New Course at Kelby Training | Contest Update

My long awaited course: Creative Integration with Photoshop and Illustrator is now available over at the Kelby Training site. In this course we will explore numerous way you can harness the power of both Photoshop and Illustrator to create eye-popping graphics. This course will appeal to designers, artists, and even photographers who want to take their images to that next level. While each one of these applications are extremely powerful in and of themselves, when you combine features in each you can reach a whole new level of creativity you never thought possible. Even though this course is presented in CS4, the techniques are just as relevant in CS3. Click here for more and I hope you enjoy!

I have been getting a lot of people asking me when the next Planet contest will be starting up. Worry not good people, for a new contest will be under way next week. So get those creative wheels turning as you will be challenged soon enough!

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

Seminars Coming Soon | Photo Keys for iPhone

Arguably one of the best ways to learn Photoshop is by going to seminars or live events like Photoshop. Even if you know 90 percent of what is already being taught. There is always that little gem of a technique that you didn’t know before. I still, to this day, always get something from them. Be on the lookout for Kelby Training seminars coming your way. Check out the all new Kelby Training Live site for all future seminar dates, class descriptions, instructor bios, and everything you need to know about these powerful one-day learning opportunities. For instance we have Dave Cross and his Maximum Photoshop tour in Arlington, TX on March 6; Ben Willmore in New York on March 13 with the Photographers tour; and Bert Monroy with his Creativity your on March 19 in San Francisco. There are numerous other dates posted and new ones posted all the time. be sure to check back often as dates and cities can change at any time. Also coming in May, Scott Kelby is bringing back the popular Down & Dirty Photoshop tour. Check the site soon for cities and dates.

Lastly, here is a quick little thing I saw on John Nack’s blog. It’s a new app for the iPhone called PhotoKeys and it is basically a tool app for Photoshop. Meaning you can use it as a companion to select tools and execute certain functions right form your iPhone. It seems really intriguing though I have yet to be able to try it myself. It seemed to be worth mentioning. You know…Photoshop and all.

March 2nd, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

Planet Contest Winners! | New Podcast

Congratulations to Paul Cordero for being the the grand prize winner of the newest Planet tutorial design contest for his piece titled “Sandman”. Also congratulations to our first runner-up Sara for her piece “Vigilant Justice” and the second runner-up Jason Kendall for “Freestyle”. These winning pieces can be viewed on the contest page. There were some really impressive entries this go around and is making the judging that much harder. Keep them coming everyone and keep up the good work. We are still putting together the gallery of the other contest entries so make sure you check back soon. We will be starting a new contest next week so stay tuned.

Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski have launched a brand new podcast called D-Town TV. It’s a photography tips show for Nikon shooters covering all of the D model cameras by Nikon. Hence the name. It is going to be a weekly show where Scott & Matt talk about cool tips and tricks to get the most out of your Nikon DSLR. Anyone who is a fan of Photoshop User TV will enjoy this show both for it’s entertaining and educational value. You can subscribe on iTunes or go to the site directly by clicking here. Enjoy!

February 27th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (2)

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February 26th, 2009 | Web Editor | Blog | Comments (0)

Photoshop CS4 Update | Cool Online Art Tools

A new update for Photoshop CS4 is available now over at the Adobe site. According to John Nack’s blog this update corrects some performance issues, some 3D features have been fixed, and some text issues have been addressed. The update is available now for both Mac and Windows.

There is a cool new online product from a company called Aviary. Actually they have produced a few online applications that anyone can jump right in and create some pretty cool art. First they have a new online vector application called Raven which you can use to create and edit graphic art and logos. Then there is the online image editor called Phoenix which let’s you use Photoshop like features to edit and correct your images right online. You can even collaborate with others online. Finally they have and app called Peacock and Toucan. Peacock allows you to create abstract images and effects, while Toucan is similar to Kuler in that you can create color sets and harmonies. They are are pretty cool and worth a quick peek. You can try all of these free right now on the Aviary site. Check it out!!

February 25th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (2)

Oscars! | Flow Demo | PS World Early Bird Extended

I have to start by giving a shout out to Danny Boyle for winning the Best Director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Which also won the Best Picture Oscar among its 8 total wins. I have been a long time fan of his work and thrilled he has finally gotten the recognition for it. Also a big congrats to the late Heath Ledger for his stunning performance as the Joker in the Dark Knight and, of course, Pixar has won yet another Best Animated Feature Oscar with the heartfelt Wall-E. Another stunning piece of work!

Anyway, I have a couple things here. Dave Cross has produced a short but informative little demo video on the new product Flow from Gridiron. If you remember I mentioned it here last Friday. This is a very cool product and I think you can see that in this cool demo. Is it available as a Public Beta right now so you can give it a try yourself. Check out Dave’s demo here and to download the Beta click here.

Also the early bird registration for Photoshop World has been extended to February 27. That means just a few more days to save $100 off the full registration cost. Given these tough times we should take all the deals we can get. So if you were planning on joining us in Boston on March 25-27, don’t wait. That extra $100 can go long way. Click here for more info.

February 23rd, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (0)

Friday Quick Bits!

Happy Friday Everyone! Just got a few bits of news to hit ya with.

First, GridIron has released a public beta version of their remarkable asset management tool called Flow. With all the various assets and support file we have flowing around our hard drives it can get very frustrating knowing which files are being used where. Flow allows you see the work path of a particular file. Meaning you can view workflow maps that show you how all the the files are connected. For instance of you have logo that you have placed in numerous documents you can see exactly which files contain that specific logo, but it does so much more. Read more about this exciting new product and download the public beta here.

Here’s a cool link I found over at John Nack’s blog. It’s a collection of some really impressive Photoshop advertising work. I have to be honest, I was blown away by some of these pieces. Really inspiring stuff!! It’s always cool to see what others are doing because it helps you to perhaps consider some approaches to your work you hadn’t thought of. Here is the link. Enjoy!

Once again we received an overwhelming number of entries for the second Planet tutorial design contest. We will be judging the entries here soon and will post the winner sometime next week. Thanks to all you who entered and hope you had fun. More importantly, I hope you have sharpened your skills that much more! That’s it for now. Have a good weekend!!

February 20th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (3)

Sweet New Product!!

It’s product review Wednesday! I just recently got my hands on a very cool new product from Digital Juice. It’s called Digital Juice Fonts. Yes, it’s a simple title but this product is pretty darn sweet! Digital Juice is best known for creating some of the coolest stock art around. They also provide sound effects, animations, music, and other products geared toward designers of any discipline. Whether it’s web, print, or video they have got you covered. This new DJ Fonts product is awesome and easy to use. Simply open the Digital Juice app and search the numerous categories of the more than 1300 DJ fonts available. Then input your text in the Juicer interface. The cool thing is that the effect is real time. Meaning the effect is applied as you type so you can immediately see what you are getting. Then you simply render it out for whichever design application you will be finishing in.

If you are a designer who is always looking for that one cool text effect but don;t really have a mountain of time to create, this the obvious alternative. Check out this product among the others offered by Digital Juice by clicking here.

February 18th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (1)

Cool NAPP Offer | Photoshop on SNL

What we do here on Planet Photoshop is merely a fraction of all the cool stuff we have going on for NAPP members. Not only do we have more tutorials, but there are product reviews and discounts, discounts on events like seminars and Photoshop World, and even other training sources like online training and DVDs. Not to mention Photoshop User magazine. All of this and so much more for only $99 a year ($179 for two years). Given these difficult times many people are looking to sharpen their skills or even learn new ones and you want to invest your money wisely. If you sign up for NAPP now you will get a free DVD: The Photoshop CS4 Power Session by Matt Kloskowski. A two-year membership will get you the new DVD by Fay Sirkis: A Celebration of Art: Paint Like Master. Click here for more information on this limited special offer.

Also over the weekend I caught a rather amusing bit on SNL about Photoshop. They cleverly call it Photo Shop with two words but I think we all get it. If you were ever a fan of the classic Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot, then you will get a good chuckle out of this. Be warned, it’s late night SNL so you never know what to expect. Here’s the link.

February 16th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (1)

New Courses at Kelby Training

It’s Friday the 13th! Moowahaha!!!! (Evil laughs just don’t work in text. Do they?)

Anyway just a couple things things today. First Scott Kelby has brand new course over at the Kelby Online Training site: Mastering Camera Raw with Photoshop CS4. This course is for anyone shooting Raw and you wants to get the most out of the software. Scott covers all the new features and discusses workflow scenarios so that you can get the most out Camera Raw in no time. Click here for more.

RC Concepcion, my co-host on Layers TV has posted a new course as well. This one is titled Building A Website with Photoshop CS4 & Dreamweaver CS4. The title pretty much say it all. RC walks you through designing and optimization in Photoshop and then carries it over to Dreamweaver to add functionality and ultimately publish to the web. So if you are looking for a no-nonsense, straightforward approach to getting a site up quickly this course is for you. Find out more here.

Lastly don’t forget about the tutorial contest. Deadline is February 18! I gotta admit. We’re getting some pretty cool entries so far.

February 13th, 2009 | Corey Barker | Blog | Comments (2)