So You Think You Can Be A Photoshop Evangelist?

As Adobe's Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist, a lot of people walk up to me at trade shows or send me emails saying "I would love to have your job!" Well here's your chance to show Adobe and the world how great you are:

 

Calling all Photoshop gurus…

we are hosting a contest to find The Next Photoshop Evangelist and it could be YOU! To enter, you’ll need to submit a video showing us your Photoshop skills. The Grand Prize Winner will Win a trip to Photoshop World in Spring 2011 to demonstrate their video tutorial LIVE! 

Now it's up to YOU! Find out the rules and more info on submitting your video here.

Here's a tip: having the coolest technique in the world doesn't mean much if you aren't good at explaining it to others. So while I'm sure that there are people out there that can do amazing work in Photoshop, to be an evangelist also means getting people excited and making them believe that they can do it too!

So let's see if you can impress me, because I am one of the judges 🙂

 

 

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Apple Announces the Mac Pro Update I’ve Been Waiting For

My current "work horse" Mac is my NEW MacBook Pro core i7. Don't get me wrong, I have a Mac Pro in my home office. However, my current Mac Pro is the original Mac Pro introduced back in 2006. That's ancient in computer years. Before that purchase I was usually upgrading my tower with every other release (about every 2-3 years). Over the years I wasn't seeing significant enough performance gains to spend the money. Then they introduced an update in March of 2009 that made me think it's time to upgrade, but I just kept putting it off. Now that my favorite Adobe Creative Suite Apps are 64bit enabled with the CS5 release I knew it was time for some new hardware. The problem is  I just didn't want last year's models. So once the new MacBook Pro core i7 came out, I ordered it (from work) day one! When I got it, I ran a speed test against my Mac Pro and was wowed by the fact that it BEAT IT! Granted that really shows just how fast the new MacBook Pros have become, but what it really showed me was just how slow my old Mac Pro was. So I waited and today Apple Announced the Mac Pro update I've been waiting for. Although there was no new case design, that doesn't bother me. It does seem odd though that Apple (a company focused on design) would continue use virtually the same design they introduced with the Power Mac G5 back in 2003!

 

There are 3 new configurations, Dual Core, Quad Core (8 cores) and Dual 6 Core (12 cores)

My only debate is do I spend the $5 grand on the 12 cores or settle for the 8 cores ($3,500). My gut tells me to go 12 core simply because I don't upgrade my tower as often as I used to and the faster the machine I get the longer it will last me. I have a little bit of time to think about it because Apple is not even taking orders yet. They're saying "August" for availability. I'll likely bite the bullet and go 12 cores to have the fastest Mac rendering speeds I can get. As far as video cards go I'll replace the stock ATi card for an Nvidia card to take advantage of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5's accelerated Mercury Playback Engine. <-this was a sneak peek video before CS5 was announced.

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The Photoshop CS5 Summit and a New Video on Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-smVLREnY

 

My buddies over at NAPP are headed to the Big Apple (NYC) next Friday, June 25th for The Photoshop CS5 Summit. Sadly I will not be there because I'll be in Nice, France presenting at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Somehow I'll suffer though it 😉 Nonetheless, you should check out the Photoshop Guys at this FREE event! Find out all the details here.

 

My Top 5 Favorite Features of the NEW Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium

Although I'm the Adobe Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist and my main passion is for Photography, that doesn't mean that I don't have other interests. Actually my second passion is for digital video. I'm thrilled with all the new capabilities in the New Production Premium Suite and I thought I'd share with you my Top 5 Favorites. Check them out here:

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-DXBmxgstU

 

Do you want MORE Videos on CS5? Of course you do. Check out the NEW Adobe Evangelist TV channel on YouTube. There's lot's of CS5 goodness there including more videos on Digital Video and some HTML 5 goodness. Also if you want to download any of my CS videos and take them with you, head over to my Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast.

Introducing the Photoshop CS5 “Knowledge Panel”

Photoshop CS5 Quietly Delivers the Knowledge Panel

That's right! If you have Photoshop CS5, you have a NEW Panel under Window->Extensions Called "Knowledge". This new panel pulls in industry experts to give you help and step-by-step instructions on completing various tasks in Photoshop. Best of all it's FREE and if you've been connected to the internet and have Photoshop CS5 open it's already there! Here are a few screen shots:

    

 

Speaking of Creating an HDR Image

Here's my Lightroom 3 to Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro workflow

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rab25UTe6HY

Thanks goes out to Scott Kelby and the Photoshop Guys for some GREAT HDR Pro settings.

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Tech Profile of Dave Helmly

David Helmly

North American Technical Sales Manager Pro Video/Audio
 

Company

Adobe Systems,Inc
 

Annapolis MD
 

Your blog/website?

blogs.adobe.com/davtechtable

Favorite Gadget(s)

This hard as I do a lot of reviews on various products. iPhone is up there but looking forward to seeing what happens with the Android OS, Chrome browser has won me over –Safari is now dead to me, & Garmin Nuvi

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