Los Alamos Adobe Users Group

Check out some great equestrian event photography from shooter Andrea Blair. [via]

You can also sign up for an online course on equestrian photography basics with Carien Schipper. This course will cover camera gear, setting up poses for conformation based on breed, head shots, action shots, and more. At $169, it sounds like a great deal, and covers six week (one section per week).

So, Adobe has posted this link that responds to Steve Jobs’ letter about the decision to not support Flash on Apple’s mobile platform. When I wrote earlier on the topic in this blog, I avoided taking on the letter point-by-point because I just haven’t been on the Flash front for a long time. Adobe’s response says everything I wanted to. Instead, I opined that Jobs is just being Bill Gates, but in a black turtleneck.

Today, John Nack (Photoshop PM) wrote about the core issue; business. As I mentioned, my opinion is that Jobs is trying to use his social status to effect a market coup. In the past, he’d do this with some serious technical backup. The last several years, however, lead me to believe that Jobs thinks his role is changing, that he no longer has to actually compete and show his products are better. Instead, he just wants you to assume he’s right and to take him at his word. Many folks do, so perhaps he’s right from a marketing standpoint. Industry statistics clearly show that from a technical point, he’s dead wrong.

Let’s be clear: Jobs is adopting the Microsoft policy of quelling competitive innovation. Only he’s not doing it by coughing up cash to buy the competition, he’s just saying the competition sucks and he won’t allow it. Again, he’s wrong. And he’s being a hypocrite.

Throughout the prerelease testing, I gave a lot of attention to Repoussé. While it’s not everything I ever wanted in 3D for PS, it does represent one more step in getting photographers and designers into the idea of using 3D in their own work. The big reason for this is that Repoussé lets you take a selection or text and create a 3D object directly in Photoshop. You don’t have to use another application for simple things like extruded text or simple geometries. And you don’t have to rely on importing objects made by other people.

While you still should keep those options at the ready, the big win here is that you can work much faster in unexpected ways.

Personally, I’ve been big on incorporating 3D into photographs since PS first introduced the feature in CS3. Prior to that, I just didn’t have the experience to pull off the stuff I wanted to in ‘real’ 3D applications. But the moment I saw it in CS3, I knew I had to own the capability to exploit it at every turn. Unfortunately, in CS3 and CS4, using 3D in photorealistic ways meant getting outside help from apps like StrataCX and 3DInvigorator. I love the programs, and have not replaced them, but now I can reserve them for the heavy lifting.

In CS5, I have been much more confident in the 3D capabilities all the way around. We now have Image-Based Lighting, too, which allows a whole new level of realism in lightfall and environmental cues. When I started with 3D in Photoshop, one of my goals was to use it for generating realistic shadows when compositing. In my book, I discouraged users from trying to use multiple objects in a scene because it was so difficult to control. And the shadows had no control for density, etc. There were other limitations, too, but that’s history

Using the enhanced feature set in CS5, I can no easily mock up a ‘roughly similar’ shape to catch shadows. Using Repoussé and some primitives, I can actually get pretty darn close to most surfaces that I’d want to deal with. Painting in the remainder is quite easy, as it turns out, so as long as I can get in the ballpark with a simulated shadow, I can eyeball the rest. Previously, I had to eyeball everything, including density and soft edges.

Repoussé also allows the 3D neophyte to more easily manage elements like lighting and materials. There are presets built into the Repoussé dialog that let you do quite a bit with simple button selections. And when you return the object to the PS main window, you get a bona fide 3D object, just like any other imported object. Your edits are not lost, and the materials go along with the 3D layer. This makes it a lot easier to get quick 3D elements knocked out.

There are some shortcomings, though. One major annoyance for me is the sensitivity of the sliders for the Extrusion and other options. Given that you are taxing your GPU anyway, these overly sensitive controls can really tie things up and cause frustration. If you get a bit antsy while moving one, chances are you’ll overshoot by a LONG way, and have to wait for everything to settle down before cleaning up the adjustment. Another problem is the naming conventions. I’d love to see an input box where I can set the prefix or name of an object, and have all child elements named with that prefix and a short identifier. It’s easy to lose track of materials and objects because the names do not seem to be consistent, or even logical in many ways.

In the coming year, I will spend considerable time working 3D into my images, and I’ll share those images and techniques whenever possible. Look to CommunityMX.com and PhotoshopTechniques.com for tutorials and articles. Of course, I’ll post here and on Twitter, too!

In a few hours, Adobe will officially launch CS5. I can now disclose that I’ve been on the Photoshop prerelease team, and have been playing with some AWESOME new features. The downside to that is I can’t disclose any details until the official launch. However, if you’ve been following any of the online buzz, you probably have a good idea of what to expect.

There certainly will be some surprises, but Adobe’s been very open about the new features. Personally, I’m a little taken aback by just how open they’ve been… what do I know, though?

Anyway, soon after the launch happens, I’ll tell you about some of my favorite things, how I plan to use them, and show some samples of what I’ve been working on.

In the mean time, I’ve kicked off the relaunch of my favorite forum of all time, PhotoshopTechniques.com. I’ll post more of the story later, but right now just head on over and check the place out. We’ll be adding a ton of new stuff in the near future, including video tutorials and freebies from Photoshop-related vendors. For the moment, we’re open to new members, so stop by and given the place a quick look! You can also follow the forum on twitter: @pstechniques