Tutorial on the Painting with the History Paintbrush – Photoshop

Russell Brown (www.russellbrown.com) has created a really good tutorial on how to use the History Paintbrush in Photoshop.

Those of you who’ve taken my Photoshop classes know that I don’t often teach this tool. I actually think it’s an awesome tool – but of course I’m ALL about non-destructive techniques, and this isn’t one of them. This technique changes original pixels permanently (there are work-arounds, but they’re rather indirect). So, I recommend knowing how this tool works, what you can do with it, and then knowing you can use it for more of your “quick and dirty” retouching and repair needs.

[iframe_loader  src=”http://tv.adobe.com/embed/46/11397/” width=”480″ height=”296″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen scrolling=”no”]

Photoshop Actions to Emulate Instagram Effects

I’m not always a fan of heavily processed images, but as a matter of artistic expression, I often like to “play” around with images for some cool effects. Since I got the iPhone, I’ve really liked a lot of the image looks that can be accomplished using Instagram. But, since most of my images are shot using my Nikon, and not my iPhone, I wanted to create a set of actions that would emulate Instagram while within Photoshop.

Turns out, I don’t have to! Daniel Box has already done a bunch of these, and he’s made the actions available for FREE (Thank you, Mr. Box!) He says they’re not “100% exact match, but they’re pretty darn great – and remember, you can still tweak your images in Photoshop to improve at will.

Check out the FREE action download at: http://dbox.tumblr.com/post/5426249009/instagram-filters-as-photoshop-actions

A Really Good Explanation of Color for Print Purposes

CreativePro.com has come up with yet another really good article – this time, about a topic that can be really confusing – how color works for print documents, and how to use InDesign’s color management to get accurate color print jobs done (Note: this is for 4-color, process printing – not meant for your inkjet). Check it out at:

http://www.creativepro.com/article/indesign-how-print-colors-correctly

Online Set of Webinars – 24hourphotoshop.com

24HourPhotoshop.com is the first ever live, global, interactive event for the Photoshop community — 24 Hours of non-stop Photoshop!

On February 10th/11th, 2012, 24hourphotoshop.com (http://bit.ly/ooeAoc) will be offering over 100 sessions, with 50 instructors via online webinars. Some of the best instructors will be featured (with the exclusion of me, that is), and there are 3 pricing tiers: a limited Free track (requires pre-registration), an all-access $99 track, and an extended track (to see the webinars after the day is over) for $599. These are introductory rates.

I’ve never seen these before, so I can’t vouch for them specifically, but with the list of webinar leaders they have, this is bound to be a powerful day! There is a benefit to accessing as much as possible, live – you can ask questions of the instructors.

Adobe Carousel – Photo Syncing Among All Your Devices

Sadly, I’m once again missing Photoshop World in Las Vegas, but that doesn’t stop me from checking announcements!

Adobe has is introducing a new service, named Adobe Carousel (http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2011/09/introducing-adobe-carousel-your-photos-everywhere-you-are.html)

I’m excited about the idea that I can have all my images accessible to my desktop, laptop and iPhone (and iPad, maybe, someday), so I believe this is something to watch. Question is: will this be a handy, useful tool, or yet another Adobe or Cloud money-suck? Only time will tell…

GIF Files – Possible Photoshop CS5 Security Risk!

Here’s something new… According to John Nack – official Adobe blogger – maliciously coded GIF files can cause crashes in Photoshop (I’m thinking other possible security risks as well).

There is a fix, however – so visit John Nack’s Blog to find the appropriate resolution to the problem:
http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2011/08/plug-in-security-fix-for-photoshop-cs5.html 

Adobe Premiere’s Now a very Viable Alternative to FCPX

Another CreativeCow.com article – well-written. I’ve been saying for a while that Premiere is no longer the “red-headed stepchild” of editing software, and I’ve been teaching it for a while now. I’m finding quite a few people switching, and this article, by a long-time user of Final Cut Studio for some time, will help explain why.

Yeah – it’s not perfect – but with no access to FCP Studio 3 anymore – and having this come with the Adobe CS5.5 Suite – it sure can work! This also compares Premiere (in part) to Avid.

http://library.creativecow.net/kobler_helmut/FCP-vs-Premiere-Pro/1