Adobe is going to officially announce CS4 on 09/23/08. We mentions this on the last broadcast, but it warranted a post. There’s a thread on the forums and many think it’s a bit too early and that the updates are too small for what Adobe charges.
On the flipside Scott Kelby says it’s going to be impressive, and I have to give some solid wight to his opinions. I’m gonna be keeping my eye on it for sure. Whatever it turns out to offer, it’s worth signing up to get a look.
I‘ve talked about OnOne products in the past before being a fan of their stuff. We’ve been working out some deals lately, and this one is a great buy. Buying their plugin’s separately can be pretty spendy, but the Plugin Suite has a bunch of the plugins all in one package; including my favorites, Mask Pro, Genuine Fractals, and Photo Frame 4 Pro (included if you use this special). It also includes Photo Tools, Photo Tune, and Focal Point.
We have a special 100.00 coupon for you that is good from Sept 10th – 20th 2008. Just use promo code BTSPRO at checkout to get the discount. Check it out here. This is a pretty sweet deal.
Yep even we do a little shameless self promotion occasionally. Gotta keep the goods coming! Our sister site Seim Effects has just launched a brand new set of Photoshop actions. This is a collection if effects geared towards the everyday needs of nearly any photographer. S.E already has lots of amazing photographers already using their effects and workflow. You won’t be disappointed*
There’s a detailed video showing them in “Action” over on Seim Effects. There’s also a launch sale over there. PPS readers can save 15% off this set, and any of actions or Lightroom Presets on S.E for a very limited time. Just use promo code “PPSS”
Fine Print… Yep we even have that :–)
* This detailed statistic is based on the fact that people love Seim Effects, and say so rather than the contrary. Though we cannot absolutely positively promise that you will never ever be disappointed, we’re really really thinking you won’t. If you have any trouble contact Gavin. He’ll be happy to take care of you.
Just posted over at Seim Effects is a free video about using burn and dodge to control light and dimension in your image.
Burn and dodge is an overlooked tool, and it’s true we see images all the time that need it. It’s not hard to apply, and it doesn’t take long to transform an image with burn & dodge and get that final magic! Yep even with those HDR images.
JPEG, TIFF, PSD, Successive Save, Save As, and more.
by Gavin Seim. Updated 11/11. There’s often confusion about what makes a JPEG and other files degrade, so I thought I would so a few a real world test. First let me say that simply copying, or viewing a file does NOT cause any degradation as people sometimes believe. If you copy and paste a file it’s simply a bit for bit cop. There’s no loss because nothing has been altered.
When you open, and then re-save a file is when things usually change. Even if you save at the highest quality JPEG settings you have still re-compressed that file when you save again. Unless or course your using an uncompressed file format to start with (TIFF for example). But even then there can be some quality loss version after version.
So how bad is a file damaged each time you successively save it. Well lets just say you should keep your originals. I’m not saying we can’t make revision copies (or file generations as I refer to them). But we should be aware. Below we’re going to look at the same image submitted to various torturous conditions and you can then judge for yourself.
These image are 700px. Click any image to see it at that resolution, or download all the images to compare them. Images that were opened and saved with “Save As” rather than “Save” commands are noted as such. If you want to join the discussion beyond comments here is the forum topic on this.
Original File.JPEG / Open / Save / Close / 100x -- Here I simply opened the file and saved it again 100 times. No pixel edits were done to the image, I just made a type layer and then deleted it so that PS would allow me to save. Apparently PS could tell that no pixels were edited and did not overwrite the unchanged pixels. Minimal or no degradation here.
