Hey guys, quick post for you…
For you iPhone/iPod Touch addicts, check out the new Photoshop.com Mobile over at iTunes.
It’s free!!!
Hey guys, quick post for you…
For you iPhone/iPod Touch addicts, check out the new Photoshop.com Mobile over at iTunes.
It’s free!!!
Okay guys, hope you enjoyed the first part. Now, here are more exciting reasons why you should attend Photoshop World!
Believe me, I knew this was important but I never knew how big of a deal this is after I had done this. I read the description of portfolio reviews in the PSW site and I was kinda intimidated to sign-up. Finally, Ekky (my avid fan, supporter, fiancee) made me sign-up and said that I should take it.
Well, I did. So, to all you first-timers out there who plan to do this, here’s a glimpse of what happens in a portfolio review.
Since I wasn’t able to print my photos (and I didn’t want to carry around large photographs from the Philippines), I opted for the electronic one. It was a pretty simple setup:
Oh, before I forget, when you sign-up for this, you actually have to fill out a short questionnaire. This is for the PSW team to identify the field of photography you are into so that they can also find a match to the reviewer.
Rick Sammon was the one who did my Portfolio Reviews. It was a match because he is into traveling! He actually was able to visit the Philippines but it was quite some time ago. Told him to go back again soon! π
A couple of things that I learned from Rick are:
I can’t begin to stress how important this review was. It’s really a great opportunity to have great photographers look at your work and give you straight-up feedback on what you need to improve on.
Btw, Scott actually had his portfolio reviewed by Joe McNally. Read his blog post about the review to find out more.
If you’re interested in this year’s Portfolio Reviews, check out this link.
Let me tell you this, you go to Photoshop World, don’t expect to sleep. Why? Here’s why:
1st day: You wake up early either to (a) register and get your materials and (b) to make sure you’re in front of the line for the Expo. I’ll talk more about the expo in my next point.
2nd day: Again, you wake up Earlier because you want to line up for the tickets to Midnight Madness! I was there at around 6am and there were already around 5 people in front of me. It’s fun though because this is one of the opportunities you get to mingle with fellow attendees.
2nd Day Midnight: You attend midnight madness and you end up staying late again! π The good thing though is that the classes on the last day start at a later time. π
What exactly is Midnight Madness?
Well, it’s right there, it’s Madness! It’s a night of fun, games, laughter with all the folks of NAPP and your fellow attendees. In last year’s Midnight Madness, there were games, lots of prizes (Adobe bags, caps, etc) and of course, a free Midnight Madness T-shirt, and of course, Krispy Kremes (with matching hats)! π
Midnight Madness Hosts:
Midnight Madness Shirt along with the PSW Training Manual and the Pre-Con Training Manual (purchased at the bookstore):
I tell you, if you just want to laugh and enjoy the night, go to this event. Last year, because I attended this, I was able to see some of the behind-the-scenes videos that the video team created. They don’t show these videos to everyone else, so you’re special!
One of the funny videos there was Corey Barker Rick-Rolling! Note: the link here takes you to the You Tube video posted by ‘The Scriv’.
Also, the game last year was 1 vs 200. The questions were about Photoshop (filters, history, etc). The thing that surprised me though was that the ENTIRE game was done via Photoshop. Scott showed us the PSD file and it was all done in layers! Unbelievable! It just shows that there are people who really are Photoshop Addicts (or Geeks)! π
The Tech Expo is probably where you’ll spend a lot of your time and $$$. The is the busiest place in the event when there are no classes. If you often wish that you are able to try a photography product β be it software, plug-ins, actual prints, tripods, lenses, cameras but you just don’t see everything in your mall or you only rely on online reviews, then this IS the event for you!
It’s in this place where you will see everything, and at the same time, try them out. Some of the things I remember from the expo:
Before I forget, if you sign-up early, you can actually request for a free pass for a companion of yours to the Expo. That way, you’re not alone. If you have friends who are in the area, they can avail of these special discounts just by attending the Expo.
Oh, don’t forget to check out the classes and demos during the expo. Folks at NAPP and other instructors like Terry White, Joe McNally, Julieanne Kost usually do demos too. Free classes! π Take advantage of it.
One of the reasons why you wake up early on the first day and line up β to get good seats for the keynote. Three things to watch out for here:
I am a fan. ‘Nuff said. π
Hah, it’s been a pretty long post so I’ll be short and sweet in my last point. To be able to meet ‘The Photoshop Guys’ β Scott, Matt and Dave in person, talk to them, see them teach and watch them tape an episode is… priceless! That alone is worth the trip and the attendance to the event!
Watching them being taped is fun in itself. You’d see how they make fun of each other (just like what you see in Photoshop User TV). And of course, it’s always a treat to see how ‘The Scriv’ just shakes his head when Scott does something crazy. π
Don’t forget to check out my photos with the Photoshop Guys!
Hope to see you there next time!
Hope you enjoyed my lengthy post.
Hey guys,
I’ve been pretty wrapped up with work that’s why I haven’t had any posts recently. Watch out though, I have some stuff in storeΒ (and in my drafts)… Just wanted to share with you some of the links that I found interesting during my spare time of surfin’ the web:
Photography and Lightroom links:
For the CS4 Addicts:
Note: Images courtesy of amazon.com
Hey guys, a couple of Photoshop updates for you today…
First up – Photoshop.com is now live
Photoshop.com is now out. Photoshop.com was previewed during the Photoshop World Keynote as a service offered by Adobe where people can post their photos and share them online. If you are an existing Photoshop Express user, you already have a Photoshop.com account. It comes with 2GB of space.
There are premium services being offered too. If you get the new Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, they also come with a Photoshop.com Plus membership that comes with 20GB of space so you have plenty of space for your photos and videos.
They will eventually come out with something for Pros, so watch out for that. Check out Photoshop.com to try it out.
Next one –Β NAPP’s Adobe Photoshop CS4 Learning Center (9.23.08)
In conjunction with the CS4 announcement on Sept. 23, NAPP is launching its Photoshop CS4 learning center. Wait for the updates to be posted at this URL: http://www.photoshopuser.com/cs4/
Next, Lightroom 2.1 Release Candidate is available from Adobe Labs. What is a Release Candidate? Here’s what Adobe Labs has to say:
βThe βrelease candidateβ label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers. The Lightroom team would like the community to help verify the quality of this update through normal usage as this will ensure that the application is tested on a diversity of hardware and software configurations not available internally at Adobe.β
You can download the Lightroom 2.1 from the Adobe Labs site.
Finally, check out Lightroom Exposed.
If you want an inside look at the structure of the Lightroom application, check out Lightroom Exposed by Troy Gaul of Adobe Systems. It’s pretty interesting to see how they developed it and how the interface has evolved.
That’s all for now. See you guys next week!
Feedback IS a big thing for NAPP and Photoshop World. At the start and end of each session, we’re reminded to submit our evaluation forms for the classes so that the instructors and the organizers can make our learning experience better.
In the spirit of providing feedback, I’d like to share with you some of my experience on the sessions I attended.
I’ll start out first by providing my comments on the classes I took during Day 1 of Photoshop World.
Matt K’s Photoshop Resotration/Rescue Class
This is the first session I attended after the Keynote so I was still ‘pumped up’. Matt is truly a great instructor. If you’ve been watching Photoshop User TV, you know what I mean. I was very impressed with how the training went.
Matt started out by telling us how he came up with this session. He basically asked around for some old photos that needed restoration from his office and started from there.
What’s great about this class is that Matt just gave us the 3 basic tools needed for restoring old photos and he provided examples to illustrate how and when we should use these tools.
One additional tip he did was on the Tech Expo floor – this time, Matt did a restoration of a photo with tape markings on it. Here’s Matt on the Expo Floor:
Overall, very informative class and I realized that the ‘Patch Tool’ is a very useful tool in this area of Photoshop work.
One of the highlights here was at the end of the session. One female attendee asked Matt for a photo. After the first shot, she pulled Matt behind her, grabbed his arm and did the wedding pose! It was funny because Matt was saying – ‘I’m married! I might get in trouble for this’… Hahaha!:)
Check out Matt’s Blog if you want to learn more.
Scott Kelby’s Typography Essentials
Next up was Scott’s Typography Essentials. Scott started out by explaining what the session is about and informing people that if they already knew the topic, they are free to leave. After a number of attendees left, Scott announced that everyone who stayed gets a prize (totally kidding!).
What surprised me in Scott’s session was the size of the place. I think if you’re as famous as Scott, you get the big rooms! He was on massive sized room (around 3 conference rooms) with huge projectors showing off what he was doing.
See image below – there’s Scott in the podium…
Because I appreciate good design work and back after graduating college, I really wanted to do work in the design field, I was very glad I took this class. The main point of the class was giving us the tips and techniques on how to improve our font design by looking at how the design industry did it.
Scott provided all these tips (right out of Photoshop). Now, these tools are really not new to you if you looked at the character palette of Photoshop. However, Scott just gives you the low down on how and when to use these tools to achieve the look you want.
If you’re into design (e.g. designing logos, etc) and want to understand how to make Type (fonts) look better in your work, this is the training you have to attend. I learned a lot from this class and I will by applying it to my work.
Check out Scott’s blog if you want to learn more about him.
Rick Sammon’s Exploring Digital Photography
After doing the portfolio review with Rick, I went to his class after the Tech Expo and boy, I am glad I went to this class.Β Since I’m a big fan of travel photography, I learned a lot from Rick.
The session was broken down into tips that Rick gave us at the same time, providing us some of his travel photos from Cambodia, India, Mexico and Antarctica. He gave us examples of how he enhanced the images he captured to have more impact.
A couple of the key learning things for me (also from the portfolio review) are:
After attending this class, I was inspired to revisit my travel photos and experiment with them.
Thanks, Rick!
Check out Rick’s site to view his work.
Will post more reviews within the week. Watch out for them!
Can’t wait to be in Vegas this September for Photoshop World! It’s going to be my first time in Vegas and my first Photoshop World! I’m sure it will be a blast. Hope to see you guys there! I will post updates here on what I learn and see there.
One thing that I’m looking forward to is to meet the Photoshop Guys in person and probably watch a live show of Photoshop User TV! It’s gonna be a lot of fun!!! π
Anyway, if you haven’t done so, go ahead and sign-up for Photoshop World. The early-bird price ends today (maybe till the weekend) and that’s also $100 off the price. π
See ya!
NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) also launched a couple of things for Lightroom 2. Here they are:
1. Lightroom 2 Learning Center
2. Updated Trainings on KelbyTraining.com by Matt K: http://www.kelbytraining.com/instructors/matt-kloskowski.html. Classes include: Lightroom 2 Power Session and Lightroom 2 In-Depth.
3. Lightroom Killer Tips Entry on the release of Lightroom
4. Scott Kelby’s Post on Lightroom’s launch
5. And finally, don’t miss Scott’s Entry on Lightroom 2 vs his LR2 wishlist…
Enjoy!!!
A smarter, faster and more accurate version of the Lightroom has been announced by Adobe and is priced at $299 and an upgrade price of $99. More details in this post: http://lightroom-news.com/2008/07/28/adobe-releases-photoshop-lightroom-2/
Summary of the changes (from Lightroom-News.com)
Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate
The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographersβ workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster.
And also, a quote from Scott Kelby on Lightroom 2:
βOne of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community,β said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). βAdobe really listens to the issues and challenges todayβs photographers face and theyβve built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly.β
Some links of LR2 from Adobe’s site:
New Features include:
What an exciting day it is!
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and I finally did it – I joined NAPP yesterday! For those of you who don’t know what NAPP – it stands for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. After paying the $99 membership, I immediately went to the site and checked out what’s special inside. Well, it IS worth it so far. I got access to all of the tutorials that are available for members. Plus, they also have a forum where you can reach out to fellow photographers/photoshop users. Oh, I also get a 1 year free subscription to Photoshop User Magazine. I opted for the electronic version because I’m located in the Philippines.
If you’re thinking about joining, go ahead and do it. They also have discounts to a lot of products for photography/photoshop. Click the link below if you want to join NAPP now.
You may ask – how did I get to know NAPP? Well, I ran across them via their Video Podcast – Photoshop User TV. If you haven’t seen this, I suggest you go to iTunes and subscribe to their podcast. They give you tips weekly plus of course, you get to hear their jokes. That’s always what I am looking forward to. The 3 Photoshop guys in their show are: Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski and Dave Cross. I also subscribe to their blogs. Here they are:
I have learned a lot from watching their tutorials and reading all their blogs. I am even planning to go to Photoshop World in Las Vegas this September. I’ll probably sign-up this week. I have been postponing my sign-up and I just lost on the Pro-Pass for the event. π¦ Lesson learned, I should have signed-up earlier!!!
Well, for those of you who are also fans of NAPP or Photoshop User TV, I hope to see you online (in NAPP) or in Photoshop World.
Hope to see you there!
Exciting news today! Adobe just announced the public beta of Lightroom 2.0. A couple of the changes that are big to me are:
Oh, it also works alongside with LR 1.3. And don’t worry, 1.4 is still being worked on by Adobe. The beta version expires on August 31, 2008.
So, here are the links to Lightroom 2.0 beta:
I’ll post my initial comments once I try it out.
Oh, and don’t forget Rule #5!