Adobe – Page 4 – CanonBlogger

License Lockout

January 28, 2009 Jason4 Comments

First off, a bit of quick news about the blog in general: the layout has changed. Can anyone tell the difference? It’s a rather significant one, so hopefully it won’t go unnoticed! 🙂 Chime in and that’s your chance at winning the Think Tank Photo Streetwalker bag I reviewed a few weeks ago right here on the blog!

So, back on today’s post topic, as part of my maintenance routine that I recently posted, last evening I was doing some of my extended “IT” maintenance on my Windows computer. As a part of that maintenance, I was trying to optimize my hard drive performance, and thus resorted to cleaning out temp files, cache files, history files, restore points, and other sundry stuff. A defrag procedure on the hard drive, and I was back up to some pretty screaming speeds again. Puffing out the chest at getting a 5 year old Dell running a 2.4 Ghz Celeron processor, Windows XP, and 2 GB of RAM to move that fast without over-clocking, I checked off on what I thought was a job well done.

Then I opened Photoshop:

CS3 Error

Uh oh – it seems I cleaned things out a little too much. Well, since I have diligently kept all my media, documentation, license#’s and other information in multiple places, I was easily able to find the needed materials to re-install. But, here’s the thing – that would require importing all my actions again, re-installing other elements like Noise Ninja, and then also go in and customize all the features I like (scrolling with my mouse to zoom in and out of the image, curves menu with more lines, etc.) Who wants to do all that? Well, not me! So, off to Google I went.

That five minutes on Google doing some research saved me probably two hours of software maintenance time. Adobe has a neat little utility that can be downloaded and run when things like this happen to restore your licensing info without having to go through the entire re-installation. Not sure what it does or how it does it, but the utility is very handy, so I thought to share it with the reading audience today. Here’s the download link, and supporting reading materials.

Licensing Service Update

The underlying point here though, is that even the extensive maintenance I itemized the other day does not cover everything. Go into Photoshop, copy your preferences down via image pastes into a Word doc or other such format. Make a copy of your plugins folder external to PS – the same goes for Actions, noise removal, automation tasks, brushes, etc., etc., etc.! With as advanced and complex has an application like Photoshop has become – you can save a ton of time if you take some proactive measures.

What do you save from your Photoshop configuration settings? Share your ideas in the comments! As always, thanks for tuning in, keep on shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow – Thursday Thoughts returns again with Chris Breedlove!

Be careful with Adobe updates!

October 10, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

I was just in the NAPP forums (a great place to learn by the way), and learned about the ACR update. Since I already am good on the gear compatibility side, I went to the readme.txt file to see if there were any other updates to the programs that I should be aware of (Podpress has made me very cautious about updating too soon…)

Turns out there are some LR issues with a few tools and with XMP sidecar files versus database entries. If this is all gibberish to you, then don’t worry you are probably fine. For the more technically inclined though, their readme file is something to look at before you upgrade ACR this go-around.

Linked here

Proof positive that the old adage of “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” can still apply in a modern world. If you don’t have a specific need for the update (a very recent camera purchase), I’d hold off until the next update ships as this could break Lightroom to a degree, as well as prevent respecting of previous edits if you use the database option for XMP data.

In more CB-specific news, the last poll finally wrapped up today. With 30 responses, here was the final tally:

The newest poll is now up on the sidebar. 2 weeks does seem to return more meaningful information as that gives people enough time to respond. Feel free to chime in at your leisure. The question is: Does the current economic downturn had an impact on new photography-related purchases? For those reading in feed readers, stop in to see the options and vote! Let’s try to crack the 50-count this go around! 🙂

On a lighter note, the WTD series this week was really pretty darn funny. Here’s my favorite:

Have a great weekend everyone, Happy Shooting, and we’ll see you back here Monday morning!

The Weekender – Web stuff and some thoughts on CS4

September 27, 2008 Jason3 Comments

The last few days have been insanely busy with work and home obligations, so out of necessity I have not had time to devote to content for the blog. My apologies for abandoning the readership temporarily, and without warning. I’ll endeavor to give advance notice before that happens again. So, with that out of the way, I thought today it might be useful to get a wrap-up of what I have been seeing and reading around the forums, blogs, and internet that’s photography-related.

Jeff Revell, who has become quite well-known for his photowalking blog made a few interesting posts recently. In one of them, he did a reminder on updating your firmware. Great idea Jeff – if you’re interested, I actually put together a post with all the Canon firmware updates as of a few weeks ago. The other one was ab out the Epson Print Academy season for 2009 has been published. I had been meaning to go to one of these for a while, and for a mere $150 think it is definitely worth the cost. They’re coming to Denver and it’s a mere block or two from where I work so I will most assuredly be in attendance this go around.
Scott Kelby, master instructor of Photoshop, Lightroom and author of more books than I can count, is also bringing his tour through Denver some time in December. Check out the schedule here if you want to see him live and in action at what he does best!
David Ziser has offered up a Digital Wakeup Call DVD worht $75 to some lucky participant if he gets 20 ideas on how to incorporate video into your selling packages for photography businesses. Not a bad deal for 5 minutes of your time!
Don’t forget, I’ve expanded the poll here at CanonBlogger to go longer than the 1 week, so the numbers are a more accurate representation. What features do you like about the curreng generation of camera bodies on the market? What motivates you to buy? Share your thoughts on the poll to the right.

Last, but not least, the hubub on most forums lately has been surrounding the release of CS4 and LR2’s latest updates. The reason for all the hoopla comes every time there is a new release to the software, and it’s a cycle that likely will not end. Rather than just pile on and vent, I thought for the second half of this double-feature wrap-up, I’d share some thoughts on why people are frustrated rather than just saying “people are frustrated”. So, here’s a different perspective.

Software is not a tangible asset

Software is not like a camera body, or a car, or a television, it’s something that lives on your computer. Thus, the value of it is not as easy to see. We are very much a society that thrives on all our toys, and software just isn’t the same as having the latest body, or flash or television or car. It’s not something we can touch and feel and show off to our friends. It’s only on our computer.

Necessity

With software, we are sometimes obligated to upgrade. I personally had to upgrade because CS2 did not offer a raw converter for the Canon 40D. Sure, there’s the Adobe DNG converter for free, and I actually have incorporated that into my work flow for the Mac where I don’t have CS3, but that does present another step in the process of a work flow that I was previously happy to not have to deal with. Anyway, the point here is that if you don’t upgrade your software, you will find yourself unable to maintain a stable and consistent work flow (since you re upgrading other gear all the time too).

Competitive Pricing

With other technologies, competition keeps prices under control. Camera vendors like Canon, Nikon, Sony, and the rest all have to compete with one another for your business. Adobe really has no competition in the market place. Okay, sure, there’s Corel, and the GIMP, but come on, who are we kidding? Adobe is the market when it comes to photo editing software. All the others are simply “alternative programs”. Without a competitor, Adobe can price things however they want, knowing that those of us who have already invested are pretty much committed to maintaining our work flow by keeping the software interface as consistent as we can. To their credit, upgrades are cheaper than the full blown versions of the software, and there are often promotions and suc (educational pricing is the best way to go imho – take a community college class once every two years and you will save anywhere fro $300 to $700 on pricing for the CS products).

Release Schedule

Do we really need to upgrade our software and work flow every 18 months? With cameras, (which are released on the same schedules for most SLRs), most people I know wait at least 2 generations before upgrading. Another analogy that has been made here is to cars – anyone upgrade their car every two years? What about televisions? Do we really upgrade our televisions every 18 months? Unlikely…and even if we do, is the old television still usable? Often times, the older version is relegated to the basement or a childs bedroom, or even sold second hand. Who buys outdated software? No one that I know of…

So, there’s the second half of the weekend post. What do you think? Am I off base? Is the software market competitive? Do you think the pricing is fair and equitable? What about the upgrade schedule? Does 18 months sound about right? Sound off in the comments!

Again, sorry for the lack of material over the last two days. Hopefully this will make up for the lack of content on Thursday and Friday. Now, since you’ve finished this, take that last sip of coffee, pack up your gear and go have fun shooting! (In other words, Happy Shooting!) We’ll see you back here again on Monday.

A few of the Creative Suite 4 Features!

September 23, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

Before the release of CS4 in Adobe’s announcement this morning, I happened to see a post in the NAPP member forums of someone thanking the Photoshop Guys for their top ten of the new features for the latest edition of Photoshop Creative Suite 4!

So, for those who want the early bird news, here’s a hint of what Adobe will be talking about later this morning:

Better scrolling with less jaggies as you zoom in and out of images.
The Adjusment Panel – Adobe has added a dedicated panel for your layers adjustments
On-screen image adjustments – you can now control hue/saturation, Curves and Black and White adjustments directly on your image
Camera Raw saw some significant upgrades because now you can apparently do post-crop vignettes, apply gradient filters, and yes, that’s right, also the very-Lightroom like adjustment brush!
Addition of the vibrance slider to CS4 – this previously was in LR and camera raw, but not as a layer adjustment in CS3 – they’ve ported that element over to the inside of CS4! Yay!
Tools improvements for the eyedropper, dodging, burning, the brush engine is more responsive, and the clone and heal now allow for vanishing points
Customizable GUI – that’s right, you can now customize your own panels in CS4! The Configurator 1.0 feature (flash-based) allows you to create and use your own customized panels! Truly amazing.

Kudos to the NAPP staff for taking the time to put all this together – 17 video tutorials in all – (and this is just proof positive that membership has its privileges…because by learning from those on the cutting edge means you are getting cutting edge technology too! I am not sure if it’s publicly viewable, or if it’s a members-only thing, so will refrain from providing the links to the CS4 features they talk about, but I must admit, this does have me more buzzed about the announcement than I was before. Make sure you stop in to Adobe to watch it as I am sure there will be much excitement across the blogosphere about this!

Anyway, back to the regular blogging – I’ve got some announcements of my own to share, but they kinda pale in comparison…

What’s This? Week 5 – or is it 6?

July 9, 2008 Jason2 Comments

This last week have been rather hectic for me, so I honestly don’t remember what week we are on for the “What’s This?” theme. I think it’s Week5, but perhaps someone could confirm this for me in the comments. Truth be told, I also have not had the luxury of much surf time so I don’t have much in the way of web traffic to point people to. Just a couple links to float out there for you. First, this is day 6 of the first ever CB photo contest “Photographing Freedom”, so keep that in mind. News and info on that available from the July 3 post here.

In web news, I will say that there was an amazing post by a guest writer at Scott Kelby’s blog today. (I am going to refrain from my personal thoughts on the subject, but it’s worth reading – especially if you have a background in higher education like I do). I’d be interested in hearing what others think on this subject in the comments.

The other fun bit of news also involved another guest writing on Scott’s blog, courtesy of John Nack, one of the senior staff over at Adobe. He wrote on his appearance about the desire for transparent windows and was met with a little bit of ruffled feathers from others in the field. Check out the respective posts to the discussion here, here, and here to get Matt K.’s take, John’s take, and then Jeff Revel’s take. Interesting world we live in. Three people all with direct ties to “the man” and three different opinions on it. I wonder which way Adobe is going to go on this? While I realize that there is some agreement on parts of it, and alternatives vary depending on whether you’re talking about transparency or translucency, but to me, it’s a window that I have off on my second monitor anyway, so I don’t really care. Go with John’s approach and devote R&D to other more meaningful improvements. But, I said this would be a quick post today, and this is starting to ramble, so I’l leave it up to the readers: Where do you think PS development should go?

So, moving quickly to the “What’s This?” subject for this week, I went through some of my own archives to see if I could find an interesting crop (and I did), so here is a crop of a much larger image. I’ve tried to keep some of the context, but at the same time make it intriguing to guess what this is. So, without further ado…What’s This?:

Last week, in case you hadn’t guessed it – it was a flower! Congrats to those who knew and saved their comments for a more challenging post (ahem – today!) Good luck, have fun, Happy Shooting and we’ll see you here tomorrow!

Creating templates

April 22, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

Hey all, today is tutorial Tuesday, and I share a technique I used recently in creating a calendar template to import client photos in. I could only get about half way through the tutorial before I had to stop (I am trying to keep video tutorials at or under 5 minutes), so this will be part 1 of a two part series. Today I show you how I created the graphics with some guides, and keeping things all manageable on just a couple levels. As usual, the tutorial is linked in both Flash (web based) and QuickTime (iPod/iTunes friendly) formats at the end of the post.

Additionally, I’ve got a few rather unique shots (I think anyway) from my outing to Magnolia Gardens this weekend. There was a heavy thunderstorm the previous day, so lots of opportunities for some macro and water works. Here’s two I thought that the viewing audience might enjoy:

That’s about it for today…a few photos and a tutorial for your viewing pleasure. A multimedia blowout this week thus far, with an article yesterday, photos and videos today, and who knows what tomorrow has in store…more articles, and maybe….an audio podcast *gasp!* (Likely not with the latter though – so no promises!) Until then, happy shooting and watch those apertures! 🙂

CB Episode 038: Calendar Template

Podcast: Play in new window | Download