Very Busy Digital Week!

Happy Sunday everyone. It was a busy week in the graphics world.

First off, something I’ve been hoping would be developed for a long time, Canon has introduced a new lens, the EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS. I would consider this to be the true travel lens for us Canon shooters. I have some travel plans in the near future and have been looking to lighten my camera bag and only take one lens with me. I might also take a 50mm prime for low light situations. Now the lens isn’t an L series lens however, with a monopod and higher ISO I think I’ll be very happy with the results.  Here is the link to the new lens.

The winners of the Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk have been announced. There were some great photos. I couldn’t participate this time, but I’ll be sure to be in the next one. Congrats to all the winners.

Photoshop World is starting this week. If you are near or around the great Las Vegas, be sure to check out Photoshop World. You can get a free expo pass off their website. Also, be sure to check out the introductory video they have posted. Here is the link.

Pop Photo.com has posted some great reviews on the new Canon 50D and the Nikon D9.

“An upgrade of the 40D, this DSLR lands in early October with a body-only price of $1,399.  Though Canon insists it doesn’t replace the 40D (which now drops to $1,099 street), the 50D has enough new imaging firepower to trim the 40D’s long-term prospects.”

“The DSLR feature race just got tasered into overdrive with the introduction of video in the new Nikon D90. The same technology that serves up live view on the camera’s 3-inch LCD is used to capture movies in formats ranging right up to full-blown 720p high-definition video (1280x 720 pixels) at 24 frames per second.”

Mpix, the great printing lab made famous by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, has introduced a whole new website with a great look and feel. However, what I find to be EXTREMELY interesting is that Mpix has teamed up with Zenfolio to become an up and coming powerhouse in the e-commerce market.

“Zenfolio is a hosting service for photo galleries. Mpix has partnered with Zenfolio to bring you the best in online hosting and e-commerce: you can upload, present, and sell your photos on Zenfolio and have them printed by Mpix while using one convenient service.”

“Through this exclusive partnership, you get the same quality, turnaround, and pricing whether you order through Mpix or through your Zenfolio account. If you are looking for a one-stop service to show and sell your work online, this is an unbeatable combination.”

Here is the link to the New Mpix.

And finally, a fun little note about the dictionary. Webster has added the word Fanboy to to its standard text for college students. I think that’s funny. What will be added next?

Fanboy

Pronunciation: \ˈfan-ˌboi\
Function: noun
: a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee (as of comics or movies)

Have a great week everyone. Enjoy!

~ Jarrod Michael

Getting Back On Track...

I’ve been working in the design world for about ten years now and I’ve been an Apple computer geek for about 15 years. I’ve noticed lately I’ve been really too much into technology and I’ve been losing my artistic drive. It was like I wouldn’t create something because I didn’t have the best technology to create it. For example, I can’t mess around with Final Cut Pro because I don’t have the top of the line Mac Pro. I really felt I’ve lost my way. My artwork would only be work related and though that was still creative I really wanted to evolve. So I made a promise to myself, really a pledge, everywhere I go I will have a camera in arms reach. I also will be working more closely with my digital painting and retouching. Finally, I will be working only on my MacBook. That’s not a typo, a MacBook, not a Macbook Pro. Some of my friends and fellow artists have told me I’m crazy. But I have to take a step back and remember why I wanted to be a digital artist in the first place. I have to remember that even though I love the technology that I love being an artist even more.

So, I guess the point to this post is to remember that technology is not the most important element, it’s the creative process. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has gone through this situation and maybe a few of you out there need to be reminded why we do what we do.

--

Scott Kelby announces NEW LIGHTROOM 2.0 BOOK!

Well Mr. Kelby has done it yet again! With the announcement for Lightroom 2.0 at Photoshop World a few short months ago, there was no doubt Scott Kelby was going to write another one of his "down to earth" books about the subject. Scott has announced on his blog that you can pre-order his "Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers" right now. 

Scott says the book is 95% rewritten and (which was really interesting to me) his workflow is more streamlined than ever and is covered in the new book as well. I'm going to be picking a copy up for myself. I have no doubt that it will be as great an asset as Kelby's other books. Once I'm finished with the book I'll be sure to write a review here on the blog.

Pre-order The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers from Amazon here.

--

How to Copyright Your Work

The amazing people at Photoshopuser TV have posted a an interview with Jack Reznicki on how to copyright your work. Check it out.

The Drobo gets an upgrade!

Data Robotics has upgraded their amazing “no brain needed” back up system, the drobo! The drobo is now upgraded with a firewire 800, fast, port and an improved USB 2.0 port. Data robotics has a couple of demo videos on their website and I HIGHLY recommend that you check them out. If you are NOT backing up your digital information, the drobo will help you kick into gear and protect your artwork, music, photos and anything else you have stored on your hard drive.

The Dorbo is going for $499 at the Drobostore.com.

--

I'm back.

Sorry about the absence from the blog. However, I've been finishing up grad school and well now I'm done. It was a lot of work and very time consuming so I had no choice but to put the breaks on the blog until I was finished. However, now I'm back and ready to go. So keep your eyes out for new posts, reviews and possibly a podcast.

I'll be talking to you soon.

Awesome Mac Music Video

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

DNG & iMac Review!

Hello Everyone!  Here are a couple of things going on in our digital world today. Have a great weekend. 

Adobe Toys with Standardizing DNG raw Photo Format

From Cnet...

Adobe Systems is discussing potential standardization of its Digital Negative (DNG) format for digital images, a company executive has said.

Most people are fine with plain-old JPEG for their images, but higher-end cameras can produce more flexible and higher-quality "raw" photos that are encoded with camera makers' proprietary formats. Because different cameras produce different formats, companies such as Adobe whose software deals with raw files face a daunting engineering challenge understanding.

DNG is designed as an alternative to the profusion--what Adobe calls a Tower of Babel--but it hasn't caught on widely. Ricoh, Casio, Pentax, and a few other camera makers sell cameras that can record DNG files, but the two heavyweights, Nikon and Canon, along with Olympus and Sony, so far have given it the cold shoulder.

Maybe that will change if Adobe can get DNG standardized. The company has submitted DNG to the International Standards Organization for it to consider, said Kevin Connor, Adobe's senior director, professional digital imaging, in an interview with Digital Photo Pro.

He wouldn't promise anything, though.

"It's sort of premature to speculate whether a formal standard will come out of that or not," Connor said. Standardization "can take a long time, with many parties involved and different viewpoints. The good thing is that there's a discussion happening."

Standards have several advantages over in-house technology, whether proprietary like most raw formats or well documented and freely shared like DNG. Having them under control of a neutral standards body can give confidence that multiple companies can have a say in a standard's future, for example.

There are disadvantages, too. Standards typically are slow to be approved and slow to change..

Separately, Adobe said it plans to release a DNG codec for Windows to let it display thumbnails. Doing so requires installation of Microsoft's Windows Imaging Component (WIC), which is a free download but also built into Windows Vista and XP SP3.

-----

Apple iMac 24" Penryn

From PCmag.com...

The Apple iMac (24-inch Penryn) ($1,799 direct) is the iconic all-in-one desktop that others try emulate. Its aluminum and glass face evoke the iPhone and iPod Touch, a look that works well. It's a successor to the aluminum 20-inch iMac, the last model I reviewed, and upgrades the screen to 1,920 by 1,200 pixels, which is big enough to view true HD video content. This newest iteration of iMac is powered by the new Intel "Penryn" (45nm) Core 2 Duo E8235 processor, which offers lower energy usage and greater computing power than the "Merom" chips in older iMacs. The extra power helps the iMac keep maintain its place in the vanguard of all-in-one PCs.

The styling and included software of the iMac (24-inch Penryn) are much the same as on its immediate predecessors. It improves on them mainly with the new processors and other components like the speedier DDR2 memory. All iMacs now ship standard with 2GB of memory except for the base 20-inch model ($1,199), which still has 1GB. You won't need to upgrade if you already have a fourth-generation aluminum iMac, but the new iMac is an attractive purchase if your current Mac or PC is more than three years old. Certainly, now is the time to upgrade if you're still using a PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) Mac. The screen itself is so beautiful it could push you to plunk down a cool $1,800 if you see it live at your local Apple Store.

Read the full story here...

--

New iMacs and You Suck At Photoshop

Apple introduced the new line of iMacs! Now, they are not physically different but they are really fast and powerful. The top of the line model has a 24" screen, 500GB Hard Drive, 2GB of Ram, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, 512MB Video Card and a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. The top of the line iMac will set you back $2199 and the iMac line starts at $1199. To see all the available models click here.

You Suck At Photoshop!

Looks like the team at Time.com has discovered the identities of the guys behind "You Suck At Photoshop", the web series that is just screamingly funny. Check out the article here.

Matt Bledsoe, left, and Troy Hitch of Big Fat Brain, co-creators 

of You Suck At Photoshop.

Photo Credit Matthew Gilson For Time

--

Very Cool!

I saw this over at Dave Cross's Blog and thought my readers might enjoy it.