Upcoming Plans for 2011

Good morning all.

There have been some recent inquiries as to the status of the tutorials, tweets, and other such content I post online. I recently started posting new tutorial videos after a longer than expected hiatus. Such is life, always throwing a curve ball or two your way to make things interesting. As a content creator, I realize the need to be consistent, and reliable for the viewing public.

It was a mistake on my part to neglect this website/blog as one of my communication channels. I’ve been so focused on other social media outlets that I overlooked how empty the website appears from a GA (Google Analytics) perspective. Earlier this month, I wrote a post on Tiffinbox about creating a network of professionals to help grow your business. Essentially, why DIY when you can get some help?

Which brings us to today’s post, and my plans moving forward in 2011. Currently, I’m working on updating this website to make better use of the tutorial videos I release on YouTube. Speaking of videos, I’m still hoping to release a full Lightroom training series by the summer. Folks who enjoy my #852am & #Tip12pm tweets will be happy to know that I expect to start chatting everyone up again the first week of May. There are other items I have on the To Do list, and I’ll announce those in the upcoming months.

As always, I thank you for your patronage, and I look forward to being a part of your Internet consumption again in the weeks to come.

Adobe Releases Creative Suite 5.5 Update

By now you’ve heard the news, Adobe released the Creative Suite 5.5 upgrade today. Yes, I said, “upgrade” as this is a paid release, not to be confused with an “update” typical of dot releases. While early buzz is a mixture of excitement and complaints, what people should focus on is Adobe’s commitment to staying current with industry trends. CS 5.5 addresses the needs of web developers and the importance of mobile technologies. The buzz is around HTML5, CSS3 & EPUB, making InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver and Adobe’s video production tools well worth a look. Another item worth noting is the subscription model for accessing the Creative Suite. This will be great for people who don’t want the upfront cost of Photoshop or the full Creative Suite. It will also work well for those that have short term projects or use temporary workers. Here are some videos from Adobe TV that demonstrate new features.

Overview of CS5.5 Design Premium

Overview of CS5.5 Production Premium

Lightroom vs Adobe Bridge

My article was originally posted on TipSquirrel, February 23, 2010. I’ve updated the information to reflect the latest Adobe products.

It may come as a shock, but with the pending releases of Lightroom 3 and CS5 currently on the brain, folks still have time to debate whether to use Lightroom or Adobe Bridge.

Really? This is still a question? *grin*

Actually, I can understand the confusion. Perhaps you started off with a copy of Scott Kelby’s Photoshop CS5 for Digital Photographers learned all about Bridge, incorporated Camera RAW into your workflow, only to feel bamboozled when you later discovered Scott also has a book entitled Lightroom 3 for Digital Photographers. Huh? It’s simple, before Lightroom came along many photographers used Photoshop and therefore Bridge to organize & process images. I have all five revisions of Scott’s PS 4 Photogs series, and Lightroom wasn’t on the scene until the 3rd book.

But I digress…

You want to know the differences between Lightroom & Bridge? You want to know absolutely which one to use & when? Let me break it down for you:

Defining The Programs

1. Adobe Bridge is a file browser. Cooler than Finder, hipper than Explorer.

2. Adobe Camera RAW is an image processor so good JPEGs asked for an invitation.

3. Photoshop is the ultimate program for manipulating raster images, but you knew that already.

4. Lightroom was designed from the ground up to be a single program solution for photographer workflow. Built around a database (Lightroom’s catalog files), users can quickly organize, process & output files.

The key is while photographers use Adobe Bridge, Camera RAW & Photoshop, Lightroom was built for photographers. It even says so in the Lightroom FAQ.

Investing in The Software

1. Spend $999 for Photoshop CS5 Extended which comes with Bridge & Camera RAW.

2. Spent $299 for Lightroom 3. Take the extra $700 buy a nice camera and Photoshop Elements 9 ($79 after rebate).

Comparing The Workflows

1. Organize with Adobe Bridge. Process with Adobe Camera RAW. Composite/finish with Photoshop. Output with Adobe Bridge (PDFs, slideshows, websites) or Photoshop (print).

2. Organize with Lightroom’s Library module. Process with Lightroom’s Develop module. Roundtrip hand-off to Photoshop for compositing or effects. Output with Lightroom’s Slideshow, Print or Web modules.

The majority of photographer workflow can be done in Lightroom which is a single program versus Adobe Bridge & Camera RAW. What about Photoshop you ask? Lightroom isn’t Photoshop, and it’s not meant to be.

Differences in Program Workflows

1. As a file browser, Adobe Bridge is excellent for those moments when you need to preview digital files. Whether it’s external hard drives, downloaded Internet files, DVD/CD media or devices such as cameras or PDAs, Bridge has the ability to look at the files directly on the media. No import necessary.

Lightroom requires you to import files before you can make changes. Sure you can preview files, but it’s through the Import Dialogue screen.

2. Adobe Bridge reads multiple media types including video, vector & raster images, Flash & Quicktime, even PDFs.

Lightroom only reads JPEG, TIFF, DNG or RAW files.

3. Adobe Bridge can only work directly with files via connected drives or devices.

Lightroom writes all changes to the catalog database files, allowing you to do certain organizational tasks even when drives & devices have been disconnected. Plus DATABASE=SPEED.

Working Together

1. Metadata written to files with Adobe Bridge can be picked up on import through Lightroom. Lightroom catalog changes can be saved to file which can be read directly in Bridge.

2. Adobe Camera RAW & Lightroom’s Develop module use the same technology. While the interfaces may have different layouts, the sliders & tools work the same. Settings made in one program can be edited in another.

If you know Adobe Bridge/Camera RAW working in Lightroom shouldn’t be an issue. Same if you have to jump over from Lightroom to Camera RAW. Don’t believe me, Scott Kelby has been saying the same thing for years.

Summary

For the new photographer who hasn’t yet purchased software, Lightroom is a clear favorite in price. One single application to do everything, and if you need the things Photoshop can do, you can always start with Photoshop Elements.

As a professional who uses both pieces of software, I can tell you my photography workflow begins & ends in Lightroom. However, I do use Bridge quite a bit as a replacement for Finder on my Mac workstations.

If you’ve already made the investment in Photoshop CS5 you might be hesitant to up end your workflow and changeover to Lightroom. Bottom line it’s about efficiency. Lightroom cuts through the clutter and streamlines the process.

Join TipSquirrel.com for the Lightroom 3 Series

If you aren’t a regular reader over at TipSquirrel.com this is a good week to start. Today Tipsy kicks off the Lightroom 3 series which will run the next two weeks. This is your opportunity to win great prizes, view tutorials, read the latest tips, and did I mention win prizes? As an added bonus this week you can get a massive 35% off Lightroom 3 books from our friends at Peachpit with the code “LR3week”

Adobe Software Updates – Illustrator CS5 15.0.1

Adobe released an update to Illustrator CS5 which addresses several known issues – Download Mac Update or Download PC Update

Be sure to visit Adobe’s website for a complete list of all available software updates.

As listed in the Illustrator CS5 Read Me file:

Problems specific to running Illustrator on Mac with RAM exceeding 4 gb.
This update resolves a problem Illustrator had running on high Ram Machines. On some systems, after opening large complex files, certain operations would fail. This could range from shortcut keys no longer working, rulers disappearing, files not opening, to in some cases, application crashes.

Glyphs panel failing to insert stylistic alternatives for glyphs.
This update includes a repair to the Glyphs panel, which was failing to insert stylistic alternates. The panel now works as expected.

Crash caused by fonts with bad FOND resource file. (Mac only)
This update fixes a problem where problem fonts with bad FOND resources could cause the application to crash at launch.

Illustrator crashes at launch with some non-default system preferences (Mac Only)
When some system preferences, like “Number Thousand Separators” were changed to non-default settings, Illustrator was crashing when launched. This no longer occurs with this update.

Illustrator Crashes when the application is quit immediately after launch (Windows only)
This release resolves a crash that occurs if the application is closed immediately after launching, before the application bar is fully loaded.

Illustrator crashes on Quit immediately after signing into or signing out of CS Live or CS Review (Mac only)
Several Mac only issues regarding services were addressed in this update. Crashes could occur when you either sign-in or sign-out of CS Live or CS Review and Quit Ai immediately, while the sign-in/sign-out process is still underway.

Copy from Illustrator and Paste Special as EMF into other applications not working.
There was a problem where copying within Illustrator, then pasting special as EMF in other applications, such as PowerPoint or Excel, stopped working. This has been resolved with this update.

Horizontal Lines appear on gradient mesh objects after rasterization.
During rasterization, either from the Object>Rasterize menu, saving to a raster format or printing to a bitmap printer, horizontal lines could appear on objects. There were many scenarios where this was an issue. Most of these issues have been addressed in this update.

Illustrator crashes when traversing a Dataset of a Variables Library which contains linked images.
After importing a Variable library with linked images, traversing through the dataset was causing Illustrator to crash. This has been addressed in this update.

Illustrator crashes when launched on XP SP3 if automatic scheduled task creation is disabled.
Illustrator was crashing at launch on XP machines with Service Pack 3 for specific domain configurations if automatic scheduled task creation is disabled. This has been resolved in this update.

Be sure to visit Adobe’s website for a complete list of all available software updates.