P&P Blogger Profile: Justin Seeley

Justin Seeley of Seeley Media and Photoshop Quicktips

Justin Seeley is an Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert and graphic designer with nearly a decade of experience in the creative media industry. A recognized Photoshop trainer known for his straight-forward teaching style and creative prowess, his techniques have been featured on podcasts such as the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and Photoshop Tv, and his tutorials have appeared in publications such as Digit magazine. He is also the presenter for Total Training’s upcoming Advanced Photoshop CS3 series.

Why do you blog?
It’s the easiest way to interact with my audience on a daily basis and get them the necessary news as it happens.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider
Dave Cross’s Blog
PhotoshopNews.com

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
Photoshop - 10 years
Photographer - 2 years (but I’m not much of a photographer)

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
Nikon D200

Mac or PC?
Mac would be my first choice. However, I am required to use both for training purposes.

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
It’s a tie between my MacBook Pro and my Wacom Tablet.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
A Fully-loaded MacPro

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Never lose sight of your dreams and no matter what job lay in front of you, give it everything you've got!

What inspires you to create?
Music or television. I usually get that spark of creativity when watching a commercial or if a song happens to strike me the right way.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
"When success turns a man's head, he is facing failure." - Unknown

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
I would love to live somewhere on the coast. Miami sounds nice…

What do you like to do in your spare time?
If I’m not working, you can find me on the golf course!

What talent would you most like to have?
I would love to be able sing.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Inspiration
What is your least favorite word? Failure
What turns you on? Intelligence
What turns you off? Bigotry
What sound or noise do you love? Running Water
What sound or noise do you hate? Silence
What is your favorite curse word? Flatten (it’s the Photoshop “F” word)
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? PGA Pro What occupation would you not want to participate in? Tele-marketer
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Come on in… We’ve been expecting you!

*Note: If you would like to participate in the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with your blog's URL and he will send you a profile to fill out. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

P&P Blogger Profile: Joey Lawrence

Joey Lawrence of www.joeyl.com

Joey L: 17 years old in years, 100 years old in life experience. Conceptual artistic and professional commercial photographer. www.joeyL.com. I havn’t been to a barber in over a year because I cut my own hair.

Why do you blog?
Huh? I don’t blog! I’m too busy. But I do keep a little news section and calendar to keep people up to date on where I’ve been on my website. I am very fortunate to travel around this beautiful Earth and meet the most interesting people.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
The Quran, The bible and perhaps a newspaper. (Nothing by those goons that took over Anne Landers though.)

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
Three point five years/Two point five years

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
Most of my old stuff was done just with a plain old Minolta Dimage thing, but now I use the very schexy Canon 5D. When my Dimage broke I used a $5 disposable camera and nobody noticed. Right now I MAY just be using a pinhole camera, you’d never know.

Mac or PC?
I’ll be switching to Mac in about a week. I’m sure Windows is okay for some things though, I’m just becoming less of a fan each day. It’s not that important though, use whatever get’s the job done.

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
Duct tape. I always find a use for it on shoots. One time I taped a strobe to a tree because I was frustrated with it’s stand.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
A tilt shift lense. I made one out of an old film lense, a body cap and some duct tape though. It works pretty well but I doubt it will survive the wear-and-tear I put my equipment through. That includes hopping fences, strolling through politically unstable countries and that urge I get to always light stuff on fire in the background of commercial work.

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Experiment.

What inspires you to create?
I take a lot of acid.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Treat the dandelion as a flower. This is the most common thought running through my head, I’ve been thinking about this concept for a few years now.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
Varanasi, India. It’s beautiful there. Time forgot it.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Try to answer the mass amounts of ridiculous e-mails I get.

What talent would you most like to have?
I still wish pokemon were real and I was the ultimate pokemon master.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? The
What is your least favorite word? Impossible. Cliché’s aside, it’s only because I can lick my own elbow you thilly goosth!
What turns you on? A very talented chick.
What turns you off? When girls type “lolz” on messenger chats. Laugh out loud… zebra? What the hell?
What sound or noise do you love? Music, it’s the closest thing to paradise I can experience with my ears.
What sound or noise do you hate? That sound of water in your ear.
What is your favorite curse word? Cuntassfuckeddyshitshit. I think I’ve actually said this once when I burnt myself with a hot glue gun.
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? Homeless man. I’m serious, it’s a very interesting lifestyle.
What occupation would you not want to participate in? Anything to do with a circle-jerk.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
God: ”Hey babay… You got any more of your editing tutorial DVD’s left, my man? I can’t figure this shit out!”
Joey L: ”No God, but I am coming out with a new one soon”
God: ”Hey, nice product placement in this blog! I’m not stupid!”

On a more serious note, I can say the above because me and God are good pals. He wants you all to stop depicting him as an old man with a big beard though; this force we can only understand as God is much more complex than that.

Note: If you would like to participate in the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with your blog's URL and he will send you a profile to fill out. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

P&P Weekly: #35

It's been an exciting week here at Soup Questions and the P&P Blogroll. After a couple of high-profile links to a pair of my profiles (one of Photoshop Guy Matt Kloskowski and the other of Strobist David Hobby) this bog has seen a huge increase in readership. For three days in a row I had more than 200 unique visitors, topping out at 698 last Thursday, bringing more visitors last week than I had in all of April and pushing 3,000 for May.

This is going to be a busy week at work, keeping me fairly out of touch. I have a couple of additional profiles prepared already - one of Photoshop expert Justin Seeley and another of talented young photographer Joey Lawrence. So be on the lookout for those.

In the meantime, ere’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll: (compiled on Sunday afternoon)

• Amy of 2007 Picture a day (or week) - "California Poppy"
• Paul of A Clean Well-Lighted Place - "Cloud"
• Kathleen of A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania - "White Farm"
• Dave at Dave Beckerman Photography: New York has a couple of nice infrared shots (1,2).
• Dave at Dave Cross Online wrote about a recent session he taught at the Digital Technology Centre in Sarasota, FL. Also, you know Lightroom is $299, but for the same price you can get a NAPP membership ($99) and then use the NAPP discount to get Lightroom ($199). So, for the same price you can get Lightroom and all the training you need through NAPP. (If you do become a member, be sure to say you were referred by me!)
• Richard from Europe in Black and White has a series of great shots from this week. Check them all out!
• Mike at eyes on the road just got his new passport and is preparing for a couple of photo trips.
• Joey of Joey Lawrence: Perception - our newest member, Welcome! - is leading a new photo workshop at VGallery.
• John of John Nack on Adobe always posts an interesting array of links from the world of photography, technology, and sometimes the unusual. Of particular note this week is a link to some CS3-inspired wallpapers.
• Matt of Lightroom Killer Tips has a video about virtual copies, a link to an interesting wedding photography site, and 10 tips to get started with Lightroom. Also, over at Photoshop Killer Tips, Matt has posted about making multiple adjustment layers, dodge and burn tricks, levels tips, zoom shortcuts, and creating borders.
• Lynda of One Day At a Time shares a photo from a recent hiking trip.
• Jim of PHOTOBLOG by Jim Larimer has a couple of new shots from Prince Edward Island.
• Scott of Photoshop Insider is just finishing his Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers. And Scott indroduces us to freshman NAPP team member Rafael Concepcion (RC).
• Justin of Photoshop Quicktips and SeeleyMedia.com is the subject of one of the next P&P Blogger Profiles.
• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day posts images of life in Mexico. This week: "Woman in yellow"
• Shooter at Serial Photographer - "What lies beneath"
• Mike of Simply Photography is back with a shot from Hong Kong. Sure brings back memories from my time there.
• David of Strobist wrote about improving the picture quality of your webcam and a DIY ringlight.
• Clayton of The C Spot has a shot he recently took for a developer in WV.
• Andy from The Global Photographer just announced a Tanzania Photo Safari for June 2008.
• Erik of The Journal: Life of a Persson - "The Stripes Have It"
• Andy of Visual Realia - "Structure as Art"
• Aaron of What the Duck - "WTD #221, 222"
• Martin of What the Heck Journal - "You Sock" and "All Grown Up"
• Ben of Where is Ben? - "Route 66" and "Exploring Superstition Mountains"

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Memorial Day

Have a good Memorial Day weekend, everyone! I'll be back on Tuesday with the next P&P Weekly.

P&P Blogger Profile: Lynda Walldez

Lynda Walldez of One Day At a Time

My name is Lynda Walldez, I’m 21 and live in Los Angeles with my parents.

Why do you blog?
Blogging is a very good way of practicing my writing. I also enjoy featuring my photographic work in every post. Blogging allows me to be as creative as I wish.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
Post Secret, LifeDev, and Any Given Sundry

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
I have been using Photoshop since July of 2006 and I have been a photographer since November of 2005.

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
A Nikon D50 and an HP Photosmart R707

Mac or PC?
PC

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
My tripod.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
A telephoto lens.

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Develop your own unique style, even if you are educated in photography. Innovation goes a long way in photography.

What inspires you to create?
A desire to desire to express myself. Sometimes all it takes is a concept or philosophy.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Everything has a process, so take life one day at a time.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
Manhattan, New York

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Blog, draw, or journal

What talent would you most like to have?
The ability to play the guitar.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Eclectic
What is your least favorite word? Feet
What turns you on? A bold and sharp appearance
What turns you off? A soft and faded appearance
What sound or noise do you love? The rain
What sound or noise do you hate? Helicopters
What is your favorite curse word? Don’t have one

What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? Modeling
What occupation would you not want to participate in? Housekeeping
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Enter into the joy of the lord.

*Note: If you would like to participate in the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with your blog's URL and he will send you a profile to fill out. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

Post #400 - Oswego County #2

In honor of my 400th post, here is my favorite from last weekend's shoot.

• Nikon D200
• 1/90 sec @ f/5.6
• 48mm
• ISO 400

*UPDATE: A special thanks on this occasion to everyone who has made Soup Questions a regular stop and for all of you who have so graciously been a part of my ongoing profile series and who have offered kind words of support and links and well wishes, especially over the past few months. And I hope all of the first-timers will continue to come back.

According to my site stats, yesterday saw 248 unique visitors - a 1-day record for this site (Thanks for the link Scott!) - and I've gotten a comparable bump so far today (Thanks, David!).

I've got more profiles on their way for tomorrow and next week so be sure to stop by and check them out. And, as always, on Tuesday (because of the Memorial Day break) will be my next installment of the P&P Weekly catching up with what our blogroll members have been posting. So please visit their sites as well and enjoy the wealth of talent that is out there in the Photoshop and photography world.

Thanks!
Jason

Oswego County #1

I finally had the motivation, and decent weather, to head out over the weekend and take a few shots. It was a nice overcast day which allowed for some really soft light and I was lucky enough to find a few spots that had a rough, aged look. It felt so good to be out there shooting, and then back processing, again. It seems like it's been so long since I've taken the opportunity. I hope to grant myself that pleasure again soon!

• Nikon D200
• 1/320 sec @ f/9.0
• 26mm
• ISO 400
• Mostly processed in Photoshop CS2

Congratulations Are In Order!

It has just been announced that Scott Kelby, friend of the blog, was named "the top-selling computer and technology book author across all categories in the US, based on Nielsen Bookscan data for the calendar year 2006." This is the 3rd year in a row that Scott has been honored with this distinction. Bravo, my friend!

P&P Blogger Profile: David Hobby

David Hobby of Strobist

David Hobby: 42 years old; Caffeine-laced blogger; Staff photojournalist for The Baltimore Sun; Married to a wonderful woman; Father of two imaginative, inquisitive kids; Diehard University of Florida Gator; 3-time Southeastern U.S. Kickboxing Champion – ’84-’86. (Okay, I made the last one up.)

Why do you blog?
When I was younger, I always had unselfish mentors. I still do. Now, the internet makes it possible to pay the next generation forward on a much larger scale.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
Not a fair question. I read about 50 blogs a day. But okay, I’ll bite. Consumerist, ProBlogger and WhatTheDuck

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
Since I was 8.

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
Nikon D2Xs, Nikon D2Hs, Canon G7

Mac or PC?
You’re kidding, right? Mac, forever.

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
Nikon SB-26 speedlight.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
Nothing, really. I have a core bag of glass and small flashes that I have shot with for a long time. No reason to change, other than to upgrade bodies.

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
Shoot constantly. Study and reverse-engineer the techniques of shooters whom you admire. Major in something other than photography to bring something external to your profession.

What inspires you to create?
Honestly, I do not know. Other than the fact that it is a very satisfying thing to do.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Do not let fear of the unknown keep you from experiencing new things.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
Paris. For a year.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
More family time.

What talent would you most like to have?
Fluency in many languages.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Imagination.
What is your least favorite word? Worry.
What turns you on? Travel.
What turns you off? Constricted thinking.
What sound or noise do you love? My kids’ singing.
What sound or noise do you hate? An alarm clock.
What is your favorite curse word? Dammit.
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? I have never regretted being a photographer, so I have never given other careers a second thought. Is that weird?
What occupation would you not want to participate in? Anything that required my living in a suit and tie.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? What took you so long?

*Note: If you would like to participate in the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with your blog's URL. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

P&P Weekly: #34

Here’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

• Amy of 2007 Picture a day (or week) - "Lupine" and "Sumpter, Oregon dining"
• Paul of A Clean Well-Lighted Place - "Untitled #1809"
• Kathleen of A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania - "Carpentersville Tractor, 7:00 p.m."
• Bruce at Bruce L. Snell Photography - "Cara and Charlie" and "Allen County Community College"
• Dave at Dave Beckerman Photography: New York has a number of nice shots this week and has a link to an article about photography and web design.
• Dave at Dave Cross Online has a tip about applying a layer style more than once to the same layer.
• Richard from Europe in Black and White is back from a short trip and will be posting some recent shots soon.
• Mike at eyes on the road has a shot from Lexington, KY and talks about photographic rules.
• John of John Nack on Adobe always posts an interesting array of links from the world of photography, technology, and sometimes the unusual. Of particular note this week is a series of links on creative illustrations.
• Matt of Lightroom Killer Tips shares his top 10 shortcuts. Also, over at Photoshop Killer Tips, Matt has posted about reducing noise in shadows, reducing PSD file sizes, fixing skin color, reapplying filters, and some Bridge preferences.
• Lynda of One Day At a Time is one of our newest members - Welcome! Lynda posts her photos and shares her thoughts on life and photography.
• Jim of PHOTOBLOG by Jim Larimer has a couple of new alt process prints, which, I think, have really added something to his photography.
• Scott of Photoshop Insider wrote about Matt Kloskowski's Restoration and Retouching Book and a number of interesting items in his Wednesday News Update. On a side note, I got a sneak peek at Scott's tutorial for this week's NAPP TV. Scott has a helpful tip on taking care of dust spots using ACR.
• Justin of Photoshop Quicktips and SeeleyMedia.com has his latest video on a little known feature of the crop tool. He also just launched a community forum and some new videos in his CS3 Learning Center. A late arrival is a link he has to Joey Lawrence Photography - excellent stuff!
• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day posts images of life in Mexico. This week he's posted a number of flower shots.
• Shooter at Serial Photographer - "the groyne line"
• David of Strobist is another one of our newest members - Welcome! - and has a post about taking group shots using two speedlights. Also, come back tomorrow for David's profile!
• Andy from The Global Photographer has an article on using depth of field in wildlife photography and posted his latest photo of the day.
• Erik of The Journal: Life of a Persson - "Watching Paint Crack" - I must say, that I've been really enjoying Erik's shots lately. Well Done!
• Andy of Visual Realia has a nice series on Cunningham (McAfee) Falls.
• Aaron of What the Duck - "WTD #217, 218"
• Martin of What the Heck Journal - "Eat To The Beat," "Out Of The Frame," "It's Electric"
• Ben of Where is Ben? - "Where's the Past?"

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Friday Tips: #4

For this edition of Friday Tips I thought I'd throw in a couple of common, everyday shortcuts that are always good to remember.

• Use your brackets to adjust your brush size. Your left bracket ([) will decrease your brush size and your right (]) will increase it.
• Also Ctrl+ and Ctrl- will increase and decrease your zoom level, respectively, so you don't have to switch to the Magnifying Glass.
• If you are using a Wacom tablet you can assign these to one of the touch strips to make it even easier.
• Virtually everytime I use Photoshop, I find that the tools I use the most are the Move Tool, Brushes, the Type Tool, and I'm always switching back and forth between black and white when working with masks. Instead of heading over to the tool box, simply tap V for the Move Tool, B for Brushes, T for Type, and X to swap the foreground and background colors.

Vertical Panoramas

Traditionally when you think of a panoramic photo the first thing that comes to mind is some scenic landscape that is spread out left to right revealing the expansive nature of a mountain range or canyon or seaside vista.

But don't let yourself get stuck in the mode of thinking that horizontal is the only way to go when it comes to panos.

Take, for example, this shot that I took while wandering through Redwood National Park last spring (18mm, Auto, 1/60s at f/3.5, ISO 720, Nikon D50). This is a fake pano in that I applied a crop to give the look of a panoramic shot rather than stitching multiple photos together. I did the majority of the processing in Lightroom with a little bit of lens correction in CS2.

Tall subjects like these redwoods or a skyscraper can really benefit from a vertical pano crop. Taking this approach can add additional emphasis on the height, helping to better illustrate the dramatic nature of the scene. But you aren't limited to just tall subjects. Even a scenic shot with either a lot of water in the fore or middleground or with a lot of sky can benefit from a vertical pano crop.

*While I haven't tried it myself, I would imagine that trying to compose a vertical pano from stitching together a series of overlapping shots taken while using a tripod might not give you the same effect as applying a crop.

In Search of Inspiration

I'm not sure what it is - the ever-changing roller coaster ride that is Central New York weather, a tad bit of cabin fever, or just a plain old dry spell - but I've been in a creative rut lately. It feels like it's been so long since I've gone out shooting for non-work-related reasons and I think this uninspiration has been affecting my job performance and overall mood recently. I hate when that happens.

So, in order to help get back into it and get my creative juices flowing a bit, I hopped on Photoblogs.org and came across Roumi Photos (featured above). This gallery is full of beautiful photos rich with striking textures and dramatic lighting taken in and around the Montreal area.

Take a few minutes to look around. I've already added this one to my list of sites to watch.

P&P Weekly: #33

Here’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

• Amy of 2007 Picture a day (or week) has some really nice shots this week. My favorites are "Salt Lake sunset" and "Valley of Fire"
• Paul of A Clean Well-Lighted Place - "4948"
• Kathleen of A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania - "Jakey Gets a Haircut"
• Bruce at Bruce L. Snell Photography spent some time recently with some of his fellow Kansas City wedding photographers.
• Mike of Creative Sweet TV has his latest video on the new elements of the Clone Tool in CS3.
• Dave at Dave Beckerman Photography: New York has a new look to his site. This week I like "Bethesda Overpass" and "Sidewalk, Spring"
• Dave at Dave Cross Online has a tip about using a pattern with your brushes.
• Richard from Europe in Black and White - "after rain handle"
• Mike at eyes on the road compares a few views of Greensburg, Kansas and a pano from Kentucky.
• John of John Nack on Adobe always posts an interesting array of links from the world of photography, technology, and sometimes the unusual.
• Matt of Lightroom Killer Tips has a really cool video tip about how to print your photos with artistic borders. Also, over at Photoshop Killer Tips, Matt has posted about reducing color noise, saving images for the web, and shares some of his favorite brush shortcuts.
• Mike of Phoblography is back with a new shot called "Morning"
• Jim of PHOTOBLOG by Jim Larimer has a couple of new alt process prints.
• Scott of Photoshop Insider was in USA Today last week - Congrats Scott! - and wrote about that as well as a number of news updates. Scott also posted a video on how to setup B&H Photo's Scott Kelby Location Lighting Kit.
• Justin of Photoshop Quicktips and SeeleyMedia.com has his latest video on using Clipping Masks. He also has a video on creating lighting effects.
• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day posts images of life in Mexico. This week I like "Marichis."
• Shooter at Serial Photographer - "Beach Baby"
• Clayton at The C Spot - "More New River Railroad History" and "Secret Falls"
• Andy from The Global Photographer is back from the Galapagos.
• Erik of The Journal: Life of a Persson - "Link From The Past"
• Andy of Visual Realia - "Simple Life"
• Aaron of What the Duck - "WTD #213, 214"
• Martin of What the Heck Journal - "Colors of Spring"
• Ben of Where is Ben? stopped at the Cadillac Ranch.

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

NAPP TV

First off, due to spending Mother's Day with my mom (Hi Mom!) I didn't have a chance to write up this week's P&P Weekly. So I will try to get it out in the next couple of days.
When I opened iTunes this morning I noticed that PhotoshopTV no longer appeared in my list of podcasts. In its place I found a listing for NAPP TV. Dave and Matt mentioned at the head of last week's episode - very clever opening, by the way - that there would be some exciting changes on their way. I'm sure there will be an updated look and perhaps some new segments as part of the show, but beyond that it is pure speculation.

Up to this point, the tutorials in the show have still focused on techniques that could be done in either CS2 or CS3. My guess is they are shifting to a more CS3-heavy lineup of tips and will slowly phase out the mention of CS2, much the same way that they made the move from CS to CS2.

I love the show and, from having the chance to exchange emails and meet the whole gang in person, they're a great group of people and I look forward to seeing where this new direction will lead.

P&P Blogger Profile: Matt Kloskowski

Matt Kloskowski of Photoshop Killer Tips and Lightroom Killer Tips

Matt Kloskowski is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (www.photoshopuser.com). He has authored numerous books and DVDs relating to Photoshop and spends his time teaching photographers how to bridge the gap between photography and digital imaging.

Why do you blog?
It seemed like a natural way to get the videos and tips that I teach everyday anyway, out there in an easier way.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
The Online Photographer
Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider
John Nack’s (Senior Photoshop Product Manager) Blog

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
Photoshop – 14 Years
Photographer – 5 Years

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
Nikon D200

Mac or PC?
I use both Mac and PC. Doesn’t really matter to me as Photoshop works the same on both. I use my MacBook Pro more lately because of its nice slim form factor for traveling.

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
My Epson R2400 Printer. I love it.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
It’s a lens. The Nikon AF-S 400mm f/2.8. Wow… what I would give for that thing. I’ll post my B&H wish list should anyone like to purchase it for me : )

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Advice, long work hours, impossible projects, and criticism… they may all be difficult at times. But in the end, they all make you stronger and better for it.

What inspires you to create?
I just love it. It’s really all I’ve ever known. I never really think anything I do is good enough so I just want to keep trying to make something better.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
I actually love where I live now. Living in Florida was my dream as a child so I’m already here. Aside from Florida, I guess I’d love to have a place in Tahoe during the winter. Or maybe even in Maui. I guess I’m undecided.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Golf, running, landscape photo shoots, but (most importantly) spending time with my family. My two sons Ryan and Justin (5 and 4 years) are just the coolest little guys to spend my free time with.

What talent would you most like to have?
I’d love to be able to draw what I see.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Photoshop!
What is your least favorite word? Any racial slur.
What turns you on? See answer to “What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?” above.
What turns you off? Smoking
What sound or noise do you love? The sound of cheering when your number rolls at the Craps table.
What sound or noise do you hate? The sighs around the Craps table when some one craps out.
What is your favorite curse word? ...
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? Jet Pilot
What occupation would you not want to participate in? The security guard at a Rap awards show
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Hey Matt! You up for a round of golf?

*Note: If you would like to participate in the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with your blog's URL and he will send you a profile to fill out. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

On The Road Again...

I'm out of town today shooting interviews and gathering footage for another installment of a series of videos for one of our clients. Depending on how we work things, it's looking like I'll be in the car for at least 9 hours for about 2 hours of work for a 3min video.

We're starting in Lake Placid - about 4 hours from home - and then driving to Cornwall, ON - roughly 2 hours from there - and then either back home (a little over 3 hours) or, if we carpool, back to Lake Placid before heading home - which would make it an even 12 hours if we did that. Whatever the duration, the 6am departure isn't fun.

Because we have a schedule to keep, I doubt I'll have a chance to get any shots in Lake Placid this time around. But I'll be back with tomorrow's Friday Tips!

Scott Kelby in USA Today

I may be a little late to this since I was away from a computer all morning, but Jefferson Graham, a tech reporter for USA Today, just published an article on Soup Questions' friend, Scott Kelby (read it here).

Graham had actually emailed me the other day to see if I'd be available to talk to him about an article he was writing about Kelby fans. I'm not sure if it's a follow-up article or what, but I haven't heard back yet.

In any case, take a look at the article and, in case you've missed it, here's my profile of Scott Kelby from this past January.

From September 2005

Taken in Fulton, NY over Labor Day Weekend back in 2005 on a Sony Cybershot DSC-F717. Processed in Lightroom, sharpened and selective lens blur added in Photoshop.

photographyVoter.com

Any photographers that are familiar with Digg.com would be interested in learning more about photographyVoter. According to their site:

photographyVoter is a collobarative project that lets you share and vote for information, articles and photography resources with the photographyVoter community.

Paul O'Connor, the mind behind photographyVoter.com explains:

There's been something of a voice within the photography community for a Photography Section on Digg but that hasn't been forthcoming so we have launched this website to try and provide for this requirement. While still pretty much in it's infancy, the website is doing really well...

I'm still pretty new to it but it seems like a great resource for photography-related information, tutorials, and industry news. Paul gives a more in-depth interview on the history of the site and some of the thoughts behind it here. Give it a look!

P&P Weekly: #32

Here’s what’s been happening this week in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

• Amy of 2007 Picture a day (or week) - "Mystery sea flower" and "Dusk"
• Paul of A Clean Well-Lighted Place - "5040"
• Kathleen of A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania - "Horse and Old House (Mongo, Indiana)"
• Bruce at Bruce L. Snell Photography talks about his style and shares shots from Kelley and Chris' wedding.
• Mike of Creative Sweet TV has his latest video on Flash and Illustrator CS3.
• Dave at Dave Beckerman Photography: New York talks about inspiration.
• Dave at Dave Cross Online has a tip on using the patch tool and informs us of 3 new online courses.
• Jason at Designfruit is looking for someone to help realign his website.
• Richard from Europe in Black and White - "old school"
• Mike at eyes on the road has a couple of shots from his time in Kentucky (1,2).
• John of John Nack on Adobe always posts an interesting array of links from the world of photography, technology, and sometimes the unusual. This week, John has a post about CS3 fonts and a few upgrade Qs&As.
• Matt of Lightroom Killer Tips has a B&W conversion tip and highlights Dave Hill's photography. Also, over at Photoshop Killer Tips, Matt has posted about working on a flattened image, dealing with grayed out filters, adding canvas space, and the illuminocity blend mode.
• Jim of PHOTOBLOG by Jim Larimer has a number of new gum prints.
• Scott of Photoshop Insider has two posts (the original and the update) on finding the perfect PC laptop for Photoshop.
• Justin of Photoshop Quicktips and SeeleyMedia.com is back with a video on using CS3's B&W adjustments and selective color.
• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day posts images of life in Mexico. This week I like "Grasses."
• Shooter at Serial Photographer - "Untitled #53"
• Clayton at The C Spot - "See You at the Station"
• Erik of The Journal: Life of a Persson - "Volkswagen"
• Andy of Visual Realia - "The Pike"
• Aaron of What the Duck - "WTD #205, 206"
• Martin of What the Heck Journal - "All Work - No Play," "Best Seat In the House," and "Lines of Broken Glass"
• Ben of Where is Ben? has been exploring Sedona, AZ and lists a number of his upcoming seminars and workshops.

Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Friday Tips: #3

It's Friday, and you know what that means!

• If you have multiple/overlapping layers of text and would like to select a particular one, or if you would like to quickly select all of the text on a layer, simply double-click on the type layer in the layers palette and all the text on the selected layer will be highlighted and ready for editing.
• If you want to apply the same style to multiple layers, copy the style you'd like to apply, select in the layers palette you'd like to apply it to, and paste style. Or Alt-click and drag the layer style icon from one layer to another.
• If you would like to duplicate a layer, you could drag it to the "Create New Layer" icon or you could hit Ctrl+J. Another really quick way is to select the move tool and Alt-click directly on the object and drag to duplicate.
• When cropping, you can change the color and opacity of the area that surrounds your crop selection up in the Options bar. This can be a good way to help you visualize the resulting image - especially if you want to see what it looks like on a particular colored background.

Center Within a Selection

I picked up this little tidbit from watching Corey's tutorial on this week's Photoshop TV. He breezed past it as he updated one of his Smart Objects without describing it and it was something I had never known before, so I thought I'd figure it out and share it with you.

You may know that there are many ways to align objects within an image or with other objects. You could use Photoshop's alignment options with the Move Tool or guides with Snap or use Smart Guides. But here's one more way that I can already tell will be extremely useful.

For me, there are times when I am designing a wrap for a DVD case and I want to center something on the back. Now, I could always create a separate document of just the back, center what I need to center, and then Place that into my wrap template. Or, and here's where the tip comes in, make a selection around just the back section - or any area you would like to work in - switch to the move tool and with your desired layer active use the alignment options to center (or otherwise align) your layer within the selected area.

File that one away for a rainy day.

What is Lightroom For?

While working at a youth event last weekend I had some downtime while the attendees went to their workshops. So, I brought along Scott's Lightroom Book to keep me occupied. As I was reading, and enjoying the funniness (it's a word!), I got a couple of questions from people about what Lightroom is and what it does. So, for the uninitiated, I thought I'd share a little bit about what this cool new program is.

Lightroom was designed with photographers in mind to act as an organization, processing, and output tool for your digital photos. With Lightroom's Library Module you can import your photos, organize them into collections, rate them, apply keywords for easy searching, and separate the good from the not-so-good. In the Develop Module you can apply all of your processing from adjusting your white balance and exposure to fine tuning color to converting to black and white to applying a split tone and edge vignetting. From there you can export your images into a variety of formats, create a slideshow, publish a web gallery, and print.

While you can do some small touch ups - like fix red eye, crop and straighten, and limited cloning and healing - LR is not meant to be a one-stop-shop for all of your imaging needs. You don't have the manipulation tools that Photoshop offers, but then again, that's not what Lightroom is for. Lightroom is built to be your digital darkroom not your design platform. It takes the processing power of ACR, the organization of Bridge, the ease of the automated web photo galleries, and gives it all some extra umph! and elegance. It's definitely not a replacement for Photoshop, but once you get your hands on this fabulous imaging tool you'll see just how powerful it is and how quickly it will become central to your digital photography workflow.

I Can't Decide

I am going through some photos from last year as I read Scott Kelby's Lightroom book so I can follow along and also look at old shots with fresh eyes. One of the features in LR that I really like is the ability to have virtual copies. They don't require extra space and they allow you to look at multiple versions of an image side-by-side.

The above shot was taken on the road along a beach just south of Orick, CA in April of last year during a trip out to gather footage for a video we were doing that used the redwoods as a metaphor for working together in order to grow.** I came across this beach, parked the car, wandered out into the street and snapped a few shots before making my way north into Redwood NP.

I'm not sure which version I like better. I like the color shot because it reminds me of what it was like when I was there - with some added warmth, obviously - but I've also been in a split-toned B&W mood and really like how that one turned out.

Which one do you like better?

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*Other than placing the shots in my gallery frame in Photoshop, both of these images were processed entirely in Lightroom.
**Basically, the redwoods are able to be so strong and get to be so tall because they share a root structure and help to hold each other up and share nutrients. Even though the roots are shallow, they are intertwined to provide support. We used it as a metaphor for churches working together to fund projects and programs that they couldn't do alone.