One onOne with Mike Wong

If you're wondering what the differences are between Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended, John Nack has a post in his blog on the key differences that might help you decide which one is right for you.

Posted by Mike Wong at 6:58 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well, we just finished up a great show in Las Vegas (WPPI) and now our booth is all packed up and on a plane for Boston. Can't wait for the show next week, as it should be lots of fun. I'm sure Adobe will be doing all kinds of fun things with Photoshop CS3 since the public announcement earlier this week.

Anyway, the point of this entry really was to let you know that if you're going to be in Boston next week for Photoshop World, be sure to stop by our booth and check our theater schedule. I'm working with Jim DiVitale, Helene Glasssman, Rick Sammon and Vincent Versace to have them give a short demo or slideshow or whatever they want to do for 20 to 30 minutes. Kevin Ames usually stops by to say hello as well and no matter how busy he is, always takes time to talk to attendees. The schedule will be finalized late, so stop by booth 303 to see when they'll be talking in our booth. Given that most of the time any of them talk at an event, it's in a standing room only room of 1000 or more, it will be a great chance to meet these talented and incredibly nice people in a smaller and friendly environment.

Posted by Mike Wong at 7:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Regarding the new Quick Selection tool in Photoshop CS3, Digit Magazine out of the U.K. had this to say...

"The new Quick Selection tool enables you to create an selection area by 'painting' areas to keep and ignore, with Photoshop selecting surrounding blocks of similar colours automatically. It’s a massive improvement on the old Magic Wand, but it’s not as accurate as plug-ins such as OnOne Mask Pro or Vertus Fluid Mask - and lacks those tools fine-tuning controls for dealing with tricky areas such as hair."

Like anything else, there are always different ways to tackle the challenge of making a good selection. Sometimes the best way is with a standard Photoshop tool or technique and I agree with Digit that the new Quick Selection tool is a nice improvement over the Magic Wand - and I'm sure I'll use it from time to time - but again, every image is different and as such there are times when you'll want more control over your selection and you'll find that a plug-in like Mask Pro is better suited for your needs.

Read the entire story that Digit posted on Photoshop CS3.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Adobe has officially announced their biggest product launch in company history today with their Creative Suite 3 announcement. You can read their official press release here. For a PDF specifically outlining the Photoshop® CS3 family, including Photoshop® Lightroom, you can read this PDF.

Read more about onOne Software plug-ins for Photoshop® CS3

Posted by Mike Wong at 7:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Acme Educational (a.k.a. Vincent Versace & crew) have announced a new upcoming title from his DVD tutorial series. The new title is on Capture NX which is available from the Nikon site.

From the site:
"Using the critically acclaimed "Why to of How" approach pioneered in the Welcome To Oz: Following the RGB Road series, Vincent takes a look under the hood of Capure NX. This multi-DVD tutorial goes for the basics of how Capture NX is set up and works through advanced workflows of several of his most iconic images. In each lesson, Vincent will take you through how he created, or recreated in Capture NX, each image. In every lesson the viewer will be using the actual raw file that came off the camera, not a low resolution JPEG or TIFF. This multi-DVD set is designed to get you up to speed with an understanding of both why and how to use the most powerful RAW processor on the market today.

This series was shot at 720p High Definition Resolution along with a computer screen capture set to record at computer resolution, so not only will you be able to see how Vincent actually works on his Cintq® interactive pen display, but also watch the tutorials on your television and play the lessons back on your computer at computer resolution as well."

Pre-orders are currently being accepted for $44.95.

If this series is anything like the original Welcome To Oz lessons and book, you'll want to get a copy.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:29 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

We're excited to announce that onOne Software has teamed up with Lynda.com to provide 1.5 hours of Mask Pro 4 video training available to all onOne Software users for free. That's right, free. Normally, Lynda.com charges for this type of content, but they're giving away this content to all onOne Software users. Just go to http://www.lynda.com/go/MaskPro and follow the instructions to get this content.

We feel that the best way to learn a new product is to watch a video of it in action. And the folks over at Lynda.com really know their stuff when it comes to teaching online. Be sure to check it out. If you don't have a copy of Mask Pro already, visit our downloads page and request a free 30-day demo. To add to that 30 days, onOne Software also offers a 30-day, no questions asked money back guarantee.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you interested in getting a great deal, here's one for you. Through April 8, 2007, you can get Genuine Fractals 4.1 (which includes a free upgrade via download to Genuine Fractals 5) and your choice of either DxO Optics Pro Standard or DxO Optics Pro Elite. Go to our DxO Optics Pro landing page for more information and to buy one of them. You'll save $110 off the normal price if purchased separately.

For more information on DxO Optics Pro, please visit the DxO site. And don't forget, the bundle offer ends April 8, 2007 so take advantage today.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you're going to be upgrading to Photoshop CS3 this Spring and are wondering what onOne Software has planned in terms of updates and compatibility and such, here's a recap of what we plan on doing and how it will affect you.

Back in December 2006 (which seems like forever ago already) we announced our plans for Photoshop CS3 compatibility which included making free (via download) updates available for PhotoFrame Pro 3, Intellihance Pro 4 and Mask Pro 4. If you are a registered user of any of those products, you should be receiving an email from us alerting you to the availability along with a download link to get the update installers. If you are not registered, you can so at our online registration page. If you don't get the email for some reason, just give us a call at 888-968-1468 and we'll get you the download links.

For Genuine Fractals, it's a little different. We announced Genuine Fractals 5 in December as well and have stated that anyone who purchases Genuine Fractals 4.1 (standard or Print Pro) as a new purchase or as an upgrade, will get Genuine Fractals 5.0 for free via download when it ships this Spring. Upgrade pricing will be available for those who do not qualify for the free upgrade.

For those of you participating in the Photoshop CS3 public beta, you can download beta versions of Genuine Fractals 5, Mask Pro 4.1 and PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 to use. Please note Mask Pro 4.1 and PhotoFrame Pro 3.1 will require that you have full versions (not demo versions) of Mask Pro 4.0 and PhotoFrame Pro 3.0 installed already. The Genuine Fractals 5 beta does not have this same requirement but does have a timeout date.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:47 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As you may have read in my original post on our Develop Module presets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, you can download a very small installer that will add 85 presets designed by Jack Davis to your Presets panel in the Develop Module of Photoshop Lightoom.

Now, we've got a 26 minute video that Jack created to show you how to get the most out of these presets. Developed in conjunction with Software Cinema, you can watch the videos for free by visiting the PhotoPresets product page on our site. We've given you the option to watch the video in it's entirety or you can watch it in smaller bite-size chunks if you prefer.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

2007 has been a very busy year for everybody at onOne Software so far, getting our products ready for Photoshop CS3 and attending several shows. But it is all worth it and we love working on these products and attending the shows, especially when users stop by and say hello and tell us how they are using one or more of our products.

In March, we'll be at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas for the WPPI show so if you're in Vegas for the event, please stop by booth 600 and say hello and see our plug-ins running natively in Photoshop CS3.

Right afer WPPI, we'll be in Boston for one of our favorite shows, Photoshop World East. I personally love going to this show for all of the users who stop by the booth and share with us not only how they are using the onOne plug-ins but also when they share with us their other tips and tricks in Photoshop or their latest camera gear purchase. I also never miss The Art of Digital Photography presentation that goes on Thursday night this year. You're sure to see some great photography on display as well as be entertained by the line up of photographers. If you're going to Photoshop World in Boston in April, please stop by and see us in booth 303 and say hello.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:23 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I really enjoy reading (or viewing as the case may be) the London PhotoBloggers site. There are always some great photographs up there. Here are a few of my favorite from the past couple of months.

"Untitled" by cfoto

"In the Magic Hour" by alexbynature

"Camber Sands Reflection in Black and White" by only lines

And here's a link to a January 2007 post from Rob Gardiner's NCYLondon Blog where he posts his black & white photography.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

More news from onOne Software last week...we announced the immediate availability of 85 presets for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom that we're calling PhotoPresets with One-Click Wow! that everybody can download for free.

We worked directly with Photoshop Guru and Hall-of-Famer Jack Davis. The presets are unique from others in that they do not try to be everything to everybody or a one-size fits all. Presets that were developed by someone with some image may not necessarily work on your image (were the white balance corrections the same, what about HSL settings? the list goes on). This doesn't mean that we won't come out with other presets that help you recreate a specific look, but in general for color correction, the feedback we've gotten from most users out there who are over-whelmed and somewhat intimidated by the numerous sliders and curve adjustments available in the Develop module, welcome these kinds of presets with open arms.

As such, the PhotoPresets that Jack developed for us help walk you through the process of fixing and properly adjusting your photos. Start with a White Balance correction, then move into Tone Curve adjustements. Next, HSL (hue, saturation & luminosity) where you can push everything to grayscale except a color (i.e. blue eyes). Next, you can change to black and white, add a custom hand-tint and finally a variety of vignettes can be added. It's really quite simple when you go through the presets. The cool thing is that once you find a look that you like by combining these presets, you can save that preset as your own and in one-click, you're there!

So if you're using Photoshop Lightroom, go download a copy of our PhotoPresets for Lightoom. They're free! In the next few days, we'll be posting several video tutorials that Jack Davis created specifically for these presets.

If you're not a Lightroom expert and don't know where the presets go, don't worry, we've created an installer that puts the presets in the right place. Just run the installer and relaunch Lightroom.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This is a few days late (last week was pretty busy) but I wanted to post a quick note that we posted the first beta of Mask Pro 4.1 for Adobe Photoshop CS3 last week on our labs site.

This new version (which, by the way is free to all existing, registered owners of Mask Pro 4.0) adds native support for Photoshop CS3 (it is a Universal Binary for Mac OS X) as well as 16-bit support. We've been asked for 16-bit support for a while now, so we're happy to be offering this to Mask Pro 4 users at no charge.

Go to the onOne Software labs site now and download your copy today. Again, you must have a licensed copy of Mask Pro 4.0 installed in order for the beta to run.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)