8×10Gallery.com

Archive for March, 2007

The weather couldn’t be any more perfect out here! The temperatures hover in the mid to upper 70’s, lots of sunshine and a slight breeze to keep things from getting too hot. Spring is indeed here!

And for the new season I made lots of site updates. The opening graphics were changed to show the spring flowers from the botanical gardens and 10 new picture galleries were added. I’ve already been to the botanical gardens a few times this month and have some spectacular pictures to show off. At least I think they’re exciting. The gardens are just starting to come to life, but the array of colors in bloom is amazing. I’ve been taking pictures for use on this website as well as for newsletters and other publications I’m working on. A colorful display of flowers can really draw the reader’s eye.

In conjunction with my flowers I’ve added some pictures from my trips to Arizona over the last two years. I have some shots of the desert Saguaro’s, Chiricahua National Monument, Tonto National Forest, Sedona and even shots I took when I went to the legendary Tombstone and Boot Hill.

I’m planning my photo adventures for this year which I hope will include some shots of the Carolina lighthouses and rose gardens. I plan to make almost weekly trips to the botanical gardens this year, so if you have a thing for flowers, just stayed tuned. If not, well, just skip over that part.

My server seems to have sobered up from its St. Patty’s Day drive failures so hopefully we won’t have any more issues with that.

The weather is beautiful, wish you were here!
It’s time to get out there and take some more pictures!

Here is what I was looking for!  A quick overview of the new and improved photography features. I don’t consider myself in the profession photographers arena, but Dare to Dream!!

Stolen right from the pages of Adobe at: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/prophotographer/features/

Better raw image processing

Process raw images with increased speed and superior conversion quality using the Adobe® Photoshop® Camera Raw plug-in, which now adds support for JPEG and TIFF formats, new tools including Fill Light and Dust Busting, compatibility with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom™ software, and support for over 150 camera models.

Smart Filters

Add, adjust, and remove filters from an image without having to resave the image or start over to preserve quality. Nondestructive Smart Filters allow you to visualize changes without altering original pixel data.

Quick Selection and Refine Edge tools

Make selections in a snap. Loosely draw on an image area, and the Quick Selection tool automatically completes the selection for you. Then fine-tune your selections with the Refine Edge tool.

Black-and-white conversion

Easily convert color images to rich black-and-white and adjust tonal values and tints with a new tool. Experiment with the included black-and-white presets, or create and save your own custom presets to achieve the best results.

Advanced compositing

Create more accurate composites by automatically aligning multiple Photoshop layers or images based on similar content. The Auto-align Layers command quickly analyzes details and moves, rotates, or warps layers to align them perfectly, and the Auto-blend Layers command blends the color and shading to create a smooth, editable result.

Enhanced 32-bit high dynamic range (HDR) support

Create and edit 32-bit images and combine multiple exposures into a single, 32-bit image that preserves the full range of a scene — from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights. New image processing and alignment algorithms deliver superior results.

Streamlined interface and palette management

Maximize screen space for editing while keeping essential tools accessible. Palettes are now arranged in convenient, self-adjusting docks that can be widened to full size or narrowed to icons or even a thin, self-revealing strip at the edge of your monitor.

Peak performance

Experience native performance on Intel® and PowerPC® based Macintosh computers, and on Microsoft® Windows® XP and Windows Vista™ systems.

Photoshop Lightroom support

Jump from Photoshop Lightroom to Photoshop CS3 in one click for advanced editing of your digital photos. Photoshop Lightroom (sold separately) offers an efficient, powerful way to import, manage, and present large volumes of digital images.

Improved Photomerge technology

Take advantage of refined Photomerge® technology, which uses new layer-alignment and layer-blending capabilities to let you automatically stitch horizontal or vertical photos into seamless panoramas.

Improved printing experience

Experience better control over print quality with color management, a larger print preview window, and more controls in one place so you can print in fewer steps. Improved printing controls, co-developed by Adobe and HP, make printing easier and more predictable, and streamline setup options via integration with select printers from HP, Epson, and Canon.

The Internet is abuzz with the details of the soon to be released Adobe Photoshop CS3. Coming right on the heels of Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop CS3 is supposed to offer even more to photographers than previous versions. Some of the big new features, besides offering support for the not yet widely accepted Windows Vista, are:

Black and White conversion.
More RAW support
Enhanced 32-bit high dynamic range (HDR) support
Performance enhancements to Adobe Bridge
Smart Filters and improved selection tools
New UI

Quite frankly it sounds pretty exciting and impressive. I haven’t had a chance to see any Beta versions since you need a current version in order to download it, but the new specs and features have my curiosity piqued. The main thing that’s kept me out of the Photoshop arena is the price. I need to sell a lot more pictures before I can justify the price of such big league software. However, with a change in cameras it might be time for a change in software.

The Adobe site is showing it as a pre-order, but I would expect that within the next day or so there will be a trial version to download. I am definitely going to give it a try and see what all the big kids are working with.

For more on the new version go to:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/

And speaking of new Adobe products I have just downloaded, but not yet installed the new Lightroom. I always find it amusing when a well established company releases a 1.0 product. I’ve been reading in all the usual places that this is the “Photoshop Killer”. Kind of an amusing take on things since Adobe makes both. But, I’m wondering if Lightroom is my stepping stone to the full fledged Photoshop.

Lightroom seems to offer a lot of the same editing tools as Photoshop, but in a much more streamlined UI. Color balance, saturation, etc are the staple functions of this version rather than the 10,000 tricks Photoshop can pull off.

With this one-two punch from Adobe, my Corel Paint Shop Pro is seeming rather anemic in features. Now, don’t get me wrong, Paint Shop has done right by me and I have no thoughts of just kicking that app to the curb. However, these new tools have hypnotized me and beckon me to try them out.

Stay tuned for me to either be jumping for joy, or frothing at the mouth…