November 22, 2009

(rt) Type: Krakens, font finders, & more

• "This typography is making me thirsty..." Check out Kraken rum. (I think I met this beast on honeymoon.)
• Adobe's cool Font Finder lets you dial in parameters to browse 2,200 typefaces.
• Here's an interesting type treatment for an alternate iPhone lock screen.
• Clever JavaScript trickery = Scollbar typography. [Via]

November 21, 2009

(rt) Photography: Amazing bird photography, Mars, & more

• Andrew Zuckerman just crushes it with his bird book. Outstanding. [Via]

• Droppin' science:
  • The Big Picture features some totally fascinating Mars pictures. [Via]
  • Check out this year's Olympus microscopy photo winners. (Many leave me nonplussed, but scroll down for the hero-flea.) [Via]

• History:
  • Have gas mask, will travel. Creepy stuff; recalls animations from The Wall.
  • On CreativePro, Gene Gable shows off the pioneering photo processing of Look Magazine (e.g. the Beatles shot by Richard Avedon). Lots of interesting pre-digital manipulations.
• This 12,000-photo time lapse is interesting even for Yankee-haters. [Via]
12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments [2]

November 20, 2009

(rt) Photography: Lightroom tips for speed-ups, more

• Scott Kelby offers a handy set of "10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users."
• The Lightroom Lab shares Top Ten Lightroom Speed Tips.
• According to LR engineer Troy Gaul, "Lightroom 2.6, in addition to adding camera support, fixes a visual glitch on Snow Leopard in loupe when panning. [Via]
• Want a one-screen way to scan popular LR blogs? Check out http://lightroom.alltop.com/. [Via]

November 19, 2009

Interesting multitouch ideas: 10/GUI & BumpTop

Speaking of multitouch, the folks at 10/GUI have some interesting ideas on how to make multitouch practical on the desktop. If nothing else the ergonomic observations are spot on.

[Via]

Then there's BumpTop, which has been around for a few years & which is now available for download. It's cool, but as I've written previously, I have a hard time imagining it'll get widely adopted. Here's the demo:

[Via]

November 18, 2009

Camera Raw 5.6, Lightroom 2.6 available on Adobe Labs

Adobe Camera Raw 5.6 and Lightroom 2.6 are now available for download from Adobe Labs. These releases add new camera support for the following models:

• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon PowerShot G11
• Canon PowerShot S90
• Leaf Aptus II 5
• Mamiya DM22, DM28, DM33, DM56, M18, M22, M31
• Nikon D3s
• Olympus E-P2
• Pentax K-x
• Panasonic FZ38
• Sigma DP1s
• Sony A500
• Sony A550
• Sony A850

According to Camera Raw/Lightroom PM Tom Hogarty, "The Lightroom 3 beta has not been updated with this new camera support. If you're working with one of these newer cameras and the Lightroom 3 beta, please use the DNG Converter 5.6 Release Candidate to convert proprietary formats to DNG files that can be used in the Lightroom 3 beta."

Because this is a release candidate, we'd be glad to get your feedback via the Camera Raw User to User forum.

Fascinating slow motion water drops

Trippy!

[Via]

Coincidentally, here's a cool tutorial on milk-drop typography using Photoshop.

Documentation for the Lightroom 3 Beta is live

I'm pleased to see that documentation for the Lightroom 3 Beta is live, accessible via the Web or by choosing Help > Lightroom Help (F1) in Lightroom 3.

Lightroom 3 Beta help topics include:

What's new in Lightroom 3 Beta

Importing photos into a catalog

Exporting using Publish Services

Create a copyright watermark

Simulate film grain

Update the process version

Apply a postcrop vignette

Export a video slide show

Custom print packages

November 17, 2009

Multitouch comes to Flash

I've gotten quite a few inquiries over the years asking when Flash Player would support multitouch inputs. The answer: right now! Here's a quick video demo:

For more info on multitouch, hardware decoding, etc., check out these interviews with the FP engineers. [Via]

Incredible wildlife encounter for NatGeo photog

This is your head.
This is your camera.
This is your head & camera inside the mouth of a giant leopard seal...

Paul Nicklen gives new meaning to "stay frosty":

Amazing (even more so when viewed in high def). [Via]

November 16, 2009

"dpBestflow" aims to drive best practices

There are a million ways you can process, manage, and archive your images--but how should you? What techniques best capture and preserve your creative output?

To address these questions, the Library of Congress, working with ASMP, has just announced "dpBestflow" (Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow). Two years' worth of research have produced "real-world solutions for preserving the quality and integrity of digital images; proven best practices that have been shown to produce superior results; and guidelines for streamlined production workflows."

The site is loaded with resources, ranging from a quick reference sheet* to a detailed glossary. I haven't gotten to read the materials in detail, but the effort seems like a great response to persistent real-world issues. [Via project contributor Peter Krogh.]

* Nice to see this guidance: "Use DNG to archive raw file data... A DNG archive can be validated with a much higher level of certainty than any other image file format."

(rt) Infographics: Violent death, Hey Jude, & more

• Brutal: "In my Swedish elevator i discovered one of the worst ways to die." [Via]
• This excellent interactive infographic shows the relative size of objects, from coffee beans to atoms.
• "Hey Jude" as a flowchart. [Via]
• I love this set of fanciful theme park maps. (As a kid I used to pour over my posters of Great America & Brookfield Zoo.) [Via]

November 14, 2009

Creepy image science: Your face as a puppet

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls through this funky facial mapping/animation software. NPR's Science Friday writes:

"Like a digital video puppet, the facial expressions of one person can be cloned in real time and mapped onto the digital face of another person. Barry-John Theobald, computer scientist at the University of East Anglia, explains the technique and Steven Boker, of the University of Virginia, explains what facial cloning can reveal about human nature."

Check it out:

[Update: The embedding code seems to be spazzing out at the moment, so I suggest watching the video on the SciFri site.]

November 13, 2009

Milton Glaser on drawing

It's easy (especially for me) to get hung up on digital tools, so I found it refreshing to spend 4 minutes listening to Milton Glaser talk about drawing--especially about how, in his opinion, art schools have let digital training compromise the fundamentals.

[Via]

(rt) Photography: Historical remixes, Lightroom tips, & more

• Here's a set of strangely diggable aquatic photos from Asako Narahashi.
• History reconsidered:
  • Iconic Photo Of JFK Assassin Oswald Was Not Faked, Professor Finds. (Adobe has worked w/Hany Farid.) [Via]
  • Bizarre B&W photos: Batman + Fidel, Darth + FDR. [Via]
• Lightroom tips via Tom Hogarty:
  • PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) plug-in now available for Lightroom 2; would like your feedback.
  • How to create a time lapse video direct from Lightroom 3 beta: [Via]

November 12, 2009

(rt) Illustration: Retro posters, profane pterodactyls, & more

• Vintage posters:
  • Neat Russian posters from the '70s.
  • Cool 60's-style posters celebrating the International Year of Astronomy.
• Offbeat:
  • Killer! Big-Headed Papercraft Self Portrait using Photoshop + 3D. [Via]
  • View the source of this page for a bizarre Easter egg.
  • Creepy & excellent: The skeletons of Charlie Brown, Hello Kitty, & others. [Via]
  • "We did it for the show." ("America's dream family" indeed...) The shirt is now available for purchase. [Via]
• Excellent pixelated Halloween costume ("Low Resolution"). [Via]

November 11, 2009

SF PUG Thursday: Optimizing Photoshop performance

Tomorrow evening (Thursday), all-around smart/interesting guy Adam Jerugim from the Photoshop team will be speaking at the San Francisco Photoshop User Group meeting:

The talk will focus on Photoshop performance best practices to help enable users to get the most out of Photoshop with their current hardware setup. In addition, there will be guidance provided for users that plan on buying new hardware or upgrading their existing Photoshop & Lightroom systems. Information will also be provided about tools you can use to optimize your specific workflow, GPUs, and running 64-bit applications.

Our speaker, Adam Jerugim, has been part of the Photoshop engineering team for the last 10 years and is mainly responsible for performance and hardware compatibility testing. In addition to being an avid photographer, he is also working to complete his MFA in Digital Arts and New Media at UC Santa Cruz.

See the event page for more info. For a slide deck from Adam & co. on the subject of optimizing Photoshop performance, see previous.