Bernskiold Media » Bernskiold Media

Welcome to the new Bernskiold Media!

Erik Bernskiold — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:00:43 +0000

Let me be the first to welcome you to this brand new iteration of Bernskiold Media. If you have been here before, welcome back. If you are new to the site, welcome! What you will mostly notice on the new site is of course the new look. We’ve been working hard in order to present to you a brand new site that is easier to browse.

We’ve made it much easier to read the reviews and tutorials and we are adding a lot of new tutorials now, every week, with the goal of being the one go-to place for fully free, high-quality tutorials, both in text and video format. We have a wide range of topics for these tutorials, from using the Adobe Creative Suite Applications to Code and even Photography!

We will also be posting some articles or interesting industry news on the blog, throughout the weeks as well as generally interesting things!

Go ahead, check out the new site, familiarize yourself with it, check out the new tutorials and let us know in the comments how you like it.

No-Blog Week

Erik Bernskiold — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:02:56 +0000

As I had to turn my MacBook Pro (main computer) in for repairs this Friday because of my graphics card going bad (read more here), I am forced to declare this a no-blog week. This is mainly because with the workload that I had for this weekend, there was no chance that I could pull off articles and podcasts for this week on a crippled system (I do have a fully bootable backup and will talk about that soon).

It’ll also give me some extra time to focus on the Göteborg International Organ Academy of which I am apart here in Gothenburg and some time to generally relax and have fun!

So to all of you, have a really nice week and I’ll see you back on Monday with some new articles, and a refresh for the fall quarter, starting soon. Oh! I might get something together, so keep watching.

Launching next week: New Blog Schedule!

Erik Bernskiold — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:46:49 +0000

For a while now I’ve been working on the direction this site is to go and I have decided to streamline the blog schedule and make it a lot clearer what we are posting and publishing and also to give it some more structure. I’ve thus decided to give the days of the week a theme that will be coherent every week! The blog will primarily be articles, stories, real-world and so on and the tutorials will be contained in the tutorials section (by default in the RSS feed as well). The blog schedule will be as following for the weeks:

Monday: Business Monday – Every Monday there’ll be an article, story, example or similar about running a business, increasing productivity and generally everything related to the working and business aspect of things.
Tuesday: Web/Design/Coding Tuesday – Every Tuesday is to do with some type of graphic design, web coding or generally web related topic. Whether a story, general article or real world example, it is all about design (both print and online) and the web (coding and practices) on Tuesdays!
Wednesday: News Wednesday – Mid-week there tends to be great news floating around and therefore, every Wednesday, we’ll be covering the latest news available in these sectors (web, media and design as well as gadgets and tech).
Thursday: Photography/Video/Media Thursday – Thursdays are pretty much like Tuesdays, apart from a different subject. It’s going to be filled with media such as photography, video or audio, something that ties in with the design and the web as well!
Fridays: Video Tutorial Friday – I did write that there wouldn’t be tutorials on the blog right? True it is but on Fridays, there will always be a new video tutorial posted on the site, discussing a more complete subject rather than just a quick tool in an application!
Saturdays: Weekend Website Tip – These will be staying right on as you’re used to! Some inspirational or good sites to launch the weekend!

What’s left now is to tell when all of this is starting. It will be coming very soon! Very soon equals Monday even, so back here at Monday there will be the launch of the entire new blog structure here at Bernskiold Media with a closer focus. Of course, we’ll continue to produce the technique and tool tutorials in the tutorial section, with a goal to increase those additions and make them frequent and of better quality!

Recording/writing day!

Erik Bernskiold — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:11:39 +0000

I’m calling this recording/writing day. I’m fully immersed into writing several tutorials and articles in a wide range of things and also recording tutorials and courses, also for this site (and some more). Now rest assured, the Friday Application Tip will still be here today only just a couple of hours later than usual, but as I said, It’ll be here!

I can’t give you much information on what I’m working on, but it includes some highly requested tutorials and courses dealing with website design. Now onto work again, until the Friday App Tip, have a marvellous Friday!

New Online Course: From Coded Design to WordPress Template

Erik Bernskiold — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:30:55 +0000

It’s finally here! My first online training course titled From Coded Design to WordPress Template has now officially been released. It’s a totally free course that you can view over at its own special section.

There is a constant demand on learning how to go from a coded design to a fully working WordPress template. In this online course we go through how you can convert your coded design to a WordPress template, really simply. The goal is that you should be able to understand how WordPress templates work in the basics at the end of this course and that you shall be able to convert templates on your own.

This course is made by me (Erik Bernskiold) and produced by Bernskiold Media Group and the Bernskiold Media website. It’s made available for free for everyone with no time limits only because we believe in training for free, for creatives worldwide!

Watch it today and help spread the word about it!

The He Said – She Said article that was supposed to go live today has been postponed for a week due to a sudden passing of a friend of Firgs. Please join me in offering my deepest condolences for her, her friends family and her family. Thank you for your understanding!

Advertising opportunities on Bernskiold Media

Erik Bernskiold — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:04:42 +0000

It is our goal with this site to provide high-quality tutorials, articles and resources for free without slamming you with ads, however providing all of this does cost us money to some extent. From today and on, we are starting to sell some ad spots to help fund the site. Now don’t be afraid and alarmed. These won’t be any big ads at all but rather small and not in your way at all. The placement is in the new and reorganized sidebar, where we are offering four spots with the size 125×125 each. We are however still leaving the 468×60 banners at the top/bottom of the posts and pages to services that we like and that if you sign up through us, we will get a little bit of a referral fee, without you paying anything extra (sometimes you’ll even get benefits).

Anyone can purchase an ad spot here and they run from $5/month so get a spot while they are still available. We are only selling four ads at a time here so your ad will always be visible on our site and not rotate around.

Thanks for your support in the site. It’s because of you, the visitors, that we keep doing this and that we are able to do it as well.

Summing up the year of 2008

Erik Bernskiold — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:30:36 +0000

Here I’m sitting again, at the last day of the year trying to remember everything that has happened this year. It’s really been an eventful year for me and I remember last year when writing this, it’d been a rough year looking to clear up… I just wish that would’ve been true. This year continued to be rough for me personally but I am happy to say that it is all working out now at the end of the year. It takes a lot of stress of me and allows me to focus on other things!

My life has been busier all time and with the start of a new school period more and more is demanded but I do feel that I’m in the right place, much more so than earlier years.

Before I go any further, I want to direct a very special thank you to perhaps the best friend one could ever have. It’s been a year with a lot of up and downs and it’s a lot thanks to your friendship that this year is ending as good as it is. I’m so grateful to have you as my friend.

There are also other people that I want to thank of course! I want to direct a thank you to the entire community over at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals forums. You guys are all awesome and it’s great knowing you all. A special thank you there goes out to Elizabeth Gast (or Firgs) for your concern for me and your constant nagging to get me to take more time off, always wanting my best. I do listen more than you think I also want to direct a thank you to David Zarzecki. You’re a great person, always nice to talk to and a rock on bouncing ideas and stuff on.

Before closing the thanks and heading to the business, a final thanks goes to my family and everyone that has not been mentioned here but do deserve to be here as well. You all know who you are! A general thanks also goes to all you readers of the site! It’s because of you I’m doing it and you make it just more fun to do as well!

If we move onto business stuff, XLD Studios has been going strong all year not feeling the financial crisis much at all, it seems to go strong into the coming year as well now and I hope for that to continue. As for news, there are a lot of new things coming on that front very soon and I’m very excited to be able to tell them in due course in the beginning of the New Year.

At this site, I feel that perhaps the most has happened over the year. The approach of the site has very much shifted and become a lot more focused on articles, tutorials and the general teaching of media as well. This is a focus I’m very happy with and going to be continuing with news coming this winter that is going to be pretty awesome (I can’t tell you anything about it yet though). Right now before the end of the year I’ve been happy enough to announce a very new feature column every month that Elizabeth Gast (from Design by Firgs) and I are doing, it’s going to be really fun and great.

This year saw the unfortunate event that I had to quit doing the Creative Suite Tips and Tricks podcast. I don’t know what will happen to it this year, but right now I just don’t have the time to keep it going but instead want to focus on other things with the sites and companies.

Before I finish this post I hope that you’ve had a happy holiday season so far and that you will get a very happy and prosperous new year. May this year be filled with success and joy, despite the rough times that we are in. I truly hope that everything will come together this new year. The last thing of this year that I want to do here, is to wish you all a happy new year!
/Erik

New Feature Column: He Said – She Said

Erik Bernskiold — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:30:46 +0000

Starting in the new year there will be a new feature column here on Bernskiold Media! I am going to be partnering with Elizabeth Gast from Design by Firgs on the second Tuesday of every month to bring you He Said – She Said. During that time, I will be turning over my site to Elizabeth so that she can share her thoughts on a current industry topic of interest, and I will be doing my version of the same topic on her site that same day.

Before we start this fun new feature however, we thought we would make the first go of it an opportunity to include a little promotion for all of our loyal Twitter followers. For the next two weeks we will be compiling questions from Twitter folks to create an introductory interview and give everyone a chance to ask us any burning question they want to know about us. After we are done collecting questions, we will be picking ten of them to answer and we will link the Twitter name of each author of each question we choose to answer. So if you follow us on Twitter (and you should be following us!) art thinking of some good questions and send them to us in a DM! You may just end up on our sites!

And to help you start generating questions, here’s some info on Elizabeth (or Firgs as her nickname is).

Real Name: Elizabeth Gast
Other Name: Firggy or Firgs
Site Link: http://designbyfirgs.com

Hi! I’m Firggy, I live in Chicago, IL and have been working and studying design for over ten years. I have an Associates degree in Fine Art and a BA in Digital Art, but I am constantly teaching myself new things as I believe that education should never stop no matter what level you are. I love art. I’ve wanted to be an artist for as long as I can remember. But when I discovered computers in the 6th grade (we’re talking DOS here) I found a second passion that opened up a whole new world. As far as I’m concerned, art + computers is the best combination ever! Photoshop will always be my main love and my main source of artistic outlet, but occasionally I’ll drift away to other programs in the Adobe suite. I started using it in version 4.0 and I am currently working with CS3. As long as I live though, I doubt I will ever learn all there is to learn with this one program – esp. if they keep changing it on me!

Right now I work as a freelancer in the industry as well as a Photoshop instructor. When I am not working (which is hardly ever – but don’t tell Erik that!) I enjoy reading novels about the Renaissance era as I am highly inspired by the works and musings of Leonardo da Vinci – who I swear is the father of ADD! I think he would have LOVED the internet!

I’m really looking forward to working with Erik on this project. I know we see things differently most of the time and yet I have the utmost respect for him. I really think this is going to be fun!

Christmas Blogging Schedule

Erik Bernskiold — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:39:20 +0000

I thought I’d let you guys know about my planned posting schedule for the Christmas holidays. I’m going to be taking time off to spend with family and basically enjoy the time off from tomorrow (23rd) and be back posting on boxing day (26th) and then start summing up this year and what’s been and what is to come in 2009 as we approach the new year.

I’m taking this moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas if you aren’t looking here on the 24th or 25th.

Lightroom 2.2 Released

Erik Bernskiold — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:26:14 +0000

Adobe has officially released Lightroom 2.2, an update that’s mostly a camera support and bug fix release. The new camera support is mainly for these models:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon PowerShot G10
Panasonic DMC-G1**
Panasonic DMC-FX150**
Panasonic DMC-FZ28**
Panasonic DMC-LX3**
Leica D-LUX 4**

Download

Macintosh | Windows

Lightroom 2 Bugs – Fixed

Images rendered from the Slideshow export process produced a jagged effect on hard edges relative to the quality of normal JPEG export
Increased the number of characters allowed in Web gallery labels beyond 150 characters
Catalogs with hundreds of root (top level) folders caused very slow launch times
Drag and drop to move a subfolder to a different folder showed the incorrect photos in the grid
Print Sharpening produced edge artifacts in certain conditions
Density defaulted to 100 percent for initial stroke regardless of position of slider
The Adjustment brush created blocky, straight edges to brush strokes under certain conditions
Lightroom could become unresponsive when using the graduated filter under certain conditions
It was possible to lose the ability to edit an adjustment brush setting after applying a graduated filter with hidden pins
Turning auto-mask on produced a lag in Lightroom performance in when applying the adjustment brush
Print to JPEG functionality produced a low resolution image when printing photos with panorama aspect ratios
Extended characters in a folder name caused Edit in Photoshop functionality to fail
Smart collection did not respond to changes in custom metadata
Enabling auto-mask produced a lag in performance in when applying the local adjustment brush

Lightroom 2 Enhancements

Camera profiles are now available in the Calibration panel in the Develop module. These profiles are designed to provide different interpretations of raw capture.

**With the release of Camera Raw 5.2 (and upcoming Lightroom 2.2 release) there is an important exception in our DNG file handling for the Panasonic DMC LX3, Panasonic DMC FX150, Panasonic DMC FZ28, Panasonic DMC-G1 and Leica D-LUX 4. In this release the native, proprietary files from these cameras can only be converted to linear DNG files. A linear DNG file has gone through a demosaic process that converts a single mosaic layer of red, green and blue channel information into three distinct layers , one for each channel. The resulting linear DNG file is approximately three times the size of a mosaic DNG file or the original proprietary file format.

This exception is a temporary solution to ensure that Panasonic and Leica’s intended image rendering from their proprietary raw file format is applied to an image when converted DNG files are viewed in third party software titles. The same image rendering process is applied automatically in Camera Raw 5.2 and in Lightroom 2.2 when viewing the original proprietary raw file format.

In a future release Adobe plans to update the DNG specification to include an option to embed metadata-based representations of the lens compensations in the DNG file, allowing a mosaic DNG conversion. In the interim Adobe recommends only converting these files to DNG to allow compatibility with third party raw converters, previous versions of the Camera Raw plug-in or previous versions of Lightroom.