How to Be A Cover Girl after 40
Submitted by colleen on 9 November 2008 - 1:51am.
1. Make sure time and budget constraints require you to hire yourself.
2. Make sure the author of your latest book is not only a great photographer but also a kickasss Photoshop retouching genius.
3. Cover wrinkly bits with camera.
Voila (new from O'Reilly):
Comments
I'll ask my question here
...seeing as it is more related to Photoshop and photography, rather than PS and graphic design.
Deke, in your series you recommend the colour conversion intent thingy to be set to perceptual. But in 'The Creative Digital Darkroom' by Eismann/Duggan, they recommend relative colorimetric. What's the diff?
(I appreciate that this topic may be too big for someone as busy as you, Deke, to take the time to answer - so I'll throw the question out to all gurus.)
Also, ProPhoto for 16 bit RAW. Is this a space I should be working in? My camera doesn't have the option (it's currently set to Adobe RGB), so is it worth me using that colour space in PS?
:-/
ps: Also, is there any chance of a Q&A section on dekePod, for all those CS questions we all have that don't belong to a specific dekePod topic? Pretty please?
What, you don't like this ad hoc style of Q&A?
Where I miss half the questions?
Both Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric are rendering intents that are strictly of use when converting an image from one profile to another. (With the exception of printing, you may do very little of that, so it may not really matter.) Both are of the greatest value when going from a big-gamut space, like Adobe RGB, to a smaller gamut, like CMYK of all stripes.
The easiest way to think of Perceptual is that it takes all the colors used in the big gamut and scales them as a group proportionally to fit inside the smaller gamut. The extreme colors (and even some important mediums like skin tones) might shift, hopefully very slightly. But the relationship between colors remains intact (hence volumetric detail and contouring and depth and all that good stuff).
Relative Colorimetric seeks to match each color to its closest equivalent in the source gamut. Which would normally be fine. But Adobe's own advice is very telling: "Recommended for most color conversions, especially when most source colors are already inside the destination gamut."
That last part is where things are most likely to go haywire. Here are two extreme scenarios:
--Many of your source colors are outside the destination gamut. Perceptual shifts all the colors to compensate, creating a body of smooth transitions. Relative Colorimetric clips the out-of-gamut colors. Perceptual wins.
--Few of your source colors are outside the destination gamut. Relative Colorimetric nails the values. Perceptual shifts the colors so little as to go unnoticed. Virtual tie (with slight edge to RC).
I generally favor RC for graphic art and Perceptual for photographic. (It's more nuanced than that, but if you're looking for general advice, there it is.) That said, I very much admire Katrin (I cowrote her first book), and I imagine she and Sean have practical evidence to suggest their preference for RC, other than Adobe said so.
Hardware Advice Needed for CS4
Help!
I need to purchase a Mac Desktop and a Mac Laptop (in the next few weeks) to run the CS4 Master Collection. I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Flash and Premiere Pro for the classes I teach. I plan to spend a lot of time in After Effects this coming year.
Yes, I have seen Adobe's system requirements. I have also read multiple posts in the Adobe forums about how slow CS4 runs if you just meet the minimum requirements... I don't want that! Also, the Mac geniuses in our two local Apple stores know nothing about this (in case anyone should suggest that). Hopefully, someone can offer something more substantial than "get a Mac Pro rather than an iMac" or "MacBookPro rather than a MacBook".... that was the best answer I got at the NAPP site.
I'm hoping someone here has good advice on how to get the most bang for my buck. I really will spend whatever is needed but want to get the best value I can. I have heard rumors (from the Kim Komando Show) of a big "Black Friday" Apple sale coming soon and want to be prepared in case they have something I can effectively use on sale.
Also, any PC advice would be appreciated as one of the computer labs I use is all PCs and we need to upgrade it. Thanks in Advance!
my fingers are crossed and I'm hopin' I get lucky here,
Thomas
Thomas Benner
The Art Institute of Austin
Get a MacBook Pro over a MacBook
Oh, wait, that's what the NAPP guys said.
You need both a laptop and a notebook? Okay, here's my real advice:
--For the notebook, shell out the bucks and get a MacBook Pro. My understanding is that both MacBooks and MacBook Pros offer Nvidia cards, which will get you OpenGL. But long-term, you're going to be happier with the Pro. I mean, are you seriously going to be okay without a FireWire 800 port? See this link.
--This next bit of advice is going to get me in hot water with some of you, but if I were you, I'd turn around and save all that money you spent on the MacBook Pro and invest in a really solid Win Vista workstation. Completely pull out the stops, you'll still save $1000 over Apple. And you get the experience of learning Windows if you haven't already. Call me old-school (I know, Steve Jobs can do no wrong), but I forced myself to come to terms with Windows more than a decade ago, and I'm glad I did. Keeps me flexible. And the PC handles some things better. Not many, but some.
Black Friday sale, really? Let me know when this happens I need a new Mac Pro tower. (I currently use a G5, for real, and even CS3 gets cranky over that.)
Deke - Black Friday Info You Asked for - Mac Pro Deal
There are a number of web sites that keep track of Black Friday deals... a Google search should turn up a bunch of them, such as
www.BlackFridayAds.com
www.BlackFriday.info
bfads.net
MacTech Forums has an area devoted to Mac "deals" at:
http://forums.mactech.com/ubbthreads.php/forums/28/1/Deals_and_Special_O...
MacConnection is running deep discounts on notebooks, desktops, and iPods.
I think their "Black Friday" Holiday sale actually runs thru 11/30
They have a MacPro Tower on sale: Mac Pro One 2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon 2GB RAM(2x1GB) 320GB 16x SuperDrive 2600XT for $2149
MacBooks starting at $799.99 after rebate. 8GB iPod touch for $209.99.
http://www.macconnection.com/ipa/home
DealMac Daily update: Best Buy has posted its Black Friday doorbusters online.
http://dealmac.com/Best-Buy-posts-its-Black-Friday-ad/263294.html?ref=ht...
Finally, Apple's official 1-day "Shopping Event" (Steve Jobs seems to love events) can be found at:
http://store.apple.com/us?Email_OID=390878&Email_PageName=C0008213-13565...
and now, back to burying my head in the ancient mysteries of Text on a Path vs. the Text Art Brush in your Lynda.com Illustrator class. :-)
good luck & hope this helps,
Thomas
Thomas Benner
http://www.masteradobe.com
Ah ha ha
Time to set my diabolical Black Friday plans in motion.
Hardware shall be purchased -- ah ha ha ha ha-ha! Ha!
(If I get around to it, that is. Thx Thomas!)
Mac Pro One 2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon Good Choice for CS4?
Do you think this MacPro Tower on sale seem like a good value for running CS4?
Mac Pro One 2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon 2GB RAM(2x1GB) 320GB 16x SuperDrive 2600XT for $2149
Or would a "beefier" version of the Mac Pro make a big difference in terms of performance?
BTW, I got your G5 wayyyy beat in terms of old crankiness... I'm upgrading from a G4 400Mhz... I try to get the most out of my macs before I upgrade. :-) The G4 still works fine for everything except 10.5 and CS4... I'll still use it as a backup desktop machine.
Thanks!
Thomas
Thomas Benner
More Black Friday Madness: Get 40% off any of Deke's Books
What? Get any of Deke's books at almost half-price? Yes. This deal should be useful to most here.
Barnes and Noble is making this deal available thru November 30, either at their stores or thru online shopping.
You can get 40% off any one book (and they sell just about anything you might need) until November 30.
The details are at:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav.asp?r=1&PID=26036
I just used this online to pre-order Deke's new "Channels and Masks" book for $22.49 ($28.67 after taxes and shipping charges). My credit card is charged the day the order ships.
Note: you must use a MasterCard card and enter the coupon code at checkout.
Happy Turkey Day!
Thomas
Thomas Benner
The Art Institute of Austin
p.s. My CS4 Master Collection arrived today. Yea! (feels like Christmas) and now I'm psyched about buying new hardware to run it.
Thanks for the good advice
Thanks for the advice... I do feel more comfortable with your feedback. Wish I could hear from someone saying "yes, I use XXX and CS4 rocks on it!" Apple sells their factory refurbs at up to 40% off and I don't want to splurge full price on the "latest and greatest" unless I have to.
No. You are right. I couldn't live without my firewire... no way. no how... so that means a MacBook Pro for the laptop.... Cool!
As to the desktop, I've been teaching on both the Mac and Windows platforms for the last few years.... each week some of my classes are PC only and some are Mac only and I understand your point about being multi-platform savvy especially when running a few "Windows-only" applications. But honestly, the Mac runs Windows very well under BootCamp and several other solutions and I can copy and paste between OS's that way.... we've come a long way since "Virtual PC" (and I've got instructor PC's that I use at the schools where I teach) so I don't see buying a PC for home just to run Windows unless I'm missing something here. I do appreciate where you are coming from about being open to both platforms and feel very comfortable moving back and forth between the two platforms.
I am not a "Mac Nazi", Petra. I just enjoy being able to get my work done without the pesky Windows annoyances and interruptions I run into whenever I teach my PC-based classes.... the Mac has its own annoyances, for some reason, they just really annoy me a whole lot less :-) I say, whatever floats your boat, use it and live and let live. They are only tools after all!
Whatever I get, I will max out the Ram for sure.
Thanks for your insights,
Thomas
Thomas Benner
The Art Institute of Austin
p.s. I heard about the Apple Black Friday stuff on today's Kim Kommando show and, if I hear more, I will let you know. I always check the Black Friday sales first before I do a tech purchase this time of year.
I wouldn't dare call you a "Mac Nazi", Thomas!
No, no, no. You seem like far too reasonable and personable a man for me to speak so harshly!
:)