Where is Ben?

Microsoft Professinal Photographers Site

Microsoft has launched a web site devoted to digital photographers. It features many useful resources including a full chapter from Tim Grey's book Color Confidence.

Great Product/Tools Web Site

I've been visiting Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools site on a weekly basis for well over a year. As he says it "A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. I am chiefly interested in stuff that is extraordinary, better than similar products, little-known, and reliably useful for an individual or small group." You can spend hours exploring this site and as you do, you'll learn about products that are truly useful.

Heading out on a long trip

I'm heading to the following events over the next 30 days (it's all one trip for me):

1. October 28th Baltimore, MD Photoshop for Photographers seminar. If you're interested in attending, the seminar is from 10am until 5 pm on September 21st (that's this Wednesday) at the America's Convention Center and the price is $99 for a full day of training.
2. October 30th Chicago Area Photography School event.
3. October 31-November 11 I'll be attending events at the Lepp Institute in Los Osos, CA.
   
4. November 14th Professional Photographers of America event in Ohio.
5. November 18th San Diego, CA Photoshop for Photographers seminar seminar.

I'll also be presenting a Photoshop for Photographers seminar in Ft. Lauderdale on November 29th.

Offbeat Tourist Attractions

If you're bored with the standard family vacation destinations and want to see some more interesting sites, then check out the Roadside America site. That's where you'll find the locations of interesting and often tacky sites like big fruit signs, tiny churches, pet cemeteries, and odd museums.

Zooming In with Universal Access

At my Photoshop seminars, I often zoom in on a portion of my screen so that people at the back of the room can read some of the fine detail in an image, palette, or icon. If you use a Mac and would like to temporarily zoom in on your screen, then do the following:

1) Choose System Preferences and then click on the Universal Access icon.

2) Click the large button labeled Turn On Zoom (that is unless it happens to be labeled Turn Off Zoom).

3) When you want to zoom in on a portion of your screen, position your mouse over the area and then hold both the Option and Command keys and then press + to zoom in. The more times you press that key combo, the more you'll magnify your screen. When you're all done hold the same two keys down and press - to zoom out.

I'm sure there is a utility available for Windows that has similar functionality, but as far as I know it's not built into the operating system... if I'm wrong, please let me know where to find the feature.

Tech Enabled Clothing

If you're frustrated with standard clothing's inability to play nice with all your electronic devices, then check out Tech Enabled Clothing. Their jackets feature over 40 pockets that are designed specifically with your gadgets in mind. They feature so many innovative ideas that you can easily spend an hour exploring them all... from magnetic closures and ear-bud pockets to a personal area network and the weight management system. They might look normal on the outside, but there is nothing normal about them on the inside. Don't be put off by their price premium because this really is no ordinary jacket... explore what it has to offer before you decide if it's worth the price.

Apple Introduces Aperture

Today, Apple Computer introduced a new program designed for professional photographers. The new software is called Aperture and is a potential replacement for Adobe's Bridge and Camera Raw, but is by no means a replacement for Photoshop (it's instead something that compliments Photoshop). With a price of $499, it's obviously directed towards professionals. I didn't see any mention of being able to apply Curves (my favorite adjustment), use adjustment layers, paint on masks, or apply filters. It does feature one thing that I've been begging Adobe to implement and that's a Lupe that makes it unnecessary to zoom in on the entire image when you simply want to see a 100% view of a small area.

I found it interesting that Apple chose to feature sports and wedding photographers in their profiles since those are two areas where shooting JPEG's are more common. The main idea of the software is to make general RAW image editing to be very fast and easy.

For more info on Aperture and an interview with Apple's product manager, visit CreativePro.com

Image courtesy of Apple

Photoshop Insight Injection: Bridge Tips

 

For the second installment of my Photoshop Insight Injections, I'm going to share some tips for using Adobe Bridge. Bridge is Photoshop CS2's replacement for the File Browser that was found in older versions of Photoshop.

Bridge Tips coming after the jump.

The Start of the Media Center Mac?

Apple has just introduced a few new products:
• The new iPod, which is capable of playing video
• The new iMac, which is slimmer than the old and has an integrated iSight camera

But to me the most interesting part of the announcement was something called Front Row.

Front Row is a remote control for the new iMac that looks a lot like an iPod shuffle in that it has no display and the same button configuration. What's the big deal about this new remote? Well, it's really the software that comes with it. It's what appears to be the first hint of a Media Center Mac. The software allows you to easily browse music, movies and photos as well as control the iMac's internal DVD player. Now all Apple has to do is add an FM radio tuner and video in capabilities and allow us to record those sources and we'd have a very easy to use Media Center Mac.

If and when they do that, the next step would be to release an iMac with 1920x1080 resolution so that it could be used to watch full resolution High Definition television and it would completely replace my bedroom TV... add a few features to the Mac Mini and it could replace the TiVo in my living room... and then come out with a new version of Airport Express that includes an IR port for the remote control and video out and then I could watch and listen to things from any TV set. Then allow me to control it all over the internet from my PowerBook and play content from my home systems remotely while I travel and I'd be absolutely hooked. I see little hints of Apple heading in this direction, but they've always said they aren't into convergence... then again look at how many things have converged in the new iPod (video, audio, calendar, contacts, etc, etc, etc.)

Ben's On Vacation!

I've been on vacation for the last week and will continue in that mode for the next week as well... as a result, my blog posts might become a bit erratic, so don't expect one per day.