Photoshop Insider

Since we launched my World Wide Photowalk on Monday, things have been just crazy. We thought it would be popular, but honestly we were unprepared for the avalanche of interest, sign-ups, and people who want to lead Photo Walks in their cities around the world.

We were also flooded with questions, so I thought I’d do a quick Q&A to answer some of the most common questions.

Q. Are more cities being added?
A. Absolutely—so far there are 33 cities, but new ones are being added daily (just yesterday we added Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Cincinnati (led by none other than David Ziser himself), along with Manila in the Philippines, Ybor City (Tampa), and Malmo, Sweden, among others.

Q. Are there are lot of cities pending approval?
A. Oh yeah—about 108 more cities so far. We had to add a little more automation to the “becoming a leader” process, and by tomorrow we expect that 40 or 50 of those will be awarded a Photo Walk city, and added to the list shortly thereafter.

Q. Will some big cities have more than walk the same day?
A. Yup. When you see a listed city that’s followed by a name in parenthesis, that usually means there are multiple walks in different areas of the city. For example; New York City (Chinatown). They’ll be other New York locations as well.

Q. Are walks starting to fill up yet?
A. A number of cities are already completely full, and registration is now closed (unless someone else can lead an additional walk in that city).

Q. Have you added any more prizes to the photo contest part?

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Happy Thursday everybody! Here’s what’s up:

• First, a big thanks to Jeff Revell for this excellent guest post yesterday. It really got a lot of people excited about not only the upcoming World Wide PhotoWalk, but also for photo walks in general.
• Interesting side note: a mix-up happened with Jeff’s host city (Washington DC), for the WWPW, and he wound up having both Washington DC and Alexandria, VA listed as separate events, when it fact, they were the same walk. But since Jeff is the PhotoWalk “Pro,” he decided to host TWO the same day; one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Too cool. Also, although Jeff’s site (PhotoWalkPro.com) has become the resource for photo walking, he also covers loads of Photoshop (including lots of HDR tutorials) and photography in general, so make sure you check it out (here’s the link).
• The folks over at Westcott (Makers of the TD-5 Spiderlites) have launched a community Web site for photographers with a simple theme: Share, Ask, Learn. This new community site includes a forum where pros answer your questions, a community gallery, and if you’re looking for some extra exposure and recognition, check out their they are launching a Top 100 Westcott Edorsed Pros program. Check it all out right here.
• FrederickVan has a great video interview with Photoshop Senior Product Manager John Nack, and if you’ve got a few minutes, it’s definitely worth checking out (here’s the link).
• If you are going to Photoshop World in Vegas this September, I want to recommend a class; Photoshop Restoration Rescue, taught by my Photoshop User TV co-host Matt Kloskowski. We had a number of requests for a class like this, and so I asked Matt (who had just finished a book on retouching for Photoshop Elements users) to tackle it, and I’ve gotta tell ya; he put together an amazing class. He’s teaching it Thursday, September 4th, at 10:45 am. It is going to rock!
• Panos Efstathiadis, over at PanosFX, has come out with some more amazing Photoshop (and Elements) actions (free for you to download), including: (1.) The OoB+ (Out of Bounds plus) is an advanced tool which simplifies the steps needed to create the impressive and popular OoB effects, and (2.) The PanosFX FAN takes one of your images and transforms it into a hand-held fan! Check them out over at PanosFX.com!

That’s it for today, folks. Have a really great Thursday, and do your best to really intimates some pixels. See ya tomorra!

That’s it. One day. Well, two if you count today, but I wasn’t counting today. Technically, you if you forget to sign up today, at least you’ll still be able to save that hundred bucks if you register tomorrow, but after that—you’re hosed (well, for an extra hundred bucks, anyway). Can you tell I wrote this while I was really, really tired?

So, save a hundred clams and sign up right now (It’s Vegas, baby! You gotta be there!): Here’s the link.

The Zen of Photowalking
When Scott first started the Guest Blog segment he told me that I was going to be on the hook for one in the future. I figured it was no big deal, I mean hey, I blog every day, right? What could be so hard?

Then he started rolling out the parade of superstar personalities that reads like a Who’s Who of the Photography world. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to contribute anything of value after the likes of Vincent Versace, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson, and so on.

Then the other day Scott and I were talking about the plans for his World Wide Photowalk and I knew I finally had my in. Having hosted several photowalks I can say with some confidence that I know my way around these events. With that being said, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what makes a photowalk so special and how you can maximize your experience when participating in one.

Most photographers have walked, camera in hand, through unfamiliar spaces, shooting their way along their route. So what makes this any different from a photowalk? It’s the social aspect of sharing the experience that makes photowalking so unique. Many of the photowalks that I have hosted were attended by complete strangers but they all had two things in common, a love of photography and a desire to share their passion with like-minded people. I was reminded of this fact during my last photowalk in Georgetown.

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…my good friend and the guy who inspired my whole “World Wide Photo Walk” project, Jeff Revell of PhotoWalkPro.com

You’ve heard me talk about Jeff here on the blog numerous times (he came along on my trip to Dubai, and then I tagged along on his trip to Arizona last year, and we’ve been shooting and hanging out for years now). He’s a terrific photographer, a great teacher, and I think with the World Wide photo walk announced this week, it’s a perfect opportunity to have him as my Special Guest Blogger.

Check in tomorrow to see what Jeff has in store for us.

OK, now that Lightroom 2, the real final version is now shipping, I can really take a look at how the new version stacks up against my dream “wish list” of features from a blog post I did well before the public beta was released.

Did I get everything on my wish list? No, but of course, I never expected to (that’s why it’s called a “wish list” rather than “a list of demands”).

Now, I was pretty psyched to see a lot of the things on my list did make it into the final shipping version, and of course I was disappointed at the ones I thought for sure would be there but didn’t make the cut.

So, here I’m going to look at what’s hot about about the new Lightroom 2 (and there’s plenty of stuff to be excited about), and what’s not (You knew there was going to be a “what’s not,” right?) Here we go:

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On the heels of Adobe’s release of the shipping version of Lightroom 2, we here at NAPP (the National Assn. of Photoshop Professionals) have launched an all new Lighroom 2 Learning Center, with all new videos hosted by me (Scott Kelby) and Lightroom Killer Tips producer Matt Kloskowski.

Matt and I do an overview of what’s new in Lightroom 2, and we also have created separate video segments for each of the major new features (and a special feature on little improvements and cool little tweaks).

Plus, we did a special bonus video there for people who still say “Isn’t Lighroom just a replacement for the Bridge?” or “I already have the Bridge and Camera Raw, why do I need Lightroom?”

You can check out our all new learning center right here!

News doesn’t get much bigger than this; today Adobe announced that they are now shipping the final version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 (Whoo Hooo!).

You can read the official press release from Adobe right here.

Check out Adobe’s Lightroom 2 home page at Adobe.com

Congratulations to the Lightroom Team at Adobe for delivering such a kick butt product!!!! I’m psyched!

Well, it is as long as you live in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or another major U.S. city, as we ramp up for my totally new “Lightroom 2 Live Tour” full-day workshop.

We’ll be releasing the exact dates and cities soon, but just wanted to let you know now, that we’ll be “taking the show on the road” again this year, because we are so excited about all you can do now in Lightroom 2. (I’ve got to admit; with the new features just introduced, this tour sure will be a lot easier on me, and everyone that attends, too!).

Keep an eye here on the blog for a list of cities and dates.

The Lightroom 2 Live Tour is sponsored by: Adobe Systems, CDW, Westcott, OnOne Software, MPIX, Peachpit Press, Layers Magazine, Wacom, NAPP, Canon, iStockPhoto.com, Dell, Corel GraphicAuthority.com, and B&H Photo.

Adobe announced that Lightroom 2 is shipping today, and today KelbyTraining.com releases two major Lightroom 2 online training sessions;

(1) Lightroom in-depth; a comprehensive 4-1/2 hour online class

(2) The Lightroom 2 Power Session; a quick 2-hour “get up to speed fast on the new LR2 features” online course.

The instructor for both courses is the host of the Lightroom Killer Tips weekly video show, and blog, Matt Kloskowski and one of the leading experts on Lightroom.

The courses are available right now to Kelby Training.com subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber, you can learn more, and sign up right here, and have unlimited access to not only Matt’s new courses, but all the online courses at Kelby Training.