Welcome to the September issue of the CAFÉ cup!

Its been a busy month so far, I just returned from Photoshop World in Orlando FLA. I was warmly received with the PhotoshopCAFE booth. The show was cut short by hurricane Francis, but everyone made it out ok. It was an interesting experience at the airport trying to escape with thousands of others. I guess I have a story for my Grand kids one day. Next year PSW is in Las Vegas and the CAFE will be there too!

The first DL Expo went very well and I taught for 5 hours on Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers throughout the 2 day event. If you missed this, try and make the New York show. I will also be presenting at the New York SoHo Apple store Fri., Sept. 24th 7-8pm.

On Monday I head off to Montana for 2 days at the Rocky Mountain School Of Photography. I love teaching at the Digital Intensive at RMSP because the students are intense! If your thinking about taking some time out to learn Digital Photography, consider this fine school.

Check out this Month's Computer Arts Focus Guide, you will find 30 minutes of Video on the CD from yours truly.Also remember my regular columns in Photoshop User Magazine and the NAPP members site.

Tell your friends and get them to sign up on the list, they may just win a prize! As always this list will never be shared or sold to slimy spammers. We had over 250 new people sign up last week alone!

Thanks for supporting the CAFE and helping it to become one of the and fastest growing and largest Photoshop Communities in the world!

Tip:  How to Increase Your Efficiency and Win More Business

The difference between winning and losing new business is the tool you choose to manage client relationships. Get more business, happier clients and achieve your goals by improving turnaround time, increasing efficiency and reducing errors. Learn the easy way to do it here

Coffee with Colin - What Format to shoot Digital?

Your digital camera may have several different formats that you can shoot in. The most common are jpg and tif. Some mid-level and high end cameras also support RAW.

JPG: This is the best choice for most cameras because jpg will compress the files the smallest. This means that you can capture more images on a card and the camera will be more responsive, because a smaller file equals quicker processing time. I would use fine because this will give you the best image quality, the lower settings may be tempting, but they will damage your images.

TIF: This is a lossless format and the images will be clear, however the file size is also huge and takes considerable time for the camera to process, resulting in lost shooting opportunities. If you are in a studio and taking still product shots, this option may be worth considering. The difference between Tif and high Quality Jpg is almost indiscernible.

RAW: Dubbed as the Holy Grail for digital photographers, this format is the best if your camera supports it. When set to RAW the camera will capture the image and save it as a digital file. This file will not be processed by the camera. When you process the image on your computer, you will have the opportunity to adjust the exposure, white balance and other options BEFORE you open the image. This will give the photographer great control over the image.

Check out my CD Photoshop Secrets CS for Digital Photographers or my book, Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers for more on RAW.

Royalty Free Stock Photography for $1.50?

Is it possible to get quality Royalty free stock photos for $1.50? Sure is, check out istockphoto

Try Photoshop Fix, a new monthly newsletter for Photoshop junkies.  Each issue gives you 16 pages of picture-packed tutorials and tips by industry experts who break down the essentials of Photoshop through easy, step-by-step instruction.  Get a free trial issue and our charter subscription rate.  Plus, you'll get a FREE CD with 75 royalty free photos with your paid subscription.
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UPCOMING EVENTS: PhotoshopCAFE and Colin on the road

RMSP
Rocky Mountain School Of Photography will be combining all 3 Digital Intensive classes into a single group for a 3 hour lecture at Montana University. Then I will be teaching a 3 hour session with each of the classes individually.
Sept.16th -17th - MO

Digital Lifestyle Expo.

The next DL Expo kicks off in New York city. I will be teaching a number of classes at this conference.
Sun., Sept. 26th - NYC
More about DL Expo

Apple SoHo Store - New York, NY
Experience the workflow of the pros from Organization, correction, enhancement and special Effects. Using the powerful and sometimes hidden features of Photoshop CS, Colin will cut through the confusion and make it simple to improve every image you work with. He will demonstrate some little known and radically useful tips and techniques. If you capture or work with images, don't miss this one!
Fri., Sept. 24th 7-8pm - NYC

LA Computer Fair
This is the nation's largest Computer Fair. I will be instructing on both days and the CAFE booth will also be there at the Digital Photo and Video Pavilion.
October 2-3 Pomona, CA

New book coming soon! Photoshop/ Dreamweaver Integration

If you are familiar with the hugely popular Super Tutorial on building a website with Photoshop and Dreamweaver, or my book "From Photoshop to Dreamweaver", you will LOVE this book. This is all the stuff I wish I had put in the previous book such as Expanded explanation of slices and tables, frames and iframes, liquid sites, e-commerce, drop down menus and more. This is a simple to follow guide that will take you through concept to upload of the DreamweaverCAFE site. It is also flexible enough that you can apply the lessons to any site! I wrote this as the book I wish I had when I started designing web sites.

See more here

Get Strata 3D and 2 of my CDs for under $100!
Get the Full featured 3D application for Windows and Mac (worth $300) plus Photoshop CAFE live 1 and 2 (Worth $90) for only $99.99 - see this exclusive offer here. Was sold out, but we have more stock now!
How To Do Everything with Photoshop

This full color book will give you a solid understanding of not only the tools of Photoshop but how to accomplish different tasks. You will master paths, channels and layers. No stone is unturned. From Retouching Photographs to Web sites and collages and more, you will learn some cool tips and the best way of doing things. This is the perfect book for the beginner>Intermediate user. More than a manual replacement! Even the experienced user will learn something. Check it out here

FAQ

Q: What is CMYK Mode for?

A: CMYK stands for Cyan (Blue), Magenta (Pink), Yellow and Black (K is used for black so as not confuse it with Blue, also stands for Key). The CMYK color space is used form printing to a commercial printing press. If you were to send your files in RGB they would not print correctly because the printer will make 4 plates out of the 4 CMYK channels. When the 4 colors are mixed together in a series of tiny dots, they fool the eye into seeing other colors that are not really there. This is the common style for printing magazines, postcards etc. If you are not printing to a press, there is no reason to use CMYK.

If you have a question please submit it the CAFE. It may just be featured in the next newsletter.

Tip: Composite Layers made easy!

Have you even worked on multiple layers and wanted to have everything merged on a single layer without losing all the individual layers? Create a new layer, move it to the top of the layers palette and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E (Cmd+Option+Shift+E on mac) Its that easy!

 

 

Thanks for tuning into the CAFE Cup and remember: Create don't Steal! See you at the cafe

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