October 1, 2007

Will ten years see adobe standing on a street corner, in the pouring rain with a sign?

adobe_will_program_for_beer2.jpgProbably not, but changes have been big at Adobe in the past year and even before, and not for the better. Adobe support is in the toilet, prices are up, and the competition, though not yet shining bright, is growing.

All we can say for the competition is “Come on in” Adobe is out of touch, and it’s getting worse. We need some good old fashioned product wars to balance out the scales.

Since Adobe purchased Macromedia nearly two years ago things have taken a rapid decline, and it seems that Adobe must be kidding themselves into thinking it won’t catch up with them.

Aside from customer service problems, like long hold times, sending support overseas to people we can barley communicate with, and that have a general lack of interest in our problems Adobe has also introduced heavy DRM (digital rights management) into their products. They just don’t get it do they? You can go online and download an illegal version of any Adobe software you want that will work just fine. Or you can be honest and support Adobe by spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on their products.

So what does adobe do? Adobe in their latest

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September 28, 2007

Hollywood EffectsTheir finally here. My Hollywood Effects actions include fourteen of my best effects that I’ve made up into Photoshop actions and can applied at the click of a mouse.

The set sells for $29.99 and is available now for instant download. It also comes with nearly 30 minutes of video where I walk thru the actions and discuss tips for making them work for you. The video alone should help you understand the action workflow, so even if you have no experience with actions you’ll be running these in no time.

You can get them right now at www.seimeffects.com There’s also a gallery of sample images you can check out.

Have fun… Gavin Seim

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September 26, 2007

trash the dress

The title pretty much explains this one. Fortanelli over in our photo forums found this for us. If you like the idea of a wedding dress trash then watch this video over on the still motion blog, For a bit of inspiration and envy. Well done Still Motion. Great stuff!

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September 25, 2007

spyderjpg.jpgThis is a topic that comes up often, and one that people really seem to fluster over. They really want their work to look great, and just aren’t sure how to handle their color. It and understandable concern, but there are fairly simple precautions to take to make sure you get accurate color, and make those photo’s look their very best.

The first and foremost thing to remember is to make sure you monitor is calibrated. Computer monitors vary quite a lot, and actually change the color they display over time. Even when just sitting on your desk.
For this reason you need to calibrate your motor fairly regularly. I try to do it once every month or two, and more often will certainly not hurt. Even if you get the pictures to look great on your screen, you may be unpleasantly surprised at how they look when you, (or a client) get them back from the lab and find that the vivid glory that graced your image is suddenly gone.

“picking up a color calibration unit will help you not only have peace of mind about your color. It will help you get truly better quality work”

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September 23, 2007

ad.jpgHey all. I just wanted to announce the soon to be released Hollywood Effects actions. It’s fourteen really cool effects that I’ve made up into Photoshop actions and can applied at the click of a mouse.

These ones won’t be free, but I like effects that don’t cost a fortune so I priced them less than actions usually cost, and you get a lot of effects in one package.

There’s some really neat special effects here, and I’m pretty excited about them. If you have not used actions in the past now is a good time to start. The set will even come with a video to get you flying, and there’s even actions that were designed to work with HDR portraits and make them look great!

They’ll be an instant download, and are not available quite yet but you can check out the brand new Seim Effects site, and see samples of the effects, plus sign up to be notified when their available, and get a special discount.

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