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Join the thousands of folks who have enjoyed
GreatPhotography classes at SMU's Plano campus over the past eight years.
We've become the most popular photography program in North Texas and this years'
classes promise to be even better.
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Discovering The Secrets of
GreatPhotography
2/6 - 2/15 ***Sold Out***
-
Studio Lighting Basics
5/19
-
Photoshop Elements: Class 2 -
Essential Skills
2/21 - 3/7
-
Photoshop CS2: Class 1 - A Solid
Foundation
2/20 - 3/8
-
Photoshop CS2: Class 2 - Essentials
for Photographers
(**NEW - Will incorporate Photoshop Lightroom**)
5/1 - 5/17
Many of these classes have become very popular and
tend to sell out early so be sure to sign up today for any classes you'd like to
attend. For more information check out my website.
Workshop Notice
The 2007 workshop schedule is off to a fast start so
if you're even considering a workshop you should sign up today. Ladies,
the Digital Chicks on the River is already half full
and the workshop isn't until September. This will be an event you don't
want to miss.
There will be a large national promotion for the
workshops going out soon so if you're interested in one of the events sign up
today to ensure your place.
 Time
is quickly running out to sign up for one of the most exciting workshops that
I've ever offered. Lightpainting in Arches National Park!
Arches
National Park (3/28/07 - 4/1/07) - Delicate Arch, at right, was shot shortly after sunset and painted with a 1
Million candlepower flashlight - this technique gives the formation an ethereal
look. Now, imagine a huge rock formation painted with over 100 million
candlepower.
Everyone attending the Arches workshop will receive
a 15 million candle power (yes, that's fifteen million-it's not a typo) flashlight (free and yours to keep) to help
light-paint some of the famous rock formations. Sign up today and be a
part of the largest light-painting project ever attempted.
Save up
to $100 by signing up with a friend!
Today you can save up to $100 when you and a friend
sign up for a GreatPhotography workshop. It's easy, you and your friend
register online and in the comments section include the name of your friend.
Each person signing up will receive a $50 discount on the workshop price.
If three friends sign up together you'll each receive a $75 discount. Get
a group of four and you will each receive a $100 discount!!
Some restrictions do apply to this offer so be sure
to read all the detail online.
 Adobe
is king of the image processing software market and this king is serious about
protecting their kingdom. Adobe has developed a new program called Adobe
Photoshop Lightroom - an obvious indication that it is an integral part of the
Photoshop family.
The widely released Beta version 4.1 was replaced by
a limited distribution of the final beta release 5. The current public
release date for Lightroom is February 19 and is available online for
pre-release purchase.
Photoshop Lightroom software is a new product built from the ground up for
professional photographers. It is an efficient, powerful way to import, select,
develop and present large volumes of digital photographs. It allows you to spend
less time sorting and organizing images, so you have more time to actually shoot
and perfect them.
Photoshop Lightroom will debut at the special introductory price of $199 and
after April 30, 2007, the normal retail price of $299 will come into effect.
I've used Lightroom since the Windows Beta 2 version and find that it really
delivers some impressive function. But the question is how users will
finally implement Lightroom in their workflow.
Lightroom really shines with global editing functions, especially RAW
conversion. Much of that technology was obtained by Adobe when they bought
Pixmantec, developers of the popular Raw Shooter software.
The benefit of Lightroom over Photoshop is that the edits are all
non-destructive so the integrity of your original image is never compromised.
But Lightroom does not do pixel editing so all those pimples, scars and dust
marks must still be edited in Photoshop.
If you're a user of Photoshop CS2, especially if you shoot RAW files, you
need to learn more about Lightroom. Visit the
Adobe Lightroom website.
 Adobe has also been busy developing their next release of Photoshop and CS3 is
now in beta release. The exact release date is not yet known, Adobe has
only said that CS3 is due in the second quarter of 2007. We do know some
of the new features and there are some that are going to be quite popular.
- Non-destructive Smart Filters
Smart Filters are Photoshop filters that are applied non-destructively, and
that remain live and re-editable.
- Quick Selection Tool
The new Quick Selection Tool creates selections by painting the general area
of interest. Photoshop CS3 analyzes the image to complete the selection
automatically.
- Refine Edge
The new Refine Edge feature offers a simple, flexible way to modify the edge
of any selection.
- Automatic layer alignment and blending
Using automatic layer alignment and blending, easily combine the best parts
of multiple images of the same scene into one "best" image.
- Black and White conversion
Advanced black-and-white conversion is now simpler and faster. With the new
Black and White adjustment, one button analyzes the image and offers
conversion settings.
- Enhanced Adobe Camera Raw
Camera Raw 4.0 now features Fill Light, Recovery, and Vibrance controls; a
parametric tone curve; sophisticated black & white and split toning
controls; and more. Like Lightroom, many of these new features came
from the purchase of Pixmantec.
-
 Faster Thumbnails
This release offers improved performance and more control over the display
of thumbnails. For some file formats such as camera raw and Photoshop, it is
possible to control the quality of the thumbnail displayed:
- Enhanced Preview Panel
The Preview panel can display multiple files for side-by-side comparison.
Simply select up to nine files in the Content pane and they will be
displayed side by side in the Preview panel.
- Improved Slideshow
For a full size view of your images, select View > Slideshow. You can
customize the settings of the Slideshow by selection View > Slideshow
Options.
- Stacks
Create stacks to group a set of related documents together. Stacks are
useful for keeping multiple photos of the same subject in one place, and
they reduce clutter in the Content Panel. Photoshop Elements users
have had this option for some time.
- New Filter Panel
To quickly filter files displayed in the current folder, use the Filter
panel. The Filter panel displays an overview of the files in the current
directory.
- Metadata
To indicate that you have reviewed a file and decided to reject it, select
Label > Reject. This new rating, in addition to the 1 to 5 stars rating of
Bridge 1.0, makes it easy to note that a file has been reviewed but without
having to move files to the trash.
- Organizing Files
Several operations such as move, copy, duplicates can be undone.
- Improved Searching
Search performance has been improved. When a search is in progress it can be
canceled by clicking the Cancel button at the top of the Content panel.
- Faster Cache
The cache used by Bridge CS3 has been significantly improved for better
performance. The cache takes advantage of multi-code and multi-processor
hardware when available.
- Adobe Photo Downloader (APD)
Adobe Photo Downloader is a component of Bridge CS3 to copy files from a
camera or a card reader. To use APD, simply connect a camera to your
computer or insert a card in a connected card reader, then select File > Get
Photos from Camera...
- Customizing Bridge
You can match the visual appearance of Bridge to your own environment by
customizing the background of the preview and control panel, as well as the
overall brightness of the UI in the Preferences > General dialog.
 A
very popular photographic effect is the duotone.
This is a very simple technique that is totally non-destructive.
-
Open the image that you want to convert to a duotone
-
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer >
Hue Saturation…
-
Move
the Saturation slider all the way to the left to remove all color
-
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves…
-
When
removing all color the grayscale image often looks too flat.
Use Curves to add any necessary contrast.
-
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation…
-
Click Colorize
-
Set
Hue to 25
(Move the slider to see variations you can use)
-
Set Saturation to 25
Thanks and have fun with Photoshop...
GreatPhotography
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