Photoshop CS5 Sneak Peek – Content Aware Fill


Bryan O’Neil Hughes demos CS5’s new Content Aware Fill feature.
One of the game-changing new features in CS5 is Content Aware Fill. It works like the Patch tool, only it’s easier to use. You simply select an area, click Delete, and choose Content Aware Fill. It’s fantastic for removing unwanted elements in images, even in challenging image areas like smooth gradients in skies. This feature will save you hours and hours. It might even change the way you think about making photographs.
Tune in tomorrow April 12 at 8am PDT for Adobe’s CS5 online announcement. Register now.

Use PDFs to Make Blurb Books

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Want to design your Blurb book with something other than BookSmart.
Want to use InDesign or Quark?
Make a PDF with them.
Then make a Blurb book from the PDF.
This way, you’ll have all the refined control of professional design software and still get print-on-demand books from Blurb.
Learn more about Blurb PDF workflow here.
Watch 3 helpful videos here.
Check out these great design books I recommend.
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Photoshop Start Up Memories


In this documentary, the founders of Adobe Photoshop – John Knoll, Thomas Knoll, Russell Brown, and Steve Guttman – tell the story of how an amazing coincidence of circumstances, that came together at just the right time 20 years ago, spawned a cultural paradigm shift unparalleled in our lifetime.

Photoshop's 20th Anniversary Celebration Webcast

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NAPP (The National Association of Photoshop Professionals) will be hosting a celebration of Photoshop’s 20th Anniversary at the Palace of the Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco. The event will feature Adobe’s senior vice president of Creative Solutions, John Loiacono, as well as vice president of Photoshop Product Management, Kevin Connor, Photoshop co-creator Thomas Knoll, Adobe creative director Russell Brown. NAPP’s entire team Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, RC Concepcion, Matt Koslowski, Corey Barker, and many others will be there. Over a thousand people are expected to attend.
The event starts at 7:30 pm tonight.
You can see the live webcast here.
See Scott Kelby’s report here.

Adobe Shortcut App for Creative Suite

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“Can’t remember your shortcuts? No worries. Introducing the Adobe Shortcut App, an amazing new tool from Adobe that lets you find and gather the shortcuts you need on your desktop. So they’re right where you need them, when you need them, allowing you to create your masterpieces with ease.”
You get a full list. You can make your own lists. I don’t find a list of shortcuts I already know useful. But I do find a list of shortcuts I’m currently trying to commit to memory very useful.
Get this application here. It’s free!
Learn more with my Lessons, DVDs, and Workshops.

Adobe's Lightroom 3 Public Beta Is Now Available.

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Adobe’s Lightroom 3 Public Beta is now available.
Download it now.
Highlights include …
1 Importing has been redesigned
2 Collections panel in the Develop Module
3 Better Noise Reduction
4 Grain feature
5 Improved vignetting controls
6 Drag and Drop Publishing to the Web
7 Watermarking
8 Export Slideshows with music
9 Custom Print Package for creating print layouts
10 Change the background color of prints
Find over 12 useful video tutorials on the new features at NAPP’s Lightroom 3 Learning center here.
Find Seth Resnick and Jamie Spritzer’s D-65 free PDF here.

Using Star Ratings


It’s important to think about how you use star Ratings (in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom). Not everyone uses them the same way. However you decide to use them, you should use them consistently. Otherwise, when you browse multiple folders, you’ll have to interpret the same symbols differently in different contexts. That gets confusing fast!
I like the 5 star rating system. It helps make useful distinctions with only a touch more granularity than 3 levels of distinction – typically high, medium and low. It doesn’t get as granular at 10 levels of distinction, so you can cut to the chase fast. It’s used in other venues like restaurants and hotels so it’s familiar. Still, I don’t find using 1 and 2 star ratings useful for ranking the quality of images; I have no use for images that are below average. The images use are either good – 3, better – 4, or excellent – 5. So, I use 1 and 2 stars for something else. I use 1 star to identify a good idea in a substandard exposure or composition; I’ll try and use the idea later with better material. I use 2 stars to identify images that are good for composites; the exposures are fine but the composition is unfinished.
How do you use star ratings?
Comment here.
We discuss this and many other subjects in my field workshops.
Learn more about composition in my field workshops.
Upcoming dates include …
8/9-15 – Iceland … 10% discount ends June 20.

10/16-19 – Fall Foliage … 15% discount ends August 15.