Adobe Photoshop

Remixing the World With Photoshop.

PBS has released a new Off Book video on YouTube, talking about how Photoshop has changed imaging, culture, and the way we interact with images. I use Photoshop 7 days a week. Anyone in a visually creative occupation probably does. The video is just over five minutes long, and at times feels like a great big ad for Adobe’s flagship product. None the less it’s worth watching, for the amazing examples of work, the commentary from artist, designers and photographers, and the ideas that it evokes. I say the ideas that it evokes, because in many ways this short film is spot on about how Photoshop has changed imaging for forever, and how it has had a global impact on how we perceive our world. Frankly, I’d like to see a feature length documentary on Photoshop, but then again, I am a design geek.

Photoshop has completely revolutionized our visual culture. Artists now use Photoshop to create complex imagery that would have been impossible 20 years ago. It has also profoundly changed the art of photo retouching, turning a labor intensive process into an artful and often controversial digital workflow. But possibly the most current and expressive influence can be seen in meme culture online. With the ability to alter any image in the media landscape, everyday people now have the means to critically comment on culture and spread their ideas
virally, leveling the playing field between traditional media creators and consumers. Photoshop has changed the way we communicate, the way we express ourselves, and the way we view the world and each other.

Featuring:
Jeff Huang, Art Director & Illustrator
Laurent Le Moing, Picturehouse NYC
Don Caldwell, Know Your Meme

Photographers Featured:
Matt Jones
Chris Buck
Robert Maxwell
Txema Yeste
Matthias Vriens

Adobe CS5 iPad Apps

Adobe has released three new applications that take advantage of the iPad touch interface, and work with their CS5 desktop applications.

Adobe Nav takes advantage of a network connection between your iPad and your computer. With this application you can customize the Photoshop CS5 toolbar on iPad to easily access the tools you use most. Nav lets you browse, reorder, view, and zoom in on up to 200 open Photoshop documents on iPad. You simply tap a document on iPad to make it the active document in Photoshop CS5.

Adobe Eazel lets you use your iPad to paint directly on the iPad screen using your fingers. When you reach a stopping point you can send your artwork directly to Photoshop CS5 from any location—all you need is a network connection between your iPad and computer.

Adobe Color Lava lets you use your fingers yo mix colors on your iPad like a traditional color pallet. From there you can create custom swatches, and like Eazle send them to Photoshop CS5 via a network connection. In addition you can use the app whenever inspiration strikes, save your pallet, then bring your colors into Photoshop CS5 once you’re connected again.

Foodscapes by Photographer Carl Warner

I have always been a huge fan of “Craft”. I don’t care if it is in the sense of a master wood-carver working his trade, or a digital master pushing pixels in Photoshop. Craft is craft, and when it is applied with a keen eye and good aesthetic value it is unstoppable. This is probably one of the reasons I am really loving Carl Warner’s photographic landscapes created from food.

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To create these shots, Warner photographs the elements in layers and then composites them together to create the finished piece. Each image can take up to three days to build and shoot, and the process always begins the same way, with a sketch.

Warner first sketches his ideas out to make sure the composition in his mind will translate, and to give himself a frame of reference for the shoot. Then he spends many hours searching for the right pieces of produce for the photograph before assembling and shooting each layer with his Hasselblad H3D39.

Each layer is then transferred to his Mac, where he spends a couple of days retouching, compositing, and fine-tuning the images in Adobe Photoshop.

In addition to his own masterful work behind the camera and on the computer, Warner uses a host of model makers and food stylists to achieve these shots. The combined effort really pays off with some very magical, well crafted works.

Extrodinary Photoshop Work by Jim Kazanjian.

In the last 20 years there has been a shift in photography that has been brought about by the continuous revolution and growth of Adobe Photoshop. Not all photographers use it the same way, and that’s OK. Some opt for traditional uses, like color correction, sharpening, pre-press work. Others have pushed Photoshop to the limits extending what they do, and blurring the lines between photography and illustration for the better.

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Portland, Oregon based artist Jim Kazanjian is one of those individuals that have embraced the technology and pushed it to some create stunning photo-illustrations. Jim Kazanjian knows how to use Adobe Photoshop like no one else. He use the program to create his stunning digital collages/photo-illustrations that refer to the stillness and quietness of place, and space in his images. His works form from multiple images and look eerily like pencil drawings. Kazanjian works from images that he shoots as well as high-resolution images that he sources from the internet. The images are collaged together using the only program he works with; Photoshop.