Category — Lightroom & Photoshop

The cat’s out of the bag. “CS-Next” is now officially CS4. I woke up a bit earlier than normal this morning so that I could watch Adobe’s premiere webcast on East Coast time. If you attended the keynote at Photoshop World in Vegas earlier this month, you saw the entire Photoshop presentation that was made on this morning’s webcast. It was exactly the same. Kudos to NAPP for talking Adobe into giving the NAPP-Hardcore a sneak peak.

The bottom line with the official launch webcast is that it’s impossible to go into any depth on a family of 13 different programs and wrap things up in 60 minutes. If you really want to learn about what’s coming in CS4, check out these sites. [Read more →]

As a professional shooter, I use Lightroom as a standard part of my workflow. Over the weekend, I turned Lightroom loose on a long-overdue, personal project. I’m now more fond of Lightroom than ever. The reason? Lightroom found photos of my kids that I haven’t seen in years. [Read more →]

Just a reminder that tomorrow (September 23, 2008) is the day that Adobe will reveal the newest generation of their Creative Suite software. If you’d like to be the first on your block to watch the Adobe CS4 webcast, there’s still time to sign up for the free show. Click here before you get distracted (again).

Adobe has announced that they will announce the newest generation of their Creative Suite software on September 23rd. If you’d like to be the first on your block to watch the Adobe CS4 webcast, click here to sign up.

JP Caponigro attended the recent Photoshop World keynote and provides a sneak preview about the future of Photoshop CS4 here.

The dates for the upcoming 2008/09 tour of the Epson Print Academy are now online. The 16-city tour starts in Atlanta on November 8. No specifics about pricing or curriculum have been released. Click here for the event calendar. I expect that more details will be released by the end of the month.

The last tour, held in 2006, offered two tracks at each venue –- one for amateurs and one for professionals. I attended the pro track in San Francisco and met Bruce Fraser, JP Caponigro, Greg Gorman, Jeff Schewe and Mac Holbert. I expect that the instructors on the new tour will be equally stellar.

I always look forward to the Epson Print Academy as a way to catch up the latest techniques. Even though I drive my Epson 3800 with a high-degree of confidence, I’m looking forward to attending the pro track in San Francisco next February. With the recent release of Lightroom 2 and the upcoming announcement of Photoshop CS4, I highly recommend the event regardless of your printer make and skill level.

I’m a big advocate of shooting tethered into Lightroom. Great synergies result when I send images from my DSLR straight into Lightroom.  Even on location shoots, I’ll tie my camera into my laptop. Here’s a run down of the benefits of tethered shooting - for both photographers and their clients. [Read more →]

So you’re heading to Vegas for your first Photoshop World. Don’t quite know what to expect? Here are 10 tips to help you make the most of your first Photoshop World.

1. Rest up before you go - Seriously. Even if PW was held in El Paso rather than Las Vegas, you wouldn’t get much sleep. PW crams an amazing number of classes and fun events into a handful of days. (The schedule is here.) On Friday, for example, classes start at 8:15am and run into the early evening. Then, from 7:15-9:15pm, consider the panel discussion ‘The Art of Digital Photography‘ to be a can’t-miss session. And… if you’re really a night owl, get one of the coveted 200 tickets to Midnight Madness, which follows the panel discussion. [Read more →]

Adobe has started shipping the 2nd generation of Lightroom (officially “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2″). I’ll say it up front, “I love Lightroom.” As a commercial shooter, Lightroom has become the backbone of my post-capture workflow. In my studio, Photoshop now handles only those things that Lightroom cannot do… which is much less now that Lightroom can handle many localized corrections.

Is Lightroom 2 perfect? No. Is it the best software around for one-stop handling of ingestion, DNG conversion, keywording, metatagging, sorting, ranking, RAW processing, exporting in multiple formats, creating slideshows and web galleries? Definitely yes. [Read more →]

In the world of fine art photography, it’s often hard to figure out where the image capture ends and the printmaking begins. Many photographers begin visualizing the final print before their finger hits the shutter button. Others won’t begin to see the potential of their images until they’ve spent several hours in front of a computer monitor. The important point here is to understand that the process of creating a well-crafted, fine art photograph is a continuum and not a series of disconnected steps.

I attended The Fine Art of Digital Printing workshop in Santa Barbara last fall. So, I can personally attest to the fact that investing a week in FADP is an amazing way to catapult your printmaking skills forward. It’s a total immersion program — like Berlitz for photographers. [Read more →]

If you’re looking to take your Photoshop skills from the ordinary to the extraordinary, check out the interactive DVDs produced by Acme Educational. The brainchild of Vincent Versace, the Acme gang also includes John Paul Caponigro, Mac Holbert, and Lee Varis.

Do these names sound familiar? You may have attended their sessions at Photoshop World or read Versace’s Welcome to Oz, Caponigro’s classic Adobe Photoshop Master Class, Holbert’s insights in Nash Editions, or Varis’ innovative Skin. While I always enjoy spending time with a well-crafted book, I learn best when I’m seeing, hearing and doing - all at the same time. This is why Acme shines. [Read more →]