Photoshop World is now underway in Las Vegas (okay, well not quite at the time of writing as the Vegas is eight hours behind!). Rosie Tanner of Photoshop Creative fame is there representing our Photoshop titles – so if you’re there, keep an eye out for her! We’ll be getting all the show news from her, so watch this space!

It’s so very quiet in our pod at the moment, with Adam taking a week off and leaving me and Stacey to get on with the business of getting the next issue ready for you! We’re busy planning issue 50, which we hope will be pretty special – look out for it at the beginning of November. With Adam off, I’ll be doing my best to get comments on all the great images uploaded to the gallery site this weekend, but it might take a little while to get round them all – you’ve certainly been busy!

You may have noticed that we’ve added a reader’s survey at the top of our homepage. Please, if you can find the time, fill this in so that we can learn more about you and where you want the magazine to go in the future. It’ll only take a couple of minutes, but the information collected is invaluable to us. It is completely anonymous, so be honest!

Issue 47 of Advanced Photoshop goes on sale tomorrow, 14 August.

Among the usual blend of features, portfolios and tutorials, we’ve got an interview with Alessandro Bavari. His surreal photomanipulations are dark, a little disturbing, but ultimately compelling with a classical twist. Definitely worth a read to find out what’s goes on in the mind of this artist.

We’ve got a practical look at 3D integration in Photoshop too, which is a popular combination. First, Mark Mayers looks at incorporating a 3D model (free from DAZ 3D) into a Photoshop project using CS3 Extended. You don’t need anything but Photoshop Extended to give it a go. But if you do want to use 3D software in conjunction with Photoshop, then our Resources feature looks at the way top artists use 3D programs alongside Photoshop and just how easy it is to get started.

But if you’re perfectly happy with just the two dimensions, then check out our tutorials on the art of speed painting, vivid lighting effects and creative retouching.

Finally, take a close look at our cover this issue and you’ll notice some interesting work on the gloss - a hidden word perhaps?

Let me know what you think of the magazine!

Julie

I’m not joking when I say this is addictive! Digital Photographer’s new Photo Face-Off feature on its website makes it really difficult to get on with any work. What is it? Well, the site, which hosts over 28,000 readers’ images, offers you the chance to pick the winner in a head-to-head battle between two randomly generated images from the site. There’s more information in the press release below, but please, please try it out and let me know what you think. If you like it, we are thinking about adding it to the AP website too!Press release:Are you ready to Photo Face-Off?Imagine Publishing unveils its latest innovative photography websiteDescribed by photography website regulars as “Pure genius!” and “Highly addictive, I love it!”, Photo Face-Off (www.photofaceoff.co.uk), the latest new online photograph comparison site from Imagine Publishing and DPhotographer.co.uk, is already creating a storm online.Launched in July 2007, Dphotographer.co.uk is the online home of the Digital Photographer magazine, and provides users with up-to-the minute news, reviews, an active online forum, and an online image database to showcase all their digital photos which can be uploaded to their own personal.Photo Face-off utilises the 28,000+ photographs that have already been uploaded to sister site DPhotographer.co.uk, and randomly selects two shots to battle it out in a simple point & click competition to see which one wins the face-off. Developed for photographers by photographers, Photo Face-Off is accessible, fresh and full of inspirational images taken by amateurs and semi-pro photographers.Debbi Allen, Editor of Digital Photographer said: “Photo Face-Off is great fun and we’re keen to offer a better, more interactive and more exciting website, the team behind dphotographer.co.uk has been working hard to develop this cool new feature.”Andy Wooldridge, Digital Photographer and Photo Face-Off’s Advertising Executive added: “This highly addictive feature will drive traffic to the website and give our online advertisers even more value for money. Photo Face-Off also offers a unique sponsorship opportunity for one company to maximise branding exposure on what will become the most viewed area of the site.”Digital photography has never been bigger news and this is proven by the tremendous success Digital Photographer has experienced over the past 12 months. 2006 saw the magazine achieve its highest-ever individual issue sales figures and this has continued into 2007, and it is one of Imagine’s most successful magazines.Imagine Publishing is one of the UK’s fastest growing consumer specialist publishers. Formed in May 2005, it now publishes 20 magazines and 20 websites in the videogames, computing, entertainment and photography markets. An Imagine magazine is purchased every ten seconds.

Many of you have been aware of the inappropriate use of the Advanced Photoshop gallery website in recent weeks. Please note that ANY use of offensive, racist or derogatory language will result in the person responsible for putting it on the site, in any context, being removed from the website with immediate effect.

Please use this site with respect. The rating and comment system is there to help artists learn from each other and give helpful advice on how to improve artworks.  Please do not abuse this system. This applies to only a tiny minority of website users and I appreciate those of you who are are on hand to offer constructive criticism, praise and advice.

If you notice anything on this website that causes you offence, then let me know as soon as possible so that the situation can be dealt with immediately. The policing of this site will now be even more tightly controlled and I appreciate your help in this matter.

Respect the community and your fellow artists – we’re all here to learn and show off our work.

Many thanks,

Julie

I want to say a warm welcome to two new members of the Advanced Photoshop team! For a while now, it’s been just me and Adam (plus a whole host of wonderful freelancers keeping us going!), but now we have two new members of the team. First, Stacey Grove joins us as the magazine’s new designer. I’m happy to have another female on team, but I also can’t wait to see her put her personal stamp on things. Second, we have Sam Robson joining us as sub-editor. Sam’s been with Imagine Publishing for a while now and also works on our sister title, Web Designer. He’ll be standing guard over rogue commas and misplaced apostrophes from now on!

I’m a fan of reading John Nack’s Adobe blog to keep up with the latest news regarding Photoshop, so I was pleased to hear that he has been selected for the Photoshop Hall of Fame – he will be officially inducted at the Photoshop World Expo in September. Congratulations!

Adobe Lightroom 2 is now available to buy from the Adobe website. It is priced at £175 excluding VAT for the full version (£69 excluding VAT if you are upgrading). However, if you want to get the latest version of Photoshop at the same time, then you can save up to £85 when purchasing both products as a bundle.

There is a whole host of new features in this version of the software, including multiple monitor support, local adjustment brushes and better CS3 integration.

You can find out more about this release by taking a visit to the Adobe website.

PRESS RELEASE

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localised image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel processors and Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

“A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product,” said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. “We’ve considered their requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs.”

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate
The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organise images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organise images in a way that maximises an additional display.
In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust colour, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customisable templates to maximise paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/.

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology
New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimise surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favourite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customised profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.
The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.
“One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community,” said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).  “Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today’s photographers face and they’ve built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly.”

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is £175 for new users with an upgrade price of £69 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel based processor, or Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM and a 1024×768 resolution screen. Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

I’ve come across this great website where you can take a Photoshop test to see how much you know about the Adobe app. It only takes a minute to register on the Highlander website and then you can have a go at the 30-minute CS3 test. You get to try it five times, so you can ‘revise’ in between sessions. Try it now at http://www.highlander.co.uk/free-skills-tests.