Welcome to the June 2005 Newsletter. At the end of this newsletter you'll find some software specials for you from AV Bros. Plugins (discounted plugin bundles).
• Photoshop Blog - Featuring Free Tips
Make sure to read through our Photoshop Blog, where you can find a collection of the latest Photoshop news and free Photoshop tips. The Blog also features an RSS feed.
Visit the Photoshop Blog
• Latest Adobe Photoshop News
New Adobe Bridge User To User Forum
There's a new Adobe Bridge User to User Forum at the Adobe site. Free registration is required to post on the forums.
Adobe Posts Camera Raw 3.1
Camera Raw 3.1 (for Photoshop CS2) has been posted to the Adobe Camera Raw page. Camera Raw 3.1 supports the additional following cameras: Canon EOS Rebel XT (EOS 350D/EOS Kiss Digital N), Nikon D2X, Olympus EVOLT E-300, Olympus C-7070 Wide Zoom. Camera Raw 3.0 is not compatible with Photoshop CS.
Proxy Volume 1, Number 3 Now Available
Adobe's quarterly online magazine covers software tips, troubleshooting advice, design trends, and more. In this issue there are some Photoshop tutorials on how to blend images in Photoshop, excerpted from Adobe Photoshop CS Creative Studio, by Luanne Seymour Cohen. You'll find them in the "Schoolin'" section.
To view this issue you'll have to signup at the Proxy site. At the signup page you'll find two back issues you can download instantly.
Signup at the Proxy site.
Buy Adobe Photoshop CS Creative Studio from Amazon.com
Photoshop CS2 Free Trial Versions For MAC & For Windows
Both the Photoshop CS2 free trial for MAC and the Photoshop CS2 free trial for Windows are available for download from the Adobe website.
Download the 30-day free trial of Adobe Photoshop CS2 for MAC.
Download the 30-day free trial of Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Windows.
• Blog Template And Design Tips Tutorial
Jennifer Apple's latest Photoshop tutorial offers tips on how to improve blog templates by adding your own design elements.
The tutorial also includes a list of free blog resources, a link to David Byrne's amazingly wonderful radio program, and a killer martini recipe.
Read the Blog Templates & Blog Design Tips tutorial.
• New Help Center
Need help with Photoshop? Everyone does, so we created a Photoshop Help Center page that is a collection of resource sites that can assist you if you're having trouble with Photoshop. Our favorite new help resources are the two Adobe RSS Feeds for Photoshop. There's one for Recent Documents and one for Top Issues.
Visit our new Photoshop Help Center.
• New Book - O'Reilly Releases "Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook"
"A beautiful photograph - whether panoramic or not - is born of one-third technique and two-thirds creativity," says Sacha Popovic, one of the eight visionary photographers showcased in the new "Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook" (O'Reilly, US $19.95). A one-of-a-kind collection of panoramic photos by renowned French artists, this book serves as both creative inspiration and serious technique training for amateur and professional photographers, graphic designers, and digital artists.
Newly translated into English, "Assembling Panoramic Photos: A Designer's Notebook" is for anyone who enjoys pushing the limits of imagination with photography and digital imagery, and everyone ready to prove what one of the featured artist/photographers, Christophe Noel, promises: with digital imaging, "everything is possible."
This book is available at a discount price (34% off) at Amazon.com.
• Photoshop CS2 Video Tutorials From Total Training
Total training has kindly provided us with some links to clips from their brand new training videos for Photoshop CS2. Here's the latest additions to our growing collection.
The Smart Sharpen Filter
The new Smart Sharpen Filter lets you easily counteract common image blurring with fine correction control based on the specific blur types: motion, lens, and Gaussian.
In this clip you'll learn how to use the new Smart Sharpen Filter, and the difference between the Smart Sharpen Filter and the Unsharp Mask Filter.
See the Total Training CS2 "Smart Sharpen Filter" video tutorial.
Match Color
In this video clip tutorial you'll learn how the Match Color Command functions work so you can match the colors of one layer or image with the highlights of another layer or image. This clip also shows the new features of the Match Color Command in the new Photoshop CS2.
See the Total Training CS2 "Match Color" video tutorial.
Remove Red Eye
Remove red eye from a photo with the new Photoshop CS2 one-click red-eye correction tool, which supports 16-bit images and lets you set pupil size and darkening level.
In this clip you'll learn the most common causes of red eye, and how to remove red eye completely with one click from the Red Eye Tool.
See the Total Training CS2 "Remove Red Eye" video tutorial.
• Total Training For Photoshop CS2 - Review
From the review by Eric: "In 2005 Photoshop turned 15 years old, and Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop 9, is jam-packed with so much good stuff you are definitely going to be need help that is both simple and easy to understand.
"Total Training For Photoshop CS2, hosted by Deke McClelland, fits the bill. This is one of the most comprehensive training packages I have come across.
I don't think that the people at Total Training have left anything out, which is good news to anyone who is serious about tackling Photoshop. As Photoshop keeps adding more power and features with each upgrade, it has turned into a real monster with a very steep learning curve. Consider this: Photoshop CS2 now includes a mind-boggling 494 menu commands."
Read the full review.
• New CS2 Book - Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2
In Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2, the newly updated edition of his popular camera raw guide, best-selling author Bruce Fraser shows you how to take advantage of Adobe Camera Raw using Adobe Photoshop CS2 to set white balance, optimize contrast and saturation, handle noise, correct tint, recover lost detail in images before converting them to another format, and more.
For an overview of how the raw process works, download a sample chapter from Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2. To learn more about author Bruce Fraser and how he uses Photoshop CS2 read this exclusive interview.
This book is available at a discount price (34% off) at Amazon.com.
• Top Selling Book - The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers
Scott Kelby takes The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers to a whole new level as he uncovers the latest, most important and most exciting new Adobe Photoshop CS2 techniques for digital photographers. This major update to this award-winning, record-breaking book does something for digital photographers that's never been done before – it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly "how to do it." It's not a bunch of theory; it doesn't challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure it out on your own. Instead, Scott shows you step-by-step the exact techniques used by today's cutting-edge digital photographers and, best of all, he shows you, flat-out, exactly which settings to use, when to use them, and why.
This book is available at a discount price (34% off) at Amazon.com.
• Updated Photoshop Scripts From Trevor Morris
Trevor Morris from GFX^TM has updated his Photoshop Scripts page to include scripts for both Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS2. All scripts should now work in both versions of Photoshop. The scripts include:
Close Without Saving - closes the current document without saving and without prompting to save changes.
Close ALL Without Saving - closes ALL current documents without saving and without prompting to save changes.
Contract Canvas Selection - contracts a selection that touches the document boundaries on one or more sides (which Photoshop is not capable of doing).
Import Folder As Layers - imports a series of images (from the designated folder) as named layers into a new document.
Toggle Layer Visibility - toggle the visibility of the current layer (on or off).
Visit the GFX^TM site to download the Photoshop Scripts.
• New Photoshop Brushes From Kirsty
Kirsty from brushes.500ml.org sent this in: "I was actually planning on doing a quite mundane brush set this time, like flowers, but thankfully I changed my mind: I present you the Anatomica brush set! Or in ordinary English, the Anatomy brush set.
Don't worry, there's nothing gruesome about it as you can see for yourself at brushes.500ml.org :) Thank you for all the support, and enjoy the new brush set!"
Kirsty also sent this in: "It's time again for a new brush set, and this time the new set has a 'Children' theme - children from the Victorian, 1920's/30's and 40's eras to be specific! Go take a look."
• Warning: Disturbing Images Ahead
From Jennifer Apple: Whenever I end up on a website that has images that might give me nightmares, I put up my psychic shields, look through the pages quickly, and leave. But even after taking such precautions, sometimes a few days later the images will come back to haunt me. That's what happened after I visited HumanDescent.com.
The site is a gallery of images of morphed animals and humans that have been created in Photoshop by the owner, Martin. Many of Martin's images are grotesque, but others are strangely beautiful, like images of hybrid bird/dogs that are sprinkled throughout the gallery pages.
As part of a self-administered exorcism, I contacted Martin and asked him a few questions:
Read the interview with Martin and see his favorite Human Descent image
• Discount Codes (10% Off) From AV Bros. Plugin Store
The AV Bros. have given us special links where you can get a 10% discount on the purchase of their plugins. Just use the following links to purchase the individual products or packages at a discount.
AV Bros. Page Curl 2.0 for Mac OS X
AV Bros. Page Curl Pro 2.0 for Mac OS X
AV Bros. Page Curl Pro 2.0 for Windows
AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 2.0 for Mac OS X
AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 2.0 for Windows
Bundle A (Page Curl Pro 2.0 & Puzzle Pro 2.0) - cross-platform
Bundle A (Page Curl Pro 2.0 & Puzzle Pro 2.0) - for Mac OS X
Bundle A (Page Curl Pro 2.0 & Puzzle Pro 2.0) - for Windows
To learn more about the products, visit the AV Bros. site.
• Tip Of The Month: Tired of Pressing The Shift Key To Rotate Through Tools?
Back in the old days, there just weren't that many tools in Photoshop, and if you wanted to rotate through the various tools (say the Pen tool for instance), you'd just press the letter "p" over and over again until the Pen tool you wanted made its way to the Toolbox. Ah, those were the simpler times. But as Photoshop 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 7.0 and now CS2 came about, so did more tools, and now by default you also have to press Shift to rotate through the tools. Or do you? Hmmmm. Actually, you can request (politely) that Photoshop let you revert to the ways of old, allowing you to press just one key to rotate through the tools. You do this in Mac OS X by going under the Photoshop menu, under Preferences, and choosing General (in Windows, Preferences can be found under the Edit menu). In that dialog, uncheck the box for "Use Shift Key for Tool Switch." It's like stepping back in time.
• A Thank You To Our Friends, Partners & Sponsors
We'd like to thank our friends, partners and sponsors: Google, Hostway, Total Training, Peachpit Press, O'Reilly Media, The PhotoshopHelp Blog, CreativeBits, Heathrowe, CreativeGuy, Power Retouche Plugins, AbsolutVision Stock Photos, AV Bros. Plugins, and The National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
• July 2005 Newsletter Preview
That's all for this month's newsletter. Next month we'll cover all the latest updates with links to each entry in the July newsletter (To be published on July 5th.). Also in July we'll have some exclusive discounts and specials for Newsletter members.
Until then, Happy Photoshopping!
