Using Datasets in Photoshop

• If you hadn’t heard about it, Wordcamp Birmingham is coming up. Sep 26-27 in Birmingham AL. More info: http://wordcampbirmingham.org/
• AWDG kicks off in around 40 mins. Greg Rewis – @garazi – is tonight’s speaker. His blog: http://blog.assortedgarbage… #photoshopbadass
• Here’s the intro to tonight’s topic: http://www.awdg.org/calenda…
• Since tonight’s topic is Photoshop – http://www.adobe.com/produc…
• #awdg Also check out @NAPP_News and http://bit.ly/2Ealq
• #awdg Up on screen @jc‘s posted @danrubin‘s http://makephotoshopfaster.com
• w00t. @garazi just arrived. @jc‘s doing trivia. #awdg
• #awdg How to be a Photoshop Bad Ass. Greg Rewis – @garazi – Adobe CS4 Evangelist is getting ready to kick ass for us.
• Next meeting – Sept 16th. @mollydotcom is presenting! OMG! :D Details: http://bit.ly/piqqi
• It should be noted that next months #awdg is at the Art Institute of Atlanta NOT The Portfolio Center.

• #awdg – Greg specializes in Adobe’s web products.
• #awdg – Greg’s responsible for GoLive CyberStudio. (He was it’s product manager.) We won’t hold it against him ;)
• #awdg – Mentioning again. @garazi‘s blog is http://assortedgarbage.com
• http://makephotoshopfaster.com on screen now. :)
• Photoshop is a noun AND a verb in Webster’s Dictionary. #awdg
• Greg took a poll of the crowd and there was a fairly good mix of users on CS4 and CS3 or older.
• Now chatting about Adobe Bridge CS4. Underappreciated. Very few users in the crowd.
• Bridge was introduced with CS2 and it sucked. Bridge is now one of the most powerful tools within CS4.
• Demoing Filters panel in Bridge.
• “Bridge can do everything and more than iPhoto does. (Don’t tell Steve Jobs!)”
• View > Show Items From Subfolders will let you drill down and “throw folders away”.
• Now demoing rating and applying color labels to photos.
• Check out Bridge Help and Support on Adobe.com – http://www.adobe.com/suppor…
• Now demoing Collections (grouping) within Bridge CS4.
• Now showing different views available within Bridge. Coolest is Output view. Output to Web Gallery or PDF. (Wow! I had no idea Bridge could do that.)
• Now showing Web Galleries via Bridge Output.
• Web Gallery will let you add FTP info and upload directly to your remote server. All sorts of controls are available which will allow you to customize output in Flash or HTML.
• Now showing custom views in Bridge.
• Now showing direct import of files from a camera into Bridge. File > Get photos from camera. In demo, he’s importing .CR2 files from his Canon PowerShot G9. Bridge lets you convert to DNG while importing files.
• DNG are an open-source formatted that was created by Adobe. http://www.adobe.com/produc…
• DNGs are approximately 20% smaller than standard Camera Raw files. Don’t worry about embedding Raw image in DNG. You’ll lose any sort of file size savings.
• Wikipedia entry on DNG – http://bit.ly/MMt8f
• Because the file he is demoing is a DNG he can adjust it within Bridge using Camera Raw (within Photoshop).
• Camera Raw is available within Photoshop and Bridge.
• Showing the amazing power of Auto within Camera Raw. Lesson learned: You’re typically not going to get the results you were hoping for if you rely on Auto.
• Image has a bad yellow cast due to lighting. @garazi‘s showing how to adjust within Bridge.
• @garazi using White Color balance sample tool. White balance actually = light gray.
• “In 2 clicks I went from severe jaundice to a perfect picture.” – @garazi
• Images that were adjusted in Camera Raw will display a small icon in the upper right of the preview.
• Adjustments can be stored within an image or as a sidecar XMP files. (Metadata related to adjustments.)
• Raw is non-destructive. Play around with an image and do whatever you want. Retain the original.
• With Raw you can adjust settings independently. Demoing Exposure, Fill Light, Blacks to pull out detail in photos.
• Now showing how to use Graduated Filters within Bridge to change coloring of over-exposed image.
• Image @garazi is demoing is 1.18Gb image of Adobe’s headquarters. (Holy schnikeys.) He’s showing how zoom is very responsive and quick to re-render pixels on screen. It was rather impressive.
• Some of the features @garazi is showing require an OpenGL-enabled graphics card :)
• A lot of the performance enhancements rely on the GPU versus the CPU in previous versions.
• Now showing how you can rotate the canvas.
• The newest Wacom tablets can auto-rotate the canvas. New Macbooks can rotate with gestures.
• Now showing Adjustments panel within Photoshop CS4.
• Adjustments within the Adjustments panel results in 80% fewer mouse clicks.
• Now showing Black & White adjustments and how to tint using masks.
• OH: “My fingers are sticky from the coke.” lol
• Now showing Quick Select tool – originally introduced in CS3.
• Finger adjustment tool is awesome. All adjustments now have a “finger” adjustment feature. You can click and drag within an image to make various adjustments.
• “Drawing with the clone stamp tool is like drawing with your eyes closed.” With the improved clone stamp, you get a preview of what you’rabout to clone within your brush.
• Now demoing how you can correct depth of field with multiple images.
• Now showing Blend Selected Layers based on content. In Bridge – Tools > Photoshop > Photomerge.
• Now showing 3D postcard.
• In Photoshop: Layer > Smart Object > Stack Mode > Median – will allow you to combine multiple shots.
• Now showing content aware scaling. (I LOVE this feature in Photoshop CS4)
• “We’re not stretching pixels. We’re making new ones.”
• More on content aware scaling in Photoshop CS4: http://bit.ly/EiFwA
• Using quick selection tool. Select > Save selection. Deselect. Edit > Content Aware Scale. Notice PROTECT up top. That’s what will protect people, objects from getting stretched along with what’s in the background of the image.
• Photoshop Tip: Save for Web > use blur with JPGs to save even more on final file size. It’ll blur the edges of the image resulting in a slightly smaller file. Also remove metadata & copyright when saving files for web.
• Now showing Fireworks.
• Fireworks. Export as JPG. 80% quality. File > Export. Photoshop demo image: 80kb. Fireworks demo image: 44kb. o_O
• If exporting JPGs for the web, USE Fireworks. Filesizes will be 45% smaller. Fireworks has a better jpg compression algorithm.
• Now talking about PNG-8s in Fireworks. Did you know Fireworks also supports PNG-32? Photoshop doesn’t have that.
• With PNG-8s in Fireworks you can choose between index transparency (GIF-like) or Alpha Transparency. (!!!)
• For further reading: PNG8: The Clear Winner
• Okay. I love Photoshop and this topic was supposed be about making us a Photoshop Bad Ass… but I’m falling in love with Fireworks.
• IE6 screws up PNG-8s that use semi-transparent pixels. But that’s okay. With semi-transparent pixels it simply doesn’t display them at all. You still retain transparency.
• PNG-8 semi-pixel transparency’s been around since at least Fireworks 3.
• And that’s a wrap.

Looking to upgrade? Buy through Amazon and help me out! :)

• Buy Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Windows – XP/Vista) – Full Version / Upgrade
• Buy Adobe Photoshop CS4 (Mac) – Full Version / Upgrade

“All currently supported shipping versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat (Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.1, 8.1.4, and 7.1.1 and earlier versions) are vulnerable to this issue. Adobe plans to provide updates for all supported versions for all platforms (Windows, Macintosh and Unix) to resolve this issue.”

To protect yourself from possible exploits, disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader and Acrobat:

1. Launch Acrobat or Adobe Reader.
2. Select Edit>Preferences
3. Select the JavaScript Category
4. Uncheck the ‘Enable Acrobat JavaScript’ option
5. Click OK

Here are just a few of the things that have stood out so far:

• Better UI. I hated it when I first saw it, and I know that others are going to have that same reaction. But the new unified interface is consistent from app to app and is more customizable than ever before. You can quickly toggle between several default workspaces without having to restart the applications. (This was one of my peeves with Dreamweaver CS3. It supported “workspaces” to an extent, but changing it required restarting the program.)
• Tabbed windows. I tend to work with multiple documents open at a time. The new tabbed windows allow you to see all the documents you’ve got open, easily switch from window to window, and easily sort them. Want to see all of documents you’ve got open and match their zoom level in Photoshop? It’s super easy now.
• Speed. I tested CS4 out on two machines: a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop running Windows Vista Ultimate with a 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo and 3Gb RAM, and a Dell Dimension E510 running Windows XP Professional SP2 with a 3Ghz Pentium 4 HT and 3Gb RAM. I was able to keep several apps open at once on both machines and they were all quick and responsive.
• Stability. Even in the prerelease versions I tested, CS4 was very stable.
• Installation.  One of my biggest problems with CS3 was the installation process. CS4 installer has been GREATLY improved. What was once a 2-3 hour ordeal*, only took 35-40 minutes on the two machines I tested on.

This just scratches the surface. CS4 is a major upgrade, and it’s well worth the money in my opinion. In my next post, I’ll discuss some of the new tools and features available in CS4.

These presentations will come hot on the heels of Adobe’s planned unveiling of CS4 on 9/23 [info].

Are you ready for something brilliant? Yesterday Adobe announced that it will unveil the new Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 lineup in a special web event on 9.23.08. Register today to be among the first to learn about CS4. This is not something you’re going to want to miss. Trust me.

I like the concept of sketching things down on paper and then going directly to HTML, but in most cases, that’s just not practical – especially if your goal is to design something that doesn’t look vanilla. What works for one person, one team, one company isn’t necessarily going to work for another.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Adobe Updater for some time now. I realize that using CS3 won’t get any better without updates, but I hate how the Updater interrupts my workflow when it needs to run an install.

I shouldn’t have to close my browser(s) in order to install Adobe program updates, especially if said update is not Acrobat-related. I shouldn’t have to close down apps that aren’t applicable to the program that’s being updated. I shouldn’t have to wait ages and ages for updates to install themselves.

Of course, if it really bothered me enough, I’d simply disable the Adobe Updater altogether and check for updates when it was convenient for me, but then, I probably wouldn’t keep my software as current as I’d need/want it to be.

How could Adobe Updater work better?

• You should be able to schedule when it checks for updates. “Every week” is too ambiguous. Usually, I’m in the middle of something when when Adobe Updater prompts me to upgrade. (Every Tuesday at 3am would be just dandy for me.)
• You should have the option to choose whether Adobe Updater will automatically upgrade your software or await feedback from you. (Currently it downloads the updates and prompts you to install them OR you you have to explicitly tell it to download the updates when you’re ready for them. I want it to go ahead and install the updates too, if that’s my preference.)
• You shouldn’t have to close down applications in order to install the updates. If I don’t close down the applications I have open, force a reboot in order for the installation to complete.
• If updates don’t work or timeout, direct me to the Adobe website where I can manually grab the available updates.

What do you think? What do you like or dislike about the Adobe Updater? What do you think could be done to improve it?

Buzzword

Adobe was smart to pick this company up. It’s a fantastic use of Flash technology and could prove to be an incredible asset to Adobe’s burgeoning line of online applications (Photoshop Express, Premiere Express). Microsoft has already announced that they would be offering an online, ad-supported version of Word soon; and Google has been offering Google Docs – which includes a word processor, spreadsheets and presentations. Not having used Word Online (or whatever Microsoft will call it), I can’t comment on how it will look, but I can say that Buzzword is light-years beyond Google Docs word-processor.

• THE GREAT
  • Simple, streamlined interface.
  • Easy-to-use.
  • Beautiful fonts – Adobe Garamond Pro, Courier Std, Cronos Pro, Minion Pro, Myriad Pro, News Gothic Std, and Tekton Pro. (Thanks, Adobe!)
• THE GOOD
  • You can easily save your file for offline use. Current formats supported include Word (.doc), XML and Rich-Text (.rtf).
  • Everything is web-based, so you can access your documents from anywhere.
  • You can share any documents you create with other people and you can control whether they can be a co-author, reviewer or a reader. (Unfortunately, other people need to have a Buzzword account.)
• THE BAD
  • Requires Adobe Flash. But seriously, who doesn’t have Flash at this point?
  • Still in Beta. You have to have an account in order to do anything with the service.
  • Can’t save files as PDFs (which seems like a no-brainer…) (Though, if you have Acrobat installed as a printer, you can always print the documents as a PDF.)
  • No style support. (Thanks Will!)
  • Other minor issues:
    • No HTML export. (Admittedly, this might be a good thing.)
    • No support for Open Document Format (ODF).

In short, even though there’s still some work to be done, Buzzword is the best web-based word processor I’ve ever used. If you’ve never heard of it before, you’ve heard of it now. Head on over to Buzzword.com to sign up for the chance to get a beta invite.

P.S. In case you’re interested, I typed up this review in Buzzword and printed it to PDF to show you how the output looks: Buzzword Review PDF

For red eye removal, cropping basic image tweaks/adjustments, I use Google’s Picasa. Its tools are easy to use, provide pretty consistent results and automatically save backups of my original files when I make changes. The fact that it doubles as a photo manager is a bonus. You can easily send photos via, post them to Picasa Web Albums, make cd backups and more. And did I mention it’s free? The only downside to Picasa is that it is PC-only.

For online image editing I use Picnik. It works with Flickr and Facebook, so I was able to link my accounts on those sites with my account in Picnik and make adjustments to pictures I’ve already uploaded to those services. The site is a little slow, but it’s great when you’re wanting to make basic adjustments to photos. Right now Picnik is still in beta, but eventually they will be offering a pro version of the site that will let you do a lot more with your photos.

For everything else I use Photoshop.

In the meantime, if you’d like to check out a great online image editor – that’s compatible with Flickr, Facebook, and more – might I suggest Picnik? I’ve been using it off and on for a couple of months now and the technology is very promising.

About Thermo:

“Thermo” is an upcoming Adobe product that makes it easy for designers to create rich Internet application UIs. Thermo allows designers to build on familiar workflows to visually create working applications that easily flow into production and development.

Features:

• Use drawing tools to create original graphics, wireframe an application design, or manipulate artwork imported from Adobe Creative Suite tools.
• Turn artwork from Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or Fireworks directly into functional components that use the original artwork as a ?skin?.
• Define and wire up interactive behavior, such as what to do when a user clicks on something, without having to write code.
• Easily design UIs that work with dynamic data, such as a list of contacts or product information, without having access to the actual data source. Design-time sample data can be used as a realistic placeholder when laying out an application, testing interactivity, and choreographing motion.