photoshop
The online training space just got a little more crowded
Yesterday Chase Jarvis, the Seattle photographer that has taken over the photography world, announced a partnership with the folks from the CreativeTechs webinars called CreativeLive. They have announced a live workshop series that will be taught by some of the most respected photographers out there.
I’ve checked out the webinars from CreativeTechs before and they are really good. As in any other workshop the teacher is the key to a good learning experience. They have some great teachers and some not so great but when they are good they are worth your time (check out the John Greengo, Fundamentals of Digital Photography).
So now we as photography enthusiasts have many options to learn online. There’s Lynda.com who’s the original online training site. They have every imaginable course you can imagine on software plus a few interesting profiles from famous creatives.
Then there’s Kelbytraining.com. With Scott Kelby as the driving force behind this site there’s an amazing selection of photography and digital retouching courses. Both these sites have a monthly plan with no strings attached so you can try them for a month and see if you like them.
I’m excited to check out the new CreativeLive webinars announced by Chase Jarvis and see what they are like. Online learning is a great way to learn from home but of course for learning in person with a teacher I recommend you check out my own workshops. Having a teacher right there showing you how to use your camera or computer and being able to ask questions is one of the many advantages, check them out.
Snow Leopard this Friday
The rumors were true and Apple is releasing it’s system update named Snow Leopard this Friday August 28th.
Lots of cool things are included even though Apple is selling it as a small $30 upgrade.
The Finder has been rewritten to make it faster and completely compatible with all the new technologies. It also allows for huge icon sizes which is good to look through a folder full of photographs.
Sometimes Mac OS X prevents you from ejecting a disk, but you don’t always know why. In Snow Leopard you’ll see exactly which application is using the drive, so you can quit it and eject the drive properly. (Finally!)
Adobe has stated that CS4 is compatible with Snow Leopard but a firestorm erupted this week when they didn’t commit to completely supporting Leopard. We’ll have to see what Adobe does. I for one will be upgrading to Snow Leopard this Friday and will post anything of interest here.
Lightroom and Camera Raw updated
Both Lightroom and Camera Raw from Adobe have been updated. Nothing earth shattering unless you use one of the cameras they added support to. Some small bug fixes were done including one with the crop tool that I’ve personally bumped into. Time to go update, boot up Lightroom or click here to check it out at the Adobe site
Epson Print Academy
I’m currently teaching an advanced Photoshop class and this summer I’ll be teaching a class about using and converting Raw files, for that reason I’m constantly trying to keep up to date on all things Photoshop. Tomorrow here in Vancouver, the Epson Print Academy rolls into town with some cool people appearing on stage and I’m attending Track 2 of the tour.
Jeff Schewe, Greg Gorman and Andrew Rodney are scheduled to be there tomorrow. I’m also looking forward to checking out the brand new Vancouver Convention Centre where the event will take place.
Jeff Schewe is a photographer and Photoshop guru from Chicago. He is a master at Photoshop and from his bio I see that his first digital photo assignment happened in 1984! What could THAT have been? I mean Apple’s Quicktake camera released 10 years later in 1994 was 0.3 megapixels (640×480)!!
Greg Gorman is known for his amazing work shooting hollywood stars and now has an amazing gig as host of his own workshop for photographers that takes place at his Mendocino, California home.
Andrew Rodney is a colour management specialist that has worked with Photoshop since version 2.5 and wrote what is probably the bible for all aspects of colour management on a computer.
I’m hoping that the sponsorship that Epson offers on this tour takes a bit of a back seat to the actual information I can use. To use a geeky phrase, I’m hoping the “signal to noise ratio” is in favor of useful information and that it’s not an Epson commercial every 15 minutes. I’ll report back on that.
At the time of this writing there is still room available to join the workshop which runs from 9:30 am to 5 pm tomorrow. The cost is $99.oo CDN with lunch included. Clicking here will take you to the sign up page.
peter funch
Another great link to some awesome urban street photos. Peter Funch blends different takes at the same location to create a theme or story. I found them really fascinating. The digital work is amazing and unnoticeable. There are so many great images in the gallery, people yawning, photographing Times Square or holding umbrellas. very surreal.
I especially like this one with the dogs. Click on the photo to visit a faster loading gallery of his work and then go check out his other images on his site (link above)
drooling over the new Wacom Intuos4
The new Intuos4 tablet by Wacom was just announced and it has made me rethink the whole concept of sound financial behavior. In other words I NEED IT.
The new Intuos4 is a complete re-design of their previous tablets. The people at Wacom actually worked together with Adobe so that the new controls would work properly and intuitively with Photoshop. I’ve used a Wacom tablet for over a decade and can tell you that once you try them you are hooked. I read an analogy today on another blog where someone said that using a mouse to work with images on your computer is like using a baseball bat to create a painting. I couldn’t agree more.
Wacom is not a word usually seen in the same sentence as the word “affordable”, but in reality their products are so well made and last so for long that the investment in one of their tablets is actually very good. Once you see how much faster and precise your work is with a Wacom you realize how amazingly great they are.
Here’s a quick tour of the main features of the new Intuos4:
The first thing you notice is the new button layout on the tablet. They’ve replaced the “slider” strip with a wheel control and the placement is symetrical, allowing left handed people to rotate the tablet 180 degrees and have the exact same layout.
The buttons now have an actual display for their label. They change their name depending on the tool and application you are running. No guessing what each button does!
The wheel has a center button and allows for quick zooming and rotating just like an iPod. Quick and intuitive. Probably one of the new features that I will appreciate most when retouching since the navigation around an image will speed up considerably.
There are other new features like double the pressure sensitivity and improved pen and mouse so to check them out visit the Wacom site where they have a very cool presentation for the new Intuos4.
Photoshop CS4
cs4 box
I’t may seem like CS3 was out not so long ago but it has been 18 months since that version of Adobe’s suite of industry standard applications came out. Last week Adobe unveiled CS4 and I find it has many shiny new things (including a ton of changes inspired by Lightroom) that are making me look for a way to upgrade as soon as possible.
Some of them are being shown for their cool factor which is undeniable, and although they definitely are appealing to me, I’m also very interested in experiencing the many changes that have been made under the hood. Those are not flashy or have eye candy but for people who work in Photoshop day in and day out, they are greatly appreciated. In John Nack’s blog (Photoshop product manager) there is a post that mentions all the changes that happened under the hood. Nerd alert- the following is kind of geeky and very Photoshop centric so feel free to check out the flashy Photoshop CS4 here and here if this is not your thing.
So for the stuff under the hood, here are my picks:
Smooth Pixel Rendering
Previous versions of Photoshop had the problem that at certain magnifications the image showed jagged lines that didn’t render correctly. That is finally fixed and images show in perfect detail at any magnification. This has bugged me for so many years, For years I’ve had to zoom in or out to see if what I’m doing is looking right…so glad this is fixed!
Spring Loaded Keys
A great time saver. With this new option you can be for example brushing or cloning an image and temporarily click and hold another key on the keyboard, use its corresponding tool, and then let go of that key and go back to using the original tool.
Adjustment Panel
Some of the most used tools like Curves, Levels, etc. are now found on a panel (used to be called “palettes”) for quick access. Time saver again.
Live Under Cursor Preview
Sounds complex but actually it means you see a preview of what you are cloning or healing as your brush; like in the Vanishing Point tool. Nice for aligning things.
Tabbed Document Viewing & Application Frame
Tabbing as a quick way to move through all open documents instead of going through the Window menu is great for quick file reviews. And finally the Application Frame interface with its tabbed documents at the top (like a browser) makes the upgrade worth its money for me.
tabbed interface
The flashy stuff will be useful too and I really want to test the new content aware scaling, but these changes and improvements under the hood are sometimes more valuable to people who at the end of the day can get their work done faster and in a more efficient way.
So there you have it, my picks for best new features you might not know about in Photoshop CS4.
Adobe Lightroom Beta 2
Last week Adobe announced the new version of Lightroom as a beta for anyone to try. Some of the new features look great like output sharpening, localized corrections like dodge and burn and probably one of the most requested features since the debut of Lightroom, dual monitor support.
This new version is not compatible with the current version meaning your libraries should stay separate since they don’t guarantee you will be able to upgrade them when version 2 is finished, but I’m still going to try it out with a few images to check out the new features.
You can get the trial at the Adobe Labs website
A good overview can be found at the Photoshop News website
Photoshop through the web
Adobe just released Adobe Photoshop Express, “an online version of Photoshop” which allows anyone to work on their photographs using just a web browser. The available tools are basic and are not really a full (or even simple) version of Photoshop by any means. They are however very useful for people that want to do some basic corrections to their images, store them online (they offer 2 gigs of storage) and also a way to use those images in other sites like Facebook.
After playing with it for a while I think it’s a good first version that will help many people who just want to do minor adjustments to their images when using any computer in the world. Great for vacation shots you might want to upload while traveling for example. Keep an eye out on this one since Adobe will be making improvements to it and adding more features.
Try it for free at the Adobe Photoshop Express site
My new venture. Learn photography with me.
