by A.J. Wood

Monday Madness

Good morning dear readers. Hope your weekend was swell, and Monday hasn’t caught you by surprise just yet.

Well, 2009 has started with the best of intentions, and like my workout schedule, I’m trying to be a bit more consistent here on the blog. I’ve managed to keep the daily Adobe tips going via Twitter & RSS. Be sure to sign up for either service, I post via Twitter at 9AM & again at 9PM, and the RSS feed is updated in the morning. I will be expanding those tips here, and hope to have some articles & videos up on the site very soon. I’ve been working a lot behind the scenes to get everything going, and the toughest part has been filling the blog pipe with content. I have been mulling over the idea of themed days, much like Scott Kelby, Firgs or Erik do, but I don’t know how long I could keep up the format. Regardless, I’ll continue to plug away, and do my best to keep you educated & entertained.

That’s the news for now. Alrighty, back to work you go.

in Adobe / Editorial / News 0 comments
 by A.J. Wood

Your Newest Adobe Community Expert

I am excited to announce that this week I joined the 2009 class of Adobe Community Experts. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! to Dee Sadler, Stacy Sison & Lynly Schambers-Lenox for nominating me. It is a privilege & honor to be considered worthy of such a great community of talent. I hope I can share as much information as I am certain to learn from my peers in the Adobesphere. This year’s class included my good friend & Lightroom guru Gene McCullagh. Congratulations to you sir! And thanks for taking all the pressure off me in representing Dallas to the global community. *grin*

in Adobe / Arts/Media / News 3 comments
 by A.J. Wood

Forbes & Crowdspring Fire Up Designers

Bigger Better Faster CheaperIt may have been lost on the general public, but earlier this week a Forbes article was the shot across the bow for most of the professional design community. In the article, Christoper Steiner interviews CrowdSpring about their “design contest” business model. Based on the comments to the article, the topic is one that is close to the heart of many professional designers. In my opinion, Steph Doyle makes a good point about the lack of balance in the article, how it favors the idea presented by CrowdSpring, and doesn’t present a fair counterpoint. Steph also goes on to mention how inexperienced designers are only hurting themselves and the design industry. You may recall last month I wrote an article asking, “How much are you worth?“, which addressed the issues facing students entering the job market. I agree with Steph that the design community needs to do a better job of educating new designers, students, peers & the general consumer.

So what happens now?

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in Arts/Media / News 7 comments
 by A.J. Wood

Photoshop Elements 7 & Photoshop.com

Adobe has announced version 7 of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements as well as a mobile strategy for the Photoshop.com website. Looking at Adobe’s site it appears that these version upgrades are only for the Windows platform. While I understand the rationale, WAAAAAAYYYYY more Windows consumers in the global marketplace, it’s a little disappointing that the Mac version still lags behind. What’s even more annoying is that Adobe’s mobile strategy is setup immediately for Windows 6 Mobile, and not an iPhone–still on my Christmas wish list donate today–which is really a better device for imaging.

As a professional, my day-to-day is inside Photoshop CS3, and rarely do I need to fire up PSE. In the consumer market, interest in PSE is picking up, which caused me to add it to the Media Cats class list. It’s a great tool even for the serious photo hobbyist, and with a price point of $99 it’s a tough program to beat. So long as they don’t make features exclusive to PSE over Photoshop I’ll be okay. I hate having to install an app *cough iPhoto* that I keep just for one or two features I use on occasion.

First reviews of Photoshop Elements 7 seemed to draw a yawn, but PSE has always felt a bit cluttered to me compared to Photoshop. Certainly it does not have the UI strength built into Lightroom. More coverage can be found on the CNET download blog.

in Adobe / News 1 comments