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The Photoshop Blog offers the latest Photoshop news and software updates, Photoshop tips and tutorials, and random thoughts from graphic artist and Photoshop expert Jennifer Apple.
New Photoshop Brushes From Kirsty
Kirsty from brushes.500ml.org sends this in: "I figured it was about time for a new addition to the list so I worked all afternoon (well, a couple of hours) to bring you the newest brush set: Victorian Ladies. Oh and a Gentleman, but you'll never notice him amongst all the fine looking ladies in this set. As always, hope you enjoy them! I hope to make this into a larger series of Victorian-themed sets and sets of other eras!"
Norton AntiVirus 9.0 Causing Problems With PS CS On Mac OS X
Here's the issue (Photoshop CS on Mac OS X only): "When you attempt to open a PSD file that you last saved in Adobe Photoshop you get the error 'Could not complete your request because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop.'"
Here's a solution from Adode.
Photoshop Tip: Get Rid of Unwanted Brushes
You probably already know that you can add a brush to the Brushes palette, but did you know that it's even easier to delete them? Just hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) and you'll notice that your cursor changes into a pair of scissors. Click once on the brush you want to delete and that baby's gone - no warning dialog, no chance to change your mind - it's gone.
'Studio Smackdown' Showcases Creative Talent
Aquent announces the launch of Studio Smackdown, an interactive online talent competition, which begins Tuesday, January 25 and runs through February 22, 2005 at www.studiosmackdown.com. Designed as a weekly elimination contest, five graphic designers wrestle for creative supremacy in this online public forum by responding to four design challenges:
- Self-promotion
- Pharmaceutical Advertising
- Political Campaign Collateral
- Music Promotion
Every week, site visitors will not only have the opportunity to view each designer's solution, they will be able to act as creative directors and interact graphically by marking up samples of the contestant's work, posting comments, viewing what others are saying, and casting their votes to determine who is smacked out of the creative arena.
The grand prizewinner comes away with a $5000 Macintosh G5 computer system complete with Adobe Creative Suite and the camcorder. The winner will be announced February 22, 2005.
Hand-drawn Rendering Styles Added To Little Ink Pot's Sketcher Plugin
Little Ink Pot's Sketcher plugin, which transforms digital images into natural sketches and illustrations, has been given three new transformation styles: Cellular Crosshatching, Pen and Ink, and Granular.
The Sketcher plugin works with PC Photoshop-compatible imaging applications to render smooth artistic pencil sketches, pen and ink illustrations and a number of different halftone/threshold effects. The new Cellular Crosshatching style adds a delicate technical look, while Pen and Ink is said to be ideal for printed work and includes three cross-stroke variations. Granular creates a course-grained, particulate effect. All the new styles come with settings for processing to screen or print resolutions.
Sketcher may be purchased from the Little Ink Pot site for $18 and includes the free Photogrey plugin. A free trial version is available for download.
Photoshop World Expands Instructor Roster
The organizers of Photoshop World Conference & Expo have expanded this year's instructor roster to include 30 of the industry's top Photoshop, photography, motion graphics, digital artists, and design experts. Photoshop World is scheduled for Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, March 8-10. Photoshop World's "dream team" of instructors includes Scott Kelby, Photoshop guru and top-selling computer book author in the world for 2004; Julieanne Kost, senior digital imaging evangelist for Adobe; Bert Monroy, a pioneer of digital art; Deke McClelland, Photoshop Hall of Fame; Jim DiVitale, professional photographer; Katrin Eismann, artist and author; and world-renowned photographers Vincent Versace and Moose Peterson.
The latest additions are: Jack Reznicki, commercial photographer and PPA board member; Russell Brown, senior creative director at Adobe; Bruce Fraser, author of "Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS"; Douglas Rea, professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology; Rick Sammon, author of "Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Digital Photography"; and Fay Sirkis, contemporary digital artist.
Photoshop Tip: Let Photoshop Do The Work In Curves
Let's say you're using the Curves dialog for correction images and you have an image where you're trying to adjust the color of some green plants. How do you know where the particular green "lives" on the curve so you can dial in and adjust it? Photoshop can tell you - in fact, you can have Photoshop automatically plot that color on the curve for you. With the Curves dialog open, just Command-click (PC: Control-click) on that color within your image. Photoshop will then add a point to the curve that represents the spot you sample, and now you're read to tweak it.
Adesso Releases New Line of Pen-based PC Tablets
Adesso has introduced a brand new family of pen-based tablets for PCs running Windows 2000 and XP, and for Macs. The new CyberTablet series feature a powerful, yet easy-to-use combination of a pressure-sensitive pen, tablet, and software that enables PC users to naturally draw and write freehand graphics and text as comfortably as they would on real paper. All CyberTablets offer 512-levels of pressure sensitive input points. Cyber-series will be available mid-February. Read the press release for complete info on models and prices.
Everything Happens Online
I know, I know, I have to stop spending so much time at Flickr, but this is a really amazing story (excerpted from Eric Costello's blog entry)...
Flickr coincidence
While on a trip to Tokyo, Flickr user Matt took the picture to the right. It's a neat "meta" picture of an interesting looking phototgrapher taking a picture of an interesting bunch of teenagers in hip Harajuku putting on some sort of performance. A nice photograph.
But then... He posted the photo to Flickr, where someone saw it and recognized the interesting looking photographer from her tattoo. He sent her a link to Matt's photo, she joined Flickr and posted the photo she was taking at the time Matt took his photo!
And CherryVega (the tattoo girl) has some really nice photos in her collection.
AKVIS Retoucher Released
AKVIS Retoucher is a solution for photo restoration and automatic scratch and dust removal. Retoucher can be applied to remove dust, scratches, irrelevant objects, unwanted texts and dates from an image. The software is especially useful for restoration of old or damaged photos. Retoucher works with black and white and color images. The Retoucher plugin is compatible with Adobe Photoshop and other photo editing software supporting plugins. For more info visit the Akvis website.
New Canon PowerShot A510
Canon's latest addition to its PowerShot line of digital cameras is the A510, a 3.2-megapixel model that features 3X optical zoom, a slot for Secure Digital memory cards, and only requires 2 AA batteries for operation. The model also offers a 9-point autofocus system, 13 shooting modes and the ability to shoot video with sound for up to 3 minutes per clip.
Cute, powerful, affordable (under $200). I think this might be a very good entry-level camera. Read the press release and see a beauty shot.
Protect Your Photos At All Costs
Here are some interesting numbers from a recent USA TODAY article:
...There are an estimated 54 million digital cameras in American hands... An estimated 10 million digital cameras were shipped in the USA just for the holidays... The International Data Corporation estimates that about 23% of all digital images captured by cameras are deleted. That still leaves a lot of images captured -- a projected 28 billion in 2004, up from 12.7 billion in 2003... According to Certified Digital Photo Processors only 13% of digital images captured ever end up on paper. By contrast, an estimated 98% of film images captured eventually were printed. Instead, most digital photos are stored on computer hard drives...
Computer hard drives? Yikes. I used to do that myself, until one of those hard drives crashed and I lost everything. Now I have a portable hard drive and I backup everything almost daily.
But I also tend to go crazy with my Canon Digital Rebel, so the drive is starting to fill up. Which brings me to the other announcement that caught my eye.
Maxell says they are about to launch a super DVD designed to withstand both abuse and contaminants. According to Maxell, "DVD-RPRO incorporates breakthrough technologies, resulting in the utmost in DVD durability for long-term data protection." This will make it ideal for photo archiving. Read the entire press release, and I'll post when the product becomes available.
Photoshop Tip: Open Up Some Screen Real Estate
A lot of times when you're working on a project, your screen can get really cluttered with palettes (Photoshop is an especially palette-heavy application). If you want all the palettes out of the way for your convenience while you're working, just press Shift-Tab to hide them, or Shift-Tab to bring them back. Then menu bar, the Options Bar, and the Toolbox will all still be visible.
Corbis Named Global Licensor Of Marvel Digital Content!
Spider-Man! Hulk! Captain America! X-Men! Daredevil! And more! All available for your advertising and editorial projects! Corbis now offers the ultimate collection of characters and art from Marvel Enterprises' library of digital media featuring all 4,700+ characters in the Marvel Universe.
Corbis and Marvel Enterprises, Inc. have announced an agreement which grants Corbis with the rights to license Marvel's digital content for editorial and commercial use on a global basis.
The arrangement provides creatives with simple access to Marvel character art and the rights clearance services necessary to use them in editorial and commercial advertising projects.
I had fun at the Corbis Marvel pages, browsing through the Marvel Galleries!
Photoshop Elements Techniques Summit
KW Media Group and Adobe Systems announced today that a free Photoshop Elements training session will be held Monday, Jan. 31st from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, Texas. The Photoshop Elements 3 Summit, hosted by Photoshop Elements Techniques newsletter and its companion website, PhotoshopElementsUser.com will cover the new features found in the latest edition of the popular Adobe Photoshop Elements image editing software and explore the variety of actions and techniques that it offers.
In addition to the tutorials and training, the event will include a question and answer session, random prize drawings and giveaways from KW Media Group, Photoshop Elements Techniques and Adobe.
For more information visit PhotoshopElementsUser.com or call 800-738-8513.
When Smoke Gets In Your Software
From File magazine, another great gallery: "Coloured Smoke, by Graham Jeffery. His technique is to take the smoke from incense sticks, light it from the side or back, and photograph it -- using a studio flash to get enough light to freeze the smoke -- against a black background. He then uses Photoshop to create the background and colors. He inverts the image to change the background, and colors the smoke by making a highly feathered selection and adjusting the color with hue/saturation or one of the other color adjustment tools."
Guru Award Entries Must Be In By February 1
Attendees of the upcoming Photoshop World Conference & Expo in Las Vegas this March have only until Feb. 1st to submit entries to the 2005 Guru Awards program. This is a special competition held exclusively for conference attendees. It is not open to the general public or NAPP members who are not attending the conference. There is no entry fee for submitting work. Find details at the PhotoshopWorld website.
"When Pancakes Go Bad" - The Interview
Photoshop fans may want to check out a new book called “When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop” by Avi Muchnick. Avi is the founder of Worth1000.com, a very popular Photoshop-based website that sponsors Photoshop contests that feature funny and surreal images. "When Pancakes Go Bad" showcases work from the Worth1000.com artists, and includes behind-the-scenes tutorials. Eric recently interviewed him and talked with Avi about his website and the book.
Photoshop Tip: You Don't Need The Brushes Palette To Change Brush Size
In Photoshop CS you can increase/decrease the size of your brush by 10 pixels by pressing the Left or Right Bracket keys. Once your brush goes over 100 pixels in size, it then moves in 25-pixel increments, and if you go over 200 pixels it moves in 50-pixel increments until you reach 300, at which point it moves in 100-pixel increments.
Picasa Curiosity Corner
Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineWatch has written an article on the merits of Picasa. USA Today has an article on Lars Perkins, the creator of the software program. The Google Blog has a photo collage of the Picasa 2 Team.
2 New Video Clip Tutorials For Photoshop Elements 3
We've added two clips from Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 Unleashed, hosted by Deke McClelland. One clip on Styles And Effects, and one on the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
Updater For Version Cue Workspace Security Vulnerability
A security vulnerability has been detected in Version Cue, a feature of the Adobe Creative Suite, that only affects computers running Mac OS X.
A risk exists on Macintosh computers running Mac OS X where a Version Cue Workspace is installed such that if the computer is configured in a certain manner, an unauthorized person can possibly gain root access to that machine. If this occurs, any data on that machine can possibly be viewed, manipulated, and/or deleted. Also, any kind of code, for example, “malware,” can possibly be installed.
Running this updater (link goes to Adobe download page) will amend internal Version Cue Workspace files, which will address the vulnerability issue.
Picasa Version 2 Released
Picasa, the photo software company acquired by Google last July, has released version 2 of its Picasa photo management tool. Picasa is a free software download from Google.
Master Colors LLC Releases HVC Color Composer
- Master Colors is introducing two new software products, The Master Colors HVC Color Composer in both a Standard Version ($49.95) and a PRO Version ($129.95). Rather than presenting static palettes that have no relation to the artwork in progress, with the HVC Color Composer the artist has the option to call up one of millions of possible palettes that are instantly created by the Master Colors HVC Color Composer to specifically work with colors chosen for the job.
The software does the math; the artist simply picks the colors that fulfill the requirements of the work in progress. Each of the palettes is harmonically coherent so that the colors look stunning in the artwork.
Also new this year is the HVC Color Composer Auto Range Function, which gives a wide range of precise, mathematically organized contrast ranges all in one palette, so that just one palette can do it all for many types of art work. For more information visit the Master Colors website.
Photoshop Tip: Setting Defaults In The Filter Gallery
Believe it or not, there's a hidden "Default" button within the Filter Gallery that lets you set up and save your own custom default settings so each time you open the Filter Gallery, it has your favorite settings already in place. Here's how to set your defaults: Open the Filter Gallery (found under the Filter menu), set it up just the way you want, then hold the Command key (PC: Control key) and you'll notice that the Cancel button changes into the Default button. Click on that and your current settings now become the default settings.
NAPP Membership & Photoshop User Magazine Reviewed
The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is a worldwide trade association with more than 40,000 members in over 100 countries, and is the publisher of Photoshop User Magazine. Read our review of the NAPP membership and find out all about the benefits of joining.
New Photoshop Brushes From Kirsty
This sent in from Kirsty: "This time I've added 2 more brush sets, Skull and Bones 1 and 2. They should be seen as one big brush set though, I just decided to split it all up in a set of 5 and a set of 6 brushes, for quicker downloading :) Go take a look yourself. I personally really like these brushes and I hope you will too."
A Flickr Here And A Flickr There
There's so much good stuff at Flickr these days and I've become a huge fan of Caterina Fake's blog entries, so I'm going to start pointing to some of her posts from time to time. Like this one — Where Balloons Come From. This is just too good!
Photoshop Roadmap Launches A Unique Photoshop Learning Method
The Photoshop Roadmap has launched a new way of learning Photoshop. The How-To reports are a set of highly categorized Photoshop related resources that will help digital artists, photographers and students achieve very specific tasks.
"The most important aspect of the How-To reports is made evident when you realize how difficult is to find different ways to achieve a very specific task in Photoshop" said Eugenio Suñer, Project Manager of The Photoshop Roadmap. "By using these reports, you can choose to learn how to do it yourself, download a helper, or simply use a software or plugin to do the work for you."
Take a look at the current reports at The Photoshop Roadmap How-To Section. New How-To reports will be announced each month in The Photoshop Roadmap Monthly Newsletter.
Photoshop Forums Roundup
Imagine someone going out and finding interesting posts from the various Photoshop forums for you. Well that's exactly what Pierre, a mod at PhotoshopTechniques, does from time to time. You can read his latest report on our Forums Page.
Photoshop Tip: Experimenting With Zoom
If you're not sure what amount of zoom (magnification) you want for your current image, here's a tip that will save you some time. Type the first zoom percentage in the Zoom field (in the bottom left-hand corner of your document window), but once you've entered it, don't just press Enter to see the zoom, press Shift-Enter. That way, the Zoom field stays highlighted so if you don't like the amount of zoom, you can just type in a new percentage, without manually re-targeting that field. A big time saver!
Total Training Introduces 'Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 Unleashed'
Total Training Presents: Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 Unleashed is designed to help you master Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 with ease. In this 6 hour training DVD, you'll uncover the extensive capabilities of Photoshop Elements 3 along with advanced lessons, time saving techniques, and tips for creating impressive projects.
Hats Off To Scott Kelby
Peachpit and Pearson Technology Group today announced the results of research based on Nielsen Bookscan data for the calendar year 2004 indicating Scott Kelby is the number one, top-selling computer book author in the U.S. exceeding Microsoft Press, Andy Rathbone, and David Pogue in Bookscan units and dollars sold in 2004. Kelby is widely recognized as the world's best-selling Photoshop how-to book author, a digital imaging guru, and president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
Asiva Version 2.2 Plug-ins And Bundle Released
Shapiro Consulting Group, Inc. (SCGI) is announcing the release of version 2.2 of the Asiva Sharpen+Soften, Correct+Apply Color, Shift+Gain and Selection Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop 5.5 through CS, for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms. A bundled version 2.2 of these 4 plug-ins has also been released for immediate sale.
Trial versions can be downloaded online at www.asiva.com for Mac OS 9.x, Mac OS X, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
New Plug-in For Photoshop - SiteGrinder
Chris Perkins of MediaLab sent this in:
"We just released a new plug-in for Photoshop called SiteGrinder. It converts Photoshop designs to web sites. The pages SiteGrinder creates can have styled (and even scrollable) web text, graphical rollover buttons, graphic and text popups, graphic and text multi-level menus, and all across multiple web pages that are automatically linked to one another. This is easily accomplished using a simple, yet expressive method of adding hints, like the word "popup", to the end of layer names."
SiteGrinder requires Photoshop 5 or later under Windows or Mac OS X, and works best with Photoshop CS or later because of the "layer comps" feature and the ability to nest layer sets inside other layer sets. See some Flash movie tutorials.
Digital Camera Settings And Controls - Sample Chapter
This sample chapter from "Teach Yourself Digital Photography and Photoshop Elements 3 All in One" by Carla Rose offers a guide to taking better pictures with your digital camera so that you have better raw images to work with in Photoshop. Covered are hints on lighting, lenses, and various setting available on digital cameras to manage the raw photograph itself. This is a very good and thorough introduction to digital cameras.
Photoshop Tip: Measure From Where You Want
By default, the rulers display with the top left of the page set to zero for the horizontal ruler, while the vertical ruler displays zero at the bottom left of the page. To change the ruler origins, click on the top-left corner of the rulers and drag to wherever you want to set zero.
Canon's New CanoScan LiDE 500F Scanner Announced
Looks gorgeous...innovative 3-way design allows it to be positioned on the desktop in different ways...requires only one cable for both computer connectivity via USB and for power...offers 35mm film scanning...can accept a 35mm film strip up to six frames in length...scans multi-page documents to a single PDF file...zero warm up time...optical 2400x4800 dpi resolution...281 trillion possible colors...estimated selling price of $129.99...I want one!
Photoshop Elements 3 Down And Dirty Tricks Book Released
KW Media Group announced today the release of their new book Photoshop Elements 3 Down & Dirty Tricks. The book features Scott Kelby, best-selling author of The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers, who unlocks the secrets of the most closely guarded Photoshop Elements 3 special effects. By using his simple step-by-step method, with hundreds of full-color images, you’ll see exactly how it’s all done.
Photoshop Tip: Creating Your Own Custom New Document Presets
If you're creating new documents and find yourself using the same new document sizes fairly often (for example, let's say that you wind up creating a new document that's 7" wide by 5" tall, at a resolution of 225, in CMYK mode), you can make a preset in the New dialog of Photoshop CS (technically, you could do this in Photoshop 7 by hacking a text document, but it was a bit of a pain, and most people didn't do it). To create your own presets, just go under the File menu, chose New, then in the New dialog, enter your favorite settings, then press the Save Preset button. A dialog will appear where you can name your preset, and when you click OK, that preset will be saved to the New dialog Preset menu near the top of the list.
Wacom Graphire3 Pen Tablets To Include New Software From Adobe, Corel, And nik Multimedia
Wacom Technology Corporation announces that its popular Graphire3 pen tablets now include Adobe Photoshop Elements 2, Corel Painter Essentials 2, and nik Color Efex Pro 2 GE. With the addition of this valuable software, the Graphire3 pen tablets make it even easier to have fun editing digital photos and creating digital art.
KW Media Release 2 New DVDs - 'Photoshop for Wedding Photographers' and 'How To Show Your Photos Like a Pro'
These DVDs feature Scott Kelby, author of the best-selling book The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers, as he reveals how to creating amazing wedding images and shows how easy it can be to transform photos into gallery-quality pieces. These DVDs are geared towards photographers looking to take their skills and business to the next level. Each are available from photoshopvideos.com
Photoshop Tip: Change The Blend
After you’ve created a blend (and it’s still "live"), you can change the number of steps in the blend mode by going to the Object menu and choosing Blend> Blend Options (or double-clicking the Blend tool in the Toolbox). In the dialog, change the number of specified steps and the Blend will update. An even quicker way is to check the Preview box and use the Up and Down arrow keys for an instant update.
Floating Logos
From the site:
"The images are inspired by signs perched high atop very tall poles in order for people to view them from a very long distance. The poles are digitally removed from the image in order to give the illusion that the signs are disconnected from the ground as they ominously float above us."
It reminded me of those wild, semi-beautiful floating ads in Blade Runner. We don't have the technology to float our ads yet, but it's just a matter of time... Floating Logos offers a new way of looking at roadside advertising. Also study the great photo retouching done on the images. Very nice.
New Photoshop Brushes
This just in from Kirsty: "I've just added a new brush set to http://brushes.500ml.org entitled 'x-rays' and last month I also added a stock photography section."
Inspiration From Stephen Burns
We're very proud to have Stephen Burns in our Inspiration Section. Have a look at his "Digital Ecstasy" — a mesmerizing work of color, texture and emotion.
New Tutorial - Turn A Photo Into A Sketch
This tutorial is fairly easy and consists of just 6 steps. Read "Turn A Photo Into A Sketch."
Free Adobe PS Elements Summit Offered
Photoshop Elements User has announced an upcoming summit - Adobe PS Elements 3 - to be held in the following locations and at the following dates:
- Arlington , TX - Arlington Convention Ctr., Grand Hall AB - January 31, 2005
- Los Angeles , CA - Los Angeles Convention Ctr., Room 502-A - February 16, 2005
- San Francisco , CA - South Convention Ctr., Grand Ballroom - March 21, 2005
- New York , NY - Jacob Javits Convention Center - April 14, 2005
- Chicago , IL - Donald E. Stephens Convention Ctr., Rooms 42-45 - May 20, 2005
- Seattle , WA - Washington State Convention and Trade Ctr., Rooms 611-614 - June 17, 2005
All Photoshop users are invited to attend the training sessions free of charge. Registration is not required. Summits run from 2pm to 5pm . For more information call 800-738-8513, or visit the Photoshop Elements User website's Summit Info Page.
Inspiration From Photoshop Guru Ben Willmore
We're proud to feature the excellent work of Ben Willmore, a true Photoshop guru. We've also put together a page of links to Ben's Photoshop Tips, Magazine Articles, his Archive of Photoshop Tips, some Color Management Resources, a service that provides Help With Problem Images, his Online Galleries, his latest Photoshop Books, and info about his Training Courses & DVDs.
Can You See Me Now?
I find this very cool, over at the Flickr blog:
Donald Agarrat has posted a brilliant photoset of Composites, where he sits in rooms, wanders the city, and generally just hangs out with himself...or sometimes friends, hanging out with their selves. Great stuff!
Very nice...
Violet Tulip is 2005's Colorstrology Color of the Year
Colorstrology forecasts a year of spirituality and healing. Michele Bernhardt, world-renowned intuitive, healer, author, and creator of Colorstrology (a system that infuses elements of astrology and numerology with the spirituality of color) has announced that Violet Tulip (PANTONE 16-3823) is the Colorstrology Color of the Year for 2005...
Photoshop Tip: Saving Time When Correcting Camera Raw Photos
If you're shooting and correcting Raw images from your digital camera, there's a File Browser trick you can use to quickly correct photos taken in similar lighting conditions. First, open the File Browser, then double-click on your first Raw image. This opens Camera Raw. Make your adjustments, then click OK in Camera Raw. This will open the image in Photoshop, but go back to the File Browser for now. Command-click (PC: Control-click) on the other Raw thumbnails in the File Browser that have similar lighting conditions. Once all the photos are selected, go under the Automate menu and choose Apply Camera Raw Settings. In the resulting dialog, the Apply Settings Form pop-up menu should be set to First Selected Image. Click Update and you'll see the thumbnail previews update to reflect your correction (which will be applied automatically when you open these images in Photoshop).
O'Reilly Launches the Designer's Notebook Series with "Photo Retouching with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook" and "Illustrations with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook"
The new Designer's Notebook series from O'Reilly presents a collection of concise, visually stunning lessons designed to inspire and instruct illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, and all professionals who create images, whether still or animated. Reflecting the best in the world of digitally created images, the books - Photo Retouching with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook and Illustrations With Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook - are at once eye-candy, artistic inspiration, and incomparable technical guidance.
Adobe Releases Public Beta (2.4) For Camera Raw
Adobe has posted a public beta for its Camera Raw 2.4. This new plug-in provides support for additional digital cameras, including the Canon EOS 20D, Canon PowerShot S70, Canon PowerShot G6, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200, Konica Minolta MAXXUM 7D, and Nikon D2X.
Download the Camera Raw 2.4 beta plug-in for Windows.
Download the Camera Raw 2.4 beta plug-in for Mac
Attention All Space Monkey Lovers: Adobe CS 2.0 Details Emerge
Ryan Katz, the Senior Editor at Think Secret has posted this:
As fevers run high a week prior to Macworld Expo, we pause to shift our focus from Apple to Adobe, which notes obtained by Think Secret suggest may unveil Creative Suite 2.0 at the show.
Whether an official announcement will arrive at Expo is not entirely certain (Adobe has scheduled an NDA press meeting, however, for what that's worth), but reliable sources indicate that Creative Suite 2.0 will ship in March 2005.
Photoshop CS 2.0 - Among the new features arriving in the next and ninth version of Photoshop, code-named Space Monkey, will be the ability to scale placed bit-mapped and vector files losslessly, including the ability to edit the original and have Photoshop update the file; an object-based user interface that will enable, for example, the ability to select multiple layers and perform manipulations across all of them at the same time; Editable Filters, allowing filters to update when filtered content is adjusted; HDR support; a customizable user interface; and a WYSIWYG Font menu.
Photoshop CS 2.0 will not feature 64-bit support, but lays the groundwork for that support, which will arrive with Photoshop 10 (presumably CS 3.0). Photoshop users will also have to wait until Version 10 for the software to use more than 2GB of RAM. Like the rest of the new Creative Suite 2.0 applications, Photoshop CS 2.0 will take advantage of Adobe's new cross-suite file browser, dubbed Bridge.
I know the above report is just conjecture based on certain "mysterious" notes, but it still gives me a thrill... I guess with Elements 3 nipping at its heels, now is the time for Photoshop to take a leap forward.
Hey, Nice Brushes!
I found some nice free brushes at arty.dk. There are 2 pages in the download section that feature the following sets: Arty Birds, Arty Insects, Arty Stains & Cracks, Arty Plants, Arty Doodle Brushes, and Arty Tech Brushes. Sweet.
New Book Announced - Photoshop CS Trickery and FX
Charles River Media have announced Photoshop CS Trickery and FX, a book by Stephen Burns that teaches digital artists how to master Photoshop so they can create their own works of art. Have a look at Stephen's gallery of art. He says his influences include the great Abstractionists & the Surrealists including Jackson Pollock, Wassily Kankinsky, Pablo Picasso, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Mark Tobey, and Lenore Fini. I really relate to the feeling of the first piece in Gallery One, "Digital Ecstasy."
The Plugin Site Releases LightMachine For Achieving Breathtaking Photo Corrections
The Plugin Site is proud to announce the release of LightMachine, a plugin for performing all kinds of light adjustments in photos. It combines shadow/highlight, virtual lighting and color-based correction tools for performing sophisticated corrections without the need for time-consuming selections and layer stacks.
It lets you selectively correct photos taken under bad light conditions or with inadequate camera settings and achieve results that rival photos taken under the best circumstances. Additionally LightMachine can achieve special effects like glows, sunsets, high key and selective b/w effects, replace one color with another and simulate polarizing filters.
Photoshop Tip: Change Tools Quickly
There are many sets of tools that you access in the Toolbox by pressing on the visible tool, which pops up a menu of additional tools. Another method to switch quickly among tools in a set is to hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click on the visible tool. Each time you click, you’ll switch to the next tool in the set.
Add This To Your To-Do List!
I suffer from extreme free-floating anxiety from having too much to do, so I almost had a nervous breakdown when someone sent me a recommendation for this book: 1,000 Places To See Before You Die. Yikes!
Amazon Offering Special Discounts On Photoshop Elements 3
Amazon is offering some super specials on Photoshop Elements 3 for Windows and Photoshop Elements 3 for Mac — $52.99 for the Windows version, and $45.99 for the Mac version. That's a pretty good deal.
Photoshop Tip: Using The Lasso - Don't Stop to Navigate
If you're using the Lasso tool, you have a surprising amount of navigation control, even while you're dragging out your selection. For example if you're drawing a selection and you need to scroll over a bit, just press-and-hold the Spacebar, and right where your cursor is, the Hand tool will appear and you can move the image while you're still selection (try it once and you'll see what we mean). When you let go of the Spacebar, you're right where you left off, and you can continue your selection. Here's another Lasso tip: If you're drawing a selection and reach the edge of your document window and need to scroll over, hold the Option key (PC: Alt key), let go of the mouse button, move your mouse to the edge of your image window, and you can nudge the screen over (again, this one you have to try once to understand it). It's like you're using the Lasso tool to slide the image over. When you're done sliding, press the mouse button and release Option/Alt to continue selecting. Incidentally, while selecting, you can also use the Command- + (plus) and Command- - (minus) zoom in/zoom out tricks (PC: Control- + and Control- -).
Happy New Year Everybody!
Happy New Year to one and all, and may all your dreams come true.
