Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS5
By Richard Harrington
Peachpit Press
ISBN: 978-0-321-71426-8, 312 pages plus DVD
Price: $49.49
The book Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS5 is described by the author as a book for people who are beginner Photoshop CS5 users, and need a global understanding of the software. As written in the introduction, many Photoshop books are geared towards really basic Photoshop introduction, specific features (such as layers or working with image modes), or new features only. This book is billed as a learning tool for beginners, but it will get you to almost every aspect you need to understand for using Photoshop CS5.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Learn by Video
Presented by Tim Grey and Mikkel Aaland
Produced by video2brain http://www.video2brain.com
Peachpit Press
$64.99 US, $77.99
As a digital photographer I find I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom almost as often as I use Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is the current version and is a powerful software program for digital photographers. The advantages about using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 are the non-destructive editing features, cataloging and organizing images, slideshow and web gallery options, and the ability to print from the application. I recently reviewed Adobe Photoshop CS5 Learn by Video and was impressed with this well-produced series by video2brain. This handsomely packaged 10 hour instructional DVD and 120 page reference guide is all anyone needs to familiarize themselves with the application and achieve proficiency in a short amount of time.
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Learn by Video
Presented by Kelly McCathran, Scott Citron, and Ted LoCascio
Produced by video2brain
Peachpit Press
ISBN: 9780321719805
$59.99 US, $71.99 CN
Like many Photoshop users I upgrade to the current version when the need for the newest features becomes too tempting to ignore. The latest version of Adobe Photoshop is CS5. A bevy of extraordinary new improvements such as Content-Aware Fill, Camera Raw 6, Brushes, Puppet Warp, Refine Edge Dialog, amongst others, make this application a creative and more efficient way to process workflow.
A four minute interview with our newest writer, in which Suzé discusses digital photography, Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, iPhonongraphy, book reviews, and video reviews. We hope you like our new audio content. Thanks for listening.
Click on the link below:
As digital photography has rapidly increased in popularity in recent years, so have advanced photographic techniques such as High Dynamic Range Imaging, commonly known as HDR. Digital cameras are limited in the range of light intensity they can handle in a given scene. Situations with both very bright and dark areas will exceed the dynamic range capability of the camera sensor. This requires the photographer to decide whether to expose for the dark areas and blow out the light areas, or to expose for the light areas and lose detail in the dark sections of the image. In short, they have to make a compromise and choose to preserve detail in some areas of the photo, and allow it to be lost in other areas. HDR seeks to overcome this issue by allowing for a wide dynamic range within one photograph.
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Book review: Photoshop CS5 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide
By Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Price: $34.99 with free shipping
This book is not a dictionary, although it works as a kind of operations lexicon for users of Photoshop CS5, and it offers readers a more exciting experience than a dictionary. The bright typography and compelling layout, coupled with the large number of images, illustrations, and screen shots, make for a book that invites browsing.
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Guest review by Suzé Gilbert
Book Review: The Photoshop CS5 Pocket Guide
By Brie Glyncild
Peachpit Press
$14.99 US, $17.99 CN
I recently upgraded to Photoshop CS5 and came across Brie Glyncild’s new book, The Photoshop CS5 Pocket Guide. The book’s 5” x 7” size makes it convenient to keep near the computer. This volume contains black and white photos and illustrations, and its chapters are interspersed with the author’s quick tips.
Brie Glyncild states “…that this is a pocket guide to Photoshop, not a photography primer,” and her description is apt. She begins with a simplistic and brief explanation of the tools and workspace. Subsequent chapters discuss resolution, layers, masks, resizing, tonal corrections, editing in RAW, painting, effects, preparing images for the web, printing, working in Bridge, and actions. A lot of information is in a very small book.
Photoshop.com Mobile
Company: Adobe Systems, Inc.
Price: Free.
http://mobile.photoshop.com/iphone/
IS IT PHOTOSHOP FOR THE IPHONE? NOT REALLY, BUT IT IS FREE!
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ArtText 2
Company: BeLight Software
Price: $39.95
http://www.belightsoft.com
Do you want a cool logo for your business card? or a fancy button for your website? but can’t afford the high end programs like Photoshop or Illustrator to create them? or maybe you don’t have the skills to make one from scratch If so ArtText 2 by BeLight Software allows you to do just that for a lot less money ($39.95).
ArtText allows you to make a logo, button for your website, funky text designs and more with a few clicks of the mouse. Once you have those parts of the design done you can apply numerous textures, patterns, and even make the design have a 3D look to it. the amount of materials you can apply to your design for a dimensional look is impressive. From glass to metal to “artistic” you’ll find something that works for you.
Just because the name implies a Text/Font program there are more than fonts in ArtText 2. If you don’t consider yourself artistic there are over 200 pre-made designs that you can start with. Pick a design, change the text or color or materials, save, and you’re done.
Fluid Mask 3
Company: Vertus
Price: $239
http://www.vertustech.com
The age of digital photography has transformed the way we take pictures. Using fabulous software such as iPhoto, it is a simple matter for any user to store, catalogue and keyword their photos on their Macintosh, and these photos can cropped and corrected for exposure and colour in seconds – adjustments that used to be only available to those dedicated individuals who had access to a darkroom of their own.
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The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers
By Scott Kelby
New Riders
http://www.newriders.com
ISBN-10: 0-321-50191-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-50191-2
472 pages, paperback
US: $49.99, CAN: $61.99
The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers may have the longest book title I’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing. This book was written by Scott Kelby who is the Editor-in-Chief of Photoshop User magazine, and President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Scott is an award-winning author of over forty books on Photoshop and digital photography.
I am neither a photographer, nor am I anywhere near proficient in Photoshop CS3. Mr. Kelby says anyone can use his book to “learn how the Pros do it.”
Let’s see….
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Painter Essentials 4
Company: Corel
Price: $99.00 ($69.00 upgrade)
www.corel.com
Painter Essentials is to Painter what Photoshop Elements is to Photoshop. It is what I would call the “slimmed” down version of Painter, but still fully usable. Just like Painter, Essentials is a natural media painting program that allows the user to paint and draw on the computer with tools he/she might use in “real life.” Also, like Painter X (which I reviewed earlier this year), Painter Essentials 4 is packed with great new features. For a list of all the new features in Painter Essentials 4 visit here.
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Pixelmator
Company: Pixelmator Team
Price: $59.00 (US)
http://www.pixelmator.com
If you are a regular reader of Mac websites and a listener to different Mac podcasts, you’ve probably heard of Pixelmator. Pixelmator is a new image editing program by Saulius and Aidas Dailde – two brothers that make up the Pixelmator Team. I’ve had the opportunity to try out Pixelmator for a while now (I was allowed to try the beta version), and if you are looking for an inexpensive image editor, Pixelmator is worth a try.
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Download the show here, or listen online in the player above.
Robert looks at Adobe CS3, specifically Bridge and Photoshop. Tim, Chad, and Guy look into the latest news in the Mac world, and ask the question: if you were trapped on a desert island with one Mac, one productivity program, and one game, what would they be?
We would love to hear from you. Call 801-938-5559 and leave a message, or send email to mymacpodcast@gmail.com
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Robert Hazelrigg joins Tim, Chad, and Guy for our roundtable discussion on the weeks Mac and Apple news. He also reviews a processor upgrade for the original iMac and the Crumpler Bag. David Cohen spends time responding to listener feedback – dodging potential Microsoft detection of running Vista in a virtual machine, and getting Bonjour for Windows working effectively on an Airport network. Plus John Nemo interviews Katrin Eismann, the author of Real World Digital Photography.
Normally, Macspiration has articles geared towards beginners. This week I have a more advanced tutorial for you.
A few months ago a friend of mine became a grandfather. He asked for my help in making a baby announcement. At first I was going to use Photoshop, but I decided to do an experiment in iPhoto. The experiment worked perfectly, and saved a ton of time. By combining iPhoto’s book tools, and Photoshop, we made a pretty nice announcement.
Before I go any further, I am going to assume the reader can import photos into iPhoto. I’m also going to assume the reader can make albums. If not, check my archive of articles, you’ll find directions there.
One final note- I made a baby announcement for this project, but you can really follow this procedure for any photo project.
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Characters and people I knew and worked with in prehistoric Mac times.
ANNE – Was a wonderful interior designer, working out of her house in Southern California in the late 1980s. She used a Mac II, brand new, out-of-the-box for five grand. I helped her purchase and install RAM back then, because the more RAM you could install, the faster that 25 MHz computer would run applications.
Her house was furnished in late 70s Hippy fashion, which looked dated a decade later, but it was an interesting place to hang out. Anne was not the most beautiful girl, but she was a very decent sort and very business-like to work with. This lady was almost always in a bathrobe when I would come over, smelling like she just came out of the shower, her hair looking slightly damp and not yet blow dried. There was nothing overt in this. She probably liked to take a lot of showers. So I would just have her sit away from the Mac II while I had the top off and was fooling around its insides.
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Tim Robertson and I thought it would be fun and maybe even a little informative to build a table of the favorite software each MyMac writer uses. I sent out a query, and the tables below show the results for the authors who were available to respond.
My inspiration was the recent Podcast with Guy Kawasaki. It made me think of those tables you see in the Friday paper where each sports writer makes his/her pick of the Sunday NFL games. In general, there is consensus in most areas, but it’s the outliers that are often interesting to see.
And it has happened here. The Browser selections are a no brainer while the e-mail software diversity is interesting. For example, I’m a Eudora beta tester, so I’m off in left field. I’m guessing each author has a story to tell about their e-mail choice.
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In the first in a new series about collectable and easily obtained Macs from the past, Neale Monks, author of Buying Used Macs, takes a look at the PowerBook 3400, arguably the first portable produced by Apple that was good enough to replace a desktop machine.
Anyone looking for a portable Mac for under $200 is going to be hard pressed to beat a PowerBook 3400 in good condition. In lots of ways, this series represents a threshold value as far as usability goes: it has just enough speed, memory, and expandability to be usable with the Internet, wireless networking, and productivity applications such as Photoshop and Microsoft Office. Sure, the PowerBook 1400 has the bonus of being upgradeable to a G3 processor, but finding these upgrades is difficult and expensive, and a standard issue 1400 is much slower than even the base model 3400. The earlier PowerBooks, including the 5300 Series are far too slow for any kind of demanding work, and are best left to the collector. Working up the timeline, we come to machines like the Wall Street and Pismo G3 PowerBooks, but as yet these machines are still relatively pricey, and you’ll be lucky to get a decent specimen for much less than $400. Obviously, once you’re budget gets above this, you have the option of a used iBook or Titanium PowerBook, but here you need to balance the price of a used machine against a brand new one, the current G4 iBook retailing currently for $1000 and up.
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Fun Photoshop Project #1
There are times when using Photoshop is simply a chore, and there comes a time when you want to get a little creative with a fun project. Here is a simple one, which will only take a few hours at most, but will have make people sit up and notice.
With three kids, it seems that my digital camera gets quite the workout. Between my wife and I, we are always taking pictures of the kids. Now that our two oldest, Brittaney and Raechel, are older and responsible enough, we allow them to use the camera at times as well. (Kids LOVE the idea of taking pictures. Send them outside for a half-hour with a digital camera with orders to take “Neat and interesting pictures” and they will have a ball!)
On a recent shopping expedition, I purchased three black 8X10 picture frames with the idea of printing out one picture of each child on some high-gloss photo paper and hanging it on the wall. But I wanted these to be different, so here is what I did.
First, I selected three good headshots of each child, which you can see below:
Comments. Be heard!
Book Review
Book Review
MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384