New Classes on tap after a hectic Month

Sorry to have taken so long to post anything here but my last month has really been much crazy. At the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado we just put a new show in at Denver International Airport and took one out on what is the called the Bridge over to Terminal A. Add to this my normal teaching schedule and February/March was very busy. My next few months do not look like they will easing up too much. The Center is now interested in having me teach my Photoshop Elements class up there and I will be teaching Beyond Photoshop at the Longmont Free University this summer.

Photoshop Elements 5

Since I teach both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements I have to use quite a few brain cells to keep the tips and lessons for each separate. With the release of Photoshop Elements 5 it is getting harder and harder. Plus looking at Photoshop CS 3 due out late spring / early summer it will get even more so. CS 3 is incorpenrating more of the tools in Elements and even some of it's look but will still be the big dog when it comes to processing for pros. All of that said Photoshop Elements 5 (PSE 5) is proving to be a real challenger for those who are processing a handful of images for high quailty prints. PSE 5 is still lacking the abilty to create repeatable actions for processing images but has added a few more tricks that CS 2 or 3 don't have.

One is that even without the Curves tool you can now under Enhance go to a Curves type of tool and apply some preset curves adjustments under the Enhance Menu. There is even a new Black/White adjustment in Enhance with not only a number of presets for Landscape, People, but also Urban and Newspaper. There is even one for Infrared Effect. Each will let you add or subtract the Red, Green, Blue color channels and even control the amounts.

PSE 5 still has the greatest color correction tool that I wish they would add to CS 3 that is the Enhance Skin tones tool. With this tool you just have to move your eyedropper over the skin (I suggest the forehead or neck) and click to correct for skin tones. You can still then add more refinements to both tan and blush sliders.

For those who haven't upgraded since 2.2 or 3 it does have some changes in the interface with more color in the tools but for the most part it is still the same with one nice change in the browser or Oranzier. Now when you have stacked images or versions (Don't worry CS users, this change is also coming to Bridge) there is a little arrow on the right side of the image. Click on it and you will see all the versions so if you want to work on the orginal again you can.

Some more addtions to some of the effects that you can just click and drag over for you effect junkies. It would be nice if Adobe would give us some tools for making our own but then they would just point us to Photoshop.

So for the serious shooter or pro Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 is another tool for making our images even better.

Call for Entries: Center for Fine Art Photography

One of my many jobs is helping to get the word out about Call for Entries for the Center for Fine Art Photography located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Currently we have a very exciting call for all digital images that is going to close on Friday Jan 16. This is for a judged gallery show with a award for the Juror's Selection: New HP Prosmart B9180 Fine Art Printer + Special recognition in Artists' ShowCase which is publised in Camara Art magazine. This is an $800 ink jet printer which can not only produce wonderful prints but can also print on canvas for fine art photos. Check out this and our other Call for Entries at Center for Fine Art Photography

Now starting

This first post is mostly to see just how this all will work. Not that I think my ramblings are go to matter that much but since I am teaching this may act as some sort of teacher's aid for my students and those who want to learn more about Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. From time to time I will also be posting some of the fotsom and gibsom of my life and maybe some of my work for clients.

Here is hoping all will have a great and wonderful new year.