Adobe CS3 Rip Off?

It would appear that photographers and creatives in Europe have been targeted as easy prospects.

Adobe released its new version of photoshop two weeks ago (CS3) which as most photographers know is the essential software and is a complete must have.

However it transpires that it is 190% more expensive in Europe than America. Considering it can be downloaded via an Internet connection how can this be?

Adobe have attempted to counter this criticism stating that the different languages in Europe mean it is in fact a different product. If that's the case why can't photoshop spell colour correctly? Or is it just a lie?

Photographers are being urged to sign the online petition here which Adobe are already beginning to panic about. If you don't appreciate being ripped off sign up and also forward on to anyone and everyone you know.

The Future of Computing

If you've got a spare 10 minutes prepare to be wowed by watching this short video. How easy would this make album design etc?

Photoshop Magic

Yesterday was my birthday and a great friend of mine, Emma Duggan kindly made the effort to
come up and see me for the day. Emma's also a professional photographer who has a similar but also differant style to her photography. Emma Kindly bought me the coolest and most perfect birthday card ever (see picture here) how cool is that!

As i'd promised when she arrrived (late as usual) we went to the park and I introduced her to my favourite photography props. We spent a couple of hours feeding and shooting the squirrels.

We had a great laugh and left the park when it started to get dark. We then set about playing with the images in photoshop.

One of my complaints about shooting digitally is how flat the pictures tend to be when they come out of the camera compared to film. Emma showed me some neat quick tricks (look at the differance between the two shots here) to getting the images to wake up which I will now use all the time.

Having sorted out the photoshop we went for an Indian and set the world to rights. I always find when two photographers meet up and start chatting its like nothing else. It's as if you live in a foreign land and you suddenly discover someone else who can speak the same language! Hours and hours of great conversation.

After the meal we went back to my house and started what was supposed to be a little run through on how to use flash, and how to have fun with it. I won't go into too much detail but we ended up at 2 in the morning, with stands, tripods and multiple flash guns scattered throughout the house. We then set ourselves the challenge of working out how to get a person in the same photograph twice in differant positions without photoshop. After many nearly attempts and stumbling around the house in complete darkness between flashes we finally got what we were after. GREAT FUN !!!

Photoshop Actions

I've spent several hours over the last week just sorting out some actions in photoshop to try and speed up my work flow. I'm up to about thirty seperate actions at the moment. I find it's cutting down time spent on the computer when I'm trying to sort out albums. On average I guess it's saving between 5 - 30 minutes per image. In an album of 150+ images thats a lot of time!

On another note the amount of interest for the lifestyle portrait training day has suddenly grown over the last two weeks. I'm not sure why but all I can say is thanks for sending the cheques and just to tell you it's going to be great! I can hardly wait to meet you all.

F.A. cup tommorow and suprisingly the diaries empty? Strange how the England games for the world cup are also non photography days, I wonder how that happened?

photoshop
photographer
wedding

Photshop CS2

You know how you just get used to how something works and your happy in the knowledge you've got it sussed and then it all gets updated. I finally got round to having a play with Photoshop CS2 today. Looks really exciting but there's now even more to learn!!

What happened to the days when photographers used to turn up and take photographs for a living? I can't really complain its the ability to manipulate an image that makes the general public realise that there camera phone perhaps isn't the replacement for a wedding photographer after all.

Been trying out several new styles and I must admit I think once I'm used to it (in about 12 years time) me and PSCS2 are going to get on just fine. Of course it's only a matter of time before Adobe bring out CS3 (about 4 months from what I've heard) but that's just par for the cause I guess.

Web design is coming together slowly (my fault entirely). Thanks to all the guys who e mailed and said what parts of the site to keep. Nice to know what others think. I'm really excited by the whole thing and I'm hoping my visitors will be too.

The Challenge Some Photography Can Be.

For those who know me you'll know I don't tend to do a lot of commercial work and keep it to a minimum. However recently I was asked by Ronseal to photograph a shop display with a few members of staff. I figured as the shop was reasonably local it would be an easy job that wouldn't take too much time.

The staff were all great however the ailes were not wide enough for the shot I needed so I ended up balancing on a 6 foot step ladder with my Hasselblad resting on my Gitzo tripod set at its maximum height (about 8ft). Not being able to get close enough to focus with my eye I set the focus to 5ft so I could get everything form 5ft through to 12ft in focus (don't you just love the depth of a wide angle lens).

I could see there was some work to be done post production as the shelving infront of me was encroaching on the shot. However I guessed if I could at least see the staffs feet everything else could be rebuilt in photoshop.

The image here is the finished product which shows the truly practical use of photoshop. What did we do before it?

More news on the lifestyle portrait training day to be held on 8th October. We had a big meeting with Doug, Viv, Toni and myself on Saturday. We completely pulled apart the last day and changed some minor details were we think things could be improved. We also put together the basics for the next date and agreed to meet again in the next few weeks to see how much progress has been made. I can't give away any details but it's going to be fantastic! If you want to be there with us it's best if you get in touch very soon as word from the last course seems to have spread very wide. Already we have photographers booked form as far way as Stoke on Trent. I hope to meet you soon ......