Book of the Week

It’s Friday, Hooray!!! Today is going to be a short post because I am up to my ears in whole of super cool stuff. More on that later, though! Today I wanted to highlight my book pick of the week. It is The Hot Shoe Diaries by famed Photographer Joe McNally. This is the second book from Joe. His first being The Moment It Clicks. Which was a huge hit. However this newest one is already destined to to be even a bigger seller. It covers using small small flashes in various scenarios and is delivered is Joe’s usual entertaining style. If you have ever seen him teach live you know what I mean. Which makes this book not just informative, but entertaining as well. No serious photographer should without this book. Check it out here. That’s it for today.

Be sure to check back here next week. We will have the results of the latest tutorial contest and a brand new contest will be under way as well. Have a great weekend!!

April 17th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (2)

New Online Course | Cool Motion Graphics Site

RC Concepcion, my friend and fellow co-host of Layers TV has just released a new online course over at the Kelby Training site. It is called Online Photo Portfolios with Lightroom 2 and Dreamweaver CS4 and it covers creating custom photo galleries in Lightroom 2 and then adding them your website using Dreamweaver CS4. Being a photographer today means being out there and being visible. The best way to so that of course is to have a web page, but just putting up a simple page isn’t enough anymore. The site has to be just as appealing as the images themselves and most of all user friendly. This course will take you there so check it out here.

Also if you are in to motion graphics then you want to check out VideoCopilot.net. This is a free tutorial site hosted by motion graphics genius Andrew Kramer. Andrew has a number of remarkable tutorials all for free and also has a number of products for motion artists and video pros. Things like sound effects, motion effects, music scores, and so much more. I like this site mainly because of the tutorials they are always something really cool to learn. You may have even seen Andrew’s work on television as he did the title effects for the Fox show Fringe. Check out his site here and enjoy!

April 14th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (5)

Wacom Tip of the Week

Last week I did quick tip with the new Intuos 4 from Wacom
and it seemed to be well appreciated by everyone so I thought I would perhaps try to get a Wacom related tip in every week. So this week I am talking to all of you who use a tablet with a dual monitor display. When you have a tablet set up on a dual display, by default it maps the area of both screens to the tablet. Meaning one half of the tablet controls one monitor and the other half controls the other. That’s fine if you like to work that way, but what if you want the entire tablet to be mapped to entirely one monitor. Simply go into the Wacom driver into the Functions section choose an Express key to modify. Click on the menu and choose Display Toggle. (You will only see this if you have two monitors connected.) That’s it! Now you simply press the express key to jump back and forth between the monitors while using the full area of the screen to the full area of the tablet. You can also set this up on one of the buttons on the pen itself. I personally use it this way because it puts the display toggle right at my fingertip.

Also if you are wanting to get more in depth with setting up your Intuos 4 you can check out my online course at KelbyTraining.com. It is called Getting Up To Speed with Intuos 4.

April 8th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (4)

Guru Winners | Planet Contest Deadline Today!

One of the coolest parts of the Photoshop World keynote is the Guru awards. For those of you who don’t know, the Guru awards is a special design contest only for Photoshop World attendees and is a great platform for someone’s work to be shown to thousands of people. Not to mention some really cool prizes to the winners in each category. There are seven categories on everything from photography to illustration to commercial. There were some really remarkable pieces submitted this year and you can see these winners here. It might motivate yourself to jump in and submit something for next time. You never know what could happen. Even I managed to won a couple several years ago.

Speaking of design contests, the latest Planet tutorial contest submission deadline is today. You have until tonight at midnight to get your entries in for this newest challenge. Click here for more info and to submit your entries. A new contest will be starting up soon, but you still have a little time to make it for this one. Good luck!!

April 6th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

More Fun with Brush Effects

Corey explores further the uses and experiments you can have with brush effects. Continue Reading »

April 3rd, 2009 | Corey Barker | Effects, Tutorials | Comments (25)

Friday In 3D!!

Well I thought I would share some new things I learned in the world of 3D in the past couple weeks. First my friend Bert Monroy turned me on to a very cool site that provides 3D models. Like the one pictured here. Not only that, they are actually really good 3D models and even better than that, they’re free! The site is called Archive3D.net and it has an enormous collection of free 3D models in a number of different categories. As I mentioned, it’s totally free. Just choose the model you want, download it, and open it up right in Photoshop. You do need Photoshop CS3 or CS4 Extended of course for the 3D support, but what a great resource. It’s great if you are needing that one little element to add to your work. Take a look around yourself and see what I mean.

Also, last week at Photoshop World I was able to catch up with the folks from Digital Anarchy. They just released a plug-in for Photoshop called 3D Invigorator. Not necessarily a new product. I remember Invigorator being available for After Effects for quite some time but now that they have finally released a version for Photoshop, I think people might take notice. It’s a plug in that allows you to create various 3D objects, text, or effects of all kinds. The familiar 3D interface is very intuitive if you used 3D apps before. The bad part is that it does not return the object back to Photoshop as a 3D layer. However, if you return it as a Smart Object, then you can go back into the Invigorator interface and make changes. This means that this plug in will work in both Standard and Extended versions of Photoshop. Another great way to creep into 3D without breaking the bank. Check it out!

Also one final thing with regard to 3D. If you haven’t gone to see the newest Dreamworks animated movie Monsters Vs. Aliens in 3D you are completely missing out. It was my first time seeing a feature film in this new 3D technology and I was completely blown away. It really immerses you in the experience with the help of the new 3D glasses. Which, by the way, make you look like you are witnessing a nuclear detonation. Definitely worth checking out!!

April 3rd, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

Wacom Tablet Tips

So we all know that Wacom introduced the Intuous 4 last week at Photoshop World and the response has been overwhelming. The curious thing is that those who have never used a tablet before seem to be the most interested. Veteran users like myself were overjoyed to say the least, but it is encouraging to see that others who were on the fence about getting a tablet are really considering it now. With that, I thought that I would occasionally post some random tip on the tablet. Because there are so many ways and so many configurations, it can be hard to to know how to set up your tablet.

This tip is targeted at you video editors and motion graphics people. Those of you who work with video are familiar with the term scrubbing. This is the process of basically scrolling through video. Some editors will have a special input device with a dial wheel which you turn to run through video frame by frame. This is critical for precision editing. Well with the new touch ring feature on the Intuous 4 you pretty much have a scrubbing wheel built right in. Simply go into your Wacom preferences and click on Functions in the Tool section. Click here to see a larger image of the Preferences. Then just below in the Application section click the plus sign to add an application. When the window opens locate the video app you wish to set up. For instance, I have chosen Quicktime Pro. Next click on the Touch Ring tab. Click on the first menu item and choose Keystroke. You have two fields to input a keystroke for clockwise and counter-clockwise motion. To move forward through frames in Quicktime simply press the right arrow key in the top box. Then click in bottom box and press the left arrow key. Give this function a name at the bottom and click OK. Notice also you can modify the speed at which the keystrokes are activated. There you have it! Now when in Quicktime I can scrub the video nice and easy by simply gliding my finger around the touch ring. Cool!

April 1st, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (3)

Contest Deadline Closing In!

Hey everyone!! Just a quick reminder that the deadline for the latest Planet Photoshop tutorial design contest is coming up April 6. We have some great prizes and it’s a great way to hone those skills as you are learning. Not to mention getting your work seen by others. Don’t wait! It’s time to get creative. Go here to enter.

March 31st, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

Back from Boston!

Well we are back from Photoshop World in Boston and I must say I had a such a blast this time around. True it was cold but the event was not to be missed. I had three sessions on the first day alone and they seemed to be a big hit, especially my Illustrator class. As usual, the keynote was a riot! The crowd really got into it and it set the show off right! Of course the Guru awards were not to be missed. See winners here. I certainly enjoyed reconnecting with friends and fans and I got lot of good feedback for future material. Perhaps one of the most fun events this year was Midnight Madness. It was so much fun and we had such cool games the whole crowd just had a great time. Definitely one of the best one’s yet.

Another aspect of Photoshop World that never disappoints is the Tech Expo. When I wasn’t teaching a session, I was in the Expo. There were so many vendors like Adobe, Nikon, and Wacom who announced their newest line of tablets; the Intuous 4. They even had a hands on lab set up so you could test drive the tablet yourself. Scott Kelby has some great pics of the vent over on his blog. Check them out here.

Here’sanother piece of interesting news. Last week the MacWorld website posted a story titled: What Photoshop World can teach other trade shows. It’s an interesting perspective on how the Photoshop World Expo compares to others. Read it here. Anyway it’s back to grind here at NAPP HQ. Stay tuned…

March 30th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (2)

Wacom Intuous 4 Is Here!!!

That’s right! The wait is over. Today at the Photoshop World keynote Wacom introduced the new line of pressure sensitive tablets. The new Intuous 4 boasts a host of awesome new features. Like the new LED displays which indicate what express keys are programmed for. This is especially nice because before I would program the keys and never remember what they did. Also they have added a touch ring which is programmable in four modes. You can set it to scroll, zoom, scrub video, or whatever. Other nice enhancements include twice the pressure in the grip pen. Where previous models would register 1024 levels of pressure the Intuous 4 has 2048 levels of pressure. The new design is very slick and has all of these controls on one side of the tablet for easy access. There is also a detachable USB cord and two USB ports on the tablet which makes it easy to flip it around for right handed or left handed users. I am super excited about this new product and hope you find these new features as exciting as I do. You can find out more about this tablet and other Wacom products at the Wacom site. Also, I have a brand new course over at Kelby Training site called Getting Up To Speed With Intuous 4. Click here for more info.

March 25th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (6)