PSIG News: April 2005 e-News
April 12, 2005

April Meeting

The April PSIG meeting will be held on Thursday April 14th, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at Voorhees High School in room 245. At the meeting, we will look at some of Scott Kelby’s “Down and Dirty Photoshop Tricks” training movies. Additionally, there will be a question-and-answer session. Members are encouraged to bring their images, prints, and questions for discussion during the meeting.

Adobe Annouces Photoshop Upgrade

Last week, Adobe announced an update to the Creative Suite line of software, including Photoshop CS2. Among the upgrade features in CS2 are the fantastic Vanishing Point tool, Smart Objects, Multi-image digital camera raw file processing, Image Warp, Advanced noise reduction, Customizable workspaces and menus, Spot Healing Brush, and One-click red-eye correction among others. Although not shipping until May, there is plenty of information on this upgrade currently available and we will take a look at some of the features at the April meeting

Get Current

Until the next Photoshop becomes available, it might be a good time to check and see if your current version of Photoshop is up to date. Although Photoshop has built-in Camera Raw capabilities, the Camera Raw 2.4 update includes support for even more cameras. Visit Adobe’s Camera Raw page for a complete list of supported cameras. This update requires Photoshop CS.

Tips and Tricks

Working on a Curve

When you are using Curves to correct images and you are trying to adjust a specific color, you can have Photoshop automatically plot that color on the curve for you. With the Curves dialog open, just Command-click on that color within your image. Photoshop will add a point to the curve that represents the spot you sample, and then you can tweak it with more accuracy and intelligence.

Better Filtration

Instead of applying a number of different filters to a particular layer, a better way to work would be to make a copy of the layer, then apply the filter. Then make another copy of the layer and apply the second filter, and so on. You can use Photoshop’s Layer Blend Modes to get the effect that one filter is applied on top of the others, and now you’ve got full control over each individual filter applied. If you do not like one of the filters just throw it away. Better yet, you have got Blend and Opacity control you would not have by simply applying filter on top of of filter.