Archive for April, 2008

Come join Cruising Through Life on August 9th-16th, 2008, for their Picture Perfect Hawaii 2008 cruise! Learn how to take stunning digital photographs and how to edit graphic images using Photoshop from four of the most international known and respected guru’s in the industry, Moose Peterson, Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, and Laurie Excell, all in the absolute breathtaking paradise backdrop of Hawaii. Find the perfect balance between fun and art. With events, such as hands-on, daily seminars, accommodations, “meet-and-greets,” an entry to win special prizes onboard, and many more surprises, you can’t go wrong. For more accommodation and pricing details, visit Cruising Through Life.

Adobe? Labs has created kuler, an awesome flash website designed to find complimenting color swatches. Designed to both stand alone and complement Adobe? Creative Suite? software, kuler uses Adobe? Flash? technology to bring you online tools for color theme creation. You can save themes to your own Mykuler space, share them publicly, receive new and popular themes via RSS feeds, and more. And developers can use the kuler APIs to bring color themes to any application.

kuler features include:

• Tools to create color themes from a base color and harmony rules, with a color wheel and sliders for ultimate customization.
• Color extraction that generates themes from images using quick mood presets or movable markers to target specific colored areas on the image.
• Fast search of thousands of themes created by the kuler community. Search by tag word, title, creator, or hex color value.
• Browsing by newest, most popular, and highest rated themes. Or view themes in a random order.
• Access to kuler themes three ways: through any browser, via the kuler desktop, and from within Adobe? Illustrator? CS3 software.

For more information, check out the Adobe? Labs kuler page.

Another release from Adobe®…kinda. It’s the beta version of Lightroom® 2.0! It’s now available for free download at Adobe® Labs. You can try and test it for 30 days, or, if you Lightroom® 1, you can play with it for as long as until the full version is released.

If you don’t know what Adobe® Labs is, it’s the center for all of Adobe®’s products that are under development. You can get the latest scoop on what new software Adobe® is working on. Check it out here.

A few key elements from the release notes and the official Lightroom® Journal:

Library

• Streamlined Library Layout
• Smart Collections
• Powerful Filter Bar to search and refine images
• Suggested Keywords for simplified keywording
• 10k pixel size limit raised to 30k pixels
• Output-based Collections

Multiple Monitors

• Four flexible modes for an alternate window: Grid, Loupe, Compare, Survey
  (Check out the Live Loupe mode!)

Photoshop® CS3 Integration

• Open files in Photoshop® as a Smart Object
• Select multiple images to merge as a Panorama
• Merge multiple exposures into a single Photoshop® HDR image
• Load multiple files or virtual copies into Photoshop as separate layers in a single document.

Export Functionality

• Auto-add exported images to the Lightroom® catalog
• Auto Output Sharpening for images on export

Develop Module

• Non-Destructive Localized Correction for dodging and burning specific areas of an image
• Post Crop Vignette
• Basic Panel Keyboard Shortcuts
• Improved Auto Adjustment
• Improved memory handling through 64-bit support on OS X 10.5 and Vista 64-bit.(Not limited to develop module)

Print Module

• Picture Package for multi-page layouts
• Print Module output directly to JPEG
• Enhanced Print Sharpening based on PhotoKit Sharpener algorithms
• 16-bit Printing for Mac OS X 10.5

Primary Known Issues

• Lightroom® 2.0 beta will not upgrade Lightroom® 1.x libraries. The beta is intended to be used for testing and feedback purposes. Lightroom® 1.x and 2.0 beta libraries will be migrated to the finished version of Lightroom® 2.0.
• While data loss is not expected, this is a very early beta quality build and you should always work on duplicates of files that are securely backed up.
• Lightroom® 2 beta will not overwrite or interfere with a machine that currently has Lightroom® 1.3.1 installed.
• Develop settings applied in Lightroom® 2.0 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of 2.0. This is particularly true for localized corrections.
• The new Photoshop® integration functionality is only available with Photoshop® CS3 (10.0.1) and should only be used for testing purposes. Metadata associated with the original file may not carry over to the subsequent file saved from Photoshop®.

Check out the official release notes here.

There are also some awesome tutorials and guides that have just been published. Julieanne Kost has a few video tutorials, and she’s creating more. And, once again, the NAPP has created a great online learning center.

A bunch of stuff…go check it out.

…Yet, I still cannot think of any prank to play on April Fools’ Day, on others or on this site. Anyways, happy April Fools,’ everyone! I hope no one’s seriously injured. It’s a bit late for this year, but if you have any ideas for next year, feel free to share ‘em, either in comments or in a contact form if it’s regarding the site. Thanks!

This may be old news for some, but Video Copilot released a series of great tutorials on the basics of Adobe? After Effects? entitled After Effects? Basic Training. Basic Training is great for both beginners who are new to After Effects? and more experienced editors who need a refresher. Who knows, you might learn something new. Best of all, it’s free. No registration is required, just visit the site and start learning right away. Also provided are free materials, ready to download, to follow along with the lesson. After Effects? Basic Training is highly recommended. Go check it out.