Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop CS2 by Bruce Fraser is shipping.

It’s a sad but undeniable fact of life: Whether you scan, shoot, or capture, the process of digitizing images introduces softness, and to get great-looking results, you’ll need to sharpen the great majority of digital images.

The softness introduced during digitizing results from the very nature of the digitizing process. To represent images digitally, we must transform them from continuous gradations of tone and color to points on a grid. In the process details gets “averaged” into the pixels, softening the overall appearance.

Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements will now be available on Lenovo PCs sold to education customers in the U.S.M

Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 31, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and Lenovo today announced an agreement to deliver digital imaging and video solutions to educational institutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Lenovo will include Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 4.0 and Premiere Elements 2.0 software on ThinkPad® laptop, tablet and ThinkCentre® desktops it sells in the U.S. education market.

Press Release: Haarlem, Netherlands, July 29, 2006– MisterClipping.com is an online supplier of hand-made Photoshop clipping paths. The company was founded in November 2005 and is entirely dedicated to making clipping paths for third parties. The online application, which has been active since June 1, was developed by a renowned Dutch Internet company. In September, the campaign “Let Mister Clipping do the clipping” will be the starting shot for a worldwide roll-out of the service.

Source: Brigham Young University

A new software tool developed by computer scientists at Brigham Young University will allow surgeons to instantly visualize any part of a patient’s anatomy by extracting a 3-D computer image from an MRI, CT scan or similar data with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Source: The News & Observer
Written by Ryan Teague Beckwith, Toby Coleman, Eric Ferreri and Josh Shaffer, Staff Writers

COUNCIL, PHOTOSHOPPED: Jilted lovers could learn from Cary.

Adobe has updated many of the original white papers and primers available as PDF downloads from Adobe.com. Explore these papers and primers — written by some of the biggest names in the industry — to learn more about the world of digital photography.

The company leaves room for delay if the new OS isn’t ready

Source: COMPUTERWORLD
Written by Elizabeth Montalbano

July 27, 2006 — REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. continues to give itself room to further delay the release of Windows Vista.

At its annual financial analyst meeting today, Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division, said that while Vista development remains on track for now, the company won’t ship the new operating system until it believes the product is ready.

John Nack, Photoshop product manager writes on his blog that over 100K downloads happened in just five days.

Written by Mike Johnston on The Online Photographer, the author takes a funny (tongue in cheek?) look at the wealth-or at least abundance-of Photoshop book titles during a recent trip to a book store.

The new chips offer better performance, greater efficiency
Source: COMPUTERWORLD
Written by Sumner Lemon and Ben Ames

Intel Corp. unveiled its new Core 2 Duo processor lineup today, increasing the pressure on rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The 10 new dual-core chips promise markedly better performance and greater energy efficiency than Intel’s existing products.

Source: thewest.com.au
Written by Nyanda Smith

A giant bust of a chimpanzee by Lisa Roet won the McClelland Award — the biggest cash prize for sculpture in the country. Local artist Perdita Phillips builds termite mounds and Patricia Piccinini’s hybrid beasts touched down for exhibition in New York City. Lately it seems that animals are everywhere in Australian contemporary art.

Free update adds support for Intel-based Macs as well as improved performance and stability for Portfolio 8.

Press Release: PORTLAND, Ore. - July 26, 2006 - Extensis, a division of Celartem Inc., today released a free update to Portfolio 8 — the leading Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution for creative professionals. This update is a Universal Application, adding native support for Intel-based Macintosh systems. The free update supports Portfolio single-user, Portfolio Client, Portfolio Server, Portfolio NetPublish, Portfolio NetPublish for Server, Portfolio SQL-Connect and Portfolio Browser. This is a Macintosh only update.

George Jardine by Jeff Schewe

George Jardine, Pro Photography Evangelist of Adobe has posted a new iTunes Podcast about Adobe Lightroom with Thomas Knoll, Zalman Stern (Camera Raw engineers), Lighroom engineer Mark Hamburg and the newest member of the team, Michael Jonsson-formerly of Pixmantec.

Photoshop World - September 7-9, 2006 - Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas

Press Release: TAMPA, Fla.–July 25, 2006–Only 11 days before the $100 advance registration discount for Photoshop World, the largest Photoshop(R) educational event in the world, expires at midnight on Fri., Aug. 4. Online registration is available.

Photoshop World organizers report registration for the Sept. 7-9 conference at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas is happening at a record pace. At its current rate, this Photoshop World will set one of the highest attendance records.

Source: Daily Yomiuri
Written by Ayako Hirayama / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

After working in industries ranging from entertainment to semiconductors, Garrett Ilg has fulfilled a childhood dream–to become the president of a foreign company in Japan.

Ilg took up his post as president of Adobe Systems Co., the Japanese unit of U.S. software maker Adobe Systems Inc., earlier this year.

AMD intends to create a PC chip powerhouse to rival Intel.
Source: eWeek
Written by John G. Spooner

Advanced Micro Devices will acquire graphics processor maker ATI Technologies in an effort to emerge as a more formidable supplier of chips for business computers.

Jill Greenberg’s photo technique has Internet bloggers up in arms.

Source: Los Angeles Times Calendar Live
By Steven Barrie-Anthony, Times Staff Writer

Steal a toddler’s lollipop and he’s bound to start bawling, was photographer Jill Greenberg’s thinking. So that’s just what Greenberg did to illicit tears from the 27 or so 2- and 3-year-olds featured in her latest exhibition, “End Times“, recently at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles. The children’s cherubic faces, illuminated against a blue-white studio backdrop, suggest abject betrayal far beyond the loss of a Tootsie Pop; sometimes tears spill onto naked shoulders and bellies.

Source: Computer Arts
Ever been disappointed by attempts to print off your artwork? We show you how to get the best results for your portfolio…

The web is a great way of promoting and showing off your work: it allows you to reach a wide audience with minimal outlay, and putting together a small portfolio site isn’t too taxing for any designer. However, many clients and employers still prefer viewing work as hard copies and handling the final printed product.

Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography
By Stephen Johnson

A master photographer and teacher since 1977, Stephen Johnson is widely recognized as a pioneer of digital photography.

His new book chronicles his ride on the bleeding edge of this medium’s evolution, and provides a practical in-depth introduction to digital photography that includes the latest techniques. Complete with beautiful color photographic examples and illustrations, this book is a unique, passionate, holistic examination for every student of photography.

GREG GORMAN MENDOCINO WORKSHOP - SPECIAL GUEST: MAC HOLBERT
August 20-25, 2006

Source: Knowledge @ Warton

Having completed the acquisition of Macromedia in December 2005, Adobe Systems now controls two of the de facto standards for electronic content — the Portable Document Format (PDF) for electronic documents and the Flash SWF format used for web-based animations and interactive content. Adobe believes that combining these technologies with a unified set of software development tools and programming interfaces (”APIs”) — creating what Adobe terms its “Engagement Platform” — will uniquely position the company to deliver a new generation of software development tools.

1,800 College Students from 24 Countries Competed in Sixth Annual Awards Program

Press Release: SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 21, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the winners of the sixth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards, the premier student design competition that honors the world’s most talented student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers and computer artists from the top design, film and broadcast institutions. Using the latest Adobe products, more than 1,800 students from 24 countries competed in the annual program.

A number of Lightroom resources have sprung up, here’s a roundup of a few of them.

Source: ZDNet
Written by Tom Krazit

With a wider range of systems available, consumers have been snapping Macs up, giving them a growth boost that outpaced the rest of the market.

Source: The Daily Times
Written by Jackie Jennings

The bride was beautiful, once upon a time…

Now her smile is barely visible behind streaks of mud; her dress is tattered, her white bridal bouquet all but faded away. She doesn’t have a name, at least not one that has been made public, but somewhere she’s waiting for her wedding photo, perhaps the only memory not destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

“It breaks my heart,” said Jeanne Anderton. “There have to be millions, if not billions, of these kinds of images just out there waiting to be taken care of.”