Adobe & Law Enforcement: Meet Sr. Solutions Architect John Penn II
17Many law enforcement agencies and communities this week are commemorating National Police Week, which takes place during the week of May 15, Peace Officers Memorial Day. During this week, we’re thinking about how photographs play more of a role than ever in helping law enforcement officials gather evidence. To learn more, we met with Adobe Sr. Solutions Architect John Penn II, who dedicates his work to helping law enforcement solve cases with digital imaging technology.
How did you get started in your current role as Senior Solutions Architect?
John: Fifteen years ago this week I started at Adobe as a senior computer scientist on Photoshop and that was my primary job for a decade. About 10 years ago, a colleague on the Adobe Philanthropy Council asked if I’d be interested in attending a law enforcement conference and attending a session on Photoshop. That conference turned out to be the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children conference. One of the sessions at that conference by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) was on identifying the victims of child exploitation. At the time, this was relatively new to law enforcement. I was both horrified by the nature of the crimes, but also intrigued by how images could be used to rescue the young victims of those crimes. I was confident that Photoshop could play a role in these investigations, and that spawned a personal interest that became the focus of my career. After years of working to help law enforcement in these cases in my personal time, with some persistence and support from others at Adobe, the work became my full time job and Senior Solutions Architect for Law Enforcement Technologies became my title.
Breaking from Tradition: Photoshop CC
If you’ve been a long time Photoshop customer, we’ve established quite a predictable routine.
Every 18 to 24 months we deliver a new version of the software, packed with the latest features and functionality, as well as hundreds of big and small enhancements. It’s been a regularly timed cycle aimed at serving the needs of individuals working on design or photography related projects.
For us, the development process itself is anything but “routine.” The team is continually researching the latest imaging science and then figuring out how to deliver it to you as a new capability that significantly improves your creative process. We look far into the future, apart from what we know to be true today, and aspire to have it all work like magic. You’ve set the bar high to ensure we help you to push hard against existing creative limitations. For that reason alone, we’re never content with the status quo.
Good News – No More Waiting
We simply can’t sit back when the world is changing so rapidly. Waiting 18 to 24 months to catch up isn’t acceptable for any of our customers. We need to respond quickly to meet your evolving needs and to do so, we have to break from the old way of doing things.
This isn’t a new concept for us, or you. With Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), photographers have demanded we generate camera compatibility updates at least 8 times per year, compared with once every two years when we first launched the product in 2003. The number of cameras ACR supports has increased dramatically by 1600%!
In many cases, we also finish some features well before the official release date. Popular features in Photoshop CS6 like Content Aware Move, Content Aware Patch and Background Save were all complete by August, but due to our traditional delivery cycle, we couldn’t get them to you until nine-months later in May.
We’ve decided that Photoshop will no longer be software you have to wait years for. We’re ready to react quickly to external forces and will serve up more new features throughout the year, so you can push your creativity as far as the latest technology will allow. This steady stream of features will give you the opportunity to learn new tricks at your own pace, versus having to wrap your head around all that’s loaded into just one release.
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Photoshop CC for Creative Cloud Members Coming Soon!
We’re thrilled to announce that the next version of Photoshop, the world’s most popular digital imaging software, will be available to Creative Cloud members this June! This release, called Photoshop CC, will deliver dozens of new features, including capabilities in sharpening, upsampling and reducing blur, improvements to designer tools, added capabilities in Adobe Camera Raw, and much more.
With incredible advancements in digital imaging technology and endless possibilities for creative professionals, the Photoshop team wants to enable you to take advantage of new innovations as soon as they are available. That’s why we’re releasing Photoshop CC only six months after the release of Photoshop 13.1 in the Creative Cloud. Adobe Sr. Director of Product Management and Customer Engagement Maria Yap shares her thoughts on what this release means for creative professionals here.
There’s something in Photoshop CC for everyone, from designers to photographers. With robust integration with all of your favorite Adobe creative software, integration with Behance, seamless file sharing, and much more, now is the time to become a Creative Cloud member.
Here’s just some of what’s new in this release:
- All-new Smart Sharpen: Photoshop CC analyzes image data to maximize clarity and minimize noise and halo. A range of new editable options lets you fine-tune images to get richer textures, crisper edges and more distinct details.
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Answering Your Questions About Photoshop CC
As Chief Customer Advocate for Digital Imaging products, I monitor our forums and social media communities to help our customers get the answers, tips and tools they need to be successful with our software. I’ll be keeping an eye out for inquiries from you, but the following are some questions I thought the Photoshop community, specifically might have.
Q: I’m a photographer, I only use Photoshop and don’t really need to use any other applications in Creative Cloud. What are my options if I just want Photoshop CC?
A: A Creative Cloud single-app membership is available at a special introductory price of $9.99 per month (with an annual commitment) for our loyal customers who currently own Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5 or CS6. Offer available until July 31st, 2013 (terms and conditions).
Be sure to choose “Required CS3+ purchase” from the pop-up to see the $9.99 price:
A Photoshop CC single-app membership includes:
All the features originally found in Photoshop Extended, including support for 3D, and other measurement and analysis tools, plus:
- New Photoshop CC features, like – Sync settings, camera shake reduction, intelligent upsampling, editable rounded rectangles, Adobe Camera Raw 8 (ACR8) improvements – including Automatic Upright and Advanced Healing Brush, as well as regular updates throughout the year.
- Bridge CC – Now with HiDPI support for Mac hardware with Retina displays.
- 20GB of cloud-based storage – Storage has been doubled from 10GB originally offered with Single app membership to 20GB.
- Multi-device access – Ability to easily access and share your work on virtually any device.
- Behance ProSite membership – A personal portfolio site builder that transforms a public Behance portfolio into a fully customized personal portfolio on your own URL. (Note: a Behance ProSite membership is normally $99 per year by itself)
- Access to Creative Cloud Learn – Aggregating hundred of instructional videos from Adobe and our expert training partners as well as the home of Creative Voices, a new video series from Adobe showcasing industry professionals and how they turn inspiration & experimentation into cutting edge creative work.
Spreading Fur-tography Cheer with Photos of Our Furry Friends
It’s been raining cats and dogs on the Photoshop Elements Facebook page! It’s even raining rabbits, horses, hamsters and squirrels. For the last month, the Photoshop Elements community has been sharing photos of their favorite four-legged friends to our Fur-tography gallery. So far, we’ve received over 2,600 photo submissions showcasing pets of all shapes and sizes.
Stop by the Fur-tography gallery to see the photos that have been shared, and submit your own by May 3. In the meantime, don’t forget to read our pet photography tips to see how you can get better shots of your animals.
