosen by the audience, live with a 10-minute time limit. Then we bring some of the students up to try for themselves. It's a blast!

NEWS: "Photoshop Speed Clinic" Book Debuts at Photoshop World

Matt "Rockin' the Houseski" Kloskowski released his brand new book, the Photoshop Speed Clinic, this week at Photoshop World, and within just a few hours the book was completely sold out! (the final cover for the book is shown here). If you didn't pick up a copy at Photoshop World, you can get this amazing, timesaving (and very clever) book from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com, or wherever really great Photoshop books are sold. My congrats to Matt for writing a really kick-butt book! :-)

NEWS: Photoshop Torture Test Actions

I saw this over at MacMerc.com: Jason O'Grady has put together a couple of Photoshop Actions to help you test (benchmark) the speed of your computer running Photoshop (similar to what Apple does during their keynote presentations). There's two different actions, and they put Photoshop through a bunch of torturous processor intensive tests, so you can see how your machine stacks up. They're called the "DIY Photoshop Torture Test" and they're found at http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=158

It's Photoshop World Week!

I'm heading down to Miami today for Photoshop World (it runs Tues. thru Friday), and if you're down that way and you see me between sessions, don't forget to say "hi." I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody, and I've got two brand new sessions I'm trying out so I'm pretty psyched. We've got some big NAPP announcements planned during the opening keynote, and Adobe will be showing some pretty cool stuff during the keynote as well (I can't reveal what they are now, but you'll hear about them by Wednesday morning. I will tell you this: it's not about Photoshop CS3 so don't crank up the rumor mill, but it will be newsworthy for sure)! Should be a really fun week (the photo shown here is a shot from the keynote at Boston PSWorld. Click for a larger view). I hope to see you there! :-)

Photoshop TV at 33,000 Feet!

I just went by Terry White's Tech Blog, and I saw something that really made me smile. He's got an article on the problem with watching TV shows on Video iPods---you have to hold the thing in your hands for long periods of time. So, he found some really great, inexpensive iPod stands, but what really made me smile was his photo taken in-flight (shown here) and the fact that Photoshop TV was playing on screen when he snapped it. It's "The Photoshop Guys" at 33,000 ft. Check out the article by clicking here.

NEWS: Bridge Lovers Have a Blog To Call Their Own

If you're into the Adobe Bridge (part of Photoshop CS2 and/or the Creative Suite) then you'll definitely want to check out this very informative Bridge blog from Adobe's own Arno Gourdol (The Bridge Enginnering Manager) and Adobe Bridge Product Manager Gunar. Needless to say, they know the Bridge at a scary level, and their blog has some fascinating insights and tips. Definitely worth checking out.

Danger On The Road to Photoshop World Miami!

If you're driving down to Photoshop World Miami next week, and at some point you see one of those huge custom motor coaches swerving from lane to lane, and forcing smaller vehicles off the road, don't freak out--it's just our buddy, and well-known Photoshop guru, Ben Willmore on his way to the conference. He just sold his cozy cabin in the Colorado woods for the swanky digs of a "rock star" bus and now that Ben's behind the wheel, the roads just aren't safe any more. You can view full color photos of Ben's Magic Bus, and map out your route to minimize a possible encounter (and the damage that may ensue) by visiting Ben's blog at http://www.whereisben.com. Remember, if you know where Ben is, there's less chance that he'll ram into you. ;-)

What To Do if Your Memory Card Dies

There's a great little article/story over at low end DSLR on how the author had his digital camera's memory card die on him, and what he did to resurrect it. It's one of those articles that you'll want to take two minutes to read now, so if/when you suffer a similar fate, you'll have a plan of action already in place. Thanks to NAPP's Larry Becker for pointing this one out to me.

NEWS: Visit the Photoshop World Expo Floor Free!

Hey, if you're anywhere in the South Florida area, check this out: Each year we open the Photoshop World Expo Floor to the public for just one day. This year, that day is Thursday, March 23rd, and although we charge $20.00 for an expo pass, if you sign up at this link in advance, you get in for free. All the "big names" will be there, like Nikon, Adobe, Wacom, Microsoft, Canon, Epson, etc., plus there are loads of free training sessions in three different show floor theaters that day, including special sessions from Microsoft showing off the new features for digital photographers in the upcoming Microsoft Windows "Vista." For more info, visit http://www.photoshopworld.com

The Photoshop Q&A Book

If you think that sounds like a great idea for a book, I totally agree, but not only is there a Photoshop Q&A book out there, it's absolutely brilliant. The only problem is: it's not called the Photoshop Q&A Book. It's called "The Photoshop Help Desk Book," by Dave Cross, and I think it should get the award for "Best Photoshop book with the most misleading title." I mean, it certainly does offer lots of tips on troubleshooting and how to avoid common problems, but the real heart of his book is a Q&A book, and a brilliant one at that. It's rare that I say "This is a book every Photoshop user should own," but "This is a book every Photoshop user should own!" Dave did just a fantastic job of asking just the right questions (hundreds of them, by the way), and giving answers that will save you time, frustation, and you'll learn so much it'll make your head hurt. I highly recommend it to any who wants to work smarter in Photoshop. Amazon.com has it in stock for only $23.09. Cheap. Here's the link. Buy it. You'll thank me.

TIP: The Hidden Options Bar Pop-Down Menu

Here's the problem: Let's say you're using Free Tranform, and you want to type in a particular Width or Height up in the Options Bar. You want your Width to be 3.375 inches, but even though your default unit of measure is Inches, the fields in the Options Bar are in pixel (Don't ask me why Photoshop does that, but it does). Of course, if you knew the two-letter code, you could type in 3.375in (for inches), but there’s an even easier way (and you don’t have to memorize any abbreviations). Just type in your number, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) in the Width field and a pop-up list of measurement units will appear (as shown). Just choose the one you want from that list, and you're set. Of course, this works for the Height measurement, too.

COOL STUFF: Try Your Hand At Warhol Effect

This is pretty darn cool: you go to this Web site, wait a few seconds for the flash player to load, and then you see the famous Andy Warhol Pop Art portrait of Marilyn Monroe. OK, that in itself isn't so cool, but if you look below it, it's got color controls for each area of the image so you can create your own custom Warhol look. It's cooler than it sounds. Check it out at http://webexhibits.org/colorart/marilyns.html

NEWS: Guru Awards Best-of-Show Takes Home an Epson Stylus Photo R2400 Printer

CDW, the sponsor of the Photoshop World Guru Awards competition, came up big today by announcing that they would present the best-of-show winner with an Epson Style Photo R2400 color printer (it prints up to 13"x19" prints). The winners in each of the 10 categories will win the new NuLOOQ navigator™ and NuLOOQ tooldial™ for Photoshop. Cool beans! :-)

Shot This Week

Photoshop World is only 11 days away, so Dave Moser and I needed a break to clear our otherwise cluttered minds, so we went to the Horse Track and cranked off a couple of shots. We only had time to shoot two races, but here's one I got from the second race (click on the thumbnail for a larger view). Let the record show that while I was at the track, I did not place a bet. However, I did steal some stuff and drank quite heavily. ;-)

NEWS: Speeding Photoshop

The UK-based graphics magazine DIGIT has a nice article on ways to speed up Photoshop. They've got a lot of individual things you can do, and step you can take, to keep Photoshop running at top speed. It's worth a look (click here).

NEWS: Mac Freaks: Join Me in NYC!

If you're a Macintosh user, I want to invite you to join me, Deke, Bert Monroy, Dave Cross, Katrin Eismann, Matt "Rockin' the Houseski" Kloskowski, Jack Resnicki, Chris Breen, Bob Letivus, and David Pogue (among others) for MacLive--the big mondo-cool training conference for creative professionals. It's being held at New York City's Jacob Javits Center on May 11-13, 2006 and it's going to be a blast! Lots of Photoshop training, entire tracks just for digital photography, digital video, The iPod and Podcasting, Mac OS X Tiger, InDesign, Illustrator, etc. Plus there's sessions on Lightroom, Apple's Aperture, and loads of other stuff. Registration just opened, and of course, if you're a NAPP member you get a big discount on the registration price. Check it out at http://www.maclive.com. Hope I'll see you there this May!

NEWS: New Episode of PSTV is On The Air!

I was out at PMA last week, so the other "Photoshop Guys" (Matt and Dave) were flying in the missing man formation, but that didn't stop them from doing a rockin' show (and it's now up there live at http://www.photoshoptv.com). However, I did do a "live remote" from Adobe's booth at the PMA show in Orlando, where I showed a tip on using the High Pass filter for extreme sharpening, and that's included in this week's episode. Go check it out, download it, etc. :-)

COOL STUFF: You Gotta Read This Article

This weekend I ran across this article and I had to share it with you. It's from the Designorati 360 Blog, and the article is written by Pariah S. Burke who moderates a Yahoo! online group for graphic designers. The group is free to join, but to keep out spammers and other nare-do-wells, he asks people to register and simply describe what they do in design before he approves them for entry into the group. If they have any sort of legitimate link to graphic design, he immediately approves them (he doesn't judge their work, just if they're "for real"). Well, you've absolutely got to read some of the actual comments people included on their free registration form. You're not going to believe some of them are real, but I can tell you from experience (since we get emails from Photoshop TV viewers that are sometimes eerily similar), they're real. Read the article here.

COOL STUFF: Fake Model Tutorial Found Online

Back on Jan. 31st, I posted a note about a very cool photographer who was taking aerial shots of cities using a Shift-Tilt lens and it made the cities look like tiny toy models. It was just amazing (you can read that original article, from Metropolis magazine, and see his photos by clicking here). Anyway, I was just fascinated by the technique, and got numerous emails about it. Well, as luck would have it, Jon Gales (the same guy who turned me onto these Shift-Tilt lens photos in the first place) found a tutorial online on how to create the same look in Photoshop. I've tried the tutorial and it looks great (one of my attempts is shown here--click on it for a larger view). Clearly, this technique is just for fun, but what's wrong with that? :-) Check it out at http://recedinghairline.co.uk/tutorials/fakemodel/

NEWS: Cool New Photoshop Book from Kid Kloskowski

Just wanted to give you a heads-up: my Photoshop TV Co-host Matt "Rockin' the Houseski" Kloskowski is coming out with a kick-butt new book called "Photoshop Speed Clinic." The book shows you how to work faster and smarter in Photoshop by adding automation to your work, including actions, scripting, smart objects, and it includes about every slick shortcut, clever workaround, and flat out faster way to do things in Photoshop. The book is on press right now, but you can pre-order it today so you're the first to get it, by clicking this Amazon.com link. I got to see the book right before it went to press, and I was really, really impressed with what Matt has done, and "Speed Clinic" is exactly the right name. If you want to work faster, get "the kid's" book today!

NEWS: Creative Suite Video Podcast from Terry White

My good buddy Terry White (5-time world heavyweight champion and creator of the NAPP Grill), just launched an incredibly informative new Video Podcast on the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, and Acrobat). Terry's absolutely a top-notch instructor and his free video Podcast is absolutely great!!! Today his tip is on retouching photos in Photoshop. By the way, you don't have to have an iPod to watch his, or any Podcast: you can watch them on your computer through Apple's free iTunes software (for Windows or Mac). Just go to the iTunes Music Store, click on the Podcasts link, then do a search for Creative Suite Podcast.

TIP: Frustration-saving Type Tip

This is a tip I learned from my buddy Matt that can keep your from pulling your hair out when creating more than one layer of Type. Here's the problem: if you've already got some type on a layer, and you grab the Type tool to create some separate type, Photoshop always seems to want to add to your existing text layer, instead of letting you create a new one (especially if your type size is really large). Matt's solution: Just hold the Shift key, then click and start typing. That way even if you're clicking close to the existing type, it creates a new separate layer. Try this once, you'll use it again and again. "

NEWS: Photoshop Elements 4 Comes to Macintosh

OK, this isn't exactly news for you, but chances are good that you've turned some family member or friend onto Photoshop Elements (the consumer version of Photoshop). Well, when they launched the Windows version of Elements 4 last year, they didn't come out with a Mac version. In fact, it didn't ship until this week (and it comes with a modified version of the Adobe Bridge), so if you have a Mac-using friend of Elements, tell 'em the wait is over! Find out more info on Adobe's site.

PMA: Shot of the Adobe Booth

Here's a shot of me training in Adobe's booth at PMA (click on the thumbnail for a larger version), taken by Adobe's own master of Lightroom, George Jardine (who's available strictly for shooting high-end celebrity portraits). ;-)

Thanks to everybody who stopped by to catch my sessions. Met some really great people there!

NEWS: The Big Buzz at PMA

I got a chance to walk the expo floor at PMA (Photo Marketing Assn) show in Orlando yesterday, and four products were pretty much generating all the buzz: (1) First, Logitech's NuLOOQ navigator and tooldial, which bring a new level of control to Photoshop, are just absolutely cool as heck. Click this link to see what all the fuss is about (and why you'll them both. Bad!). (2) Nikon's new Capture NX (available later this year) was another big talk of the show. They worked with nikMultimedia on this major new version, and when I saw it today my jaw dropped more than once. Very, very cool stuff. (3) Adobe was packing them in showing Lightroom, and it was drawing more than its share of ohhhs and ahhhs, and (4) Canon's new printers were getting lots of love from everybody. That's it so far. If I hear any new buzz later today, I'll report. :-)

PMA SIGHTINGS

Saw lots of NAPP instructors, and other friends working the PMA show yesterday. Ran into Eddie Tapp on his way between sessions; Vincent Versace doing a demo at GreytagMacbeth on color calibration; Bert Monroy (pictured) showing his incredible new panoramic Photoshop illustration while demoing the NuLOOQ Navigator over at Logitech's booth; Also at Gregtag was Andrew Rodney busting a lot of old myths about monitor calibration; Jack Resnicki shootin' live models at the huge Canon booth; plus Julieanne Kost, Rick Sammon, and Matt Kloskowski were all "Rockin' the Houseski" with their presentations over at Adobe's booth. Lots of cool new stuff, from some very fascinating people!