Photo for the day – Oklahoma City Plaza Court

Here is a panoramic of the historic Plaza Court area of Oklahoma City. This is four images stitched together with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

New Print Arrived

I received my first ever canvas print, gallery wrap in the mail today from White House Custom Color ( http://www.whcc.com ) and I must say, it’s amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect, with it being printed on canvas and all. I can’t even begin to understand how you can get so much detail printed on canvas.

I discovered WHCC on a suggestion from Scott Bourne over at photofocus.com (podcast and blog). WHCC is a sponsor of Photofocus and they do all of Scott’s printing. I now understand why. First, you can get five sample 8×10 prints free. That’s right, free, no shipping, no nothing, free. So, take it from me, get over to WHCC.com and get some prints. Stop by photofocus.com and check it out too.

Lightroom Roots

As I continue with my Photoshop class I discover, the more I use Photoshop the more I love Adobe Lightroom. What has been really interesting is actually seeing the roots of where all the tools in Lightroom came from. Additionally, how easy Adobe has made the Lightroom product to use.

I’m still very happy with my decision to take a Photoshop class instead of giving it a go on my own. With Lightroom, I picked up a book and hit the ground running. My only real problem was grasping the digital asset management (DAM) side of the product. On the other hand, Photoshop, I still have a hard time with some very basic tasks. I know Photoshop will get “easier” over time but man, it shouldn’t be stressful! I’m wondering if I should have looked at Photoshop Elements instead.

2nd day of photoshop class – Monkey Wrench

We had our 2nd day of Photoshop class yesterday. I have to say, from what I’ve seen so far, Photoshop if awesome. Of course, most of you already know that. The ability to stack two similar images and remove parts of one to allow the other to show through is amazing. I can’t wait to work with it more and discover all the great tools I’ve been missing.

I also discovered Photoshop just threw a big monkey wrench into my workflow. Up until now I’ve only been using Lightroom. Lightroom is very powerful but there are times when you need a little more and that’s where Photoshop comes in. With that, Photoshop does not work with dng files. So now, when I use to edit in dng and export to jpg, I now have to consider working with dng, exporting to work in Photoshop, then exporting to jpg. Hmm, I guess I’m not the first person with this problem and I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Guess I need to look at what others are doing.

Started Photoshop Class

Wow, there sure are a lot of buttons in Photoshop! We started our class last night and I’m glad somebody is holding our hand. It was interesting to see where some of the tools in Lightroom came from.

I was very happy to discover our book for the class is Adobe Photoshop CS4 Classroom In A Book by Adobe Press. The official workbook from Adobe Systems http://www.adobepress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=032157379X

I really hope the class lives up to my expectations, if all goes well, I’ll sign up for the 2nd class.