Vibrance

Martini Hour 094, In Which We Hypocritically Mock Some of Adobe's Odd Feature Names

Submitted by colleen on 9 December 2010 - 12:15am.

What's in a name? Does a feature that goes by any other name still function as well? This week we're enjoying making fun of the names of Adobe features that don't really make any sense. And who are we to complain? "Martini Hour" is never really an hour and this week we're drinking Manhattans. So join us on this vaguely hypocritical but otherwise entertaining discussion of goofy names for otherwise highly useful (for the most part) set of features in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Like Martini Hour, you shouldn't be scared off by the names. 

Martini Hour 094: Adobe's strangely named features

Here is a list of cryptically, oxymoronically, or just ridiculously named features that we enjoy making fun of this week: Read more » 

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Photoshop CS5 Top 5: HDR Pro

Submitted by deke on 20 April 2010 - 12:15am.
HDR Pro

Hey, gang. I just returned from the 75,000-strong Coachella music festival. And I'm here to confirm, while the concert was great, AT&T's iPhone coverage was abysmal. My group's attempts to communicate with each other met with complete and utter failure. For example, at 7:39pm (in the hopes that we could hook up to see Them Crooked Vultures), I texted a similarly iPhone-equipped buddy, "Wanna meet at the purple origami crane at 7:50?" He received my missive five hours later, long after we were safely ensconced at camp enjoying a beer. While hilarious in retrospect, it meant we missed each other all evening long.

But hey, enough off-topic bitching. (After all, what iPhone user doesn't already know that AT&T's coverage sucks?) Today's post is about something infinitely more satisfying, a major new feature in Photoshop CS5. Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #16: Adjustment Layers

Submitted by deke on 28 December 2009 - 10:24pm.
Feature #16: Adjustment Layers

It's difficult (verging on impossible) to exaggerate the importance of color adjustments in Photoshop. In the 19+ years I've been using the program, I don't think I've come across a single image that I haven't adjusted to some degree or other. And while there's no single best command for adjusting colors (Feature #28: Hue/Saturation for one image, Feature #24: Curves for another), there is a best method: adjustment layers.

An adjustment layer is an independent layer of color adjustment that you can edit any time you like. Plus it affects all layers below it, consumes very little space in memory, and affords you the opportunity to make selective edits. In other words, it's small and nondestructive. (Compare this to Feature #18: Smart Objects, which is huge and nondestructive.) The modest adjustment layer is also relatively easy to use--by Photoshop standards, anyway. Read more » 

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