Recently in photoshop Category

Macworld critiques Photoshop CS5. Let's not forget about the hand that feeds it etc..

So; I spent Thursday at the Sofitel in Collins St. in the city, all day. I went to view the circus that is a Corporate sales pitch. In particular, Adobe's new Creative Suite 5.

The Sofitel was an excellent choice of venue, and the crowd was at some where near the 1000 mark. The check-in process looked like it was in a log jam, but went rather smoothly and the guy who handled my 'booking' even greeted me by name, a nice touch, but not the first I'm sure. I was given my red enviro-freindly Adobe bag, full to the brim of printed materials and found a seat.[When I say full I mean 3 or 4 and is it just me or is there somewhat of an oxymoron in the idea of presenting an enviro-freindly bag full of printed materials?]

Once inside the 'vibe' was typically Melbourne, i.e. somewhat reserved. [I feel for the presenters in these instances as it is really hard to work a crowd, at the best of times, never mind one that is reserved almost to the point of hostile]. Free Adobe Rubic's cubes were handed out to the crowd if they were boisterous enough. Which some people tried to exploit. Needless to say not many were handed out, due in part I suspect by the lack of WOW factor in the product being demonstrated. At least the majority of presenters were Aussies, there's nothing worse than having an American Company send American minions to sell you on an idea/product.

The Keynote sold the main features of the Creative suite, they were.

• 64 Bit processing
• Publishing to multiple platforms
• Cloud based services, and several other business level ideas.

The day began with Video Editing, not much there for me, so I used the time to tweet as best I could on my Sony Ericsson C902. The keynote referred to the the fact that all the apps have been re-built from the ground up to run in 64 bit mode, a real advantage for Video editors, not sure where Final Cut Pro sits in the scheme of things here though, but a plus for Photoshop and large raw files.

The big surprise for me was, Flash Catalyst, an interesting looking application that makes building flash applications easier, which is a pity because to quote a friend, far more tech savvy than myself:-

"Flash must die, it is the obese treacle elephant of the Internet and a culling of its inaccessible ass is long overdue."

By now, I am starving and beginning to realise that they are saving Photoshop till the end, I wish I had read the 'agenda' earlier[again this is made in flash so not sure if it will work, it didn't on my mobile device], as I could have saved 1/2 a day. The free wifi was not happening anyway so I gave up and turned it off to conserve battery. When lunch time did arrive I headed outside, and found some free wi-fi across the road at a cafe called, The Paris End Cafe, great sandwich guys and thanks for the free wi-fi.

Back inside, the Sofitel, I found a seat close to the aisle so I could make a quick exit towards the end, a good move it turned out. Next, Indesign's new features were demonstrated and again, it was primarily about multiple platform delivery of content, this is something Quark has been trying to sell for some time, and so Adobe gets no prizes for this, but now it makes sense to me given my own use of mobile devices and their current popularity, an idea that seemed alien to me 3 years ago. There are indeed some cool new features in Indesign, but this is not an application I 'teach' so, it was more about my own personal use of the program. It will help me publish my work to a variety of formats and devices, something that, is important to me now.

Finally Photoshop gets a look in, and of course it begins with the much touted 'content aware fill tool'. This is a great tool if your are a graphic designer or a lazy photographer, I rarely need to remove that amount of visual garbage from my images, in fact it is what makes part of the challenge for me, making a good image when we are surrounded by it, the garbage that is. So this tool worked well, in real life but the software was demonstrated on a PC laptop, so I'm yet to be convinced it will work well on a Mac. The two other features that made an impression on me were, the new masking tools, and the lens correction tool.

The masking tool now speeds up the whole process of removing models from backdrops and has the ability to quickly and easily refine that selection, and either create a mask, a separate file, or a combination of layer mask and file.

The lens correction tool was indeed awesome. After launching the filter, it, the tool draws on a database of lenses and using the metadata embedded into the file 'automatically' corrects the distortions in the image created by the lens. Using the new Adobe Lens Correction application you can even create your own files and add them to the database.

Creative Suite 5 is an impressive set of tools, Adobe have tapped the market well in as much as, they can see that the distinction between DTP, Designer, Web Designer, Videographer and Photographer is really being blurred. However as a photographer, given Photoshop's demonstrated poor handling of colour, there was not much to grab my attention. I am more excited by tools like Aperture and Lightroom than Photoshop now, and probably will only use Photoshop to demonstrate a handful of ideas and approaches in my teaching practice, I can in fact see an end for Photoshop in Photography education already, other than for use as a studio/fashion tool where a photographer works closely with a Graphic Designer or is a DTP operator as well as a photographer.

For a commercial take on the software, try Macworld's review, I'll pass you the grain of salt after you've read it.

Sadly even Photoshop Express [online] seems the mot popular, accoring to this lifehacker article.

Editing your images on a desktop image editor might be ideal, but sometimes you're away from your home workstation and need to do some impromptu editing. Check out these five options favored by Lifehacker readers

[From Lifehacker - Five Best Online Image Editors - Image Editing]

Sigh!

Thanks to my Wakoopa account I discovered this new little app called Pixelmator. Quoting the weekly mail from Wakoopa.com, it is the 5th most popular Mac graphics editor and:-

After mucking around with it on this fine sunny Saturday afternoon, I was quite impressed. The interface, has some neat features that make it really cool to look at. I like the fact that I could add a mask directly to the 'background' layer, and the fact that is just opened my raw files no fuss. Generally though, it doesn't do anything special that photoshop doesn't. Of course I'm lucky Photoshop forms part of my job so it is provided for me, therefore cost never need be an issue. More troubling though was the way curves and levels handled colour. Pixelmator handles colour in exactly the same way that photoshop does, so that is a big no-no for me anyway. Also a quick test with levels seemed to indicate that pixels are indeed 'destroyed as I worked, one of Photoshop's most troubling problems, and one never talked about.

Some screen grabs to show how I test these apps quickly and easily.

Interface

First a test file I make to see how some of the basic tools work and to check the way colour works at a default level.

The file was easy enough to create, for the grey-scale measurements, the colour wheel a bit more difficult and I would need more time to make sure it was 'correct'. Even so the blue is meant to be a value of R0, G0, B255, and it looks off on my monitor, which was calibrated only a few weeks ago.

A feature I quite liked was the way tools and their options were enlarged while in use.

Banding

On my test file at a zoom factor of 200%, there was evidence of banding, bit of a concern, no higher bit depth editing available, not surprising given the price I guess, but the banding would/could be an issue for larger prints?

Raw Files.

I was very excited to see that the tool just opened the raw file I asked it to, no questions asked, again though, some processing controls at this point would be nice, even if it was just exposure, contrast and white balance.

There seemed to be some problems in some areas of the file, in terms of colour, but this could be the lens or the software.

Here is the file opened in the raw processor of Photoshop, and, the evidence points to the software; but not conclusively.

Colour Editing

This software works the same as photoshop ie incorrectly, using both curves and levels. Lobster, made by Ian Lobb, goes into an in-depth discussion about why and how Photoshop handles colour incorrectly. Have a read for more information and background on this issue.

Firstly levels. An image made of pure colour, in this case, red, should display some changes when applying changes using the levels dialogue, none were apparent. Note the position of the sliders and the readout from the measuring tool.

Curves; same situation

Pixel Destruction?

Just like photoshop, these two screen grabs of a simple albeit heavy move with the levels tool suggest some data was lost.

The second image below show excessive gaps, which suggests some loss of data.

Photo Browser

Like any good app these days, the facility to 'browse' stored photos is a must and this app has that facility. However, because I have tested several of these tools over the last 6 months, or because of the apps shortcomings, I was unable to locate my external drives where all my photographs are kept. Pixelmator, very cleverly found my small iPhoto library. I however, rarely use it, and so many folders had been created by apps like Lightroom and Aperture already, I gave up trying to locate my files on my external drives.

Colour Management.

One of the least understood and most important aspects of digital photography is colour management. Pixelmator's approach is simple and easy to use, a real plus for a such a piece of software aimed I'm assuming at a level of the market that may not really need to know or care.

Masking.

All the usual suspects here. I guess standard these days. One standout feature though that Photoshop doesn't do is allow you to add a mask to the default image, or as Photoshop calls it 'background'. However I forgot to screengrab it, and am too lazy to go back and re-do it, you'll just have to trust me.

One of my favourite techniques is to use adjustment layers in Photoshop to enhance and manipulate my images, Pixelmator doesn't seem to have the option despite being able to mask a background layer, ah well can;'t have it all I guess.

Brushes.

The options for the brushes, were somewhat buried I felt. [Of course at no point did I read the manual] but once found were easy to use and modify brush types and sizes, exactly the same as Photoshop.

Here they are, the stand settings for brushes really.

Maybe the jitter options on, hue, saturation, lightness, are different, again not a tool as a photographer I use a great deal, so hard to say how useful it could be.

Value, but...

At 50 bucks US, it's a good piece of software. It has some major strengths, is easy and intuitive to use. If you were starting out in the design industry it's a real replacement for Photoshop. Pro photographers though, well, with Aperture and Lightroom really kicking Photoshop's arse at the moment, I doubt you'd bother.

Recently discovered this filter/plugin for photoshop, that adds film grain to a digital file. From where I sit if you want film grain use film, sheesh?

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

As I'm doing less and less in photoshop these days, I guess I missed the announcement of CS4

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Just another thing to learn, well my PD file will get a shot in the arm.

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Thanks to the Australian Newspaper

Today's quote comes from the New York Times

“If you can’t have the perfect family,” she added, “at least you can Photoshop it.”

This quote, is almost as good:-

It’s a Western sense of reality that what is in front of the lens has to be true

Fun with photoshop!

[From ManBabies.com - DAD?]

All digital files, jpeg, or raw require some level of post processing, to achieve film like appearance. this technique is a combination of Smart Objects and the High Pass Filter*. A word of advice, I have NOT used this technique on a print, only screen images, which require different approaches I'm told.

First process your image in your favourite raw processor. Next, duplicate the background layer twice. Now, convert each layer to a smart object. On the top layer, apply the high pass filter at a setting of about 30-50. On the next layer, convert the image to b&w, using black and white converter in image>adjustments. Apply the high pass filter again, this time however, at a much lower setting, say around 1.5 to 3. Now change the layer blending mode to soft light on all layers above the original background layer. hey presto a crisp image with the kind of acutance we've become accustomed to from our years of film use.

The original image

Want to contribute to Australian Picture History? Got something to SAY about Australian history? Got some good photoshop skills? Great! Picture Australia, has opened it's archives and started a group on Flickr. The idea is to download an image or two and mash them up, with your own.

[More Instructions.]

Go for it.

The cynic in me wants to exclude this completely.

[From John Nack on Adobe: A note about PS Express terms of use]

You decide.

Well it didn't take long, the TOS of Adobe's new service certainly favour them over the user, thanks to Addie, and Albert and TK for the heads up, my advice don't bother, especially if you already have Photoshop. There are alternatives out there Picassa being one of them.

Well it will certainly be a fun tool for the amateur and serious amateur alike, some good editing tools, all fairly intuitive, for someone like me. Not quite high end enough and unlike flickr there appears to be NO social component to the app, other than the ability to link one's facebook or photobucket account to it.

Two gig of free usage seems OK, haven't dug around the fine print yet to see where and how they may charge for the service?

The default editing interface.

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FWIW, I'm using firefox to access the site, as Safari at V3.1 doesn't seem to be working.

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Ok after creating an account here's the default interface, more to come.

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Photoshop, joins the burgeoning online application community.

[From Adobe Photoshop Express.]

Will it compete, review to come.

Thanks; again, to TK for the headsup.

As I prepare a file for a competition submission, I decided to make yet another zone rule scale to help me think about the values in the file as I tweak it, using photoshop, [because I'm in a hurry] in preparation for the submission, this time in 5% steps.

Click on the image to see the whole image and download it if you like.

Despite the heat today, over 35°C, we managed to go out for Lunch to Lavandula, the place where we married a few years back. I shot a few frames, [Nik also shot a couple], on a borrowed Canon 5d. So far I've narrowed them down to 11, some processing ahead of me, it seems.

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Scale and size, are almost irrelevant on the internet. Real in 'our hands' prints are reliant* on scale, as part of the grammar of photography.

Does anyone else hate this black background in CS 3? Can it be changed?

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Michael Reichmann in AUSTRALIA

Michael Reichmann, runs the well known Lumious Landscape Website. He is giving a workshop demonstration here in Melbourne, sadly I'm not going to be able to make it and probably it is booked out already? Anyway the details are,

Melbourne: Tuesday 4th March 2008
Sponsor: L&P Digital Photographic
Participation fee: $88 or, $66 for AIPP members
For registration and information about venue and time please contact: info@lapfoto.com.au

Something I will be attending is the CCP workshops run by Les Walkling, sometime this year. So much to chose from, though so I'm not sure which one to attend?

On another note, I'm running some workshops in Photoshop again this year, I've changed the format, they now run over 2 Saturdays, if you know someone who would be interested contact me.

It has been a while since I talked about one of the best digital photographic tools on the market, Lobster, that overcomes one of Photoshop least talked about shortcomings; colour.

Recently, I received an e-mail from the developer, that Version 2 will be released shortly.

The funniest part, for me, however was in his e-mail he stated that he knows no-one who uses a Windows box, and wondered if I could help him find a tester for the Windows version, and of course I, actually, am in the same position, all the Photographic power users of Photoshop I know run Macs.

Here's a screen-grab in my flickr stream.

Oops, yesterday I mentioned an open source light-weight image editor for the Mac, it's called Seahorse and can be downloaded, from their website.

Apologies folks, things are heating up around here, it's going to be a big year all round.

Found this free image editor for the Mac today, photoshop it ain't but a simple quick editor it's worth having.

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A couple of days ago I mentioned a new kid on the block in the digital photo-editing arena.

Over the years there has been a shift towards soft being available online, rather than on a desktop machine, giving user un-precedented mobility in their choice of work place and environment.

Now Adobe is thinking of joining the ranks and adding their highly regarded photo editing application Photoshop.

Adobe Systems has announced that it will ship a beta version of its Photoshop Express online editing tool by the end of this year, with the full product to be complete sometime in 2008.

"By late this year, we anticipate having a beta version," said John Loiacono, senior vice president for Adobe Creative Solutions, speaking at the 6sight digital imaging conference. And next year, the online service will be "available to anyone," he said.

I wonder how such an application would perform, particularly given that photoshop loads all image data into RAM, regardless of zoom and screen usage, and over the years has gotten worse in terms of it's processing power and needs?

Thanks to subbzy for the heads up.