Photoshop CS5 Extended Essentials with Amadou Diallo

Photoshop CS5 has officially started shipping. And with the launch of CS5 I’m pleased to announce the release of Total Training’s Photoshop CS5 Extended Essential series, hosted by yours truly. Available on DVD or as a streaming download on your computer screen, join me for 6+ hours of instructional videos covering the nuts and bolts of Photoshop for photographers, designers and illustrators. Best of all, every image that I work on in the video is available to you so you can follow along step by step. Even if you’re brand new to Photoshop you’ll come away from this training with a solid foundation to create professional results in the most efficient manner.

For the more advanced users among you, I’ve just started work on Total Training’s Advanced Photoshop CS5 series. Here I go in-depth into specific image editing tasks as well as  cover Photoshop’s video and 3D features. Look for that to be available by early summer. Also in the works is an Advanced Lightroom to Photoshop Workflow that will finally answer the question of when to use Lightroom and when to use Photoshop.

As the author of two books, I can safely say that video instruction allows for a unique learning experience. If you’re the “visual” type who is often frustrated putting the technical knowledge from a book into actual practice, video training may be just what you need. Feel free to share your thoughts after watching the videos.

Photoshop CS4, in particular, was an upgrade that I found hard to recommend to  photographers. Sure, there were some new interface additions and high quality tools added to Camera Raw. But on the whole, CS4 was built to lay a solid foundation for big changes to…CS5.

And now that it is here, I can honestly say that CS5 is a very significant upgrade for photographers. If you’re still using CS3, there are a whole slew of interface enhancements you’ll have to get used to, but the results will be well worth it. And even if you’ve been happy with CS4, this new version has quite a few “must-have” features.

Do a lot of retouching and/or restoration work? The Content-Aware heal and fill will literally save you hours of work. The Refine Edge feature has been completely overhauled and for the first time its possible for mere mortals to separate hair from a background with professional results.

The correction of lens defects such as chromatic aberration and optical distortion has now been made automatic via lens profiles which Adobe has made available, along with a free utility, so that users can create and share their own lens profiles.

Adobe Camera Raw has gotten a complete overhaul of its demosaicing algorithms, which means that a great raw processing engine has gotten even better. You’ll see finer image detail and lower noise. There’s also the ability to mimic the addition of film grain that is actually quite believable.

There’s a new Puppet Warp feature that allows you to reshape and reposition objects in a photograph. Heresey to some, manna from heaven to others.

Is HDR photography your thing? The new and  HDR Pro and HDR Toning tools are head and shoulders above anything Adobe has done in this area.

If you like to paint, the brand new Mixer Brush mimics the wet into wet painting technique used by masters like Van Gogh and Monet.

And Mac users, for the first time get a 64bit version of Photoshop that can directly access every single ounce of RAM you have installed on your system. Did someone say memory upgrade?

In short, if you’re running CS3, I salute you. You resisted the marketing reach of Adobe and their partners and continued on with getting top notch results. But now the time has come to lay out some hard earned cash. The new tools and enhanced productivity will literally change the way you work in Photoshop, and for the better.

Conservatory Water, Central Park

With Spring just around the corner, I’m pleased to announce the PhotoTour NYC 2010 walking tours. Last year was a great success and I’m looking forward to showing you around the most photogenic locations in New York City.
Whether you’re a tourist, in town for a few days, or have lived in NYC all your life, what better way to explore the city than by capturing it in photographs?  Each tour takes you to the best locations for the best images of the Big Apple. Not only that, I’ll be by your side to help with composition, camera techniques and give you hints on how to make your shots even better. There are tours that specialize in architecture, night scenes, little known locations, and areas of uncommon beauty and solitude. Each tour lasts from 3-4 hours and offers the perfect combination of expert guidance and inspiration from your peers. Best of all, the tours are very economical, at a cost of only $75 per person.

Ensure that you capture the best New York has to offer and impress your friends and family with photos they’ll be happy to look at again and again. If shooting alongside a professional travel photographer and a motivated group of your peers sounds exciting, click for more information or just book your spot on our secure online reservation form.

Due to a heavy traveling and teaching schedule, this year I’m leading only eight scheduled tours, so be sure to book your spot early before they sell out. If you’d like to schedule a private tour, for yourself or a group, please contact me for details.

The QTR driver

Roy Harrington’s QuadTone RIP (QTR) software is a remarkable collection of tools that allows for some of the highest quality black and white output available on Epson inkjet printers. If you’ve only used the Epson ABW driver, you owe it to yourself to try QTR.

QTR is capable of both very simple operation, for those who just want to press a couple of buttons, to highly advanced printer control desired by…well, you know who you are. I’ve written an in-depth tutorial that takes you step by step through the most common scenarios of QTR usage. Whether you’re completely new to QTR or have been using it for years and wondered about some of its advanced features, you’ll gain a solid understanding and workflow of one tool that should be in every black and white lover’s toolbag.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

In the evening I’ll be at the Harvard Coop Bookstore for a book signing and discussion of my work. If you’re in the Boston area, stop by and be sure to introduce yourself. I’ll be handing out signed posters, and maybe even a few prints of images from the book.

For those of you that own a copy of The 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in NYC, you can see my coverage of the parade on pages 56-58.

The Lionel Show Interview 6/12/2009