We’re on the hunt once again for the Next Photoshop Evangelist. The last winner was Gavin Hoey, who flew from his home in the UK to hang with the product team at Photoshop Orlando and showcase his favorite features in Photoshop at our booth. Gavin’s enthusiasm and energy were definitely characteristics of a great evangelist, who passionately provides engaging ways for people to learn more about Photoshop.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the coveted title – Adobe Photoshop Evangelists are folks like Russell Brown, Julieanne Kost and Bryan O’Neil Hughes who travel the world “preaching the Photoshop gospel” and educating the masses with tips and tricks for the software. The popular Adobe TV series of tutorials from Russell Brown and  Julieanne Kost, along with the “Photoshop Hidden Gems” series on our YouTube channel are a great example of that special instruction.

We’ve just launched a contest to give YOU the opportunity to shine as the “Next Photoshop Evangelist” and show us your favorite Hidden Gem in Photoshop CS5 via a video submission. Hidden Gems are lesser-known features or new uses for commonly used tools that people may not already know about.

How to Submit:

It’s simple!

1)      Visit our Next Photoshop Evangelist tab on our Facebook page.

2)      Upload the 1-2 minute video by clicking “Submit a Video” and follow the instructions.

3)      After it’s been reviewed, your video will appear in the Submissions Gallery.

4)      You can submit as many videos as you want—just make sure that your content is original and doesn’t feature any copyrighted material.

5)      Remember: your submission must reveal a “Hidden Gem” and mention the phrase to qualify for the contest.

What You’ll Win:

A panel of Photoshop Evangelists will select five finalists. Once the finalists have been chosen, Facebook community votes will determine the grand prize winner, who will receive:

• A trip to attend Photoshop World
• Time with the product team
• The opportunity to demonstrate your Hidden Gem live at Photoshop World
• A copy of Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Design Standard
• Potential promotion via Adobe.com & Photoshop.com

Be sure to check out our official contest rules before entering and submit before 11:59 p.m. PST on March 5.

Good luck! If you’re not vying for the evangelist title, you can still participate by “liking” and sharing out the videos, as they appear on our Facebook tab. Get your friends to join in on deciding who is worthy of the next spot!

We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Connecting with our fans and followers is a lot of fun for us. It’s not often that we find a reason to join calls with 300+ people from near and far – the UK, Germany and even Tahiti! – to live chat and share what we love about Lightroom 4 Beta. Or meet at the Adobe headquarters with a standing-room only Lightroom demo for a nearly 200 person user group. Our launch week live sessions were a great way for us to hear what you all think of the new updates and changes.

As promised, we’ve given you some time to check out the beta and have gathered questions from our Facebook and Twitter accounts to answer here. There were many, but Lightroom product manager Sharad Mangalick reviewed them all and provides some answers to the most frequently asked questions.

@luxx11 and @jennawoodward Ask: @Lightroom why can’t I use my LR3 catalogs in LR4? Is there a way to easily transfer my Lr3 catalogue into Lr4?

Sharad: Since Lightroom 4 is still in beta form, we restricted the ability to bring in catalogs created in earlier versions of Lightroom as a safeguard. This will be lifted when we release the final version of Lightroom 4, and you will be able to import prior version Lightroom catalogs, as well as Lightroom 4 Beta catalogs into Lightroom 4.

Sören Lubitz and Craig Harris Ask: Why does the new process let my old pictures look completely different? It’s even forgetting the color treatment sometimes.Why are the new develop sliders in a different order to the histogram sections? Blacks > Shadows > Exposure > Highlights > Whites would make much more sense.

Sharad: If you would like Lightroom 4 Beta to preserve the visual appearance of your images previously edited in Lightroom or Camera Raw, please save the editing metadata to the file in earlier versions of Lightroom prior to importing them into Lightroom 4 Beta.  This will ensure that the prior Process Version and image adjustment settings will be applied in Lightroom 4 Beta.

We’ve made some significant upgrades to our imaging processing technology, which resulted in different and often more powerful parameters than before. Because of this difference we recommend that you experiment with them on an image-by-image basis to find the appropriate setting for each image. The order of the adjustments are based on a potentially intuitive workflow but do not represent a strict “top to bottom” requirement.  We recognize that the new adjustments will require some changes in your workflow and we’re looking forward to your feedback.

Stephen Wensley Asks: Will we be able to make selections in the develop module?

Sharad: Yes, you can select an area to adjust with the Adjustment Brush.

Ernest Aymerich Asks: Will be able to open and edit AVCHD video?

Sharad: You are able to open, organize, and apply adjustments to the .mts files found in AVCHD videos clips from popular digital still cameras in Lightroom 4 Beta. (Lightroom 4 Beta does not support the entire AVCHD directory structure.)

Ronald Byram and @bedemccarthy Ask: Any new lens profiles for tamron/tokina/sigma? @Lightroom will LR4 camera support stay in sync (up to date) with LR 3.x during the beta period, or will updates only go to 3.x?

Sharad: The lens profiles in Lightroom 4 Beta are the same as the ones in Lightroom 3.6. You can see the full list of lens profiles here.

Ronald Byram Asks: Can we setup custom file type imports? Say omit video in catalog if desired. Only import jpg/raw types.

Sharad: You can do this by using the Sort feature on the bottom of the Import dialogue box.  You can sort by Media Type and File type to check and uncheck the files you’d like to import.

@SteveMops Asks: @Lightroom Question: Will there be an option to exclude parts of the tagging structure from being displayed? #Lightroom #Lr4

Sharad: When creating a Keyword in Lightroom you can designate if you want it included or excluded on export.

Nicholas Baldinelli Asks: Will we able to use other book vendors? Blurb is nice, but wedding albums usually come from other print houses.

Sharad: Within the Book module, you can print directly to Blurb or export your book as a PDF.  You can then provide a PDF to other print houses (outside of Lightroom) if you choose.

Gary Ivanek Asks: Why is SmugMug not in the Publish Services in the beta? Hope it gets reinstated in the “for release” version.

 Sharad: We’ve removed the SmugMug plug-in by default so that SmugMug can innovate and update the plug-in outside of Lightroom’s regular release cycle.  It will not be included in Lightroom 4, but plug-in data will be migrated as part of the catalog upgrade process.

 John Macy Asks: Will there be any other features added to the beta or is the feature list already locked down?

Sharad:  Thanks for the feedback and ideas. We can’t confirm any final and future development plans right now, but the Lightroom 4 Beta is a good representation of our core focus for the final release. However, we have read a lot of comments regarding specific features folks would like to see. Please submit an official feature request here, where the Lightroom team is monitoring and gathering input. 

 Greg Davis Asks: How do we send in bug problems with Lightroom 4. I’m having major issues importing pics this morning.

Sharad:  You can submit a bug report on our Beta Forum. As we’re still in beta mode, you can expect the full experience will not be optimal at all times. Please keep that in mind when you’re testing out the new features.

 @KyleW1223 Asks:  @Lightroom how much will the full version cost?

 Sharad: We haven’t announced final pricing or availability yet, so please, stay tuned.

@simonatstorm Asks: @Lightroom how long will you be running the beta testing? Still time to join the party?

Sharad: Lightroom 4 Beta will expire on March 31, 2012.  So there’s still plenty of time to join the fun!  You can download it at labs.adobe.com.

Thank you to everyone who submitted thoughtful questions and feature requests. We’ll be hosting another call with hundreds more fans in the near future and want to make sure you’re on the look out for that and more updates. If you haven’t already, like our Facebook page, follow us @Lightroom and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the latest and greatest info on the Lightroom 4 Beta. We’ve got several playlists of tutorial videos for you to reference as you check it out.

Keep hammering away on the beta and let us know what you think!

Cascade, TSP Heavy Duty Cleaner and Oxy Clean, along with an aluminum plate and a hot steaming dishwasher are just the recipe for a “happy accident.” At least that’s what experimental artist Bonny Lhotka calls her concoctions in the kitchen. Whether she’s sanding a plain sheet of silver to create a glittery, almost crystalized surface or “cooking” her aluminum plates in a roaster, Bonny’s artwork harkens back to the vintage Tintypes of the past. Sometimes the journey to an artisitic masterpiece is rather serendipitous and Bonny is truly surrendered to the process.

“I ran across this effect almost by accident…when phosphates in dishwasher detergent were hurting fish, the industry removed it from the product. I put my pie tins in the dishwasher and they came out with a black and rainbowed effect with the new detergent. So I thought to myself, what if I did this on purpose? I wrapped them in aluminum foil, tried Cascade and TSP and found there could be many different looks for my metal plates. I cook them in an electric frying pan, literally boil them, sand them, laser cut templates and use my own SuperSauce™ solution to dissolve images onto the aluminum surface.”

This weekend Bonny Lhotka and Russell Brown will host free workshops for art students in the Annenberg Foundation offices in Los Angeles. Bonny is one of the featured artists in the Annenberg Space for Photography’s Digital Darkroom exhibit, the author of “Digital Alchemy: Printmaking Techniques for Fine Art, Photograph and Mixed Media” and producer of the Digital Art Studio Seminars series of instructional DVDs. Together with Russell Brown, senior creative director and Emmy award-winning instructor at Adobe, they will take students on a creative journey. It all begins with plenty of props and costumes for shooting fun images with their mobile devices, Russell’s expert tips for refining and printing their photos and getting their hands dirty with SuperSauce and aluminum plate “cooking” techniques.

Russell and Bonny met in 1997, when Bonny was co-organizing “Digital Atelier”: A printmaking studio for the 21st century” at the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution. As the always- pioneering and uber-creative Russell was exploring the art of lenticular imaging, the two discussed the 3D approach and found a common bond in their appreciation for experimental technology and mixed media.

Bonny has a traditional print making background and prefers the hands-on process of integrating photographic images with surfaces like glass, aluminum and silver plates. She created her own SuperSauce that dissolves the coating on film for a full emulsion transfer onto any media.

“The substrate is just as important as the image itself. The photographic image then becomes the object. Digital inkjet on paper doesn’t feel like a whole meal to me. Not that I don’t appreciate the exquisite detail of compositing, but for me, the substrate is very important.”

When asked if she’s worried about giving away her secrets in this workshop, Bonny replied, “I learned this from the great Jerry Uelsmann who believes in complete sharing. Historically, artists have shared secrets. Without the process, the work doesn’t hold up. When my youngest son was 15, I sent him to a class with Jerry Uelsmann and that completely changed his outlook – when he was exposed to the magic of his process. If he was just working alone in his studio, without the gift of this workshop, it wouldn’t have given him the experience that then impacted his craft. It’s always good to give back.”

Bonny’s next project is to build a solar oven in her backyard. She wants to recycle her old glass windows and use a combination of black lining and the Colorado sun to “cook” her aluminum plates. Like a scientist in a laboratory, Bonny continues to invent new ways to bring her vision to life!

Visit the Annenberg Space for Photography to see more of Bonny Lhotka’s work at the Digital Darkroom Exhibit, along with the 16 other talented artists who each have their own unique and amazing processes.

There’s no shortage of Hidden Gems or inventive ways to use existing features in Photoshop CS5. Bryan O’Neil Hughes, senior product manager for Photoshop, puts every feature to the test and through these challenges, finds clever ways to accomplish new things. Whether he’s lining up a row of colorful rubber ducks in his backyard to push the limits of depth of field or standing out in a windy field shooting barbed wire moving in the wind to outwit the HDR algorithm – he is constantly experimenting to look beyond the obvious or question the power of the features themselves.

While he’s quick to claim this is no replacement for fine art, he provides this week’s tip as a helpful hint for adding a creative effect to an image.

How did you discover you can paint with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)?

Bryan:  I’ve always been a fan of using Clarity to a negative value in order to quickly soften skin and reduce blemishes. I figured that “mis-using” the new noise reduction in Camera Raw 6 would yield more power and control – and it did!  

Are you seeing a lot of people applying effects like this?

Bryan:  Overpainting (using CS5′s new Mixer Brush) has been a very popular way to take low resolution images off of a mobile device and enlarge them, as the paint disguises artifacts. What I liked about doing this in ACR is that the whole thing is uniform, can be easily shared or saved and is FAST; I just drag a few sliders. This is by no means a replacement for real painting, but as I mention in the video, I’m not a real painter!

Any tips for the types of images that are best for this effect? Or the slider to start off with?

Bryan:  This effect works best on images with a lot of color…landscapes, things like that.  I’ve found that initially over-processing in camera raw (which is to say exaggerating saturation and contrast) helps.  The process works equally well on JPEG and raw files, just max the noise reduction and finesse with the detail slider.

All is not lost with low resolution images. Try it for yourself with an image from your mobile device and see if you can create a mini-masterpiece.

For more tricks in Photoshop CS5, subscribe to our YouTube channel and watch the videos in our Hidden Gems playlist.