Photoshop World Las Vegas

I'm back from Photoshop World in Las Vegas that ended on Friday. I'm an enthusiastic amateur photographer and there is no place better to get the latest training and trends in the photographic industry then to attend a PSW. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals puts on two of these events a year, one on the East Coast (usually in Orlando) and one out West (usually in Las Vegas). I haven't been to the event since 2007 and below were the trends that stood out to that previous show.

• Video with DSLRs. In early 2009, Canon came out with their 5D Mark II, which included the ability to record HD video. I'm told that this was almost an after thought by the Canon engineers thinking that there would be a very small audience that would be interested in the video capabilities, perhaps a handful of photojournalist or wedding photographers might use the feature. Well there has been an explosion of interest and excitement surrounding this capability and there were several classes at PSW that dealt with capturing, editing and creating video with DSLR cameras. Count me as one of the ones who is trying to learn this new skill set and expand my ability to tell stories with it.
• HDR Photography. High Dynamic Range photography is a complete creation from the digital age, it isn't a process that the old analog darkroom could create. As such, it is fairly controversial in terms of its appeal. Basically the process involves taking several exposures of a scene (usually 3 to 5) and then using software blending these exposures together into one photo. By using the multiple exposures the photo can greatly increase the tonal range of the image. There were several classes on HDR at the show, and while I was there Apple announce that it would include HDR capabilities with the new iOS software.
• 3D Design. The 3D capabilities came in with a prior version of Photoshop but there seemed to be more interest in it this year. I sat in on one session that went over the capabilities and it was interesting. To me, this is just a starting marker for Photoshop and sometime in the next five years the capabilities of 3D will begin to expand rapidly. For example, loading multiple photos of a subject and then loading them into Photoshop to rotate around it would be very cool and something I think is not to far off, although I am completely speculating here.

Other observations: there were supposedly 3,000 people in attendance which seem strong in this economy, the accompanying trade show seemed much smaller than I remember with less vendor participation. The show itself seemed more diverse, with more women and African-Americans. In the past these shows seem to be a young to middle aged white guy fest. The diversity was a welcome sign.

Well that's all for my notes from PSW Las Vegas. I hope to make it back in a few years to see how things have changed.

Book Review: 7-Point System

I have really lived in a incredible time of technological change. Among one of the most interesting has been the digitalization of media. From the late 80s when analog vinyl albums were replaced by digital CD, to motion picture film into digital DVDs in the mid-90s, and still photography into digitized images in the early years of this century.

What really reignited my interest in photography again was that I no longer needed a separate room to develop film, nor the cost that went along with that. I could now have a "digital darkroom" and have the same or much more power than in the analog world.

This digital darkroom has been anchored by the mother of all digital editing software, Adobe Photoshop, which is now in its 10th version. Photoshop is a remarkable tool but it is an open-ended tool that doesn't guide the user through a logical process. One can simply jump into the program and process in any order without concern for what process might make the best image. As digital cameras have replaced film cameras new processes have emerged. In the last few years the "digital workflow" has been the new buzzword in photography.

Back when film photography was becoming popular to greater numbers of people, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ansel Adams wrote a legendary triad of books about photographic technique that has become the most influential series on photography ever written. The books (The Camera, The Negative, The Print) guided photographers through the process of film photography, from exposure through the final print.

I have recently been working my way through a new book, Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop. The book is the first attempt that I can find that will guide photographers through a critical portion of the digital editing process. It would be extremely unfair to Scott Kelby to compare him with the genius of Adams, so I won't, but the book generally covers portions of the digital equivalent to Adams' "The Negative" and "The Print".

What I really like about the book is that it is broken up into 21 lessons (about a months worth if done every few days) that consistently goes over the same 7 general approaches to editing digital photos. By doing one every few days, the book encourages the reader/editor to open up the software, think about a common approach for editing and organize that approach in a proper order. It has certainly solidified my approach to the editing process. The two pictures in this post are examples of "before" and "after" photos using the concepts taught in the book. The photo is a sunset scene from Maui that I took this summer. The final photo isn't exactly an award winning shot, but certainly an improvement over what I would consider a throw away shot that I began with.