Photoshop Public Beta

Photoshop CS6 Public Beta is now out and available at: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs6.html

Take a look at the new blur tools which are not modal, and gain their speed of operation when you have compatible video cards because Adobe is using their processing power to achieve the heavy computational load via OpenGL and OpenCL. There are three distinct types of blur Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt and Shift Blur which offer different feels to the blur employed.

Then there is Adaptive Wide Angle which is a new way of dealing with how local elements within an image are transformed – straight lines that due to say the use of a fisheye lens take on a curve can be straightened, parallel vertical lines that appear to taper or expand can be restored to vertical, or horizontal lines that no longer lie horizontally can be pulled back to the horizontal. This is designed specifically to allow for creativity in how an image is projected by constraining local areas within an image to achieve the desired end result.

These two new tools are high on my list of changes in this latest version of Photoshop, but even more fundamental is the new way in which raw files are processed using the 2012 Process Version when passing through Adobe Camera Raw, and this has resulted in the controls being both slightly renamed as well as the way in which they now work is slightly different which may be disconcerting initially, but take the time to use them and you will see that they are ultimately easier to use to get the best result, and that result can sometimes be very much better than before.

Another change which may take a few moments for you to become accustomed is that Adobe have Split the Perspective Crop tool from the standard Crop tool, and once again the new way may take some time for acclimatisation, but it does ultimately make sense. The tools which employ ‘Content Awareness’ have been increased and improved. One new item here is the Content Aware Move tool found within the Healing tools section in the toolbar.

There are changes within the Layers panel, such as the new ability to search for specific layer types, but for me the most important change is that where before there was no indication that ‘Blend If’ had been used on a layer, there is now a symbol displayed, which hopefully will bring more users to this very useful yet little known facility within the Layer Style dialog box. There are other little tweaks in the Layers panel such as being able to colour code multiple layers in one go.

A Properties dialog box has been implemented to bring more order to Adjustment layers, the Print dialog box has been completely reworked to ensure that the chances of colour management changes are not applied twice and the end results are more predictable and well-controlled.

Under the Filter heading is Oil Paint which gives an interesting one-stop location to apply this style of effect, and it is very fast. Lighting Effects has been completely updated offering new controls and improved speed. 3D is now somewhat simpler and is completely hived off into the Extended version. Paragraph Styles and Character Styles have now come to Photoshop which will certainly impress the Design community.

The best way to understand what this latest incarnation has to offer is to download the Public Beta from:

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs6.html

and if you need more guidance, take a look here:

http://www.lynda.com/Photoshop-tutorials/Photoshop-CS6-Beta-Preview/97406-2.html 

Canon Pro Solutions Show

I travelled to London to go to the Canon Pro Solutions show at the Islington Business Design Centre. What drew me to this event? I needed to gain an assessment of my damaged EOS 5D MkII, I also wanted to take a look for a replacement Compact Flash Card Reader, and meet up with colleagues from my past working with Adobe.

Ironically, it was someone from UCL (University College London) that I soon found myself standing alongside as he was listening intently to Andy Johnstone from Calumet, this was Ram, who I had not seen for at least six years, and he had also recognised me! We were both interested in the Certon drive enclosures Andy was demonstrating, so we concentrated on this before re-introducing ourselves.

In the ensuing chat I mentioned my recent construction of a time lapse movie for Jarvis and a planned meeting with Steve Cook, the managing director, when he told me that Jarvis are the contractors involved in the MacMillan Cancer building belonging to UCL, and he may be able to get me an introduction there. This will be a useful tidbit to take along to my appointment next week. I met Ram and his colleague from the Mortuary several more times, fortuitously at Philip Bloom’s talk about time lapse shooting!

The show provided me with the opportunity to introduce Andy to someone on the RKC stand with a handy piece of control equipment for doing moving time lapse shooting with a DSLR camera, that I considered ideal for hiring. Others I met were Ray Fitchett of Sigma, Steve Newberry of Adobe, Geoff Dann, professional photographer from Clerkenwell, Richard West and Kevin Dobbs from Nik Software and Andy Campbell from On One Software, Nick Millen from Canon, and several other familiar faces to whom I can never put names. It was heartening to be asked whether I was there working, but that seems to have passed, although Steve asked to confirm my details, as he may just have some one-to-one training possibilities.

Speaking to a Canon mechanic, it looks as if I can get my camera repaired which rounds off a good day.

Focus on Imaging 2011

I have been going to Focus at the NEC near Birmingham for the last several years, as purely a visitor for the last two. I arrived well before the ten o'clock opening and was amazed at the long queues, the pre-registered queue being the longest probably due to the burgeoning growth of online-literacy.

Talking to several exhibitors, there was more than simply interest, the attendees were reaching for their plastic and cash. On a stand from a Chinese company, I was somewhat surprised at their lack of preparedness, they were unable to handle credit cards, and every transaction cost had to be looked up on a laptop database, but their prices were very reasonable and I was able to buy a spare battery for one of my cameras, only to also find they could not give me a receipt, I am hoping that their promise to email me one after the show is fulfilled, so I can satisfy my accountant. Their reason for attendance appeared to be to acquire agents over here, but it seemed an odd way to go about it, selling inexpensively direct to end users at the show.

I came to the show intent on some purchases and some networking, I was able to do both, and in particular I needed a levelling plate to go beneath a gimbal head, I found both a better product, and a lesser price than I had expected, from Novoflex, a company I can remember from my earliest days in photography. So I was well-served.

In the afternoon, I had met up with Adam Woolfitt, and we toured together till the close, and during this time I was able to point out some stands that might be of interest to him, and we met up with numerous people he knew, some of whom I had also come into contact. I had hoped to catch up with Sean McCormack, but although I did visit the stand he was on, I had arrived too early, but I did catch up with John Beardsworth on the Adobe stand, both of whom I know from our connections to Lightroom. I also had a quick chat to Steve Newberry with whom I have worked on the Adobe stand in previous years.

Only after Wednesday at the earliest will it be apparent to exhibitors whether there is a buoyancy to our market, but certainly my impressions were positive, and I felt my day was well-spent.

Lightroom – Badges on the Grid Images

Recently I have found that some users of Lightroom are not fully aware of what all the badges on their pictures within Lightroom's Library module Grid display actually mean or do.

I have created a single A5 PDF document that explains their functions, so that it becomes more obvious just how informative as well as powerful this is. Adobe helpfully provides numerous hotspots with lists of the options that can be displayed as badges on each image. Technically the three small icons in the bottom right are the badges, but I have lumped all the items overlaid on the pictures under the name 'badges' for simplicity.

The items without a contextual list of choices of what to display have Tooltips to explain their function.

Overall, I hope that what I have explained proves useful. The PDF is in the Galleries section the right, titled 'Lightroom Badges'.