One onOne with Mike Wong

Earlier this month at Photoshop World in Las Vegas, a new training company made their debut. The company is Xtrain (www.xtrain.com). They have some great trainers that they are working with including Rick Sammon, Ben Willmore, Jack Davis, Rob Sheppard, Taz Tally and the one and only Dr. Russell Brown. There are many more of course - click here to see the entire list of quality trainers.

If you haven't heard of Xtrain before or if you have and haven't seen any of their lessons, you owe it to yourself to head over to their site and do so. The quality of the video is higher than anything I've ever seen online in a training video. Also, the lessons are streaming QuickTime so if you have QuickTime Pro, you can actually save the movies to your computer and watch them when you are offline. I love this feature alone.

The training is good too. I recently watched Ben Willmore's class on HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography and learned a ton about it and can't wait to start playing with HDR.

Now, here's the discount. Xtrain is offering all onOne Software users (I'm assuming you are if you're reading this) a 15% discount on the subscription fee. Classes are $29.00 a month and with your onOne discount, it's only $24.65. A bargain for what you get in my opinion. To get your 15% discount, just type in the promo code onone in the shopping cart and you'll be all set.

If you want to see some free videos first before you sign up, I highly recommend the classes from Dr. Brown. They are hilarious and you'll learn a lot too. Those classes in particular show Xtrain's commitment to their pledge of providing Edutainment.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I found myself on the Inside Lightroom website today and was very happy to find some really nice presets that they have either developed or rounded up.

Unlike the presets that we have for Lightroom, the presets over at Inside Lightroom are more effect oriented. The onOne presets for Lightroom are geared more at color correction and and making your photo look better from a traditional point of view. Now, there are also some nice black and white presets and some presets that will give you some very cool color effects, but not like the ones over at Inside Lightroom.

Here are a couple of examples of their presets.

Original

Be sure to check out their site and download the ones you like. There are some great ones up there worth downloading and adding to your preset collection.

Posted by Mike Wong at 4:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got Tim Grey's DDQ email and in there, Tim mentioned that he'll be speaking at the upcoming Columbia Northwest Council of Camera Clubs' Annual Convention that takes place October 12-14, 2007 in Gresham (just east of Portland) at the Mt. Hood Community College.

They've got a nice campus there (my younger brother used to perform in music competitions out there in high school) so if you're in the area add this event to your calendar. You'll be treated to a nice campus setting and some good speakers including Tim.

Learn more about the Columbia Northwest Council of Camera Clubs.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today, PopPhoto.com posted on their website their October 2007 list of Top 5 Must Have Software Programs...and I'm extremely happy to share with you that Genuine Fractals 5 was on their list!

Here's the link to their site. PopPhoto.com Top 5 Must Have Software Programs.

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

I just got an email from our friends over at Software Cinema. They have a 50% off Clearance Sale going on for their training titles for Photoshop CS (not CS3), InDesign CS and Illustrator CS. Note, these are not the CS2 or CS3 versions of your favorite Adobe apps, but from talking to many of you, I know that not everybody has upgraded to CS3.

Even if you have upgraded to Photoshop CS3, I suspect that some of these titles will still prove to be worth the discounted price. Fundamental techniques in retouching, masking, commercial advertising, displacement mapping and photo illustration are still valid regardless of which version of Photoshop the instructor is using.

And if you're only interested in CS3 stuff, they do have some limited time promos on their site that are worth looking at.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom version 1.2 is now available for download. According to the Adobe site, here's what's new in this 1.2 update.

• Corrections for several issues including XMP auto-write performance, Windows Vistaﾮ grid display errors, and noise reduction for Bayer patterned sensors
• Additional camera support for the Canon EOS 40D, Fuji FinePix IS-1, Olympus EVOLT E-510, Panasonic DMC-FZ18, and more

See the Lightroom Read Me file for more information.

Click here to download the Mac OS X version of the Lightroom 1.2 update.

Click here to download the Windows version of the Lightroom 1.2 update.

Posted by Mike Wong at 6:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you who attended the keynote at Photoshop World in Las Vegas last week, you will have seen this video - which is hilarious by the way. For those of you who didn't, check out the big announcement from Adobe...Photoshop CS3 Extended for iPhone!

Click the picture above or go to the Layers Magazine website to see the video.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:10 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A word to the wise, never ask to have a bite of a cupcake in the hands of a three year old. Well, at least don't ask my daughter...

Photo copyright 2007 Mike Wong

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I am having some very odd problems with my blog today. It's not letting me add as much content as I wanted to on my last entry, so I'll do a second post here, but apologize for the extra post.

Diane M. was our lucky winner in our iPhone give away contest last week. Diane was sitting right in the front row and after calling out 4 other numbers of people who didn't show up, Diane's number was called and she was declared the winner. It was great seeing how genuinely excited she was to win. See for yourself...

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

Wow. What a whirlwind. I can't believe that just one week ago, the crew here at onOne were getting setup for the largest Photoshop World ever. And like everything else in Las Vegas, it was indeed a large show. There were more vendors, classes, new instructors and last but not least, attendees this year than I've ever seen before.

Before I get into my recap here, I would like to say THANK YOU to everybody who stopped by our booth to say hello, get some additional training on something you bought at the last show or purchased something for the first time. We absolutely love seeing everybody and it's great to meet so many of you in person.

Here are some pictures just before the show as well as during. As you can see, there were just a few people stopping by our booth to learn about our new product announcements for PhotoTools, PhotoTools Professional Edition and our free presets for Adobe Camera RAW. Of course, giving away an iPhone is of interest to one or two people out there as well. :-)

Here's our new booth almost done setting up.

The crowd gathering to see Helene Glassman speak and to see if they have the winning iPhone ticket.

Helene Glassman presenting her PhotoFrame techniques.

Thanks again to everybody who stopped by our booth! We sincerely appreciate your support.

Posted by Mike Wong at 2:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Currently, I'm shooting with a Canon 20D which I really like, but of course, there's always another camera right? Now, I like my 20D, but it's big and bulky, especially with the 24-105 f4/L lens that I usually have on it making it less than ideal as the "take everywhere you go" camera.

I've got a Canon SD550 - which I bought for my wife a couple of years ago because she refuses to hold or carry my 20D unless it's so I can carry something heavier for her instead. And well, since I did get it for her, she's using it so I can't really take it. So I've been on the lookout for a smaller camera to get, but I really wanted one that shoots RAW.

There's the Panasonic Lumix LX2K, but I've heard mixed things about it, but had decided to get it anyway because I really wanted a compact camera with RAW capabilities.

But wait, what's this? I just saw on Canon's site a new Powershot G9 that is compact, 12.1 megapixels and the icing on the cake for me is that it shoots RAW. And there's a lot more to it as well including support for my external Canon flash which makes such a big difference (even though I look silly carrying it around I'm sure).

This just might be my next toy! If you've already got one, please let me know how you like it.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)