Hi Gang: It’s Thursday, here’s what’s goin’ on:

  • First, my sincere thanks to Stephen Johnson for his thought-provoking special guest blog post yesterday. I thought it was especially cool that his comments were posted here on the Photoshop Insider (just to note: Don’t think for a moment that Stephen is anti-Photoshop. In fact, he’s in the Photoshop Hall of Fame. He’s just very “pro-photography” and very big on “doing it right in the camera” and I’m all for that, as well).

    If you get a chance to learn from Stephen, he’s a brilliant teacher (read the comment yesterday from one of his students), and you should totally jump on it. Here’s the details on his next workshop:

    From RAW to Print in One Week
    Summer Digital Boot Camp
    July 20-24, 2008
    http://www.sjphoto.com/raw-to-print-workshop.html

    Here’s how Stephen describe his workshop: “An intense immersion into digital photography with one of its pioneers. In five days you will go from perhaps not even understanding what a RAW file is, to making well-crafted and thoughtful prints. Some fieldwork and extensive lecture and lab work will fill our time together. Every student will have full access to their own workstation in our lab. Topics include practical experience with digital exposure, RAW processing, image editing, color management and printing. We will work in the field and in the lab. We will interact with what has been done. We will look, ask much of our work and press on to make it as strong and sensitive as possible”

  • We’ve just released another new online class at KelbyTraining.com, this one from photographer Laurie Excell on how to set-up and use a Nikon D-300 DSLR. Laurie is a total gear-head (she runs NAPP’s Gear Desk), and she’s a terrific teacher to boot (which is why we have her teaching at Photoshop World to rave reviews), and her online class focuses on how to use the most important features and options on the D-3oo. Here’s the link to the full outline. (PS: Canon shooters; don’t worry, we have similar classes coming for you, too!).
  • While we’re on a Nikon thing: I totally missed the fact that Nikon released some pretty significant firmware updates for both the D3 and D-300 (the updates were more significant for the D3). For details, go to the same place where I learned about it; Moose’s News Blog (and he has direct links to the firmware downloads there).
  • My in-house book designer and general design wizard, Jessica Maldonado, sent me this link, and although it sounds kinda weird (it’s cameras sawed in half), it’s actually pretty cool (you just have to see it). Take two secs and check it out over at Wired.com
  • Just a reminder: the deadline to take advantage of the Photoshop World Conference & Expo Early Bird Discount (where you save $100 off the conference registration) is just three weeks away (Aug. 1st, 2008), so if you’re planning on going, I’d get registered now. Here’s the link for more info, or to register.
  • We had photographer’s rights and copyright advocate Jack Reznicki do a follow-up interview on next week’s Photoshop User TV and it was just as informative and just as eye-opening as attorney Ed Greenberg’s interview on copyright issues the week before. I used many of your questions posted on the blog on Monday, and Jack not only answered them fully, but he got very specific about everything from file formats, to exact sizes, specs, and the whole nine yards—-all step-by-step. It was outstanding information. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get a video up tomorrow here on the blog or not (just depends on how swamped our video team is), but if not, the interview will appear on the show next week (and hopefully here on the blog as well). Stay tuned.
  • Also, next week on Photoshop User TV we’re giving away one of my Westcott TD-5 Spiderlite “Scott Kelby Studio Kits” to some lucky winner who answers a trivia question we pose on the show, so make sure you check out next Monday’s episode and enter the contest. Here’s the link to see what you’ll win if your correct answer to our Photoshop trivia question is picked as our winner!

Tomorrow I hope to have that video tutorial on how to make calendar templates in Photoshop. Have a better than average Thursday and we’ll see you back there tomorrow.