Need a place to hang out thats all about Photoshop?

Then you need to swing by Planets Photoshop Forums and meet everyone. One of the good things about that forum is that its not swimming with so many people that your crys for help get lost in the ever after. A super duper big plus at least for me, is that the site is maintain by  Corey Barker. So as soon as he puts a tutorial up you will know it. There are a lot of photoshop tuts and tips of the day there, and I’ve not even mention the Phothshop gurus that are already there always willing to help anyone in need. So if you need some advice on something that has you baffled, or would like to share your own knowledge. Because  hey, you remember what it was like feeling lost and alone when first starting out in Photoshop and you just like to help others for the sake of helping because your cool that way.  Then swing by the Planet and meet the gang. We always have pizza in the oven and a cold Pepsi for any who need it.

Hope to see you all there soon.

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/forum/index.php

Camera Raw 5, its the BOMB!

Of course I was just over at Layers Mag going though tutorials. Matt K has one on the new CS4 Photoshop Camera Raw 5. I am telling you that tool has so much going on it is sick! You can adjust just a certain area after you have adjusted the whole picture. You can paint color in it.  Just so many different neat stuff in it.

http://www.layersmagazine.com/photoshop-cs4-camera-raw-adjustment-brush.html

Oh why do I tourture myself like this! I have no idea. Every time I watch one of those videos I start to foam at the month. The other day Joe even asked me if I might have gotten bitten by a skunk lately. Hmph. The man just doesn’t have any appreciation for cool software! Well I may have to wait till next year to get my hands on this verision but I will get it. Oh yes I will. This ole girl isn’t going to be left behind in the dirt….

Photoshop User Awards and Corey Barker rocking my world.

” Best of Show Prize

One Best of Show winner will receive an all-expense paid, five-day dream assignment trip to Barcelona, Spain (for two) where you’ll use the backdrop of this incredible city to create a cover for Photoshop User magazine. This amazing prize is courtesy of NAPP and includes your airfare, hotel accommodations, and daily expenses for you and an assistant of your choice (here’s a hint: officially, you don’t need to take an assistant with you… you can take your spouse, a friend or family member instead and just have a blast for five days). “

You will have 11 different categories to choose from and may submit up to 3 pictures in total. A winner will be chosen from each category, with a prize package of $2500 for each winner. No, that isn’t a typo. These people don’t mess around when it comes to their contest. You work hard, and they are gonna make sure you play hard. We are talking about Adobe software, NAPP Memberships, Layers Mag subscriptions, Kelby Training. Not to mention a bundle of books from Peachpit! The only thing I see missing is a free pass for Photoshop World. But hey, can’t no one complain with that prize package the way it stands now. Lets move along before someone sets the sights of their slingshot on me for running off at the mouth.

Entries start on November 1st so start planing now. For information on the contest rules and how to enter check out the link below. And hey, good luck to you all!

http://www.photoshopuserawards.com/index.php

Now, as for that Mr, Corey Barker. What I would give just to sit for an hour and watch him create his magic in Photoshop. He has such a natural talent that you can’t but help admire. He has a new video tutorial up at Planet Photoshop called “Energize That Photo” I highly suggest you race over with all haste that your Internet can handle and watch it. I have some photos from my nephew with his wife on New Years eve that I just can’t wait to try Corey tutorial on.  Thanks for the tutorial Corey! You are the Photoshop King!!!

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/energize-that-photo.html

Well, Big Blue is still down….

Sob, sniff, sniff, sob! So the PSU I order arrived and of course was DOA!!! Luckily Newegg.com has a great return policy. While that makes me feel better in some ways it does not ease my loneliness for my desktop or the stuff I do with it that just isn’t possible on the ole lappy. How I miss Ole blue, let me count the ways.

1.Photoshop

2. Photoshop

3. Did I mention photoshop?

I did try and do some work on the lappy, but sadly it wasn’t bought for that kind of work in mind and I just don’t have the patients to sit and wait for something to get done. I really just don’t understand how people can handle working on mac laptops and just sitting there waiting for things to render so you can move ahead. God bless them all. Not to mention I can’t trust the monitor for the true colors like I can on my Acer monitor. I will have to work on getting one of those calibre monitor thingys.

So with that in mind I thought I might try my hand at creating some PS brushes on the laptop and see if it might not be a little less intense for my laptop. We will see. I will let you know how that one goes.

On other blogs, Peachpit has…

“A fantastic group of video tutorials in the form of podcasts have been released by Peachpit authors Martin Evening, Matt Kloskowski, Jerry Courvoisier, Kevin Ames, and Chris Orwig.” On Lighroom 2. Make sure you check them out if your using lightroom.

http://www.peachpit.com/blogs/blog.aspx?uk=Peachpit-Author-Tips-on-Lightroom-2

One more thing before I go. I would just like to give a shot out to all the new volunteersthat have sign up lately over at Operation Photo Rescue. All I can say is that you guys are really great. You jumped in feet first and haven’t looked back. Welcome to the family everyone. As to the season veterans of OPR. Well, you guys are what makes it home. You all ROCK!!!

Well thats it for now, I’ll see you all in a couple of days.

Free High Res Brown Paper Textures

I came across this site blogspoongrapics and while I’ve not had time to dive to deeply into it yet I did find some freebies including 5 high res brown paper textures. They been scanned at 300 dpi. Which means they would be great for anything you might want to print or you can decrease their size for the web. If you like them and do download make sure you leave a thank you comment.

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/freebies/5-fantastically-high-res-brown-paper-textures

 

Another site I came across is called tutsearch. It is a tutorial search engine for web development and design tuts. It has over 100 hand picked tutorial sites. Check it out for yourself.

http://tutsearch.net/

On the home front I’ve order my PSU and hopefully it will arrive by Monday or Tuesday. Well that’s it for today. Have a good Friday everyone.

Would you like smaller PSD files?

Then you need to head over to Planet Photoshop and read their Getting Smaller Photoshop Files tip of the day. Make sure you check out the comments afterwards for this may not be a good idea if you work with other apps as some of the users comment. As for me I will be giving it a try.

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/getting-smaller-photoshop-files-2.html

On to other news. My desktop died the a few days ago. I believe it is my 80 dollar antec PSU I bought 2 years ago. Yes I am a little miff if you can’t tell. I paid good money just so this wouldn’t happen. However, I get to order a new one tomorrow and the hardware geek girl I am at heart can’t wait to get it. I’ve been looking at newegg and amazon. After all half the fun of new hardware is shopping for it.  Lets hope it did not take my cpu and MB along with it. However, till my desktop is up and running again I am Photoshopless. Sniff, Sniff, Boo-hoo!

I can tell you I’ve been missing the heck out of it and if wasn’t for Napp_News and LayersMagazine feeding me links everyday at twitters to take the edge off I probably be climbing the walls by now pulling someones hair out. Hey! I am not dumb enough to cause myself harm. Pfft.  Thanks girls. Love you guys!

Don’t forget to stop by my buddy Eriks site. He has a new video tutorial up today for Replicating a Canvas look in Photoshop.

Eric say this gives your photos a nice appreance for displaying on the web or for showing potential clients.

http://www.bernskiold.com/2008/09/30/tuesday-video-replicating-a-canvas-look-in-photoshop/

Adobe INDESIGN CS4 Anyone???

Yes I know this is a Photoshop blog. However, I have a good twitter buddy AJ Wood who is to humble and shy to brag on himself. So we his friends, must do it for him.  Plus, when it comes to Adobe products Aj is the guy with the know how.  He was the #1 Adobe Certified Instructor worldwide for the months of April thru June 2008. 

Layers Magazine also recognised the talents that AJ possesses not only with Adobe software, but his skills to pass on this knowledge to others as an Instructor. Rumor has it that they ambushed him at PSW LasVegas and locked him in a room until he produced 4 videos on Indesign CS4 for Layers Magazine Blog!  I am just joking they didn’t kidnap AJ or anything. They did however appreciate his talents and you will too. 

http://www.layersmagazine.com/cs4

For more information on AJ himself check out his site at:

http://www.ajwood.com/

NAPP has launched CS4 Photoshop Learning Center

They already have video tutorials up for the newest Photoshop CS4 by Scott Kelby, The Photoshop Lad Corey Barkery,  Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, and the new proud papa of a sweet little girl. The one and only RC  Concepcion! Now just to show you how cool NAPP is. They have open up this section for a short time mind you to Non-Napp members. So if you have been wondering what is behind those big giant lock doors. Now is your chance to find out and understand why all the pros proudly flaunt their NAPP membership. I’ll be doing a little flaunting of my own come next year. hehe.

http://www.photoshopuser.com/cs4/

Sorry to cut and run but my mama didn’t raise no fool. I am off to watch those videos with a nice cup of coffee.

Photoshop CS4

Adobe has set up a feature page so we can see all the new and exciting changes that Photoshop CS4 has to offer us. If your interested follow the link below. I have to admit the new adjustment panel looks really interesting.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/features/?view=topnew

If your really interested in seeing Photoshop CS4 in action I suggest you head over to Layers Mag and check out their Adobe Creative Suite 4 Learning Center. They have video tutorials for the entire suite which include 5 just on photoshop so far. Pretty darn cool. These guys are always on their toes.

http://www.layersmagazine.com/cs4

I found a site with a lot of different Photoshop tutorials. I’ve not had a chance to do any yet but I’ve saved it to favs and when I feel I deserve a special treat instead of a bowl of chocolate chip mint ice cream I am heading straight for these tutorials.

http://www.design-desire.com/

Well that is it for now and I hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Operation Photo Rescue 2

Sorry I’ve not been here the last couple of days or gotten that tutorial up I was talking about. I’ve been busy pitching in with OPR. Yep, they accepted me as one of their volunteers. Woohoo. The people are great and of course it is a worthy cause. I’ve done my first restoration and I am very proud of it. They say you always remember your first. Do you think they were talking about photo restoration? Hehe.  

Now for some bad news. OPR has lost their grant funding for 2009 due to the hard times everyone is facing right now. So if anyone out there thinks this is a worthy cause please donate to our cause.  There are still a lot of pictures that need to be fix, and not just those from Katrina.  Now we have photos coming in from the Iowa floods, Hurricane Gusta and Ike.  If we are not able to find funding, the services that we provide for these families who have already lost so much will be able to add one more thing to that growing list of gone for good. 

I know a lot of you are thinking, jeepers but a lot of these people still need their homes rebuilt and your worried about pictures? The answer to that would be a big fat YES. 

You see, people that love to sit in front of computers for hours on end are called Nerds, Geeks, and so on. We carry those titles with pride. I’ll let you in on a little secret though. You really don’t want to set a bunch of geeks loose on a community with hammers, nail guns, and putty knives. unuh, no way. It is neither safe nor pretty.  We realize this and leave that for the real professionals in that field. However, OPR are the professionals of the Photograph field.  Our hammers are the compassion we have for those that have survived any disaster. Our Nail Gun is Adobe Photoshop, and we use the putty knives to stir that all together with the experience that each of our volunteers brings to the table to recreate the memories of peoples family they thought lost forever.  Now, I don’t expect you to just take my word for this. After all I am asking you to help support our cause so it is very important for you to believe in it as much as I do. So let me share some words of thanks with you from one of the families that OPR has helped.

” received a phone call yesterday from a woman who had recently received her restored photos. She was so impressed with the quality of the restorations, and so touched by the generous gift that Operation Photo Rescue had given her. These were very special photos to her, and she said it was hard to even take them out of the envelope and look at them the first day, because she would become too emotional to look at them. Despite Hurricane Katrina being 2 years and 7 months ago, her life is still in chaos, and these photos brought back a sense of normalcy for her.”

Or this one

OPR recently received this very nice thank you note :

“Gentlemen:
I have just received the restored picutres you mailed to my son-in-law, Guy C.

These photos were all I could find in the muddy flood from Katrina that destroyed my home and took away my memories. I am very grateful for your not only restoring my photos but my memories as well.

God Bless you,
David A…
Please forgive handwriting, I am going blind.”

I’m glad we were able to restore his memories before he was no longer able to see them.

Dave”

Those are just 2 letters of thanks you out of the tons that OPR has received from family that we have been able to help in our own geeky way. Those letters and the people that write them are who I am truly asking for. So please, if you have a spare $5, $20 or $100 dollars to spare and share I ask that you share it with OPR. If you are a corporation or a bussiness and wish to sponsor us it would be greatly appreciated. OPR is a federally registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity and donations are tax deductible.  The link below will take you to OPR donation page though paypal. If you are not a paypal fan like me. Just let me know and we will work something else out with the powers that be at OPR.

http://www.operationphotorescue.org/about/