Droplets in Photoshop CS5

Every photo I upload to Flickr goes through a watermarking process. To do this, I created a watermarking action within Photoshop (started this in the CS3 days). These actions can be 'converted' to so-called droplets. These are 'shortcuts' you can place on e.g. your desktop. Every image you drag onto this droplet gets opened in Photoshop and the preconfigured actions are applied.

This worked in Photoshop CS3, and CS4 (after some modifications to the original action). But in Photoshop CS5 the droplets won't execute. The action itself runs smoothly within Photoshop, but when you export it as a droplet, the action won't start. You have to start the action manually.....

I even tried to create an action / droplet from scratch in Photoshop CS5, but that one won't run either when I drop a JPEG on the droplet. This is a reason for not upgrading to CS5 on my main machine (which also still runs Leopard for compatibility reasons).

According to the online Adobe Photoshop CS5 helpfiles regarding droplets, the droplets should still function. So I write this of as a bug in the initial release of Photoshop CS5.

HDR Processing in Adobe Photoshop CS5

The new CS5 edition of Adobe Photoshop has refined the HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing. Now, you won't need the Photomatix plugin (in theory).

After selecting the 'Merge To HDR in Photoshop' option in Lightroom, the images get exported to Photoshop and it starts doing its magic. Normally (in the earlier versions) you would end up with a 32-bit image, but now you have the option of manipulating the 8 or 16-bit version of the image. Just like in Photomatix.

Photoshop CS5 HDR interfaceInitial experiences are not really positive, but that can be related to my experiences with Photomatix. A quick glance at the controls available, it should be able to produce similar results.
Talking of Photomatix; The plugin used in CS4 won't work in CS5. You need to download the CS5 version of the plugin at the HDRSoft.com website (Mac / Windows). The new version is universal (32 and 64-bit), free of charge to registered users, and works only in CS5.

One thing I didn't expect was that Photoshop started downloading a lens database from the Adobe website during the creation of the HDR. No idea if this is used in the HDR creation, or that this is done only once and used in other Photoshop CS5 plugins / filters

Photoshop CS4 and Snow Leopard

Photoshop CS4 was released as an Universal app (system requirements). So both PowerPC (PPC) and Intel support. Since it's an Universal app, you shouldn't need Rosetta on an Intel .
So upgrading to Snow Leopard shouldn't be a problem... Until you're gonna use the droplet functionality of Photoshop CS4. That piece of code still needs Rosetta to function.

So no way that CS4 is Universal. It's just another piece of buggy Adobe software.

What's next? An announcement that this crap won't be supported and that you can upgrade to the >1000USD Adobe CS5 suite next year?

To Photoshop (or not)

To Google in the OSX DictionaryBrandnames turning into verbs is nothing new. Google turned 'verb' a while back officially, and can be found in several dictionaries all over the world. You could think that the brand owner would like it this when a product (or brand) becomes a commodity. Well, not every brand.....

Adobe has a section on the 'Photoshop' usage on their website [mirror]. It seems that photoshopping is a bad verb. Why? I don't know. No matter how good or bad an image or photo is altered or with what tool. The most common remark is 'PHOTOSHOPPED'. All this means is that people associate image manipulation with Adobe Photoshop. There's a reason that this piece of software is on top of the image manipulation food chain. It's simply the best (and probably the most expensive by the way :) ).

After looking for 'google' in the Apple OS X Dictionary, I also tried 'photoshop'. and guess what I found:

to Photoshop in Apple OS X Dictionary/me sits back and wonders when Apple (or even me) receives a letter from an Adobe attorney :) for the incorrect usage of the Photoshop brand.

Nik Software for Adobe Lightroom

A while ago, Nik Software released the Nik Color Efex Pro plugins for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (or so it seems :) ). Now they also release the awesome B&W filters Silver Efex Pro plugins for Adobe Lightroom v2.3.

No need to open the images in Photoshop for the Black and White conversion process. Just do it from within Lightroom.

Nik Silver Efex Pro 4 Lightroom

The new installers (either Silver Efex Pro or Color Efex Pro is nothing more but an small update of the original software with the added support for Lightroom. The update is free for registered users. New users pay $199,00.

Downside (apart from the price for new users) is that the custom templates created under the Photoshop CS version are not directly accessible under the Lightroom version.
Another point of attention is that a new copy is created every time you open the photo in the Lightroom plugin. This copy isn't removed when you press cancel in the Nik plugin. This behaviour was also present in the earlier Lightroom versions when you editted a photo in Photoshop. So I hope that this (bug) will be gone with a new release of the NIK software.

Here is the information supplied with the Color Efex Pro for Lightroom installer (the Silver Efex Pro text is basically the same):

Installation Help for Color Efex Pro^TM 3.0
For Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom®
© 2009 Nik Software, Inc.

Installation for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

1. Start the installer utility by double clicking on the Color Efex Pro 3.0 Installer file.
2. After you read the Welcome Screen and Read Me and accept the license agreement, the Color Efex Pro 3.0 installer will automatically install into the appropriate location.
3. Click the Continue button.
4. Enter your user name and password and then either select Begin 15 day demo and click on the Demo button or select Enter Product Key and Activate, then enter your name and product key and click on the Activate button.
5. Select whether to automatically register Color Efex Pro 3.0 as an external editor with Lightroom.*
6. Complete the installation.
7. The next time Lightroom is opened, your new software will appear under the Photo > Edit In menu.

Minimum Requirements
Operating System:
• Mac OS X v10.4 or later

Processor:
• Macintosh-PowerPC® G4, G5, Intel Core^TM Solo, Intel Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, Xeon®

RAM:
• Minimum: 1 GB

Image Editing Application:
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

*The option to automatically register Color Efex Pro 3.0 as an external editor for Lightroom is only available if Lightroom is detected during installation. Color Efex Pro 3.0 can be manually added as an external editor to Lightroom with the instructions below.

Adding Color Efex Pro 3.0 to Lightroom as an External Editor

1. Open the Preferences in Lightroom.
2. Click the External Editing tab.
3. In the Additional External Editor section select a desired File Format, Color Space, Bit Depth, Resolution, and Compression.**
4. Click on Choose to select an application. Navigate to the location of Color Efex Pro 3.0.
5. Select the Color Efex Pro 3.0 file and click Choose.
6. Under the Preset drop-down menu select Save Current Settings as New Preset... and name the Preset.

**Color Efex Pro 3.0 only supports TIFF files (8-bit or 16-bit) with No compression or LZW compression.

Color Efex Pro 3.0 can then be accessed under the Photo menu as an external editor.

v Color Efex Pro 3.000LRmac

Photoshop Actions FTW

Have been experimenting with photoshop actions the last couple of days. The latest action (a vintage look) I created (with some help / ideas I found on the Internet.

Combine this with the border/watermarking action and you get the following result.

Learning a bit every day.