Now, my laptop that is currently doing the job at the moment with external HDD and the software’s that need to be involved for either the shoots and/or presentations is doing “Okay”. It’s not a top of the line PC laptop but for now its doing the job. My reason for getting this post up is because I would like to hear from all of you, hear the differences and the advantages. I would like to see if its worth upgrading my laptop which is doing the job and has taken a beating during the years or should I just get real and get a Mac Laptop.

Again, this Laptop is currently doing the job but I am sure that while the industry is upgrading almost everyday I should take advantage of the new resources and techniques that are arriving for us involved in this industry of Photography and Graphic Design.

I know that Mac has its advantages, but so does Windows. I know that Mac can be a powerful machine, but so can Windows. Both involve continuous updates and lots of caring because its a laptop. I have worked with both Platforms and enjoy them both, but in reality its almost like comparing a Mack Truck vs.. a Porsche sort of speak.

I appreciate your time and opinion, I’m just in a cluster-F!@# for now. I want to know if their is anyone out there that can help me or slowly migrate to the right choice.

Download Photoshop Action here.

Installation
In Adobe Photoshop CS4, open your Actions palette (ALT + F9) and then click on the drop down to the top right of the menu.  Select “Load Actions” from the menu.  Browse to where you saved the Skin Softener action and load the action.

It will then appear in your Action Palette.

Given what the action does, it is recommended that you begin with a flattened image.  Select the “Dub’s Skin Softener” action and click the “Play” icon to fire off the process.

Follow the dialog boxes and you are done!

In this video I show how to use the new retouching tool in Lightroom 2.0 Public Beta.

Credits: Kerry Garrison

Okay, since I’m going post happy here let me start up a topic that we mainly deal with on an everyday basis. Considering that we’re soon to get CS4…and god knows that we aren’t even done learning every little nook and cranny in CS3 yet, lets look and see the benefits in the upgrades while we’re on the move to the next level…err…release.

Tell me…or should I say "Tell Us" what Adobe programs you use on the day to day basis.
• What do you hate or love about this/these programs you use everyday?
• What do you look forward to in the next versions?
• What can you use that hasn’t been implemented in your version?
• How can you get work done faster with these improvement(s)

By doing this we will be helping all the people like ourselves improve at work. Create a steady workflow. Possibly do things better with a open mind and learn to appreciate the upgrades as they come from the labs of the creators.

I am one that can’t wait to get my hands on the new software once it arrives. I’ve come to learn that waiting a little while until the upgrade is finally ready/complete is the way to go…just incase of any glitches…you know . Lets all give each other some help here…lets all be heard. You never know!

All credits to Matt Kloskowski from Lightroom Killer Tips & NAPP

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Adobe® Certified Training Provider

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Reapplying a Selection Command

I just made a selection in a complex design, by first selecting an object Filled with a certain color and going to the Select menu>Same>Fill.

All objects that share that same Fill color with the original are now selected. I change the Fill color of all these selected objects, and click another object in my design.
Is there a quick way to reapply this same selection command using my newly selected object without another visit to the Select menu. Yes! Simply press Command+6 (Control+6 on PC) and the last selection command will be repeated using the currently selected object. So all objects that share the same Fill color with the newly selected object will be selected in an instant.

Good news for all you MySpacers…Myspace.com finally took the big step. I know that im probably late on this news but hey give m a break, I just discovered it myself. Hundreds of applications already added for everyone to add a little more bling, Rss Feeds, Galleries, Flash Friend Galleries, voting systems and much, much more.

That’s all I needed, to get dizzier when I visit other peoples pages >>>LOL…J/K.
Good job on finally catching up to the big FB Tom

Okay, about 3 maybe 4 weeks ago I received a CD in the mail from the Alien Skin’s Lab introducing to me the latest release of their new version of Exposure…Exposure 2. I have never got to look into Exposure 1 in the past, but I have done some reviews on some previous releases of Alien Skin’s Software.

This new piece of software really caught my attention once I installed it. Simply because I get true dynamic finished looks at a touch of a button. Exposure 2 is a plug-in (naturally), it is run from within Photoshop’s filter menu and is started in either color or black and white mode which is a smart move from the guys/gals over at Alien Skin’s Lab.

Alien Skin’s Exposure 2 is compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS2 & CS3 which is great for the many people who haven’t gotten the upgrade. Installation is simple, just slip in the disk, click and go. Of course registration is required but after all that you are on your way on to getting great photography finishes once installed.

Exposure comes with presets to mock the appearance of real world film stocks. It also offers controls/settings for adjusting the color, tone, focus and grain of your photos. Using these controls, you can develop your own signature style and reproduce awesome pro-photography effects such as Lomography, Glamour type shots and Vintage…so-on and so-on. Custom settings can be saved as a preset and archived for future use.

Read more on this happening here <–

No matter how you put it, Firefox still kicks its competitors butt!

Ye Teng Wen, also known as Michael Wen, and Hao He, also known as Kevin He, both of Union City, Calif., were sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, a $125,000 fine and a $500 mandatory special assessment. On June 4, a third man, Yaobin Zhai, also known as Ben Zhai, of Fremont, Calif., received the same sentence but was ordered to pay $6.9 million in restitution.

The convictions were a result of an undercover operation called Operation Remaster by the FBI and the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) Task Force. On Oct. 6, 2005, federal investigators executed search warrants at 13 locations in California and Texas, including the offices of Media Art Technology, Magic Media and BDG Publishing. They seized about 494,000 pirated music, software and movie CDs and DVDs and more than 6,135 stampers – used to manufacture CDs and DVDs, according to a Department of Justice release.

The copyright and trademark violations involved the products of several software vendors and primarily Spanish-language music titles. Among the software pirated were Adobe Photoshop CS and Symantec ‘s Norton AntiVirus software, including pcAnywhere 11.5, Norton Internet Security 2005, Norton AntiVirus 2005 and Norton System Works 2003.

The FBI said that the infringed titles were sold in retail outlets in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago and other locations. The defendants admitted in court to using counterfeit labels with the FBI Anti-Piracy Seal to make the CDs appear legitimate.

A Symantec representative could not be immediately reached for comment, and Adobe declined comment. Representatives of both companies released statements to the FBI, however.

“Software piracy is a serious problem to legitimate users of software, and companies like Adobe, and the technology industry as a whole, given that our business is based on intellectual property and copyright protection,” said Suresh Balasubramanian, Adobe’s director of worldwide anti-piracy.

“This case cuts across several industries, including movies, music and software,” said Scott Minden, director of Symantec’s legal department. “Consumers have been protected from being ripped off by these pirates.”

Source: SC Magazine

Download the presets here.

Source: LRKT

Writely, the online word processing system acquired by Google earlier this year, has taken one extra step into becoming a breathing member of the Google Borg by requiring that their userbase make the switch from their old Writely user login to that of Google Accounts.

The Google Account program is a unified username & password login which spreads over Google News, Personalized Google Search, AdWords and Google Checkout among other Google Services.

Introducing 20/20 Color MD, an amazing Adobe Photoshop plug-in that works like an eye exam to quickly color correct your photos. It takes care of all your correction needs, including dynamic range, color balance, brightness, and saturation. There’s even a great highlight and shadow feature built right in.

New features include:
- 16 bit compatibility
- New reduced 6-step Wizard with user control on every step
- New Wizard Snapshot
- New improved color correction algorithms
- Windows resizing
- Plus, many enhancements, shortcuts, and much more…

Even with all these new features, we worked just as hard to make 20/20 Color
MD easier, faster, and more enjoyable to use. It will speed you through the
correction process with the greatest of ease.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER
For a limited time you can purchase 20/20 Color MD for the special
introductory price of just $39.95. That is a savings of 20% off the
suggested retail price.

20/20 PROMOTION CODE: 202039

BUY BOTH & SAVE
If you would prefer to buy the Bundle containing both 20/20 and SkinTune,
the cost is only $79.95. Use this $20 discount promotion code: BDL799

To purchase, visit our online store at http://www.phototune.com/purchase.asp

On the first page of the shopping cart, select the product you wish to
order. Then, on the second page, enter your promotion code and click Submit
to receive your discount. Then click Checkout to finish your order. If you
prefer to order by phone, give us a call at 530-432-2365.

Offer expires on Oct 31, 2006

The deal between the two Silicon Valley companies marks the latest in a string of business partnerships where hardware and software makers have agreed to feature Google software.

Google is racing with internet rivals Microsoft and Yahoo to win prominent placement within major products to fend off efforts by rivals efforts to strike similarly exclusive deals.

The partnership also promises to help small business customers attract new clients. It helps Google get more small businesses to buy ads and use Google services while allowing Intuit users to get more out of their QuickBooks software.

As part of that effort to make QuickBooks more attractive and help users list their products on the web, Intuit also said it had paid $US60 million ($79.5 million) for San Francisco-based StepUp, which helps businesses reach local customers.

In a statement, Intuit and Google said they had agreed to a strategic alliance aimed at helping small businesses promote themselves online with several Google services built into most QuickBooks 2007 products.

QuickBooks will encourage users to market themselves online by listing their businesses on Google Maps, creating and managing advertising campaigns with Google AdWords and posting their products for sale using its Google Base free web listing service for publishing the equivalent of online classified ads.

QuickBooks 2007 will be available in coming months.

Intuit also plans to embed Google Desktop search into QuickBooks 2007 so users will be able to quickly find customer, retailer or financial information stored inside QuickBooks or on their desktop.

AKVIS LLC presents a new plug-in for photo-to-sketch conversion. AKVIS Sketch 1.1 allows creating realistic color and B&W drawings that imitate the technique of graphite and color pencil, charcoal and watercolor painting.
Surprise your friends and relatives by presenting them their pencil portraits. Make a watercolor drawing out of a photo from your last nature shooting. Convert your own photo into a color sketch to print on a T-shirt.    Read more about AKVIS Sketch

Microsoft is understood to have invited beta testers to try out a new product offering a series of online applications in a single bundle.

News of the forthcoming Windows Live Essentials has leaked onto the web via independent blogs. A post on the ActiveWin.com website apparently quotes a Microsoft e-mail inviting people to apply to beta test the new product.

It describes Windows Live Essentials as a way to get the bundle of Windows Live online services – e-mail, instant messaging and security – as a single, simple download. Comments added by readers compare the product to the Google Pack bundle of free software.

The product also includes a Windows Live Dashboard, offering a view of the services the user already has and any new services available.

The emerging product looks set to step up rivalry with Google, which this week launched a beta of its new Apps for Your Domain service, adding free productivity applications – including instant messaging, a calendar application and website design software – to its hosted domain service.

Source: activewin.com

Press Release: RALEIGH, N.C.–Aug. 1, 2006–Alien Skin Software today released Blow Up, an all-new plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® and Photoshop Elements. Designed for both photographers and graphic artists, Blow Up offers the highest quality image enlargement available. Blow Up simplifies and improves image enlargement, making it easy to convert web graphics to print and create large format and gallery prints from digital snapshots.

Better than Photoshop bicubic and other third party solutions, Blow Up preserves the crisp lines and smooth colors in a source image. Blow Up scales images up to 3600% — 6 times in each dimension — with no stairstep, halo, or fringe artifacts.

In addition to superior image quality, Blow Up offers several distinguishing features. Blow Up supports CMYK, RGB, Lab, Grayscale, and Duotone image modes. Blow Up resizes multi-layered documents — no flattening necessary — and works with 8-, 16- and 32-bit compositions, including RAW and HDR images. Blow-Up can resize an image in a new document, leaving the original untouched. Lastly, taking advantage of multiprocessor, multi-core, and Hyper-threading technology, Blow Up offers greatly improved performance on modern CPUs.

Pricing and Availability: Blow Up sells for an estimated street price of $199. Registered users of other Alien Skin products receive discount pricing when ordering direct. Online delivery is available at the Alien Skin website: http://www.alienskin.com/. Blow Up is also available worldwide through stores, catalogs and resellers.

Host Requirements: Because Blow Up is an automation plug-in, it works exclusively with Adobe Photoshop CS or later and Adobe Photoshop Elements® 3 or later.

System Requirements: Windows users must have at least a Pentium 4 processor, 512 MB RAM and Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Macintosh users must have at least a PowerPC G4 processor, 512 MB RAM and Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

Company Information

Makers of award-winning plug-ins since 1994, Alien Skin Software created the first drop shadow filter for Photoshop. Alien Skin now offers three plug-ins for photographers, Blow Up, Exposure, and Image Doctor, in addition to our world famous family of special effects plug-ins: Eye Candy, Xenofex, and Splat! Our reputation for bug-free software and fast, friendly tech support has grown worldwide throughout the years. Alien Skin continues to write and sell filters that users love.

Copyright © 2006 Alien Skin Software, LLC. All rights reserved. Alien Skin Software and Blow Up are trademarks of Alien Skin Software, LLC. Blow Up is a product of Alien Skin Software LLC. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. We will never wear suits.

After you download the beta 3 for windows go and check out the tutorials on how to use this awesome piece of software.

Source: Adobe

Maybe you think being creative with your photos is too difficult. Maybe you think digital creativity is reserved for the photo professionals of the world.

We understand your reservations. And that’s why we’ve designed ACDSeeâ„¢ Photo Editor. For family photo lovers like you – people who want to turn their everyday shots into something extra special.Be creative with your photos and learn how to get the best results in the shortest number of steps. Get the tools and clear instruction you need to turn your digital pictures into something truly memorable – photos that will last a lifetime.

Create stylized photos for use in cards, albums, and calendars of your kids, friends, extended family, vacations, and memorable moments for everyone to share.

Photo Editor actually teaches you how to make the creative changes you want, like adding Lens Flare, Glowing Edges, Oil Paint, and a ton of other cool effects that are a cinch to apply. It also gives you creative project ideas, and shows you the steps and tools you need to turn them into a reality.

Photo Editor teaches you how to fix common photo problems, like poor exposure, red-eye, awkward framing, fuzziness, skin blemishes, lens flares, etc. It gives you all the support and resources to fix and create with your photos from the moment you first use the software.

And, with guided walk-throughs (called How-tos) built right into the application, each and every step to creating perfect photos is made easy and enjoyable for you.

Source: ACDSee Direct

A third generation DxO Optics Engine has also been added to the software. Improving upon the geometry control of previous engines, the third generation model enables horizon adjustment (rotation), keystoning (perspective) correction as well as a Volume Anamorphosis correction feature. This latter command aims to automatically bring three-dimensional objects deformed by ultra-wide angle lenses back to their correct proportions. As with previous versions, DxO Optics Engine automatically corrects lens distortion, vignetting, lens softness and chromatic aberrations including purple fringing.
Both image adjustment and image processing speeds have been key priorities in the development of DxO Optics Pro v4 resulting in increases of up to 500% to DxO Labs. Furthermore, the program in now available as a plug-in for Photoshop, enabling users to exploit the automatic tools of Optics Pro in tandem with the retouching capabilities of Photoshop.

 
The software officially launches later this summer, but in the meantime DxO Labs will make available a free, Windows public beta of DxO Optics Pro v4 for digital photographers to download from the first week of August. Pricing for the final version will be announced nearer the time of launch while recent purchasers of DxO Optics Pro will be eligible for a free upgrade. Visit www.dxo.com to try the beta version out for yourself.

The new “packages” in classes is pretty neat and allows you to truly build a complete class based application which is very easy to extend and add features later on down the road. A few noticable changes are the way in which you add movies to the stage and change the alpha “opacity” of an object. The alpha property now takes a decimal number to alter the property, such as 50% now becomes .5 and so on.

Overall I like the direction that Adobe is taking Flash and learning Actionscript 3 serves two purposes. The first being the new Flash and the other being the Flex program just released from Adobe.

Finally in case you missed it here is the download link again.

Update
Article on how to use the AS3 Preview!

Check it out – 400+ Free open source Utilities

SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 28, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced the availability of Adobe® Flash® Player 9 (formerly Flash Player 8.5), the next-generation Flash Player client runtime. Flash Player provides a more secure, lightweight, robust runtime environment for rich media and enterprise-ready rich Internet applications. Flash Player 9 achieves up to 10 times faster performance through ActionScript 3.0 and a new ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM), which features a Just In Time (JIT) compiler that translates ActionScript bytecode to native machine code for maximum execution speed.

Installed on over 600 million Internet-connected PCs and mobile devices worldwide, Flash Player provides consistent and predictable application runtime capabilities across browsers, desktops and other devices. Flash Player and Adobe Reader® provide client runtime capabilities for the Adobe Engagement Platform, which delivers a programming model, tools, components, and services that enable designers and developers to create and deliver rich, vibrant, branded content and applications to mass audiences in virtually every medium.

Flash Player 9 provides new application runtime capabilities for Adobe Flexâ„¢ 2, also announced today (see separate release). The Flex 2 product line provides developers with a comprehensive, integrated set of tools and technology for fast, end-to-end development of rich and innovative web applications.

Flash Player 9 provides new application runtime capabilities for Adobe Flex™ 2, also announced today (see separate release). The Flex 2 product line provides developers with a comprehensive, integrated set of tools and technology for fast, end-to-end development of rich and innovative web applications. 

Flash Player 9 provides new application runtime capabilities for Adobe Flexâ„¢ 2, also announced today (see separate release). The Flex 2 product line provides developers with a comprehensive, integrated set of tools and technology for fast, end-to-end development of rich and innovative web applications. ”Flash Player 9 enables developers to deliver next generation Web applications with its dramatically increased performance and leading edge scripting,” said Kevin Lynch, senior vice president and chief software architect at Adobe Systems. “We look forward to seeing how the community will leverage the newest Flash Player in their innovative work.”  

Developers can now deliver powerful and dynamic multimedia content and applications via ActionScript 3.0 and a new highly optimized ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM). ActionScript 3.0 is a powerful, object-oriented ECMAScript-compliant programming language that provides a familiar syntax and compelling new language features such as ECMAScript for XML (E4X), regular expressions, and a standardized DOM event model. Adobe is an active participant in the Ecma International Programming Language technical committee (TC39-TG1) developing the ECMAScript Edition 4 (ES4) standard. ECMAScript is a foundational standard used by languages such as Adobe ActionScript, Netscape JavaScript and Microsoft JScript.

“Creating engaging, interactive, and expressive applications is no easy feat, but Adobe Flash Player 9 and Flex 2 make the process seamless, from development to delivery,” said Darron Schall, developer of the FC64 Commodore C64 Emulator. “The vastly optimized ActionScript 3.0 application program interfaces (APIs) in Flash Player 9 enabled me to provide an open-source real-time emulator for the Commodore 64 to the community.”

The AVM was built from the ground up to offer breakthrough performance and features, including more efficient memory utilization, faster application start-times, improved debugging and full runtime error reporting. Developers can leverage existing skills to quickly and easily build complex rich Internet applications.

Instant adoption of Flash Player 9 will continue to be facilitated via Flash Player Express Install and auto-update notification for current Flash Player users. According to NPD Group Research, new versions of Flash Player reach 80 percent of Internet-connected desktops in approximately 12 months. For more information about Flash Player adoption rates, please visit .

“Adobe’s Flash Player is adopted so quickly and broadly that unlike other client runtimes, we have a lot of confidence that new innovations taking advantage of Flash Player 9 will reach all our constituents in very short order,” said Michael Labriola, founding partner at Digital Primates.

Source: Adobe.com

 

 

The 10.4.7 Update is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies. It includes fixes for:

Preventing AFP deadlocks and dropped connections
Saving Adobe and Quark documents to AFP mounted volumes
Bluetooth file transfers, pairing and connecting to a Bluetooth mouse, and syncing to mobile phones
Audio playback in QuickTime, iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and Soundtrack applications
Ensuring icons are spaced correctly when viewed on desktop
Determining the space required to burn folders
iChat audio and video connectivity, creating chat rooms when using AIM
Importing files into Keynote 3
PDF workflows when using iCal and iPhoto
Reliable use of Automator actions within workflows
Importing and removing fonts in Font Book
Syncing addresses, bookmarks, calendar events and files to .Mac
Compatibility with third party applications and devices
Previous standalone security updates

The combo installers are availble as a separate download or use Software Update to install.

MacIntel Combo 10.4.7

PPC Combo 10.4.7

Quark Inc. announced today a strategic alliance with Digicomp Inc., a forms and security-document solutions company. Digicomp, an existing XTensions software developer for QuarkXPress, has expanded its relationship with Quark to harness the power of Quark Dynamic Document Server (QuarkDDS) and design a next-generation suite of forms design and workflow applications, enabling them to meet growing customer needs for on-demand form solutions.

“We are very excited to extend our relationship with Quark and bring this flexible, open, and intuitive Web-based forms solution to market,” said David Leland, president of Digicomp. “We have been working with QuarkXPress since our inception and value Quark’s decision to embrace open standards. This Digicomp solution will enable our customers to replace their outdated, manual systems and adopt an automated and user-friendly solution through QuarkDDS.”

Read more on this merger over at Designer Today News

The new Nikon Capture NX software is probably the closest thing. A co-project of Nikon and the similarly named (but unrelated) Nik Software company, this program uses what they’re calling U Point technology to allow you to make quick adjustments to the zones of influence you choose. That means you can saturate certain areas, desaturate others, and color-correct in the places that need it, all without painstakingly selecting them. The other good news: None of these changes are permanent. They all happen as a list of deletable and modifiable steps that leave your original alone.

Nikon shooters who love RAW may be the most pleased with the $150 program ($90 for the upgrade), because their RAW adjustments are built into the process. Everyone else can import TIFFs or JPEGs, but won’t be able to work on RAW files. (No, it doesn’t work on Adobe DNG.) Other useful features are built in: A file browser pops up on the left; you can soft-proof at will from a menu at the bottom of the image; and the histogram, if you like to use one, sits on the bottom right corner.

More information is available at NikonUsa.com.

Some key features:
* recover PSD and PDD files produced by all versions of Adobe Photoshop.
* recover the image as well as the separate layers.
* recover pixels, dimension, color depth and the palette of the image and layers.
* recover uncompressed and RLE comressed images.
* recover PSD image with depth of 1, 8, 16, 32 bits per channel.
* recover PSD image with color mode of bitmap, grayscale, indexed, RGB, CMYK, mutlichannel, duotone, lab.
* repair PSD and PDD files on corrupted medias, such as floppy disks, Zip disks, CDROMs, etc.
* repair a batch of Photoshop image files.
* integration with Windows Explorer, so you can repair a Photoshop image file with the context menu of Windows Explorer easily.
* find and select the PSD and PDD files to be repaired on the client computer.
* drag & drop operation.
* command line parameters.

Credits to heathrowecs.com for the article

Find out more about PSD-Repair here.