Adobe Photoshop Express Public Beta Adds Flickr Support
“Save As” and Embeddable Player Now Available as Community Feedback Drives New Features
London— May 8, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced a major update to Adobe® Photoshop® Express beta (www.photoshop.com/express), including integration with Flickr and a “Save As” functionality, two of the most requested features by early adopters. Additionally, a new embeddable player will allow users to post their Photoshop ® Express ® slideshows to sites such as Facebook, Myspace, blogs and more. Released as a public beta in March 2008, Photoshop Express is a free rich Internet application (RIA) available to anyone who wants to store, sort and show off digital photos with eye-catching effects. As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe’s best image-editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience. Within the first week of launch, hundreds of thousands of people registered for an account and within the first month, over 60,000 public Web albums were created.
“We’re overwhelmed by the positive response to the Photoshop Express beta and all the people who are actively editing and showing off their photos,” said Doug Mack, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. “Photoshop Express will continue to evolve over time as we listen to user feedback and build a complete hosted solution that gives people the right balance of performance, convenience and that ‘wow-factor’ that makes their photos stand out from the rest. We’re fortunate to have innovative technologies in our arsenal like Flex® and Adobe Flash® Player that guarantee the overall experience will always be engaging and dynamic.”
Enhancements Extend Community, Accessibility and Creativity
Photoshop Express provides convenient access from right within the application to photos posted on social networking sites like Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa and now Flickr. Photoshop Express serves as a complementary solution for people with Flickr albums who want to upload or download photos into Photoshop Express, add special effects and send them back into Flickr to share with the community. The experience is seamless, so users never have to leave their community environment.
The new “Save As” feature allows users to save multiple versions of an image in addition to the original version. Also new to the lineup is the embeddable player, which lets users post their slideshows to Facebook, MySpace, and other sites to share with friends and family.
A Convenient, Single Destination for Storing, Editing and Sharing
With Photoshop Express, users get 2 gigabytes of free storage, can upload and sort anytime and from anywhere, edit non-destructively to always preserve the original image, and share online in creative ways.
With just a few easy clicks, Photoshop Express empowers anyone to make standard edits, such as removing blemishes and red-eye, converting to black and white, cropping and resizing and much more. Photoshop Express features a collection of creative effects such as Pop Colour, which highlights a single colour in a photo; Distort, which distorts facial features or objects; and Sketch, which makes photos look like artistic drawings. Even users with limited photo editing knowledge can simply select what looks best from a line-up of sample photos with visual hints showing different variations of the added effect. Photoshop Express offers a variety of fun sharing options, including “My Gallery” that highlights collections of user photos called Albums. The unique slideshows feature interactive animation that make photos float and fly across the screen, allowing for an engaging sharing experience.
Free and Available Now
Adobe Photoshop Express public beta update is available for free via any Web browser, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and others at http://www.photoshop.com/express. Photoshop Express was created with Flex, Adobe’s free, open source framework for building RIAs. Flex applications provide a consistent, rich user experience across operating systems and all major browsers. An Internet connection and an up-to-date Flash® Player 9 are all that are required to experience Adobe Photoshop Express. In its early phases, Photoshop Express is available to US residents-only in English. Users may experience slow performance if accessed outside of the US. Future updates will include availability in other languages and countries.

Adobe Bridge & Camera RAW Download Training Film Available May 22nd 2008

Cleghorn’s long awaited training film on how to fast edit images and correct image colour balance and exposure is in final stages of production and due for release in May from his website as a download.

The Training film is 55 minutes long and explains every step to his fast workflow.

Using a real client portrait shoot, Mark shows the techniques that have changed thousands of photographers lives around the world, by introducing simple to follow techniques that lead to speed in post production.

The same techniques demonstrated in this training film, he uses every day in his studio to edit weddings, the workflow that he demonstrates allows him to edit 700 -800 images on a wedding, re-name, colour balance, correct exposure as well as turn a controlled selection of images to mono using Adobe Bridge and Camera RAW in around 90 minutes.

The cost of the training film is £12.50 as a download.

If you want to be one of the first to download drop Debbie and email at
debbie@markcleghorn.com and as soon as the film is live in site you will get an email.

Owners of Canon 580EX II( TYPE II ONLY) and Turbo 2×2, Turbo SC, Turbo C

Important Operating Notice

Solution: Set Flash Custom Function #01 Auto power off to Disable(1)

Problem
The custom function on the Canon 580EX II is set to (0)enabled when shipped. This function enables the flash go to sleep after a predetermined time of idling.If custom function 01 is not turned off the flash will go to sleep and the Turbo Batteries will shut down.

If C.Fn 01 is not disabled you must turn the Turbo OFF and then ON otherwise it will not wake-up when the flash awakes.

Disabling this function will prevent the above Turbos from shutting down.

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Connecting Procedure for Canon System / Canon 580EX II with above Turbos

If the procedure below is not followed the Turbo with not operate.

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Mount flash to camera.

Connect Turbo long CZ/short CCZ flash cable between 580EX II and Turbo 2×2, Turbo SC or Turbo C

Turn on camera and flash.

Turn on the Turbo last.

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In addition, if C.Fn 12 is turned on ES2 should not be used

Just when I thought things could not get any better Lastolite launches the new Bigger & Better 8×7 Hilite Background.

I was lucky enough to test out the New HiLite Background 8 x 7 background on whilst shooting a new series of training videos, its awesome, just make sure you have a big enough room for it.

Due to the increased size I do recommend that you now light it with 2 studio flash heads and not just the one as you could with the smaller models. Speaking of smaller models they have introduced a size small enough to hang on a door, which makes it a perfect choice for security and I.D. photography