Tuesday Video: Replicating a Canvas look in Photoshop
In this Tuesday video we take a look at how you can fake the look of a canvas in Photoshop. Useful for displaying your photos in a nice way on the web or to show as a product advertisement.
Monday News
Hey all! It’s Monday again and I’ve been enjoying a full day off today! Fresh with all the feedback I got last week (through comments, twitter, mail and instant messages) I’m going to be working on new tutorials and articles etc. starting next week. This week is a pretty busy one as it is, although I will try to launch a few things this week as well. Now onto today’s news:
- Apple has made a couple of changes to the App Store this weekend. One of those changes comes in as a really requested one and that’s the limit to review an application only if you have downloaded it. This is going to make the reviews for paid apps a lot better since people that hasn’t bought it won’t be commenting on pre-buy experiences!
- Another one from Apple today. Their weekly OS X Quick Tip this week is about Spaces in Leopard and how you can edit the settings to organize your workspace better. I’ve been using Spaces since the beginning of the Leopard cycle, but never seen the "All Spaces" option.
- The WebKit browser engine is going to be the first one to pass the Acid3 test by 100%! It’s definitely time to see these things happen, and in the end they might push Microsoft to get standards aware (although I doubt it).
- Many newspapers seem to be going ahead and pushing out redesigns to make a greater emphasis on visuals. Latest in the big line is the Chicago Tribune who according to PDNPulse launched their newest design today.
Ways of getting a good “quick-website”!
If I were to keep track of the questions about websites I get all the time, this would almost certainly be one of the top ones. What’s really noteworthy is that everybody wants a website these days. However they are not willing to spend countless of hours learning how to do it, or making it happen. Does this sound like you? Then read on!
It’s Friday — here’re the news!
It’s a brilliant Friday again! Why? It’s the end of the week, I’m loosing my cold and it’s soon weekend which for me means studio shooting! Now let’s get right on to the news!
- Backup is a very important thing for everyone to do. There are many different solutions available, one that might just suit you right. The Drobo solution is getting praise by many people and they recently released a Firewire 800 compatible unit. The gang over at Macworld has a full review of the system, which may help you if you’re looking for a good backup solution.
- Parallels – the virtulasation software makers for mac – have made up an application bundle, called the "Green Application Bundle". It’s got nine apps in it for the great price of $49.95, with perhaps the most interesting thing being Parallels Desktop itself in the bundle, which you’ll get in the budle or $49 instead of $79.
- With the CS4 announcement, a lot of plugin developers like OnOne Software for Photoshop and WoodWing for InDesign, has announced that their plugins for respective programs, will be fully compatible with CS4 once it ships! Some great news if you have plugins for the suite apps. Also, if you are pondering if you should upgrade to CS4, Dave Cross has a good blog post where he talks about that.
- Last but not least, in the shade of the CS4 announcement, Adobe has released a new version of Adobe TV where you can get a whole lot of different video content. Improved things include improved loading time and an improved navigation structure.
I want your comments and suggestions!
As any site rightfully should be I’m constantly trying to improve things around here. I’m right now in a planning period for the late autumn and I’m putting a lot of thought into the different projects coming (included are of course the podcast and the blog). As much as I have a ton of own projects I’m planning for and scheduling in, I would love to hear what you’d like to see more. Themed blog posts, more podcast episodes, more tutorials, more reviews etc. All of these are planned in but knowing what you, my readers would like more would get me to priotitize them to your advantage 
So let me know in the comments here or through my feedback form what you’d like to see here!
A fun photography project in school!
Usually when I begin a new grade section (like I’ve done this year) with a whole new class, it usually spreads pretty fast that I’m a designer and photographer, this time being no exception. i actually got the mission from the computer person at the school to take photos of events and the general school life. Now of course I couldn’t really pass up this oppotunity for several reasons. The first reason is definitely because I can go around with my camera all day and take photos (yes, even during lesson time). Also, it’s fun to document, not only the school but our class as well. It’s going to be awesome to have when we in three years graduate.
So, two days ago, someone came with the brilliant idea. We have an outdoor cap knitted out of wool, that’s kinda become our "class cap" (everyone loves it). So the brilliant idea was simple, we put everyone in the class, one-by-one, up against a wall of our classroom (the wall-part was my photographic idea) and take a photo of each and every one, wearing the hat. We got some really good results and we are going to be putting those up as 20×30 prints in our classroom, with a name badge on each.
Now why am I telling you this? Well, really to inspire. There are a lot of cool things that can be done with a camera, from the day-to-day environment that you’re in. Yes, I’m a landscape and nature shooter, but I find I’m loving to shoot people as well (hence this and my studio shoot this weekend). So far from this project (given that I’ve had a camera with me for two days) I’ve even gotten to shoot long jumping in our PE lesson. Apart from the fun it’ll be to have all of these shots later on, it’s super fun for me (the photographer). So get out there, in your normal working environment, with a camera and think creatively, if not just for a couple of days! Oh, and at the top is me in my capshot 
Wednesday Newsflash Goodies
Here’s some goodies for today, Wednesday.
- As y’all know, the big photo convention Photokina is going on in Cologne (Köln), Germany. WIth my hectic schedule right now, I can’t possibly follow up on all (I will on some stuff) new releases from home here so I’m going to link you to a sum-up of the news so far, from 1001 Noisy Cameras.
- It can be really hard to find good quality free fonts sometimes especially as the font databases like DaFont is getting so large. Thus, I really like the releases Smashing Magazine are doing a little now and then. They’ve gone ahead and posted some free fonts of the month over at their site. They’re really good and really useful. I’ve played around with some and I do find them super.
- I’ve been digging the LumniQuest Softbox III for a while on and off and been pondering if I should get one. I was really happy to see a review of it by David Hobby at the Strobist. David really knows what he is talking about so it’s really good to be able to hear what he thinks!
- Finally, with the CS4 announcement yesterday there were a bunch of learning centers published (I wish I would have the software to be able to create one myself, but I’m just not an adobe partnert there). If you wish to learn the new Photoshop CS4, there is no better place than from the Photoshop Guys over at NAPP, at their learning center. If you wish to learn about all the new suite, Layers Magazine has put together a great learning center online as well. Both are free!
CS4 is unveiled by Adobe!
The time has come. Later today starts the webcasts and dropping in through the day should be the different learning centers from all training providers blessed with a prerelease copy of the CS4 apps. Just now however, Adobe has updated their site with the new features of the apps and the suite packages. You can also find out the pricing scheme (which to my eyes looks untouched from CS3) in all commercial and education stores. What we can’t find out is when they plan to ship these new products, hopefully we’ll get a mention of that later today.
I’m going to be updating more later today with links to various places where you can read and look at the new features, again from those lucky enough to have a prerelease version in their hands.
Late Monday News
It’s another late Monday news post here but the days are certainly filled. Working on a bunch of web design and development projects right now as well as some media stuff for here. Don’t forget that tomorrow is the big CS4 announcement, when you’ll be getting to see some of the new things in CS4 and we’ll all get to know about the shipment plans!
- As I was just starting to say, tomorrow is the big CS4 announcement day. If you haven’t signed up, you still have the time to do so. You can sign up right here. There are a lot of sites who will post learning centers tomorrow. I’ll be posting about that when the news hits.
- I’m going to be doing a portrait shoot this weekend with studio strobe equipment and a friend as a model. Really looking forward to it as it’s a field I rarely do. I’m also doing some product shots next Monday that ties up with a new client project (website) I’m working on. I’ll be sharing my experiences after the shot, as well as my preparations beforehand.
- If you are working a lot with WordPress and doing WordPress sites you should take a look at this post, "Automating My WordPress Workflow" that was posted on WP-Candy today. There are a lot of good suggestions and resources there that could really help you speed up your things.
- I’ve been asked lately to do some more photography related stuff here on the site as well. I’ll be starting to post some photography thoughts and other goodies coming up this week again, which ties in a little bit with above point about the studio experiences. I’m also hoping to be able to post a lot of announcements from PhotoKina.
- If you’re in the US and are a photographer that would like to go on a really brilliant landscape workshop, I must recommend the DLWS (Digital Landscape Workshop Series). They have some of the best photographers in their field, like Moose Peterson, Laurie Excell, Joe McNally and Kevin Dobbler. They are just announcing their workshops coming up 2009 and believe it or not, they are already beginning to sell out!
That’s it for today. Don’t forget the CS4 announcement time tomorrow!
Review of Billings 3
When you are a web designer or graphics artist in need of tracking your time, there are several solutions available. I’ve been using this application for the Mac called Billings from Marketcircle for some time and I’ve taken a liking to it.
Billings 3 is an application that let’s you track the time you’ve been working on a project and then later bill the client for it. You’ve got a lot of functionality in there. You start by importing clients from your address book, which will make them show up in the main billings window. You can then add projects to the clients and in each project you can add both estimate slips (to make up an estimate) and then go on to working slips. It’s a really powerful system that’s still easy and fast to use.
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