Though we all are pretty familiar with how Photoshop has helped make us better photographers and digital artists, what we don’t often think about is how the program has affected non-artistic segments of society. Today, in honor of National Police Week, Adobe has decided to show how law enforcement uses Adobe Photoshop to help combat crime. It’s the kind of thing we all have seen on the television series CSI for years, but never really believed was real. [more]
Instead of hiring a photographer to shoot original images, Samsung has recently been caught in the act of “artfully” (read: shamelessly) replacing an iPhone with a Galaxy S4 in an advertising campaign. It’s not that they can’t do this kind of thing as it’s not illegal, but more the fact that they did it at all, and that it was over an original image featuring their main competitor. Really Samsung? [more]
Think Tank fans, rejoice! The Santa Rosa, CA-based bag manufacturer has just announced the Logistics Manager 30, a high capacity roller bag with a lage, roomy internal dimensions of 13.75”W x 27.5”H x 8.25 – 10”D (35 x 70 x 21 – 25.5cm) that will allow it to hold multiple combinations of cameras and lenses, lighting gear such as strobes and reflectors and accessories of all kinds. [more]
Monopods, once really only useful in a handful of situations, have evolved into irreplaceable members of our creative arsenals due to the advent of high quality video being produced in DSLRs. The idea of a “video monopod” might frighten video purists, but there are those such as Patrick Hall and myself who swear by them. Manfrotto’s version was a fantastic foray into the medium, but slightly pricey. Benro recently released their more affordable versions, and I was more than ready to see if they were able to hold their own. [more]
UPDATED 05/14/13 9:50 AM PT: I have received word from a source that the reason these original totems were made were effectively replacements for the box imagery that Adobe will no longer be producing since… well… there are no more boxes. If you recall, CS6 had a lot of imagery surrounding faces (just look at the cover of Adobe Photoshop CS6). Moving to Adobe CC, the team wanted to try a different angle that was more expressive, abstract and fun. [more]
Canon has announced their answer to Nikon’s 200-400mm with their new 200-400mm f/4 L USM. It boasts a built-in 1.4x extender which, with the flip of a switch, extends the lens to a 280-560mm f/5.6. Measuring in at 5.0 x 14.4 inches and 127.7 oz, the specs on this beast look amazing, but the price tag is a little surprising. It’s expected to retail for $11,800, nearly twice what Nikon’s is selling for. [more]
Of course many of us want to always nail a shot in camera, but sometimes things happen. Maybe it looked great on your camera’s LCD, but entirely different once you got it on your computer. Maybe your sensor is too small and shallow DOF is hard to nail. It’s for these cases that Aaron Nace at PHLEARN does tutorials like this one, where he shows how to adjust depth of field in post. [more]
This is one of those projects that is almost beyond words. Astronaut Chris Hadfield shot this music video to express his feelings of leaving the International Space Station, and it’s basically the coolest possible way to go out. If you haven’t yet seen this (which you probably have but heck, it’s so amazing I just had to share), quit reading and hit the play button. Your life needs this music video. [more]
Olympus is following up their hugely successful PEN line with an all new member: the PEN E-P5, a digital update of a classic film camera designed new tech and performance advancements. Designed for photographers looking for superior image quality in a portable body, the PEN E-P5 delivers a unique shooting experience for photographers looking to keep things compact, including offering a shutter speed of 1/8000th of a second, a first for the compact camera market. [more]
We learned a lot about Adobe at Adobe MAX earlier this week. We learned that they are moving to a cloud-based system that will remove support for perpetual licenses. We learned about new features that are really something special. And we also learned just a little bit about Project Mighty and Project Napoleon, Adobe’s push into hardware through a pen and ruler that link to the digital world. [more]
Sometimes you want a portrait that just screams drama and emotion. Sometimes that emotion might be joy, other times you may want to portray a sort of dark, brooding atmosphere. In this tutorial by PHLEARN, Aaron Nace walks you through a method he chose to turn a daytime portrait into something much darker. [more]
Ok, so we’ve covered why you should love the Creative Cloud: it gives you access to everything Adobe everywhere you go. It gives you all the outstanding programs at your fingertips. It is taking connectivity to a whole new level for creative collaboration. Updates are instantaneous. But all that aside, it’s a stifling, expensive system that might be forcing you into something you don’t want. [more]
Adobe Creative Cloud, in lieu of Adobe Creative Suite 7, has some great new features but also some hotly contested issues including the loss of disc support and move to a monthly payment feature for all future software. Mike Kelley, Rebecca Britt and I (Jaron Schneider) discuss what this means for creatives and why it may not be the big deal some are trying to make it out to be. [more]
When we first discussed Adobe’s acquisition of Behance earlier this year, there was speculation that the purpose was to add social to the Creative Cloud. Adobe has proved that speculation correct, as Behance plays a pivotal role in Adobe’s new CC-branded software with live feeds to your Behance buddies. [more]
Adobe Photoshop’s new feature “Camera Shake Reduction” has been has been carrying a ton of hype, likely due to the publicity Adobe has been putting behind it since last year (and more recently just a couple weeks ago). However, what it actually is and how it works is somewhat misunderstood. Many were prepared to hate the program, thinking it a panacea for all bad, blurry images. It’s not the all-healing-blur-fixing-magic-of-the-gods some of you might think it is, but it’s still really flipping amazing. [more]
