The Tao of I. T. Al 115
June 18, 2010 By 1 Comment
Topaz Labs Releases DeNoise v.4
May 6, 2010 By 2 Comments
One of my favorite software companies, Topaz Labs, has just released an upgrade to their DeNoise software, rasing version 3 to version 4. This is a free upgrade to version 3 owners and is a major upgrade. Check it out at here. It's not just that the "look" has changed, but the new layout makes it much easier to navigate and also incorporates a new "IntelliNoise" technology. … [Read more...]
First Look At CS5
April 12, 2010 By 1 Comment
Creative Suite 5 is out, and it's got bells and whistles. I am hesitant to call it a game changer. Just better bells and whistles. Here are some highlights that immediately jumped out at me: Photoshop, Premiere, and Aftereffects are now 64 bit. Snow Leopard users should see an improvement in performance as a result, especially in video preview and playback. Photoshop junkies...the content awareness capability is actually "all that". I can't wait to try it. Of equal importance is … [Read more...]
Photoshop Plugin: Akvis Sketch v9.0
August 31, 2009 By 3 Comments
Ever wanted to turn a photograph into a drawing without spending an hour in Adobe Photoshop using layers and high pass filtering to finally separate out a line drawing of that photograph? It's possible with a plug-in from Akvis Software. The last time I looked they had some thirteen sofware applications for Macintosh and PC computers. Running either as stand-alone software applications or as plug-ins for image editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop … [Read more...]
White Imac vs. CS4: Its A (re)Draw
June 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
My assistant cringes whenever he hears the word "known issue." In this case, it was Adobe CS4. Our Macintosh labs contain Intel iMacs. When the conversion came from PPC to Intel, we bought a test group of the original released version. We refer to this group at work as the "white iMacs." Later, when we purchased Intel Macs for the rest of the labs they had already moved on to the more familiar black and silver versions. Enter CS4. Adobe released … [Read more...]
Photoshop CS4: Introduction to Adjustments Menu
June 8, 2009 By 2 Comments
I've been teaching workshops on the new Adobe Photoshop CS4 for the last several months. The part of CS4 that has drawn the most comment and the highest response has been the addition of the new Adjustments panel. Individuals who are upgrading from the older CS, CS2, and CS3 find this the most positive part of the upgrade. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of other wonderfully positive changes, but Adjustments has seemed to be the one that draws the most positive … [Read more...]
Topaz Labs DeNoise: Another Winning Photoshop Plugin
June 1, 2009 By 3 Comments
UPDATE: Dr. Roach reviews the latest release of DeNoise here A few weeks back I wrote about TopazLabs application TopazAdjust3, and I liked it so well that it obviously influenced me to take a look at its sister (brother?) application DeNoise. Topaz Labs makes applications for both still and video imaging, and it is the digital still imaging area that have my interest because Photoshop from Adobe is the center of my workflow and I like things that plug-in to Photoshop. … [Read more...]
Photoshop Plugin: Topaz Adjust
May 4, 2009 By 12 Comments
I don't know how many hours I have put in writing actions to allow me to produce some of the currently popular photoshop effects; really more than I want to admit. By the time I've worked my way through reading tutorials, performing the action(s), refining the effect(s), redoing the action(s) and getting client feedback, I have quite a bit of time committed to some projects. Not that I don't think some of the techniques aren't pretty cool and I admire the developers of the concepts; some are … [Read more...]
Photoshop Basics: Make Color Image B&W and Sepia
January 29, 2009 By 1 Comment
While advanced versions of Photoshop (CS3 and CS4) have the option to produce a black and white print from a color image, older versions of Photoshop and some other programs depend upon other methods of converting the color image to black and white. Desaturate: Obviously, the simplest method of converting a color image to black and white is to desaturate it. This will produce a black and white image that seldom has truly good blacks, so it is often necessary to use contrast controls to … [Read more...]
The Pixelmator Challenge: Alicia Vogel
January 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I really love Pixelmator as a painting program. It has Photoshop-like brushes and a Painter feel. I popped a sketch I had started in Painter in and was able to fully block it out and have a decent detail pass in a matter of hours. For me, its simplicity is a big plus. With Photoshop and Painter, I get dazzled by all the options and end up forever tweaking all the tools. In the future I'm going to do all my pre-painting in Pixelmator and then tweak either in … [Read more...]
Pixelmator: The Challenge
January 5, 2009 By 1 Comment
A while back, David Alison wrote about Pixelmator. He said it was a good program. I trust his judgment, and in general I've agreed with his assessment of Mac apps. As a result, I began recommending Pixelmator without hesitation to my clients. I have to admit I am a Photoshop snob. I had never actually used Pixelmator. I had all sorts of excuses - didn't want to pay for it, I already own the top image editor on the market so why bother learning a new one, yada yada. AND I own Imagewell from … [Read more...]
