Adobe Photoshop CS6
I was lucky enough to get early access to the new Photoshop CS6 and it couldn’t have come at a better time. I have been using CS4 for the past couple of years and CS6 is just a million and a half times better. You know you’re a total dork when you’re sitting in the virtual press conference (virtual press conferences are the best because you can attend in your pj’s) and you’re clapping after they announce all the new improvements. Kennedy was looking at my like I was crazy. Yes, the second best thing about virtual press conferences is that your baby can attend too.
There are a lot of new changes and features in CS6, but I’m just going to touch upon a few of my favorites:
- The first thing that you’ll notice when you use CS6 is the new interface. When I saw this initially I wasn’t super excited about it. I wasn’t into the new darker grey interface. You can change it back to the old, lighter grey if you’d like. But, after playing around with it, I actually really like it. It does help make the image pop, which makes editing a bit easier.
- One of the features I was looking most forward to is “Mini Bridge”. Mini Bridge is a file browsing tool directly in Photoshop. No more toggling back and forth between Photoshop and Bridge. It may not seem like a big deal, but I spend a lot of time going back and forth.
- Another new feature is the content aware patch. With content aware patch, you have more control over what will fill that area. Previous versions of Photoshop kind of just guessed what would go there. But, with the new version content aware you can select an object you want to remove from the photo and Photoshop can intellegently fill in a space in your image based upon what surrounds it. I could have used this a couple of months ago for an engagement session I did. We shot at an old abandoned pool with lots of graffiti. And with lots of graffiti comes lots of bad words. I spent a long time trying to get all those dirty words out of the images. This tool would have made it much easier. For instance, if I wanted to edit this cow head out (I think it’s a cow head) this is how it would turn out just using the normal patch tool:
With the new content aware patch tool I get a much better result:
It blends in much more seamlessly. It’s not perfect all the time, but it’s a huge imporvement from the old patch tool.
There is also the content aware move tool that will let you move objects and fill in the empty space with pixels based upon the rest of the image. Works pretty good!
- Improved crop tool – What I love about the new crop tool is that I am able to choose the ratio in which I want to crop. When I crop my images I almost always like to keep the original ratio (4×6). That is much easier to do in CS6 than it was in previous versions.
It’s also much easier to straighten your images with this new crop tool. Before I had to use the ruler tool and make additional steps. Now it’s all combined into the crop tool. Easy peasy.
- Tilt Shift – There are 3 new types of lens blurs available. My favorite is the “Tilt-Shift” blur. It simulates a tilt shift lens. I’m not sure that I’ll use it that much, but it’s a cool option to have and I think it could pass for being done with a real tilt-shift lens.
- Another new feature that I haven’t had time to play with yet, but am very excited about is the edition of video editing. You can apply a lot of the still image adjustments to video clips including exposure adjustments and cropping! And you can add music tracks as well. It looks promising!
The best news of all is that you can try the beta version of Photoshop CS6 for FREE! Yep, free. Download it here and let me know what you think!
Our Morning Routine
I love Fridays. Brayden is home from preschool. We usually don’t have any pressing plans besides going to the park if it’s a nice day out (today was 90 degrees!). Our Friday mornings usually consist of snuggling and cartoons.
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2
F 1.8, 1/100, ISO 3200
F 2.0, 1/100, ISO 3200
F 2.0, 1/60, ISO 3200 – Didn’t mean to have my shutter speed so low on this one. My finger slipped!
My living room in the morning is very dark. All of these images were taken at an extremely high ISO to compensate for the lack of light. Remember to overexpose your images in camera when shooting at such a high ISO. It will help for them to not look as grainy!
What do your mornings look like? Post over in Real Mom*togs!
Mom*tog by PCB Video Tutorial
Are you intimidated by Photoshop? Think using the new Mom*tog by Photo Card Boutique templates is just too hard? Watch this great video tutorial by Angie from Photo Card Boutique and you can see just how easy it all is! I even learned a few new tricks!
A Word on Workshops
Figuring out what workshop is right for you can be overwhelming. Because workshops are a very lucrative business it seems as if every photographer nowadays holds one. But, just because a photographer takes great pictures it does not mean they are a good teacher. As a consumer you need to do your research to protect yourself from a bad experience and from wasting your hard earned money.
1) Check how long the photographer that is holding the workshop has been in business. I get so frustrated when I see a “photographer” who has been in business for a very short period of time hold a workshop. Make sure it’s an established photographer who is holding the workshop. I promise you’ll learn so much more.
2) Make sure the photographer’s work is consistent. And make sure you like it! This is more for the workshops that photographers offer to mom’s with cameras. I have seen a lot of “photographers” offering these workshops and their pictures are horrendous and totally inconsistent. If their pictures aren’t good, they probably won’t be able to teach you a whole heck of a lot no matter how cheap the workshop is.
3) How many people are attending the workshop? Will you get one on one time with the photographer? The less people that are attending the more individual attention you will get and you won’t have other attendees elbowing you in the face trying to get shots.
4) Does the shoot use “models” or real people? I would much rather see how a photographer interacts with real people than with models. Posing models is easy. I don’t need a workshop to know how to pose a model. Real people can be hard.
5) What level of photographer is the workshop aimed at? There’s nothing worse than attending an advanced photography workshop and having that one person ask beginner questions the entire time. Make sure you attend a workshop that is appropriate for your skill level!
6) Don’t trust the reviews on the workshop website. Of course they are going to post only the best reviews! Google the name of the workshop and you’ll see plenty of photographer’s who have blogged about that workshop. I would even suggest contacting some of those photographers and ask them if they’d attend the workshop again.
This website has a section where attendees can review workshops. There aren’t a ton of reviews yet, but it could potentially be a great resource if enough people knew about it.
If you’ve attended a workshop and have had a bad experience don’t be afraid to say something! I hear so many people complain about their experiences with workshops. If you don’t say anything how will the photographer know what to change? And how will other photographer’s get honest reviews? I’m not saying you have to go and bash the photographer online. I’m talking about a constructive review of what you liked and didn’t like. Nothing will change until people stand up and start giving honest reviews!
7) Consider a mentoring session instead of a workshop. Most mentoring sessions are one on one and they will be tailored to you and your business. They may cost a little more, but individual attention will be worth it!
I hope this helps you to make an educated decision about your next workshop. With the plethora of workshops available it can be daunting. There are great workshops out there that will not only help you improve upon your photography skills, but will also inspire you to become a better photographer. You just have to find them!
*** This picture has nothing to do with workshops, but I love her outfit and wish they made it in my size so we could be twinsies. Although, I don’t think the jeggings would look quite as cute on me.
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2
F 1.6, 1/125, ISO 800
Yum!
Kennedy has been watching us intently as we eat for the past couple of weeks. She was very excited to try it for herself. Yum! Rice cereal! Has anyone every tried that? I’m thinking it doesn’t taste that great, but Kennedy didn’t care.
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2
F 2.0, 1/160, ISO 320
Then I let her have the spoon. That was a bad idea. She kept gagging herself and wouldn’t give it back. This being my second baby I should have known that wasn’t a good idea, but she was happy.
F 2.0, 1/160, ISO 320
F 2.0, 1/200, ISO 320
I’m thinking about making Kennedy’s baby food. Not hat I have the time, but those darn informercials make it look so easy. Anyone else make their own? If so, what do you use to make it?
Happy Monday, Mom*togs!
*** Kennedy’s bib was a gift from the awesome Lillybug Lane!
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