Here is a creative suite 5 video of the new content aware functions offered by Adobe. The author goes through several examples of how content aware feature will really speed up your daily workflow.
May 052010
Apr 202010
The Wrong WB, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.
As you can imagine from the title I was using the wrong White Balance (WB). I kinda liked the look of the extreme blue in the sky and in the ocean. I was distracted with talking to a photographer and his wife that were shooting with a Fuji 617 or a 6×17 film camera.
At one point during the day I remember saying to myself that my images looked really blue and washed out? Duh! One of the big rules of thumb, before you take your ist shot, check your camera settings and reset your settings in the camera.
I shoot RAW so it’s that that big of a deal to correct my Oh $#!t moments, and I have alot of those… Shooting RAW is so forgiving that it helps when making a mistake like this. Plus you should always shot it right in the camera first so you don’t have to spend a ton of time in post processing.
I think they should have that warning message in your camera that says “You sure you want to take this image with these setting Dummy?” Ahhhh no, but I’m just a dork fish…
All this week I have been preparing for a trip to Orange County. I am traveling to OC in the next week for a series of Job interviews. No, it’s not for a photography job, it’s for my chosen profession of a Financial Services Professional (Equity Trader). Anyone that knows me personally, knows that I was laid-off from my job over a year ago. Yes, it was a huge disappointment, however I never thought I would be unemployed for this long. The job market has been very bleak at best.
In preparing for my upcoming interviews I realized that I didn’t have a business card. I have cards that I made for photography, but nothing for my profession. Last night I rectified this little issue. I spent a few hours before I went to bed, and made some financial business cards. I had some ideas of how I wanted my business cards to look like. I didn’t want to just use the free templates that vistaprints.com offers. I wanted to have a personal touch.
A fes days ago I was fooling around with Wordle and created a couple Wordle graphics and posted to my blog here Financial Buzz Word Bingo . I mentioned that I was going to use them for a project. I decided to use them for my financial business cards. I downloaded the photoshop .psd layout file from vistaprints.com. I used photoshop to put my business card layout together. Next, I uploaded the finished file to vistaprints.com and added the text. The next step and most important step, I had my wife prof the card before I finished. This is what my business card looks like. If you notice I didn’t add an address, because I am looking for a job in the Greater Bay Area and in Orange County. I didn’t feel that the address was as important. My wife had made the suggestion of putting my Securities Licences on the card instead. I agreed that this was more important since I worked so hard to get them during my career.
Tomorrow is the official coming out Party for the New Adobe CS5. It is been something I have looked forward to foe a few weeks now. I have posted on a blog few times Countdown to Abobe Creative Suite 5 Release and Adobe Creative Suite 5 Rumor. Now, tomorrow is the release date and all hell will break loose in the photo and graphic blogoshpers.
I imagine that everyone that has the opportunity to have a sneak peak will be giving the pros and con’s of the newest Creative Suite. I know that NAPP and Scott Kelby will be blogging and setting up new training at Kelby Media and Kelby Training as soon as the announcement has been made.
One blogger and Photographer has already taken a look under the hood and likes what he sees. Thomas Hawk, friend and former co-worker of mine, posted on his blog a little bit of what he likes and some new features that he has played with. Take a look here and see what Thomas Hawk says about what he saw. Here is the link to his post ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS5 BOLDLY EMPOWERS THE DIGITAL ARTIST
Mar 142010
42/365 Teething Ring, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.
Image 42/365
This is my neighbors 8 month old son. My neighbor wanted me to shoot her son for a Valentine’s gift for her husband.
I thought this was a unusual shot. While trying to keep this little guy happy and focused, I picked up his teething ring and shot through it.
I shot this in my home studio:
Studio Setup:
2 Calumet Genesis 200 Strobes
Calumet NOVA 32 softbox
45″ Calumet Shoot thru Umbrella
Pocket Wizard II
107″ White Seamless Backdrop
The 32″ Softbox was set low to the ground. The Umbrella was pointed at the backdrop for the High-Key.
The Creative Director of Orbit Books, Lauren Panepinto, has invited all to see her process for designing the cover ofBlameless by Gail Carriger. In one minute and 55 seconds, The Making of a Book Cover time-lapse video takes us through intense Photoshop compositing and retouching, type tweaking in Illustrator, keyword image research, double checking the cover brief form in Microsoft Word, and the painstaking revisions process.
If you would like to read more about the process you can click here or watch the video below to see it in all in high speed.
Mar 022010
Matt Kloskowski of NAPP and the infamous Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips, has come out with a response to the Apples release of their Aperture 3. He has a blog post of 5 Reasons to Stay with Lightroon? posted Feb 15, 2010.
I will let you got to the link above to view the entire post. But, here are my quick thoughts on the Lightroom vs. Aperture. First, any program that makes my life easier is a good program. When I first got my MacBook Pro, I was given a trial version of Apples Aperture 1. It was a step up from iPhoto, because it offered more post processing control over the current version of iPhoto at the time. I knew I wanted to go the Adobe Lightroom way, because of the workflow is designed to work better with other Adobe products i.e. Photoshop. Another reason I chose Lightroom over Aperture, is the fact that most plug-ins a free, and more user presets.
Aperture has one major benefit that I looked into to help me make a decision to go with Apple Aperture. In the early days I really used the iLife programs especially iWeb and iMovie/iDVD. Aperture works seamless with these programs. However, as my needs grew beyond what these programs offered, my interest in Aperture diminished. I nolonger use iWeb for my web publishing, I use Adobe Dreamweaver CS4.
In conclusion, any program that makes photo post processing easier for anyone whether it is Lightroom, Aperture, iPhoto, Adobe Bridge or one of the other web 2.o programs available, I think you should use the best one for your needs.
Post your comment, thoughts or ideas in the comment section below or take the survey.
Matt’s Final Thoughts:
Final Thoughts
If you’re a current Lightroom user, you’re among the group of the most used photo management/processing software in the world. There’s a reason why when you do a search for buzz, news, tutorials, presets, etc… on Lightroom vs. the same for Aperture, you find much more about Lightroom. It’s an awesome program and like anything out there, will just get better with time. Be happy with it. If your curiosity just has to get the best of you then by all means, download the free trial of Aperture and give it a try yourself. Maybe you’ll switch. If that’s the right thing for you then go for it. Just don’t do it because it’s new and different. As always, leave a comment. I welcome your thoughts on the topic (just be nice) 
(polls)
Feb 042010
New updated information
I just learned that the release of Adobe Creative Suite 5 will be on April 12, 2010. Here is the link to the new information: Countdown to Abobe Creative Suite 5 Release
Does anyone have any news when Adobe will release their Creative Suite 5. I started looking across the web to find a release date for the CS5. I have come across a blog called CS5.org. According to CS5.org they had an unconfirmed release date of October 2009. Well obviously they were a little off on their release date.
I did find another date that seemed be a little more realistic. This date has been repeated form web site to blog. The date of the suspected release will be April 2010.
3. Adobe Creative Suite 5
Rumor has it that the new versions of Photoshop, Flash et. al should be with us around April. It’ll be a new era for the design suite because the Mac version has been completely rebuilt in Cocoa, and will no longer run on PowerPC chips. Judging by the sneaky peeks we’ve seen here and from what was announced at Adobe MAX 2009, designers will be whimpering with delight when CS5 finally becomes available. New goodies you can expect from the suite include ‘wet look’ 3D Photoshop paint brushes, native iPhone game compiling in Flash, and a ‘Smart Paste’ tool for Dreamweaver that makes it easier to integrate vector graphics and Illustrator-created content into your web sites. Ref: Top Software for 2010
I am really interested in the release of CS5, because I am thinking of buying the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium and I don’t want to throw my money into a product that will be out dated in two months. I learned my lesson in the past. I have purchased products and spent a great deal of money on them, when a month or two later they release a new item. Then it’s to late to return the item and it cost another chunk of change to upgrade. That happened to me on my DSLR.
I guess that is one of the questions I can ask when I head into San Francisco for the Photoshop 20th Anniversary bash.
I you have any information on a release date of any Adobe CS5 products put them in the comments.
Jan 242010
Hi,
I thought I would post this little bit of news. I was reading Scott Kelby’s new post and found a contest to get a free ticket to the Adobe Photoshops 20th Anniversary invitation. The birthday party will be on February 18, 2010 at the Palace of the Fine Art theater, in San Francisco.
Here is the link to Scott Kelby’s Blog Photoshop Insider. Read his post and sign up, maybe I will see at the party. I just got my ticket sent to me in my email.
Thanks Scott, that was fast service.
Technique Tuesday is running behind and I posted it today. Here is a little Photoshop trick I ran across the other day. This tip is brought to from Peachpit Press. Who would have thunk it… that Peachpit had videos. The video was actually done by Matt Kloskowski, one of the many Photoshop gurus’ that haunt the halls of NAPP.
In this video, Matt shows us how to adjust the symmetry in your photos. This is a quick tip that I have used several time to adjust the tilt when photographing a high-rise building from the ground while using a normal lens.