Monday, 5 August 2013

Is Adobe Photoshop CC Worth the Price?

In my previous entry, I have mentioned about all the new features provided by latest version of Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop CC. The prices for the Photoshop CC annual plan is 19.99 US dollars monthly which requires annual commitment while for month to month plan, you can enjoy the flexibility of cancel the membership any time but need to pay 29.99 US dollars monthly if you are using the Photoshop CC.

There are a lot of arguments on the internet about Adobe switching their business model to rental mode. Some of them claim the prices of Photoshop CC monthly rental is too high, and since Adobe going to run everything on Creative Cloud, customers only has one option which is subscribe for Photoshop CC if they need to use the new features provided by Photoshop CC. There are people complaining that this rental scheme is suitable for short term usage but too costly for long term usage. Well, in my opinion, you need you pay for what you want to use.

First and foremost, before we start looking at Photoshop CC with our subjective perception, let’s ask ourselves do we really need the new features provided by Adobe Photoshop CC. Creative Cloud provide on-line working, storing and sharing options for those need to work cooperative with other team-mates or in big companies. But if you are just casual users, you don’t really have to use the Creative Cloud system, and there is also other alternative software that provides that same function at lower cost. Other wonderful functions provided by Photoshop CC such as Camera Shake Reduction, Camera RAW filter or Smart Sharpen mostly used by professional photographers and designers, but if you are just a casual user, you rarely touch about these function.

If the new features provided by Photoshop CC are what you are looking for, then it is good to subscribe the Photoshop CC rental model. Furthermore, if you are a CS3 to CS6 customers, by providing the serial number of your software, you can get the limited time offer of only 9.99 US Dollar monthly for Photoshop CC subscription before 31 August 2013. I think the price is reasonable and not as high as other people say on the internet. If you need to use the new features provided by Adobe Photoshop CC and able to use them to enhance your workflow, you definitely can cover the monthly subscription fees of Photoshop CC with what you have earned. However, if you are casual users who rarely touch about these new features provided by Photoshop CC, it is good that you remain to use the current version of Photoshop you are using because it is worthless for paying monthly fee for something you do not need or rarely use.

From my point of views, we should not let our perception affected by arguments posted on the internet when we making the choice. The problem we should think of is the way we use Photoshop, do you need the new features provided or stick to the current version of Photoshop. It is very hard to say worth or not worth, depend on how you use the Photoshop.

References:
  • Pinsky, H. (2013) Do You Really Need Photoshop CC?. Available at: http://www.iceflowstudios.com/2013/articles/do-you-really-need-photoshop-cc/. [Accessed 5 August 2013] Annotation: This website has a very clear analysis on how users should choose whether should upgrade their Photoshop into Photoshop CC or not. It has mentioned some points of view about what a user should do or should no do in making their decisions.
  • Bourne, S. (2013) 10 Reasons The Haters Are Mad About Adobe Creative Cloud. Available at: http://photofocus.com/2013/05/08/10-reasons-the-haters-are-mad-about-adobe-creative-cloud/. [Accessed 5 August 2013] Annotation: The author of these website is quite aggressive in showing his opinion to the haters of Adobe Creative Cloud. He has mentioned quite a lot benefits of Adobe Creative Cloud and trying to convince people that Adobe Creative Cloud is worth buying.
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Saturday, 3 August 2013

New Rental Model: Photoshop CC

What is Photoshop CC? Photoshop CC, abbreviation for Photoshop Creative Cloud, is the newest release of Photoshop version after Photoshop CS6. This version of Photoshop support Win7 and Win8, including 32bit and 64bit operating system, but no longer support XP or lower operating system. Since Adobe introduce the Creative Cloud service last year, recently Adobe announce that Adobe will stop providing retailing model Creative Suit (CS) and switch to renting model Creative Cloud (CC). This mean we cannot buy any CS version of Photoshop anymore and need to subscribe and pay monthly fee of 19.99 US dollars to use Photoshop CC.

So, does it mean we cannot use Photoshop CC without internet connection? This is a very big misunderstanding. Photoshop CC, same as previous version of Photoshop, needs to be downloaded and installed on our computers. The only difference is we need to activate our Photoshop CC using internet once per 30 days. By subscribing to Photoshop CC, users will automatically get a 20GB of cloud storage and a Behance profile for work sharing and showcase. The user interfaces of Photoshop CC mostly remain the same as previous version of Photoshop, which is very good as users do not have to spend time to adapt the new interface. Photoshop CC also allows users to import their previous settings and this can save users a lot of time.

Photoshop CC comes with some handy features that may be helpful to designers and photographers. First and foremost, Photoshop CC introducing new Smart Sharpen filters which is much better compared to previous version. The new Smart Sharpen has the ability to reduce noise in out-of-focus backgrounds while sharpening the edges that really do need sharpening. The next features offer by Photoshop CC is Camera Shake Reduction. The result of this new feature is quite satisfying either for the professionals or the amateurs as it almost eliminate most of the motion blur cause by shaking camera.


Photoshop CC also provide Intelligent Upsampling which can enlarge our images with “Preserve Details” mode and the result is a lot more better compared to bicubic mode used by previous version of Photoshop. In addition, Photoshop CC also enables us to use Camera RAW, an amazing retouching tool as filter or smart filter. This is good news to photographers while for web designers, Photoshop CC also provides new features that allow web designers to copy CSS attributes and import colour swatches from the websites. Furthermore, Photoshop CC also introduces other benefits such as Improved Vector Tools. Now, we can draw round rectangle in Photoshop CC and modify the radius without switching to Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop CC also enables us to select multi shapes and paths with fewer clicks and target the path of any layer right on the canvas with the new filter mode.


Moreover, Photoshop CC also improve 3D Painting and Compositing that allows us to create instances of 3D objects and paint them with live cursor preview. The new texture painting method is faster and better at painting details. Photoshop CC also includes other features Conditional Actions that make your action run differently depending on your image attributes. So, do Photoshop CC worth the monthly rental model? We will discuss about it in the next entry.

References:
  • White, C. (2013) Photoshop CC: Now the World's Best Image Editor Is Even More Powerful. Available at: http://mashable.com/2013/06/23/photoshop-cc-review/. [Accessed 4 August 2013] Annotation: This website basically talk about the changes of Photoshop CC and features provided by this new version of Photoshop.
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Friday, 2 August 2013

Adobe Photoshop: Double-Edged Sword to Professional Photographers

In my previous entry, I have mentioned that how the invention of Adobe Photoshop helps to simplify the workload of a photographer. Adobe Photoshop indeed is useful image editing software that helps the photographers nowadays to create fascinating images easier and more efficiently.

One of the Photoshop main benefits is the Photoshop actions. What are Photoshop actions? Photoshop actions are wonderful automate function provided by Adobe Photoshop to help you to do all your everyday repeating tasks automatically. This function let you free from repeating tasks and allows you to focus on your imagination and creativity which is also indirectly improving your daily workflow. It is an easy and effective time saver that helps you to finish tons of work in very little time.

Basically, Photoshop action record everything you have done for the first task and then can perform all the same actions to other tasks easily at lightning speed with just a simple click. If you are familiar with Photoshop actions, you may even run several actions by just pressing a button which will certainly save your times. In addition, all your action can also be used as Photoshop droplet. What is Photoshop droplet? Photoshop droplets allow you to perform batch images processing same as Photoshop actions right from your local computer file browser. You can simply select a group of images that need to be processed to the Photoshop droplet and it will do it for you automatically.


These Photoshop actions can be saved and shared on the internet. You can browse tons of Photoshop actions on-line and use them to enhance your daily workflow. However, these features also provide opportunities for many amateur and casual users to create amazing images that will threaten the position of professional photographers. In order to maintain their prides of professional, these professional photographers need to create something really outstanding works to distinguish themselves from the amateur and casual users.

In conclusion, Photoshop certainly help professional photographers a lot with all its convenient functions, but in the same time creating opportunities for the amateur and casual users to create images that catch up or even surpass the level of professional photographers. Photoshop indeed is a double-edged sword to professional photographers. It may help them or threaten them, depend on how they look at the Photoshop.

References:
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How Adobe Photoshop Affect The Photographers

Have you ever thought before how photographers take and edit photographs before the invention of Adobe Photoshop? During that period, when a photographer wanted to take an amazing shoot, what he needs to do is to carry his heavy camera with all of his other equipment with him everywhere and when noticed something interesting, he needs to immediately set up the camera settings and all those equipment to catch the photograph before the moment went away. For example, if a photographer want to take a sunset photograph, he need to set up his camera settings and other equipment such as lens, tripod or flashlight before evening and wait for the sunset moment to capture the photograph. The models need to spend plenty of times in the make-up room and the studio must be in well-lit before the photographing sessions begin. Can you imagine how many details a photographer want to take a wonderful photograph? If you do not have the patient, you cannot be a photographer in the past.

However, with the invention of Adobe Photoshop nowadays, all the troublesome process can be minimize or simplify. With all of its supreme tools and functions, Photoshop create a huge reformation wave in photography industry. Nowadays, photographers no longer need to carry all their heavy equipment with them everywhere when capturing the photograph. They can manipulate these setting in the post production stage with the help of Photoshop. With this ability, photographers can stop worrying about losing the splendid moment because of slow equipment setting up and capture whatever interesting photographs on the spot without caring about the settings. This indirectly enhances the creativity of the photographers as they capture a lot of interesting moments and compose them into a wonderful image. These can give us a new perspective on the world.

In addition, the comprehensive functions of Adobe Photoshop enable the photographers to adding additional styles and removing the blemishes of models in the photographs. They can make an image reach its perfect performance before publish them to the public. The can also create futuristic effects that invoke our imagination. In short, Adobe Photoshop really creates much more possibilities for the photographers and photography industry.

References:
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Thursday, 1 August 2013

Adobe Photoshop: Digital Cosmetic Surgery?

There are lots of arguments of Adobe Photoshop rise in these past few years. Recently, there are also some voices talking about Photoshop as a digital cosmetic surgery in this digital driven century. Most of these voices are against Photoshop retouching models in media nowadays such as magazines, billboards and websites. There is even an Anti-Photoshop campaign done by a 14 years old teen, Julia Bluhm which asked the magazine not to Photoshop its models. However, are these arguments really having their points?

There are some people who think that an image should be composed fully from the camera without using any other medium such as Photoshop because they think that digital manipulation is cheating. However, in my opinion, once you alter the setting in your camera before taking a photo, you are already digital manipulated your image taken. It is very hard to define what really the digital manipulated image is because whatever you have change in the camera such as different setting and exposure when you take the photograph already part of digital manipulation of image editing.

In addition, as an editorial publication, its objective is to make the images reach its standard of perfection before it is published to the public. Many people think that digital altering the images is against the reality and trying to cheat the public visual perception. However, if you think in another way, what is the difference of digital retouching the model with every girls wake up in the morning and try to make up and style themselves? There is no difference. The objective is same, to present to the public the best version of themselves.

In Alice Chen article, there is a very humorous fact which I think it is very true. In her article, she stated that what Julia Bluhm forgets is that asking magazine to stop “Photoshopping” the model just as same as asking every girls stop make up and style themselves. It is our own responsibilities to present to the public the best of ourselves, so what Julia asking for is just trying to grab away the ability of magazine to “make up” their image, which indirectly asking the purpose of existing of digital manipulation software such as Photoshop.

In my opinion, Photoshop is just another great invention in this technology advancing century. We should try to explore our creativity with these wonderful software, but not limit ourselves because of rumours about Photoshop is a bad invention.

References:
  • Divine, R. (2010) Photoshop: Art or Artifice?. Available at: http://www.smashandpeas.com/photoshop-art-or-artifice/. [Accessed 1 August 2013] Annotation: This website talk about Photoshop as the digital cosmetic surgery in advertising industry. It state quite a lot of information about Photoshop image editing ability and how to use them correctly.
  • Chen, A. (2012) Op-Ed: In Defense of Photoshop: Why Magazines Should Photoshop Their Models. Available at: http://www.hercampus.com/style/catwalk-campus/op-ed-defense-photoshop-why-magazines-should-photoshop-their-models. [Accessed 1 August 2013] Annotation: This is a interesting website that the author support the magazine to Photoshop their models. It is has quick a solid reasons for magazine to Photoshop their models. In some part of these website, the author also humorously bring out her views against Julia Bluhm anti-Photoshop campaign which I find very interesting to read about.
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Wednesday, 31 July 2013

23 Years of Adobe Photoshop Contribution

Adobe Photoshop, or normally known as Photoshop, has becoming a must in this digital driven century. Almost every image around us such as advertisement, billboards and websites were manipulated or retouched in some way by Photoshop. Without Photoshop, these effects apply on the images need to be edited or do some exposure in the dark room in order to get the same effects as a few clicks done by Photoshop. Because of Photoshop, designers and photographers can have more adequate times to enhance their creativity such as inserting new shapes or designs that we can’t see in the reality.

During 23 years of developments, Adobe Photoshop slowly improving and adding new tools and functions to help simplifying the works of designers. From an ordinary image editing software, Photoshop slowly developed into multimedia software that can support website design and video editing. In creative industry, it is hardly to find any designers that do not know about Photoshop. It has slowly becoming the basic in the creative industry. Without Photoshop, the designers nowadays may not know how to continue their work and the visual satisfaction we enjoy nowadays will certainly cannot be achieved.

There is also a joke about Photoshop that environment activist should thanks to Photoshop because the designers no longer need to crumple heaps of sketches paper when the ideas need to be redeveloped. Rex Crowle, an England designers said before that before the invention of Photoshop, the amount of forest he destroyed were certainly a lot more than now. Imagine how many minutiae need to be manipulate by designers in order to satisfy the clients and if without using Photoshop, how many tons of paper will be wasted? Is the invention of Photoshop that promote paperless design in the creative industry and this is certainly saving a lot of trees from being cut down and produce into papers.

As Photoshop is currently progressing into its third decade, let’s be grateful to what Photoshop have contributed to our digital life and we should always bear in mind that do not misuse the Photoshop as it is a technology that invented to bring benefits to our society, but not the drawbacks and misunderstanding.

References:
  • 第一证券水晶球. (2012) Photoshop对我们生活的影响. Available at: http://cz1sjq.blog.sohu.com/236794404.html. [Accessed 31 July 2013] Annotation: This is a chinese website that basically talk about how the present of Photoshop affecting our life. It show some different perception about Photoshop contribution which I find very interesting and meaningful.
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Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Photoshop Effects in Advertising Agencies

Can a common looking woman turn into supermodel? With Photoshop, the answer is yes. Photoshop supreme function enables the advertisers to discard every imperfection found in photographs and enhances the models appearance such as sexy lips and big, attractive eyes.

Ogilvy Toronto, one of the Anti-Photoshop parties, criticised Photoshop on International Women’s Day. In its video entitle “Thought Before Action”, Ogilvy records how it develop a Photoshop tool named “Beautify” that said to be able to give a skin glow effect to models in photographs. The tool is then uploaded on website and spread over the internet by offering a free download. However, the truth behind the trick is when users clicked the button to use the tool, it undo all the changes in the image to its original rather than beautify it. The result of the video which has more than 800,000 views on YouTube is the awareness and information about the art directors, graphic designers and photo retouchers should be blame for digital altering images and change the viewers’ perception. However, there is also a question found in the video, where does the demand for photo retouching come from?

Linda Carte, the vice president and associate creative director at BBDO Toronto stated that most of the images in fashion and beauty have been modified, but the demand for retouching is not created by advertising agencies. In my opinion, the demand of retouching actually comes from our society. We love to look at beautiful things, and that is why the advertisers beautify the models to satisfy our eyes’ demanding to look at beautiful things, to attract more attentions and to gain more profits.

Fabio Apelbaum, a director of graphic arts at a television station, stated that Photoshop is needed in almost all post production project and it is a good thing as it produce excellent result and performance that satisfy their needs. However, he also stated that there is a limit on how much retouching occurs should be done. From his words, I may say that Photoshop is actually a beneficial invention to advertising agencies, but is the advertisers themselves that make Photoshop to be blame nowadays. They must have a basic ethic as an advertiser that do not cheat viewers’ eye by over manipulating the images.

In this digital driven century, there will be more and more supreme software and technologies being invented, some of them may overpass the Photoshop someday. At that time, do the public still able to differentiate the reality of the image? The quick answer from the professionals in the industry is they can’t. It is human that misuse the technologies, not the technologies harm the human. Even if Photoshop is not invented, there still will be other endless technologies that enable advertisers to manipulate the images. In conclusion, It is the ethics of advertising that should be cure, but not the technologies or software.

References:
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Monday, 29 July 2013

Adobe Photoshop in Different Perspectives

In last entry, I have mentioned that some famous celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Kate Winslet have taken action on their photographs being “Photoshopping” in digital media. These people are now reinforcing by American Medical Association (AMA) which has showed their views against the image editing and manipulating software in designing and advertising industry. However, they have received different feedbacks from either the professionals or the public audiences.

Carrier Arnold, an eating disorder specialist show a different opinion on the statements given by AMA. She request for more evidence on Photoshop is causing eating disorders because from her research, she discovers there is not enough scientific evidence to proof the statement. “What’s Photoshop Got to Do With It,” Arnold replied with a potency question showing her stands on Photoshop may make for a good media story.

Elizabeth Perle, an editor from Huffington Post High School, stated in her post that Photoshop Isn’t Evil. She believes that Photoshop is not the concern we should highlighted, but the people who use the Photoshop in improper ways. In today’s world, high viewer attention means more profits, and to get viewer attention you need fantastic images, and that is why Photoshop is being used. She showing her opinions that the topic is much more complicated and raising awareness about drawbacks of digital altering images in mainstream advertising and digital media is oversimplifies the problem. She believes that without Photoshop, the situation only will getting worst rather than bring any benefits to the society.

Jeff Schewe stated in Photoshop News that "We have wonderful tools to create images, new digital cameras and photographic digital printers and powerful tools such as Photoshop and we are expected to do what -- nothing? I don't think so." He believes that the existence of Photoshop itself is the new invention in design industry which can bring much more benefits to the society than those unsupported issues.

Well, in my opinion, both parties have their point of views, but I totally agree with Elizabeth Perle that Photoshop itself is not evil. Adobe Photoshop is just another fantastic invention in digital ages and the public concern should be more focus on how people misuse the Photoshop, but not the existence of Photoshop. I believe that if Adobe Photoshop is used in proper ways, it will brings more colourful creativity to our society.

References:
  • Diller, V. (2011) Is Photoshop Destroying America's Body Image?. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-diller-phd/photoshop-body-image_b_891095.html. [Accessed 29 July 2013] Annotation: The author of this website mostly talk about how Photoshop destroying America's Body Image and show her stand against the Photoshop. Although I have different opinion, I manage to find some useful information such as how some professionals question the effect of Photoshop.
  • Perle, E. (2011) Photoshop Isn't Evil. There, I Said It. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-perle/photoshop-isnt-evil-there_b_888169.html? [Accessed 29 July 2013] Annotation: This is a good website that basically have the same perception as my opinion. The author of this website try to convince people that Photoshop itself is not evil and what we should concern is the human activities, but not the invention of Photoshop.
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Saturday, 27 July 2013

Impact of Adobe Photoshop on Body Image

Photographs retouching and manipulating is becoming more and more common since the invention of Adobe Photoshop in design industry. The powerful tools and functions of Adobe Photoshop enable the designers to retouch or manipulate the cover models and create a virtual image of perfect figures that do not exist. These virtual images make readers believe the existence of perfect body proportion and unconsciously lead to wrong perception of self-esteem and their body image.

Most of the victims of these “Photoshopping” impact are females who are taking to heart about their appearance and body images. The more they watch at these unrealizable and glorify virtual figures created by Photoshop, the more they worried about their own appearance and body images. The desire to get perfect body proportion and facial appearance make some women nowadays even spending lots of money on needless plastic surgery and harming themselves by becoming anorexic or bulimic. Researches have been carried out in recent years to discover the originator of body image disturbance among young women and the results show that high exposure to media such as television and magazines have a large impact on women’s self-esteem and body images. The superior functions of Adobe Photoshop make these females believe the existence of absolute beauty that is unachievable in reality.

Nowadays, some famous celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Kate Winslet have taken action against digital altering, or known as “Photoshopping” of their bodies. Brad Pitt, one of leading male celebrities in Hollywood, have broken one of Hollywood’s golden rules in recent issue of W Magazine by revealing all his flaws and wrinkles to the public. On the other hand, Kate Winslet, famous actress of Titanic, took action against GQ Magazine for “Photoshopping” her body in its photographs that made her look unrealistically thin.

Celebrities have the power among the publics. If there are more honest celebrities that request their photos to be printed without “Photoshopping”, everyone else will follow the action. This can help more women and teenage girls nowadays realize that the perfect body figures do not exist.

References:
  • Djoukoue, A. (2012) Keep it real challenge:  Photoshop’s impact on body image. Available at: http://info.umkc.edu/womenc/2012/06/29/keep-it-real-challenge-photoshops-impact-on-body-image/. [Accessed 28 July 2013] Annotation: This website basically talk about how Photoshop affect the self esteem of most of the female viewers. It has list out clearly how the digital manipulated image give the wrong perception to the female especially the teenagers and cause some negative effects to these viewers. By the way, this website also talk about how celebrities can help to counter this problem.
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Friday, 26 July 2013

Reformation of Adobe Photoshop in Design Industry

Adobe Photoshop, known as the best software published by Adobe, has obviously shows its roles in changing the design industry. The existence of Adobe Photoshop has totally changes the process of designing, from ideas developing to completing the final artworks.

Before the invention of Adobe Photoshop, designers need to create an idea drawing on sketch papers multiple times in order to do multiple changes of effects on the idea. This process is very time consuming and it is very hard to make a same sketch over and over again by using hand drawing. They need to make sure the original concept stay alive in their minds while doing the sketches and this is very hard to be done by most of the designers. Whenever they have new inspiration, they need to redraw the idea and then add in their inspiration immediately before the inspiration fades away. The invention of Adobe Photoshop surely creates a new reformation in design industry. With Adobe Photoshop, designers can create various exceptional ideas base on their inspiration by using just a single concept. This is because Adobe Photoshop allow the designers to make multiple copies of same concept drawing digitally which means the designers only need to produce an original concept drawing and reuse the drawing multiple time on Photoshop by Layer duplicating ability. This ability not only save designers a lot of time, it also reduce designers’ mental burden as they no longer need to worry about ideas fading away during drawing them out on papers. The abilities of Adobe Photoshop to empower the productivity of designers make it become a must for different designers to learn it in order to survive in design industry.

Adobe Photoshop is equipped with tons of tools and functions that certainly will enhance the creativity of designers. These tools and functions may looked complicated in first glance, but when the designers get familiar with the user interface, they will thanks Photoshop for given them the chances to go extra miles in their designing. They can access the tools and functions everywhere in Photoshop to enhance their efficiency and productivity. In addition, Adobe Photoshop is able to save files into more than 20 software formats because it is compatible with other software. Sometimes, a masterpiece is not only created by using single software, so the ability of Adobe Photoshop to compatible with different software make it becoming the first choice among the designers compared to other image editing software such as Gimp and CorelDraw.

The tons of tutorials only also reflect the popularity of Adobe Photoshop among the designers as these tutorials are almost created by designers to help the other designers. In a nutshell, Adobe Photoshop certainly creates a huge reformation in design industry. It is easy to use, user friendly interface and time saving. Most importantly, Adobe Photoshop have create a new digital culture in todays’ digital decade.

References:
  • Chen, C. (2009) Impact of Photoshop on Graphic Design. Blog. http://charleschen.tumblr.com/post/163844581/impact-of-photoshop-on-graphic-design. [Accessed: 26 July 2013] Annotation: The article from this blogsite is very interesting. It help me to differentiate the workflow of designer before and after the invention of Photoshop. From this blog, I understand how Photoshop impact the the designers and the benefits of Photoshop to creative industry.
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Thursday, 25 July 2013

How Adobe Photoshop Affect the Designers?

Adobe Photoshop is indeed a big invention to Creative Industry. The existence of Adobe Photoshop allows wider possibilities for designers to play with their skills and creativity. As a reference, the advertising in 90s is different with the 80s. This is because Adobe Photoshop is invented in the late 80s, and with the help of Photoshop, the designers able to produce more vibrant and attractive advertisements. So, how Photoshop affect the designers?

Firstly, Adobe Photoshop is easy to use. Photoshop provide many tools and functions such as brush, gradient and layers to help designer in producing their artwork. These features may look complicated at first glance, but after you familiar with them, you will start to like them as they make your designing life much more easier as you can almost apply various effects to your artwork in one click. When the designers continue exploring the Photoshop through different tries and action, they will slowly master the Photoshop skills and enhance their artwork through this knowledge.

In addition, Photoshop provide batch image editing ability to help designers saving their times and energy when they need to edit multiple images. The action function in Photoshop allows designers to save previous steps they have done in Photoshop and then perform the same to the rest images. As all of us know, if the designers can multitasking, they can earn a lot more revenue and with this Photoshop feature, they can multitasking and save their precious time as they can do different tasks or resting while waiting Photoshop automatically edit image for them. Designers also can search for different add-on and plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop on the internet. As what I have mentioned before, Adobe Photoshop has a huge variety resource online with can help designers in different ways to let them work efficiently.

Furthermore, if the designers can master the Photoshop, they can save lots of money as they do not have to hire outsource photographer to produce a fascinating image. They can take the photo on their own and edit themselves to create the same outcome as professional photographer. In conclusion, with Adobe Photoshop, designers can create splendid artworks in lesser time and cost.

References:
  • Liez, K. (2013) 11 Benefits of Using Photoshop Actions to Increase Productivity. Available at: http://naldzgraphics.net/design-2/photoshop-actions-benefits/. [Accessed 25 July 2013] Annotation: This website basically talk about how the action function in Photoshop help the workflow of designers and from this website, I learn how to use Photoshop action effectively.
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Wednesday, 24 July 2013

The Reasons behind the Popularity of Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is so famous today that the world “Photoshop” is becoming a verb in our minds. When we saw some gorgeous models in advertisement, we will naturally think that the models are “Photoshoped” even in the condition that we do not know are the models modified by Adobe Photoshop or other competing software. This is a very obvious fact to show the popularity of Adobe Photoshop nowadays because when we think about image editing, we think about Adobe Photoshop. So, what are the reasons behind the popularity of Adobe Photoshop?

First and foremost, the flexibility of Adobe Photoshop made it become a need in creative industry for the abilities to let different designers create awesome design with it. Most of the time, the knowledge and skills in Adobe Photoshop are the basic for designers to earn money and defending their pride in their designs. The comprehensive functions of Adobe Photoshop allow us to go extra miles in the world of creativity. There are many useful tools such as brushes in the Photoshop which let us to use them differently in different situation and create more possibility in producing a fascinating masterpiece.

Another important reason for the popularity of Adobe Photoshop is its ability to restore old photos. As all of us know, old photos mean memories to us, either sweet or bitter. However, some old photos unable to resist the encroachment of times. These old photo may worn out and lost their value of memories. But with the invention of Adobe Photoshop, we can restore these old photos with some useful tools such as healing brush and clone stamps. With these features provided by Adobe Photoshop, we do not have to worry about losing our treasure memories again.

In addition, Adobe Photoshop also allows us to correct photography mistakes and modified the photos. The powerful functions of Photoshop let us eliminate the mistakes done when shooting photos such as dark lighting, red eyes or blur photos. We can even enhance the photos using different techniques in Photoshop. This is the reason why the models of advertisement look so gorgeous and perfect. Adobe Photoshop almost becoming the digital beautifier for all models nowadays.

Last but not least, the huge resources and tutorials about Adobe Photoshop is another main reason for its popularity. We can search a lot of tutorials on the internet when we want to learn something in Adobe Photoshop. The infinite numbers of tutorials online make us do not have to worry when learning Adobe Photoshop on our own. We can also search for many free materials such as brush pre-sets and other useful resources online. These splendid features are something that other image editing software cannot compete with. 

References:
  • everyday-wisdom.com. (2013) Features of Adobe Photoshop. Available at: http://www.everyday-wisdom.com/features-of-adobe-photoshop.html. [Accessed 24 July 2013] Annotation: This website provide summarize information about the great features of Adobe Photoshop and give me a good understanding about the features of Photoshop.
  • Ocampo, M. (2013) 10 Reasons Why You Should Learn Adobe Photoshop | Naldz Graphics. Available at: http://naldzgraphics.net/design-2/learn-adobe-photoshop/. [Accessed 24 July 2013] Annotation: This website mainly stated the benefits of Photoshop and why a person should learn Adobe Photoshop. 
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Monday, 22 July 2013

The Popularity of Adobe Photoshop

In design industry, it has become a common sense that everyone knows about Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop do not get famous for nothing. Currently, Adobe Photoshop is the most popular software offered by Adobe and known as a recognized industry leader in image editing. So, how popular is Adobe Photoshop? Here are some statistics about Adobe Photoshop.

Number of Fans: 5,272,028


People Talking About: 26,983
500,000 Photoshop CS6 betas downloads in the first week

Adobe released this video on the achievement of 5 Millions Facebook Fans on the Official Photoshop Page which is a huge number. 

When people think about editing images, Adobe Photoshop is the first option that comes to mind. Adobe Photoshop has completely seized the market with its high performance and popularity among the designers or even casual users. The high piracy rate of Adobe Photoshop because of its high retail price can be seen as the side mirror to show how popular the Adobe Photoshop is. In most of the designing education academy, Adobe Photoshop is one of the main software the students need to learn while in the designing industry nowadays, every designer either web designers, graphic designers or multimedia designers need to arm themselves with Photoshop knowledge and skills in order to survive in this industry.

Besides its comprehensive function, Adobe Photoshop also gets famous because of the huge resources and tutorials either in analogue or digital formed. You can search tons of tutorials online when you are learning the Photoshop. The default files extension of Adobe Photoshop known as .PSD which stands for “Photoshop Document”, stores images with support for most imaging option available in Photoshop. The PSD file is so popular that it even supported to some extent by most competing software. The popularity of Adobe Photoshop also can be seen in the way that almost every printing shop recognize PSD file and runs Adobe Photoshop in their printing computers. Till todays, Adobe Photoshop is available in more than 20 languages and expected to grow more in future time. Photoshop is indeed the best product form Adobe.

References:
  • Wikipedia. (2001) Adobe Photoshop. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop. [Accessed 22 July 2013] Annotation: This website is useful for me as it have all comprehensive information and some history about Photoshop. 
  • Brass, J. (2013) The Cloud, Piracy, and Product Dominance. Available at: http://janbrass.org/tag/photoshop/. [Accessed 22 July 2013] Annotation: This website help me in providing information about the benefits of Photoshop.
  • Victor Hugo Buezo Nistahuz. (2013) Adobe Photoshop. Available at: http://adobe-photoshop.software.informer.com/. [Accessed 22 July 2013] Annotation: This website have the specification of Photoshop and some review of Photoshop which help me to compile the information about Photoshop in my blog.
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Sunday, 21 July 2013

What is Photoshop?



Photoshop, which is the abbreviation of Adobe Photoshop, is a graphics editing software developed and published by Adobe System. The software is distributed by Adobe in Windows and Macintosh version. The software has two types of editions which are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Extended. The extended edition contains extra 3D image creation, motion graphics editing, and advanced image analysis features. Alongside with Photoshop and Photoshop Extended, “The Adobe Photoshop Family” is formed after the publication of Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Lightroom. Adobe Photoshop Express, a free web-based image editing tool to edit photos directly on blogs and social networking sites is released by Adobe in year 2008 while in year 2011, a version was released for the Android operating system and the iOS operating system.


Since the invention of Photoshop, this software popularity has increasing continuously along with the changing from Adobe Photoshop 1.0 to 7.0 until Adobe Photoshop CS1 to CS6 in 2012. In today’s world, Adobe Photoshop has become the most popular graphics editing software and completely seizes the market. Deke McClelland stated in Photoshop 3 Bible that “Some estimates say that Photoshop sales exceed those of all of its competitors combined.” This is because after several generations of development, Adobe Photoshop has the most intuitive user interface, the most complete set of tools, and the largest number of reference either in analogue or digital form.

Photoshop main functions include photo editing, website design, and the creation of elements for any type of project. Its comprehensive functions make it become the primary choice of many designers when come to photo editing, website design or even layout designing although there are other better software for those tasks such as Illustrator and InDesign. As the Adobe Creative Suite is an expensive package, many designers may start with Photoshop and expand their choice of software later. Once a designer masters the Photoshop tools, creativity and imagination determine what can be created.

References:
  • Wikipedia. (2001) Adobe Photoshop. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop. [Accessed 21 July 2013] Annotation: This website is useful for me as it have all comprehensive information and some history about Photoshop. 

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Topic Analysis

During this semester, we are required to produce a research blog detailing the topic we have chosen. It take me quite a lot of time to select the topic because I am not a decisive person. However, after have a meeting session with my lecturer, I have been briefed clearly by my lecturer and finally decided my topic.

The topic I want to research on is:

"Critically examine the popular usage of digital cameras, Photoshop, or Instagram, and its impact on professionals in the creative industry."

The reason why I choose this topic is as an interactive media student, I do have some experience on photography and photo editing software. In addition, I personally likes photo editing software and spend quite a lots of time reading the tutorials online and practices them in Photoshop. Instead of spending time researching on something which is totally fresh to me, I finally decided to do research on something I am more familiar and interest with.

Previously I have done some research on digital camera on Tumblr blogsite. However, after briefed by my lecturer, I realize that I only can choose one subject matter among digital cameras, Photoshop and Instagram to research about. I noticed that I have totally in the wrong direction, so I decided to create another new research blog here which is focusing on research about Photoshop.

In order to make the research easier to carry out, I have break the topic into several main points:
  • What is Photoshop
  • The popular usage of Photoshop
  • Why is Photoshop popular
  • How Photoshop impact the professionals in the creative industry
  • The benefits of Photoshop
  • The drawback of Photoshop
These are the main points I can think about now. I will start to do the research report in next entry.
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