May 8th, 2008 by Colin Smith
Review by Colin Smith
The doorbell rings. I open the door to reveal the UPS guy and a tablet is thrust under my nose for an electronic signature. As I sign my life-away I take possession of a brand new Wacom Cintiq 12. I tear open the outside box to reveal a black box nicely designed with Wacom’s trendy new branding.
May 7th, 2008 by Colin Smith
Adobe Photoshop Express Public Beta Adds Flickr Support
“Save As” and Embeddable Player Now Available as Community Feedback Drives New Features
May 7th, 2008 by Colin Smith
I hope to see you in Nashville soon at the Creative Suite Conference. It’s been a few years since I was there. Ill be doing 5 sessions. One of them is brand new. I call it “David Blatner’s Kitchen Sink” session. Actually It’s keeping real. (David will get the joke ;))
Keeping it real – creativity unleashed! - Colin Smith
This session’s focus is on realism. From 3D in Photoshop to Hyper-realistic Photoshop illustration, HDR photography and blending everything together in Flash, this entertaining and informative session will raise the bar on what’s possible visually. You will be amazed at what’s possible with a little out of the box thinking. What you’ll witness:
May 6th, 2008 by Colin Smith
Read about this terrible bill. Right now congress thinks that artists and organizations are for it! This bill will limit your rights and copyright to your works. If someone can’t find th author, they will be able to use it without permission and more… Goes up for vote tomorrow!! http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/bills/?billid=11320236 http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/bills/?billid=11322171
You have to do something by tomorrow!!!
May 6th, 2008 by Colin Smith
I have written a new tutorial, view it here
Create a hollywood style, spotlight effect. This tutorial came about as a result of a request from the forums. This effect will show you how to make beams of light and realistic looking spotlights. Use this for the hollywood effect or to add lights that look like spotlights in concerts.
May 6th, 2008 by Colin Smith
I have named this “The Asian Domain name - trademark scam” because so far I have only received this from Asia. I’m sure that it will spread to other countries soon (If it hasn’t already).
Basically it works like this: You have a domain name. You are alerted that a competitor (or potential defrauder) has applied for domain names that contain your domain name but with extensions such as ,asia, .cn etc.
You now have the opportunity to “protect” yourself by buying these names first.
Sounds innocent enough? Sure, but since when have you heard of having to apply for a domain name? Its either avaliable or not, the “other company” could register it anywhere without going through a human.
So best case scenario, someone gets to dump some obscure domain extensions off to you each year (at your expense of course) by using deceptive fear tactics. Basically scare you into buying something you wouldn’t normally buy.
Or #2: The company isn’t legit and they are just phishing for your credit card info.
Samples: Here’s 2 emails I have received so far….
Mar 5th, 2008 by colin
*Personally I think this is BS!*
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)- Adobe Systems Inc.’s (ADBE) popular media player for cellphones simply isn’t good enough for Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said Tuesday in the most substantive comments to date about why the iPhone can’t now be used to view a large percentage of videos on the Internet.
Since its debut in June, the mobile Web browser inside the combo phone and digital media player hasn’t been compatible with online videos based on Flash Player, an Adobe-made media player used to view most Internet videos. Web-based videos for the iPhone have to be specially formatted to a file type that Apple endorses. Google Inc.’s (GOOG) YouTube is the only video provider now doing this, and only a handful of videos are available.
Continue Reading »
Mar 2nd, 2008 by colin
Wow that didn’t take long for that war.
Toshiba have backed out and are no longer making HD DVD. Looks like Blu-ray won the fight.
Now that there is a standard format it will be interesting to see how quick people switch over and if so, how fast the prices will come down. Bye Bye DVD
Feb 24th, 2008 by colin
This is a combination of 3 different Photo shoots. I composited it in Photoshop yesterday. The final is a 16 bit file at 13 x 18. Enjoy.
Originally uploaded by kiwicolin
Feb 21st, 2008 by colin
This tutorial will explain one of the hottest new trends in Photography. HDR! Learn how to shoot, merge and tone-map photos to extend the dynamic range and produce those painted looking results. Covers photoshop CS3. In this tutorial we will take a look at HDR photography. HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) was originally used in 3D and Cinema and is now in full force in photography. Basically it’s the process of taking multiple exposures and merging them together into a single 32 bit image. Let me explain: A camera is capable of capturing a limited amount of tones in a single photo. Typically we sacrifice elements in a photo when we press the shutter. For example there is a powerful cloudscape and some cliffs. If we expose for the clouds the cliffs become dark. If we set the camera’s exposure to capture detail in the cliffs, the brighter sky is blown out and detail is lost. This is because the human eye can see a larger range of tones than the camera can capture on the chip or film in a single photograph.
The solution is to take more than one photograph and bracket the photos. This tutorial will show you how to complete this process with the minimum fuss.
Click here to see more of my HDR check out my flickr page.
The official blog of Colin Smith (aka kiwicolin)
Blog about Photoshop, Flash, design and visual communications
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