by A.J. Wood

DFW Events – Week of May 10th

Good morning dear readers.

It’s been brought to my attention that content around these parts is rather lacking leading some to believe I’m slacking off. On the contrary, just doing my best to keep my head above water at the moment. In the juggling act of this month, something is bound to drop. Rest assured the respite is only temporary, and blogging duties will continue as best they can.

Now on to this week’s events happening in Dallas/Ft. Worth:

Joomla Users Group – Monday, May 11th at 7pm – For beginners & enthusiasts of this CMS a special presentation by Cory Webb & Kyle Ledbetter.

Digital Photography Club – Wednesday, May 13th at 7pm – Join the guys for dinner at Golden Corral in Grapevine to talk about upcoming events for the club.

Adobe Roadshow – Thursday, May 14th at 9am – scheduled originally in April the event will be presented at the Hotel Palomar for one day only. Prior registrations should still be valid.

DDPMG – Saturday, May 16th at 8am – Photo Safari at Fort Worth Zoo. Get a rare opportunity to photo the animals at breakfast time before the park opens. Cost $21

DFWAUG – Saturday, May 16th at 11am – HDR Photography with Gene McCullagh. Don’t miss a chance to learn from an Adobe Community Expert & top photographer.

Digital Photography Club – Sunday, May 17th at 1pm – Walk-A-Bout. This is the event that has everyone talking. Enjoy an afternoon with beautiful scenery, and other photographers.

DDPMG – Sunday, May 17th at 6:30pm – Photoshop Plugins. Come join the group as I give a presentation on the latest Nik Software plugins for Photoshop.

Please feel free to contact me if you have future events planned, or if you would like me to add your usergroup to my community page.

in Events 0 comments
 by A.J. Wood

The Award for Worst Adobe Keyboard Shortcut

Hola dear readers! How are you today?

Maybe it’s the classes I’m teaching today (Dreamweaver then Lightroom), but I’ve got keyboard shortcuts on the brain. Here are some quick observations:

1. Why are the Preferences in Dreamweaver activated by CMD+U (CTRL+U) and not CMD+K (CTRL+K)? Was Dreamweaver Uninvited to the preferences party by InDesign, Photoshop & Illustrator? It’s not like CMD+K is used for anything in Dreamweaver right now.

2. Speaking of preferences, you don’t even get a keyboard shortcut in Flash, and CMD+K (CTRL+K) opens the Align panel? Oh… I get it. *channels South Park* “I want to align stuff… mmmm K.”

3. I thought “N” as a shortcut for the Survey View in Lightroom was bad until I saw CMD+B (CTRL+B) for the Review Mode (casually referred to as the Carousel View) in Adobe Bridge. Here’s how I remember those two diddys:

“Do you like taking surveys?”

“No. Nobody likes taking surveys.”

That’s how I remember N for Survey View.

“It’s Best to review your images Before adding to your design.”

That’s how I remember CMD+B for Review Mode in Bridge.

What shortcuts do you find particular annoying or hard to remember?

in Tutorials / Written 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

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