5 Observations from Photoshop World Orlando 2011

Assembled by: Eric Sharp under Branding & Design

Photoshop World made its way to our neck of the woods a couple weeks ago. With such comprehensive knowledge and inspiration only being 30 minutes from Caxiam’s headquarters, it was a no-brainer to leave the team behind for a few days (sorry guys) and attend the Orlando conference at the Orange County Convention Center.

Though the conference certainly appeals to photographers, the workshops, classes and expo focused on a wide range of Photoshop fundamentals, resources, tricks and new features released in the latest version (Adobe CS5). Regardless of your craft (Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Print Designer, Retouching Artist, etc), there was opportunity to sharpen your Photoshop skillset and therefore become a more efficient creative resource for your clients.

Plus, it was just cool to be around thousands of other Photoshop geeks. Some of the best gurus in the world walked that convention center – a very humbling experience in itself.

Here are a handful of observations I took away from Photoshop World 2011 in Orlando!

#1 – Shortcuts, Shortcuts, Shortcuts

Shortcuts are a wonderful thing. Just as websites try to eliminate clicks with clear hierarchy and organization, shortcuts in the world of software also help eliminate clicks & increases user proficiency.

Julieanne Kost held a Creative Composition session and was rattling off shortcuts faster than I could write them down! Here are a couple new ones I learned (note > these reference a PC keyboard):

X KEY = Toggles from Foreground to Background color
ALT + RIGHT MOUSE drag Left/Right= Adjusts Brush Size
ALT + RIGHT MOUSE drag Up/Down = Adjusts Brush Softness
You can duplicate a mask in the Layers panel by simply dragging it onto another layer (holding ALT key)

#2 – Black and White Photography doesn’t stop at Desaturation

I feel slightly embarrassed admitting this, but I thought B&W photography was simply about going to the menu Adjustments > Desaturate and Voilà!

photoshop_black-white_adjustmentlayer

That’s it…right? Shame on you Eric.

Adding a Black & White Adjustment layer is just the beginning. Though your image looks b&w on screen, you still have the ability to tweak the color in the image. Darken the blacks, lighten the whites, tweak the reds, yellows, etc.

If I had a penny for every time I heard “adjustment layer” and/or “channels” throughout those 3 days, I’d have enough coin to buy Starbucks tomorrow morning. It’s obviously a very powerful aspect of Photoshop and the pros are evangelistic about it!

photoshop-world_yogi_b&w

My dog Yogi helped me exaggerate the technique above. Isn’t he handsome?

#3 – Start shooting in RAW

I’ve a novice photographer, so again, I’m ignorant to these types of details. I’m not going to list out reasons WHY you should (I’ll let you Google that), but a common process I kept observing was the ability to take a RAW image and directly edit in Adobe Camera RAW. This was extremely beneficial while creating Smart Objects within Smart Objects.

camera raw

Note to self: stop shooting in JPG format

#4 – Extracting hair is NOT a mystical technique

Extracting people’s hair from a background can be one of the most difficult, and infuriating, techniques to master.

Using REFINE EDGE is a great start, but the steps after refine edge are where the magic happens. Pretty much every website we’ve built, we’ve needed to extract hair from a stock photo for compositing into our designs. Next time I’ll certainly feel more confident that it can be done while retaining supreme detail in those curls, waves & little frizzies.

Hair Extracting

This session with Ben Willmore was packed! Understandably so.

#5 – 3D capabilities are extremely powerful

Wow. This is one area of Photoshop that I need to become more acquainted with. From logos to headline text, the tools go fairly deep in allowing you to stylize and customize your design.