Dear Debbie. . .

Look Ma, No Photoshop

This week's issue People magazine makes a big fuss over the fact that ten big stars appear in their pages baring all with no makeup and no retouching. That's cool, only there are so many camera tricks involved that the photos are essentially manipulated anyway. It just goes to show you that there are plenty of ways to bend reality that don't necessarily involve Photoshop.

In a post over at the Pop Photo Flash today, I deconstruct just what makes these women look great without makeup (and no, it's not just because they're all naturally beautiful and under forty). Check the post out here, and tune into the Pop Photo Flash daily for more daily tips and fun picture-taking ideas.

Contest Winner: Kristin MacBride is a Better Graphic Designer than I Am!

In a slightly belated fashion, I am pleased to announce the winner of the "I'm a Better Graphic Designer Than Debbie Grossman" contest. It is Kristin MacBride, of Texas! She won both because her design was the best of all the entries, and because she explained how to do it in a simple, easy-to-follow fashion.

Check out her instructions, after the jump.

Before You Install CS3...

If you use a Mac and installed any version of the Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, clear it off before you install the real thing. Adobe has this script to help you do it. If you just dump it in the trash, you'll be sorry.

Good Question: How Do I Downsize a Photo for Email?

Dear Debbie,

Long ago I saved an article from your magazine describing how to e-mail photos, Photos in the Fast Lane, and I have been doing it that way since. However, it is a multi-step process in which you: make a copy, save the copy at the highest image quality (12), lower the resolution to 72dpi, reduce the image dimensions to no more than 6 inches high or wide, sharpen the image, then do another save as at a lower quality setting of 5-6. Finally it is under 100K!

Is there any quick and easy way of doing this, especially if you want to do a lot at once, such as in the Batch processing or something like that? I'm using Photoshop CS2.

Thank you,
Photo Slowpoke

Good Question: Why Are Stacks Are Only in Photoshop CS3 Extended?

Yesterday, commenter Chris Norris wrote:

I was totally okay with the extra Extended version until I read about image stacks and what that will mean for photographers. The line we keep hearing from Adobe is, "CS3 will be great for photographers, Extended is for people doing 3d and super fancy stuff that photographers don't care about." That seemed okay until I read this about stacks…. To me, that indicates that they're just going for the money with the CS3 Extended. Yeah, CS3 is great, but... if you're REALLY SERIOUS about this stuff, you should have Extended, right?

Adobe's John Nack speaks to that question on his blog today:

Now, I'll admit that seeing image stacks this way makes our marketing story a little more challenging.  Didn't we say that "Photoshop Extended" is meant to offer specific capabilities to people who need them, and that we haven't withheld core photographic functionality in order to get every customer wanting/using Extended? We did say that, and it's true.  Image stacks are powerful and (I think) pretty cool, but I'd feel uneasy about overselling them a core photographic tool.  There's both power and potential here, but it's a little more science-fair-ish than we'd like to sell for mainstream photography work.

I'd say there are plenty of arguably "science-fair-ish" features of regular Photoshop that could be characterized as going way beyond mainstream "core photographic tools." HDR anyone? On the other hand, given the number of smart, creative people who use Photoshop, it's not surprising that someone quickly came up with an artistic use for a tool that was engineered for science. What do you think?

Free Unlimited Online Backup, Essentially

Yesterday, Yahoo announced that as of May, storage limits will be lifted from their email accounts. That's good news for all of us who refuse to delete any email, ever. But it may also be good news for those of us looking for a free way to backup our favorite images online. Sure, we could pay to do it. But what if we were to set up a separate email account just for picture backup. Once a week or so we could send ourselves our favorite pictures, even our RAW files.*  We could put keywords, titles, and any other relevant information in the body of the email. That way, if we needed to retrieve any of the photos, we could use Yahoo Mail's excellent built-in search to dig them out.

*The current attachment limit is 10 MB, so you might have to send yourself a few messages at a time.

Photoshop CS3 Launch News Roundup

Today's the day you've all been waiting for (or maybe, for some of you, dreading): The launch of the newest version of Photoshop and its whole Creative Suite.

• This afternoon I, and some of my fellow RIGs (that's Relatively Important Geeks), will be attending the big CS3 Launch Event in downtown NYC. Interested parties can tune in to the webcast. Scott Kelby is even more excited than me.

• For help answering one of the most confusing questions about CS3 (Which do you need?), check out Adobe's Creative Suite page, and click on the Product Selector. Mind you their Product Selector will not tell you that the software you currently have is fine.

• How much will the "Master Collection" run you? Yep, $2,499!

• Wondering if now's the time to buy stock in Adobe? According to John Loiacono, Adobe's senior vice president of creative solutions, this launch is "kind of like the Super Bowl."

• The Stacks feature is one of the coolest things about the new Photoshop Extended. But will that make it worth the price for the average photographer? Maybe so.

• Every single CS3 press release, for your perusal.

• On Adobe's site: Photoshop CS3 and CS3 Extended, compared.

• USA Today on the big release. Several credible and intelligent sources are quoted.

• Update: John Nack's super-detailed and linked list to the differences between Photoshop CS3 and the Extended Version.

You Didn't Hear it From Me: CS3 Prices Leaked by Amazon.com

In the grand tradition of information being leaked on the internet before the company was good and ready for it to be out, Amazon.com jumped the gun and posted Adobe Creative Suite 3 pricing a day early.

Mac Rumors has the short list, Gizmodo's got all the pretty box photos.

And I'll have more on the gala launch event tomorrow.

Vista Users: Possibly More Reason to Get CS3

Hey folks, if you're planning to use your pre-CS3 copy of Photoshop with your new version of Vista, you may want to think again:

According to a statement posted on Adobe’s Web site, the company “does not plan to issue updates to current versions of those products for Windows Vista compatibility.”

That means users will have to pay hundreds of dollars to upgrade their Adobe software if they want trouble-free performance on Windows Vista, which is now preinstalled in virtually all new PCs shipping in the United States. That’s because the current versions of most of Adobe’s major products won’t work properly on the new operating system.

I personally have not tried any of the older versions of Photoshop on Vista, so I can't report on any glitches. Anyone else? 

[via The Great Geek Manual News via Active Network]

Update: Here's an FAQ from Adobe about all of their products' compatibility with Vista.

So, You're Thinking of Upgrading to CS3...

In his blog, Photoshop Insider, super guru Scott Kelby points out some fascinating news about Photoshop upgrades and prices. See, in the old days, you could get the upgrade price for the latest version of the mega-program no matter which Photoshop was the last one you bought, even if the last one you shelled out for was version 2.0. Scott notes:

As of the release of Photoshop CS3, you'll only be able to upgrade at the standard upgrade price if you have Photoshop 7, CS, or CS2. So, if you're still using Photoshop 6.0 or earlier (and some people still are) here's what I'd recommend; upgrade to Photoshop CS2 now (you'll pay something around $169), then you can buy the upgrade to CS3 when it comes out at the regular upgrade price, which will save you literally hundreds of dollars over having to the buy the full version once CS3 ships.

So all you 6.0 users on the fence about the new version: you have until Monday the 26th to save yourself some serious bucks.