Photoshop Insider

I’ve been seeing a lot of comments on the blog this week that I wanted to address, but when I was talking about it to my buddy Matt Kloskowski (who’s getting similar comments on his blog), he suggested that we do a short video, rather than writing the 5,000 words it would take to address both the “Lightroom 2 vs. CS4″ and my and Matt’s carefully orchestrated coverup of the problems some people have been having with Lightroom 2, so to round out this week, here’s a video clip, created exclusively for you guys, on both of these topics. View the video

Even though Adobe hasn’t actually shipped Photoshop CS4 yet, you know (and I know) that there are a lot of you that are just dying to get up to speed even before you get your hands on the software, and that’s why we just released our first CS4 online class, “The Photoshop CS4 Power Session” from our own Matt Kloskowski.

Matt designed this online class for Photoshop CS3 users who are making the jump to CS4, and who want to learn exactly what’s new, what’s changed, what’s moved, and how to take advantage of the new features today. You can take Matt’s CS4 class right now over at KelbyTraining.com (here’s the link).

NOTE: Now, when Photoshop CS4 actually ships, the very day it ships we are releasing an entire collection of CS4 online classes and you can see the list of what’s coming over at KelbyTraining.com/online.

You knew it was coming, and sure enough—it’s here. Photoshop CS4 is right around the corner (read Adobe’s Press Release here), and to give you the first look at the new features, we’ve launched two new online Learning Centers:

(1) NAPP’s Free Photoshop CS4 Learning Center
This public learning center, hosted by “The Photoshop Guys” (Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, and yours truly, along with RC and Corey from NAPP HQ), gives you a first-look at the new features of Photoshop CS4 with videos from the three of us, including an overview video, an exclusive video interview with Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack, a “Top-10″ New CS4 Features article from RC “New Daddy” Concepcion, and a look at the new interface from Corey Barker. Here’s the link to this brand new learning center.

(2) NAPP’s “Members Only” In-Depth Learning Center
NAPP members can dive deeper into the new CS4 features with special in-depth videos on the NAPP members Website, from (you guessed it), “The Photoshop Guys.” Here we go more into actual training, and help to get your head around all the new features. So, if you’re a NAPP member, check out the public learning center (above) first, then head over to the NAPP member home page to go more in-depth.

You guys know how impressed I’ve been with how Adobe has been listening to its customers lately, and once you get to work with CS4, and see how many things they’ve fixed, streamlined, and just made better, you’ll know they are really moving in the right direction in a big way. My hat’s off to Adobe for taking things up a big notch once again.

If you’re a NAPP member—-good news!!!! Along with your next issue of Photoshop User magazine, you’ll be also receiving a special free bonus “All CS4″ issue of the magazine, with the whole issue—cover-to-cover, dedicated to teaching you all the amazing new features of Photoshop CS4.

Each time Adobe comes out with a new version, we at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) produce a special bonus issue for our members, and I have to tell you, it’s one of those things we really put a lot of sweat into, and maybe that’s why it’s one of the things I’m most proud of.

That fact that our in-house magazine team can put together two simultaneous issues of our magazine is still amazing to me, and I can’t thank them enough for all the extra hours they’ve worked to make this happen for our members.

Also, a congrats to our own Corey Barker who created the cover art for this issue, using some of the new features of Photoshop CS4.

We’ve been doing Learning Centers now for years, but what RC, Corey, and the Layers magazine team have done with their Adobe Creative Suite (CS4) Learning Center, is beyond anything we’ve done before.

They’ve teamed up with more than 30 instructors, authors, writers, and Creative Suite experts to bring you a vast collection of videos on all the new CS4 Creative Suite applications, including InDesign, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, and of course, Photoshop.

If you’re a creative suite user, you’ve gotta stop by and check out what they’ve done over there, because it is off the hook. Here’s the link to the Layers Creative Suite Learning Center, the most comprehensive CS4 learning anywhere, and it’s all free!!!

Photoshop Hall of Famer John Paul Caponigro has started a “Co-Blogging” wave of coverage for Photoshop World, and you can find the latest info, and links to all the co-bloggers right on his blog.

Plus, JP shares some of the details about the “next” version of Photoshop that were revealed during yesterday’s opening keynote. You can find all of that right here.  

I’m coming to you from the Mandalay Bay Resort in Casino in Las Vegas, as we kick off Photoshop World tomorrow morning with an opening keynote presentation from Adobe.

One of our instructors, Photoshop Hall of Famer John Paul Caponigro came up with a very cool idea (actually, he calls it an experiment) which he calls “CoBlogging Photoshop World.” Here’s how he describes it:

“1 - Invite movers and shakers at Photoshop World with blogs to make one short post a day during the event highlighting something that excited them that day.
2 - Invite those movers and shakers to invite other movers and shakers to join.
3 - Invite attendees to participate by commenting on the movers and shakers posts and include links to their blogs in their comments.”

And then he lists a bunch of the instructors who’ve agreed to Co-Blog the event along with him (needless to say, I was all over this, so I’ll be co-blogging, too!). Note: the co-blogging graphic above was swiped during the night from JP’s blog).

Anyway, JP posted his first co-blog yesterday from this “Epson Print Academy” pre-conference workshop, complete with some photos, and it’s definitely worth checking out (and you can find his list of co-bloggers if you scroll down a little). Here’s the link.

In other Photoshop World News, here’s my schedule for tomorrow:

1. After the keynote, I’ll be teaching a session of the Essentials of Type and How to Design With Type (a class aimed at Photographers), at 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm.
2. At 1:30 pm, I’m doing a live demo on how to use my Westcott Spiderlite TD-5 Kit over at Westcott’s booth on the Expo Floor.
3. At 3:00 pm, I’m doing a live lighting demo at B&H Photo’s booth, on the Lastolite Highlight Background, the Elinchrom Octabank, and the Elinchrom Skyports wireless triggers.
4. At 3:45 pm I’m going to do a book signing of my new Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers over at the Peachpit Book Store–the official bookstore for Photoshop World (and yes, they have the new book in stock. Whoo Hoo!). I would love to sign a copy for you, so be sure to stop by.

Tomorrow night, my band, “Big Electric Cat” is live in concert at the House of Blues.

I’ll be doing some co-blogging tomorrow, so check back here for some photos, and check JP’s blog as well for links and stuff. Hope I see you here tomorrow! (I’ve got to hit the sack now—I’ve got an early day).

Have a great Thursday everybody!

P.S. My thanks to Larry Becker, for revealing another side of the home team. It was fun reading his perspective on things, and in case you were wondering—don’t worry, a talented guy like Larry will find a job in no time.

It’s finally here—Photoshop World Week, where thousands of designers, photographers, developers, video editors, and Photoshop freaks (like me) all gather for a Photoshop love-fest. I can’t wait!

Here’s a couple of things to keep an eye out for, as we head into the conference:

• First, if you’re going to Photoshop World, check out the short video above from NAPP’s Executive Director Larry Becker called “Getting the most out of Photoshop World.” He created it for NAPP members attending the show, but anybody going to the show will get a lot out of it.
• Adobe often uses the Photoshop World keynote to announce a new product, or give us a sneak peek at some new unreleased technology (for example, at the last Photoshop World they announced the Lightroom 2 Public Beta). Well, Adobe’s VP of their Creative Business Unit, John Loiacono is our featured keynote presenter at the opening keynote, so I’m really excited to see what he’ll be sharing.
• Don’t know if you caught Matt Kloskowski’s “Insider Guide to PhotoshopWorld” (link) or Dave Cross’s advice on making the most of Photoshop World (link), but if you’re going be sure you do.
• If you are going; make sure you download Dave Cross’ Free Photoshop World Planner PDF. I promise—you’ll love it (and it will make choosing which classes to attend much easier).

Here are some Photoshop World tips that I can pass along:

1. You gotta go to the opening keynote. It’s one of the highlights of the conference, and it sets the tone for the whole conference. If you miss it, you’ll be hearing everybody talking about it all week, so make sure you’re there for it.
2. If you want one-on-one answers to your questions, make sure you stop by “Help Desk Live!” right outside the Expo hall. This is where the instructors, including Help Desk guru Peter Bauer himself, hang out to answer your Photoshop questions.
3. The reason we don’t make you sign up for which classes you want to attend in advance, is so you can customize the conference to suit your needs. Sometimes you go to a class, and you like the instructor so much, you want to catch all their classes, and this way—you can. However, if you wind up in a class that doesn’t suit you—just get up as quietly as possible, and change to a different class on a different track. Don’t sit in a class that is too advanced for you, or a class where you already know what’s being taught. In short; take advantage of that flexibility.
4. There are special classes offered on the show floor, in one of our three theaters. These aren’t demos—they’re training classes, most of which are taught by our official Photoshop World instructors. Also, there are theaters all over the Expo floor that are doing both demos and techniques, so really take advantage of these. NOTE: Even if you’re not going to the full conference, you can visit the Expo floor for free, if you sign up in advance at the Photoshop World site.
5. This is an opportunity to make some “Photoshop Friends.” We all need friends that can help us in learning, and there is no better place to make friends than Photoshop World. Just walk up and ask anyone “So what to you use Photoshop for?” and you’ve got a conversation going. The Photoshop World crowd is an amazingly friendly group of people. The first step, is just saying “hi.”

Well, that’s it for this Photoshop World update. I hope to see you there this week, and if I do, and you read this blog, make sure you come up and say “hi.” I wish you safe travels, and a career-changing, learning-filled, fun-filled week!

I’m proud to announce that well known Photoshop author, instructor, and London-based fashion photographer Martin Evening, along with Adobe’s Prinicpal Product Manger for Photoshop, John Nack, will be officially inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame during a special presentation ceremony that’s part of the opening keynote at the Photoshop World Conference & Expo (held Sept 4-6, 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino).

The Photoshop Hall of Fame was founded in 2001 to honor those individuals whose contributions to the art, business, and development of Adobe Photoshop have enduring value.

It’s an honor to recognize Martin and John in this way, and to add their names to the Photoshop World Hall of Fame trophy alongside some of our industry’s most valued, respected, and beloved individuals. My sincere congratulations to them both for their amazing achievements.

For more information, and a list of past inductees, visit PhotoshopHallofFame.com

Great news! John Loiacono, Adobe’s Senior Vice President of Creative Solutions, will be the featured keynote presenter at the opening keynote at Photoshop World Las Vegas (the morning of September 4th). Johnny L. (as he’s known to friends, and previous Photoshop World keynote crowds) is definitely not “a suit” (if you’ve ever seen one of his presentations, you know he’s totally “one of us”), and he’s a very engaging, and downright fun presenter to watch.

But all that aside, one of the of the things I like best about having Johnny L. as our featured presenter is that he uses Photoshop World as a platform to either launch a new Adobe product (like he did when he launched the Lightroom 2 Public Beta at Photoshop World in Orlando), or he uses it to give the crowd on hand a sneak peak at some unreleased Adobe “future technology,” which is always amazing.

If you’re going to the keynote, make sure you get there early to get a good seat (by the way; our keynote theme this year is somewhat of a Star Trek parody. That’s all I’m gonna say). See you at the keynote!