Welcome to the April 2006 Newsletter. This month we have an exclusive discount from Vertus that offers their pro masking software Fluid Mask for $189. This is for version 2 MAC/PC, and the offer includes 6 months of free upgrades. We also have a 10% discount from DriveSavers for hard drive recovery. Enjoy the newsletter!
Auto FX Mystical Lighting - Review
Mystical Lighting allows you to apply realistic lighting and shading effects to digital images in order to achieve studio quality results. Used as either a standalone application or as a plug-in for Windows and Mac OS, it launches into its own user-friendly interface.
Mystical Lighting includes 16 visual effects and 400 presets, offering you the freedom to push the boundaries of your own creativity while retaining the option to achieve instantly formulated results. Enhancing the ambiance and beauty of your digital images is made simple with Mystical Lighting's variety of layers, unlimited undo capability, masking and dynamic effect controls.
Read the full Mystical Lighting review (includes link to free demo).
Auto FX Mystical Tint Tone and Color - Review
Mystical Tint Tone and Color, like its Lighting counterpart, can be used as a stand-alone application or as a plug-in that is fully integrative with Photoshop. It offers 38 color effects that are easily applied to your entire image or brushed onto selective areas. Mystical Tint Tone and Color provides heightened efficiency by combining multiple editing steps into a simple, dynamic interface with unlimited undo and redo capability, layers, visual presets, and tools.
With its easy to use interface and vast array of effects, Mystical Tint Tone and Color is an incredibly powerful addition to your cache of graphic design resources. The interface offers a large preview window, with the option to view your image in its original state after effects have been applied.
Read the full Mystical Tint Tone & Color review (includes link to free demo).
Auto FX DreamSuite Series One & Two - Review
Auto FX DreamSuite Series One offers a variety of powerful visual effects that allow you to create stunning images and artwork. DreamSuite lets you achieve a range of realistic results that are difficult or impossible to obtain using any other software – it allows you to digitally replicate many special effects that print designers often have to produce by hand.
You can crease, crumple and crackle digital images in a manner so realistic that it is almost as though you've been able to reach into your computer screen and manipulate your images with your own hands. The other visual effects that DreamSuite One offers are really quite unique – for instance, Chisel allows you make text appear as if it was carved or hammered from stone, while Dimension X lets you create 3-D metallic bevels.
Read the full DreamSuite Series One & Two review (includes link to free demo).
Exclusive Discount Price For Fluid Mask 2.0 - $189
Vertus Software is offering Fluid Mask (MAC & PC) at the special 'friends and partner' discounted rate of just $189 - PLUS free upgrades for the next 6 months.
New Features Of Fluid Mask 2.0
- Importing and exporting 16 bit color images
- Improved mask selections — especially on compressed images and fiddly cut-out tasks — making selecting your mask faster and more accurate
- Increases mask selection usability (a completely new image information layer IIL) giving you confidence with your selections, and helping you to learn how to use Fluid Mask easily.
This is an exclusive offer to visitors of PhotoshopSupport.com. To qualify, visit the Fluid Mask Discount Price page. For those who don't know, Vertus' Fluid Mask is a tool that allows a user to accurately cut out objects from images in a matter of seconds. It's based on breakthrough technology which is similar to the way the eye, optic nerve and brain perform visual processing. The software has been getting a lot of good buzz, and you can read more about it in this Software Overview, the Official Press Release (featuring jumbo versions of the frogs), or this Interview with co-creator James Carr-Jones.
New Photoshop Brush Set 'Vintage Easter' From Kirsty
The exquisitely talented Kirsty sends this in: "Hey everyone, here's a brush set especially for Easter: Vintage Easter. Of course it can be used at any other time of the year too! As always you can get it at 500ml Brushes. Hope you like!"
The Vintage Easter set contains 5 brushes of different vintage Easter images.
For more brushes, see our Photoshop Brushes Page.
Photo Recovery Resource Center
Our Photo Recovery Resource Center was created to point you to resources for immediate digital photo recovery. These are expert solutions that we strongly recommend in the case of catastrophic events like a total hard drive crash or a corrupted media card.
You'll find information on DriveSavers, an acclaimed company that specializes in safe and complete hard drive recovery, and information on PhotoRescue, which is currently the most popular and successful digital photo software available for photo recovery, and which includes the ability to undelete invisible files.
PhotoRescue - Digital Photo Recovery Software
Many companies who produce data recovery software programs tend to be far less empathic with their clients than the people at PhotoRescue – rather, they often seek to capitalize on the sense of urgency and alarm that overwhelms those who have lost important data! Often, you have no idea whether their particular software solution is at all suited to your particular recovery needs. Fearing the worst, you may find yourself forking over for a program that may not even be what you’re looking for.
This is where PhotoRescue is truly in a class of its own. Rather than attempting to capitalize off your panic, the people behind PhotoRescue focus on making sure that you know precisely what recovery assistance you will receive before you commit yourself to purchasing their software.
Go to our PhotoRescue Page to find out more.
DriveSavers - Hard Drive Recovery Experts
DriveSavers is internationally renowned for their rapid and accurate data recovery service, not to mention their unparalleled approach to customer support. As the leading data recovery provider, DriveSavers employs exclusive hardware techniques and unique software abilities to address specific data and file recovery challenges.
In as little as 24 hours DriveSavers can recover and return your data, enabling you to quickly resume work again. For the last 17 years their proprietary technology and custom solutions have earned them the authorization of all drive and storage media manufacturers and have delivered an industry-leading success rate of over 90%.
Call Now And Receive Our Exclusive 10% Discount
We are an Authorized DriveSavers reseller. Mention Discount Code DS1-32-30 and receive a 10% Discount on your invoiced recovery fee. You'll also be eligible for DriveSavers' exclusive No Attempt Fee – if data is not recoverable, there is no charge. Call now to have DriveSavers evaluate your unique situation, decide what course of action to take, and to help relieve panic and stress that is common in data loss crises.
U.S. & Canadian Customers: TOLL FREE: 1-800-440-1904
U.S. & Canadian Customers: DIRECT LINE: 1-415-382-2000
International Customers: (your country access code) + 888-440-2404
Mention Discount Code DS1-32-30 for a 10% Discount and No Attempt Fee
Go to our DriveSavers Page to find out more.
Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbooks From O'Reilly
Photoshop is the digital artist and photographer's premier choice for editing and manipulating digital photos. And with the mounting interest in digital photography, the demand for practical guidance, expert techniques, tips and solutions — recipes for success if you will — continues to grow. It's exactly all of this and more that O'Reilly delivers in its beautifully designed and visually stunning new series, the "Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbooks."
Packed with hundreds of full color images, inspiring digital imagery, and authoritative information and advice, the books provide everything the reader needs to retouch, create effects, use blending modes, and filter effects, with professional results. With the books in this collection, the digital artist or photographer doesn't need to be a Photoshop expert to succeed. The "Photoshop Digital Studio Cookbook Series" includes the following:
Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Photo Effects Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Filter Effects Encyclopedia Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Blending Modes Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook (Amazon.com - save 34%)
Total Training For Dreamweaver 8 Review
Dreamweaver is a dominating presence in the world of HTML editing programs, controlling around 80% of the market share. As a consequence, anyone with serious aspirations toward graphic design will have to learn Dreamweaver – especially now that Adobe has purchased Macromedia, and signaling in various interviews that Dreamweaver and Flash are now all-important to them. There are even preliminary indications that GoLive may be placed on Adobe's backburner.
Read the full review.
Total Training For Flash Pro 8 Review
Total Training for Macromedia Flash Pro 8 offers a highly effective visual approach to learning the ins and outs of all that Flash has to offer. After following through these lessons with host John Ulliman, you'll find that websites, presentations, and animations will benefit from improved design and interactive content.
Read the full review.
All About Soup2Nuts 2006 "The Wild Side" Plus Interviews With Ruth Knoll And Thomas Knoll
Photoshop Soup2Nuts is a conference that raises funds for digital imaging education and technical training for those who are economically limited. Proceeds go to help non-profits that support education, technology and the arts. This year's recipients are: Washtenaw Community College, Michigan Center for the Photographic Arts, Michigan Women's Foundation and the Michigan Theater.
Soup2Nuts 2006, which takes place in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 23 and 24, offers sessions and workshops geared toward the professional, the hobbyist, or the beginner, and is produced by volunteers, corporations, and educators passionate about the mission of the event.
This year's Soup2Nuts, going by the name "The Wild Side" has some great presenters lined up, including Ben Willmore, Bruce Fraser, Doug Elbinger, James Partridge, Jeff Schewe, Lynda Angelastro, Renee Pearson, Scott Kelby, Seth Resnick, Terry Abrams, and Thomas Knoll.
A few weeks ago we were contacted by Ruth Knoll, who is closely involved with this project, to see if we would help spread the word. We said of course, that we would be happy to, and we sent Ruth some questions, as well as her husband Thomas Knoll, who, just in case you do not know, is the co-creater/developer of Photoshop itself. So here we go...
Ruth Knoll Q&A
You have worked with Summers Knoll School and Washtenaw Community College in the past for this event - tell me a little about the schools.
I started Summers-Knoll School in late 1994 for bright creative and gifted children. We opened the doors for the first class in the fall of 1995. I spent most of the next 10 years working to develop and build the school to a K-8 program.
Last June I retired from the school and am now devoting my efforts to Soup2Nuts, a small school in Moshono, Tanzania, family and home.
I became involved with WCC the first year of Soup2Nuts - then it was called Knoll Knows. It was an evening presentation on Camera Raw. My mother-in-law was head of the nursing program there for many years. One of her compatriots, Terry Abrams, at WCC was in the Photography Department. Terry and Gladys chatted regularly about kids and family and WCC. The Photography Department was just getting into this new digital photography cutting edge software that Thomas was developing. You can imagine the direction of the chatting when Terry found out that Thomas, Gladys' son, was the Photoshop developer.
A few years later, I taught a student at SK who kept telling me her dad taught Photoshop too. When I found out who dad was, it was Terry! Terry and I teamed up to do the first Knoll Knows at WCC and as they say, the rest is history.
How many people usually attend the conference?
The first year there were about 75 attendees, the second year about 250 for a one full day conference. Last year there were about 130 people each day of a two day conference. This coming year, we are targeting 300 attendees for the sessions and workshops and an additional 1,000 to walk through the trade show floor. End of June is a tough time - graduations, weddings and it is the beginning of the vacation season. Wish us luck with this year of expansion!
Is this a good conference for the beginner in Photoshop and digital photography to attend - or is it more suited for the intermediate?
Both and more. Mike Monahan of Monahan's Seafood Market in Ann Arbor taught me about beginners. He always has the elementary school classes come visit his market. He feeds them the best tasting items he has and makes sure he has a wonderful collection of whole fish to show the kids. Nothing like seeing wiggling eels and lobsters on ice to create excitement in young kids. I asked him why he was feeding them $28.00 a pound smoked salmon - the reply was, he is creating a future market. He had been doing it so long, the kids now were adults coming back to buy from him because of the great adventure they had in a third grade field trip.
So, we have a wonderful beginner track designed based on this same fishy principle - excite them and start them with a good base of photographic knowledge and they will come back.
In addition to that we have a selection of focused sessions on one particular tool from the tool palette in Photoshop. Participants can focus on one specific tool and all the great things that can be done. I find it interesting that one of the tools is the Magic Wand - now I know how professionals do it.
The heart of the conference is our artistic track and the professional and bleeding edge sessions we are presenting. We have four sessions each day devoted to the art of photography. I want to have a place to talk about art rather than the tools to create the art. Then there is the heavy duty technical side of the program - attendees can pixel wrestle with Thomas Knoll and Bruce Fraser. I never knew there was so much information in and about the venerable pixel. I found out that there really is a difference between round and square pixels.
We also have a session with David Story, Marc Pawlinger and Thomas Knoll - this is the direct chain of command at Adobe in charge of Photoshop. The title is "Everything I wanted to know about Photoshop and I'm not afraid to ask" - here is your chance to hear and ask about the bleeding edge of the product. Whether or not you get answers or need to sign an NDA to get in or give up your first born is yet to be determined.
Tell us a little about the photo shoot and dinner at the Toledo Zoo...
Every conference needs professional fun and this is it. We have buses waiting to take us south to the Toledo Zoo on Friday after the sessions. Upon arrival dinner will be waiting for us for our gustatory delight. After that, our illustrious presenters around the African area will be waiting to answer questions, discuss exposure and otherwise challenge you in ways to see the world in a different way.
Dessert buffet following a wild evening of shooting is capped off with a bus ride back to Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor with plans to arrive back by 10:00 PM.
The evening is open to any conference participants for $100 and open to the general public for $125.
Your Photoshop widow stories are great. Will you be writing more soon, and will you be developing a web site around this?
Thank you, I must admit I had fun writing them. Yes I plan to write more - the spirit is willing but the clock usually gets in my way. I have all too many things I want to do and am doing. I plan on having two out this spring - My Travels With Thomas and The Great Graphic Make Over...
As far as a web site goes, I like the idea and again the time thing... it's spring and it's time to plant the garden. Jeff Schewe has been kind enough to look after me a bit with gathering up URLs and hosting my first stores, maybe I can work something out with Jeff.
What I would really like is a list of ideas to write about - for me this is just a normal life living with someone who is a brilliant programmer who takes dance instruction at a Masai village in the Odupai Valley of Tanzania. Any chance you can come up with some requests or suggestions?
(you can send story ideas using our contact form and we will forward them to Ruth).
Thanks for the interview Ruth and good luck with Soup2Nuts 2006!
Thomas Knoll Q&A
What drew you to image processing?
I had an interest in photography as a teenager and developed film and made prints in my dad's darkroom.
What motivated you to turn your early projects, such as Display, into a commercial image processing product?
Display was my only project along with some command line utilities that did various imaging processing steps. The question is what motivated me: it was mostly fun to work on.
What was it like working with Adobe to develop Photoshop 1.0?
For 1.0 I was the only programmer on it. It was before the internet days. Every few days I'd drop a floppy disk in Fed Ex to Adobe with the latest build.
I had to talk a lot with the documentation person and the product manager and discuss a bit of marketing strategy. That was it - the whole team. Steve Gutman was the product manager. I don't recall the person who wrote the documentation. I don't remember any QA person - there may not have been any.
Can you tell us how the name Photoshop was chosen?
We went through a series of working names - the first was Display because that is all it did. As it got more powerful, we needed a name that would reflect what it did.
The next working names were Image Pro and then Photo Lab but each of those were shot down in turn by similar products in that market space.
Then we chose Photoshop as the working name fully expecting whomever we sold the product to would do market research and choose a better name. Adobe spent several months doing research on various names and eventually choose to call it Photoshop. The only change they ended up making was to make the "s" in Photoshop lower case. It used to be: PhotoShop, now it is Photoshop.
Did you think it would be a success - or was it unanticipated?
Unanticipated.
Are there any Easter eggs in Photoshop that were put there by you?
Not in the current version. There was a Knoll Software about box in the first few version that you could get by holding down the command+option keys.
What will you be presenting at Photoshop Soup2Nuts this year?
The last two years I've been working on the Camera Raw technology which is used both in Photoshop and in Lightroom. I'll be talking about that. I'll be teaming up with Bruce Fraser to do the presentations.
Thanks for the interview Thomas and good luck with Soup2Nuts 2006!
Summary
Below is a little mini-directory of links to related sites and pages. Make sure to visit the Soup2Nuts website and hopefully register for this event, as volunteer-centered organizations need that extra little support every once in a while.
One more thing, participants to Photoshop Soup2Nuts will have a unique opportunity to question the Adobe experts themselves on Photoshop development. Thomas Knoll, Marc Pawlinger (Manager of the Photoshop Engineers) and David Story will be at a discussion session on Saturday afternoon titled: "Everything you wanted to know about Photoshop and Are Not Afraid To Ask."
Soup2Nuts Links
Main Soup2Nuts page.
Introduction from Ruth Knoll.
List of Soup2Nuts 2006 Presenters.
List of Soup2Nuts 2006 Sessions.
Ruth Knoll Links
Widow Speech, 2006 at Soup2Nuts.
The Photoshop Widows Club by Ruth Knoll at PhotoshopNews.
Photoshop Widows Club - Parte Due by Ruth Knoll at PhotoshopNews.
Photoshop Widows Club - The Extremist by Ruth Knoll at PhotoshopNews.
Thomas Knoll Links
From Darkroom to Desktop - How Photoshop Came to Light by Derrick Story.
Thomas Knoll & John Knoll bio/story by Jeff Schewe at PhotoshopNews.
Thomas Knoll (Photoshop history) at Wikipedia.
posted by Jennifer Apple | permalink | send comments
A Child's View Of Photoshop - Skylar's World
Our friend Genevieve sent us some beautiful drawings that her 7-year-old daughter Skylar created in Photoshop, and we were so impressed we asked her to tell us all about how Skylar worked with the program. Here's her story...
My daughter Skylar first started using Photoshop when she was about three and a half years old. One morning she climbed onto her father's lap as he was fiddling away on a design in Photoshop on his laptop. After a while she asked if she could try it. He set her up with a new blank page, showed her how to use the brushes, how to use the eraser and how to choose colors. She was hooked.
At the time she was intrigued with drawing colourful various sized lines and then erasing them. She would also chose a motif such as the star or leaf and click until the entire page was covered. Essentially she was experimenting with the basic tools. The amount of concentration and patience required to do this is incredible and not my cup of tea, but that's what made watching her use Photoshop so fascinating. She would do things I never considered doing and produced interesting pieces of work.
Now, at the age of seven she has better control of the mouse and understands most of the icons on the tool bar. And her computer drawings have improved matching the fluidity and spontaneity of her freehand drawings. She has also piqued the interest of her three-year-old brother by showing him her old tricks. I think what is fascinating to her and the reason why she likes using Photoshop as an alternative to traditional drawing, is that it offers her certain options not available to her on paper. For example her favorite effect is using the brushes as erasers and creating ghost like images. Deleting is a good thing, erasing something and starting again just takes the click of the mouse. She also likes the fact that she can save her work and go back to it, manipulate it some more and save it again as a slightly different image. She also says that ecologically it saves paper and she can email the same image to different members of her family. These things may seem obvious to the avid computer user but she doesn't take it for granted and sees it as another venue for her creativity, not as a replacement to her hands-on artwork.
Which brings me to the true value of Photoshop: the manipulation of photographs and images. Although Skylar primarily uses the program as a drawing tool she has touched the surface of manipulating a photograph. She has experimented with the basic effects such as changing the colour of her brother's face or warping an area, but her favorite is drawing directly on to it. I recently showed her how to cut out a photo of her standing on a boogie board and placed it onto another photograph of a large ocean wave. Now she was surfing and she was totally awestruck by the image. And then she asked if she could draw clouds in the sky!
As a parent I have had to rethink my opinions about my kids and computers. The reality is computers are as much a natural part of their home environment as books or the refrigerator. When they see their parents concentrating on the computer they want to know what they are doing and why. Photoshop is a program that offers self-directed learning, kids can create almost anything they can imagine. Once they understand the icons and how to use them they are willing to spend lot of time getting as much as they can out of the basic tools. As they get older they will already know the basics and can get into the more complicated steps with ease. And that is why I think Photoshop is a great creative tool for kids.
Well, Genevieve and Skylar have inspired us to revamp our Photoshop For Kids Page. You'll find new links to all kinds of cool tutorials and tips, and we've used one of Sylar's creations as the top banner. So thank you Genevieve and thank you Skylar!
Tip Of The Month : Making Global Light Work For You
Problem: You applied a drop shadow to an object on one layer, then later you applied a bevel on another layer, but in the Bevel and Emboss options in the Layer Style dialog, you notice that the position of your drop shadow just moved when you changed the angle of your bevel. Reason: Adobe uses a feature (that acts like a bug) called Global Light.
The idea behind it makes sense, yet we've never run into the scenario it was created for. The idea is this: You've created an image with lots of drop shadows, all casting in a particular direction. If the client saw your work and said, "Hey, instead of having the shadows go down and to the right, can we make all the shadows go up and to the left?" If that unlikely event ever occurred, you'd be set, because all you'd have to do is move one shadow and all the other shadows on other layers would move to the exact same angle.
It's a great idea; it just never happens (okay, it's probably happened somewhere, once). Solution: In the Layer Style dialog, deselect the Use Global Light checkbox. Now you can move the angle of your current layer style separately from the rest of your image. Life is good once more.
A Thank You To Our Friends, Partners & Sponsors!
We'd like to thank our friends, partners and sponsors: Adobe, Google, Hostway, Apple, Total Training, Peachpit Press, O'Reilly Media, Wiley Publishing, Macromedia, Creativepro.com, The PhotoshopHelp Blog, CreativeBits, Heathrowe, CreativeGuy, The Photoshop Roadmap, Power Retouche Plugins, Vertus Fluid Mask, Template Monster, onOne Software, AV Bros. Plugins, AutoFX, and The National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
