Wide-screen monitors are all the rage these days and, in fact, that’s just about all you can buy anymore. That’s great if you want to watch movies on your computer. But I don’t. I watch movies on my TV. I use my PC for editing photographs among other things.

If you use your wide-screen monitor in the standard landscape orientation and take portrait orientation photos that’s a problem. It’s a problem because you’re using only about one-third of your monitor’s pixels. When editing portrait-orientation photos you have to do a lot of zooming and panning to really see what you’re doing.

But if you have two monitors there’s an easy fix. Rotate one of your monitors to portrait orientation. Give it a try. You’ll be amazed at how much more impressive your portrait orientation photos look. It’s also great for reading long Word documents and PDFs.

The post Does Anyone Take Portrait Orientation Photos Anymore? appeared first on The Photo Performance.

A year and a half ago I evaluated Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to determine whether I wanted to incorporate it into my workflow. Back then I decided to stick with Bridge and Photoshop but time has passed and Lightroom has advanced from V3 to V5 (in beta at the time of this writing) so I decided to have another look.

One of the things that made me want to take a second look is the fact that I’m taking more photos now so an efficient workflow is becoming more important to me. Speed and efficiency are areas where Lightroom excels.  Also, Lightroom gets more features with every new release so it’s likely that I’ll be able to do more of my work in Lightroom today than I could have with V3.

That doesn’t mean I’m thinking about ditching Photoshop. There are too many things that can’t be done in Lightroom and situations where you can’t get the precise control that Photoshop offers. So, Photoshop will be an essential part of my workflow for years to come. So, as I’m evaluating Lightroom V5 I’m trying to figure out a workflow which will support both tools and allow me to take the best that each has to offer.

Unfortunately, my initial foray with Lightroom V5 has raised some hurdles that are difficult to get over. The main problem is my 1300 Photoshop PSD format files that Lightroom cannot display. I can import all my RAW files into Lightroom along with the thousands of TIFF files scanned from my 35 mm slides. But many of my PSD files just show the message “Preview unavailable.”

In an attempt to work around this problem I tried using the Image Processor (from Photoshop: File -> Scripts -> Image Processor or from Bridge: Tools -> Photoshop -> Image Processor) to automatically generate TIFF files for all of my PSD files. That process ran in about 20 minutes and left a series of TIFF subfolders in each folder that has PSD files. These TIFF files contain the embedded image preview that Lightroom needs to show thumbnails and full-size renditions of the images.

But these previews are often incorrect and the converted files don’t include the original layers. I’m told that TIFF files are able to store all the same info that PSD files can store and my testing seems to confirm that. But the Image Processor flattens the layers and it doesn’t always render accurate previews.

Here’s an example. I have a PSD file containing a single layer which is a Smart Object. That layer has a Nik Software Color Efex Pro filter applied so it’s a Smart Filter. Not only did the Image Processor flatten the image but it rendered the filter incorrectly (even though Color Efex Pro is running fine in Photoshop and in Lightroom at this time). So, it’s clear that I can’t rely on the Image Processor to generate Lightroom-compatible versions of my PSDs.

My next test was to try opening that PSD file in Photoshop and resaving it with the Maximize Compatibility option set to Always. But that didn’t generate a Lightroom-compatible thumbnail. So, I tried toggling the Smart Filter off and back on hoping to make Photoshop think that something had changed so that it would need to rewrite the file. Still no luck. Next, I tried modifying the image so that there was a change that Photoshop would definitely need to write to the disk. No go. OK, how about File -> Save As. Finally, a version of the PSD file with the Smart Object & Smart Filter intact which could also be previewed in Lightroom.

I also tried using the Batch command which runs an action on multiple files. I created a Save-as-TIFF action and tried it out but Batch has the same problem as Image Processor.

I’m currently contemplating the process of manually opening hundreds of PSDs and resaving them as copies. It’s a tedious prospect to consider and I’m not sure I want to go there. Yet, it’s frustrating to think about not being able to see these images in Lightroom because they include some of my best work. You might think that a product called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom would have better compatibility with Photoshop.

At this point, I haven’t given up on Lightroom. It’s an awesome tool that I really want to take advantage of. To do so I’ll need to develop a workflow that provides the ability to do basic edits in Lightroom while still also offering the possibility of doing other work in Photoshop. I already know that there are other limitations in using the two programs together. For example, once you send a file to Photoshop and make changes there, your Lightroom edits are applied destructively and those settings can no longer be changed back in Lightroom. Fortunately, there are workarounds but there are also limitations to the workarounds. I’ll continue to explore these issues in a series of posts over the coming weeks. Check back from time to time or subscribe to this blog by email to get all the Photoshop and Lightroom news (Subscribe by email in the right column above).

The post Lightroom and Photoshop Compatibility Problems appeared first on The Photo Performance.

Adobe this week announced a new version of Photoshop, called Photoshop CC, at Adobe MAX, Adobe’s (mostly) annual user conference. At MAX Adobe also announced the end of the Creative Suite (the CS series) and its replacement by the Creative Cloud (CC), their new subscription service. Briefly, Photoshop will no longer be available as a one-time purchase but will now require a monthly subscription. For more details see the Breaking from Tradition box below.

What follows below are resources that introduce the major new features in Photoshop CC with an emphasis on features photographers will appreciate.

Quick Overview of New Features

In this post Adobe Senior Photoshop Product Manager Zorana Gee quickly covers some of the highlights in the soon-to-be-released version of Photoshop.

Julianne Kost’s Top 5 Favorite Features for Photographers in Photoshop

In this video Adobe evangelist Julianne Kost explains her top five favorite features in Photoshop CC. Her post mentions her five favorite features but I have to confess that I lost track of where one feature ended and the next one started. That’s why there’s a list of seven below. However you count them, there’s some pretty cool stuff coming in June 2013.

• Upright perspective correction feature with options for vertical, horizontal and automatic options
• Radial filter in Camera RAW allows you to apply any and all CR adjustments (e.g., exposure, highlights, shadows, clarity, vibrance, etc.) within a feathered (or not) circle/ellipse; and you can have multiple ellipses if you want. You can apply the adjustments to either the inside or outside of the selected area. The new spot healing brush can be any shape and it can either heal or clone. There is a new Visualize Spots feature which helps you quickly identify spots that might not be obvious.
• Camera RAW can be applied not only when opening image but now it is available as a filter which can be applied to any image. You can apply the filter to a Smart Object to make the changes non-destructive and re-editable.
• Upsampling with the new Preserve Details enlargement option creates sharper upsized images than before.
• An improvement to Smart Sharpen greatly reduces the amount of noise.
• Dynamic rounded rectangle corners (vector layers)
• Camera Shake Reduction filter that really works; can be applied as a Smart Filter

Russell Brown’s Top 5 Features in Photoshop CC

In this video Adobe’s eccentric professor of Photoshop covers some of the same ground as Julianne Kost but includes new material, too; five, count ‘em, five; here’s Russel Brown’s top 5 features in the new Photoshop:

• Camera RAW Adjustments as a filter; Spot removal using the Visualize Spots feature; Radial Filter in Camera RAW
• Merge to HDR Pro – Toning in Camera RAW; Upright feature to adjust perspective to level the horizon or to align vertical elements perpendicular to the horizon; ability to use Camera RAW to convert from 32-bit mode to 8-bit; quick healing brush tool in ACR can work on a line
• Camera Shake Reduction
• 3D now included with the single version of Photoshop CC (previously, the 3D features were only included with the Extended version of PS); now has a new, faster 3D painting feature
• Adobe Exchange panel; shows paid and free plug-ins; e.g., the free background texture plugin which offers a number of attractive, randomizable textures

Adobe MAX Keynotes and other sessions online

You can also view recordings of the Adobe MAX keynote sessions at the MAX Online site. Here’s a listing of some of the free session recordings that are available at the Adobe MAX Online page (scroll down and expand the Design and Creativity section).

• S8302: Tips and Techniques for Creating Mind-blowing Photo Effects with Corey Barker
• S8223: Photoshop Power Shortcuts
• S8224: Creating and Working Quickly with 3D in Photoshop
• S8225: One-Click Instant Photoshop Techniques
• S8226: Making Movement: Creating and Editing Stunning Videos Easily in Photoshop
• S8227: Expressive Painting in Photoshop
• S8303: Hidden Gems in Adobe Photoshop
• S8304: Deke’s Techniques for Photoshop
• S8307: Visual Storytelling with Photography and Video by Corey Rich

Photoshop CC Tutorials

And here’s a page listing free Photoshop CC tutorials.
The currently available sessions are listed below:

• Using the Camera Shake Reduction Filter with RC Concepcion
• Adobe Camera Raw as a filter with Matt Kloskowski
• An Overview of Camera RAW 8
• Sharpening in Photoshop CC with Pete Collins
• Syncing Presets in Photoshop CC with RC Concepcion
• Image Resizing in Photoshop
• Type Rendering in Photoshop CC
• Design Improvements in Photoshop CC
• An Overview of the 3D Panel
• 3D Painting – The Next Level

Sneak Peeks

Here are some sneak peeks at features Adobe is working on for a possible future version of Photoshop. Just remember, Adobe isn’t promising these sneak features will be in a future version of Photoshop. But features shown in past sneak peaks often have ended up in the shipping product. 

Sneak Peek : Perspective Warp in Photoshop

Here’s a sneak peek of a new Perspective Warp feature that may appear in a future version of Photoshop CC. It allows you to correct perspective distortion in architectural images and includes, for example, the ability to correct perspective on one side of a street while leaving the other side of the street unchanged.

Sneak Peek: Playing with Lighting in Photoshop and After Effects

Here’s another sneak: playing with lighting in Photoshop and After Effects.

The post Photoshop CC for Photographers appeared first on The Photo Performance.

After a month of working on it during the evenings and weekends the new blog design is live. I’m going over the site page by page, checking all the images, links, etc. but if you find any problems I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know on my Contact page.

I didn’t actually create the design myself but started with the Creative Folio template which is based on the Bootstrap responsive framework. So far, I’ve been very pleased with the template. The Bootstrap framework provides automatic resizing and layout so that visitors viewing the site on any size screen or mobile device will have a good experience. My testing on my iPad, my Android phone and my wife’s iPhone has shown that the layout adapts nicely to the different size screens. If you’re reading this on a PC you can get an idea of how this works by changing the width of your browser window.

I did find a problem with the Elastislide JavaScript plugin that was included with the template. When I tested the site on my mobile devices I discovered that you can’t scroll up or down while dragging on content that is enclosed within an Elastislide section. You can see the problem if you go to the Creative Folio Live Preview page. Scroll down to the Blog Updates section on a mobile device and then touch any of the photos there and attempt to drag up or down. It doesn’t work. I ended up replacing the Elastislide plugin with the Woothemes FlexSlider. The version in the link in the previous section is for a commercial WordPress plugin. There is also a free version which is what I used but that requires some coding.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the redesign, the Creative Folio template is not a WordPress theme. That means that a lot of work is needed to create a theme based on the template and that’s what I’ve spent the last month doing in my spare time. The good news is that the CF template is WordPress-friendly. That is to say that the design includes all the types of pages that you need in a normal WordPress theme. The template also includes other modern website features like a jQuery image slider, nice menus and a nice header and footer.

Let me know if you have any questions about WordPress themes, in general, or this redesign in particular.

The post Redesign is Live appeared first on The Photo Performance.

My two Amaryllis plants are blooming so I took advantage of the opportunity to capture some images of their large, showy flowers. I’ve had these plants for several years and they just keep getting bigger and better every year.  Each year I shoot some photos but the image quality has often left me somewhat disappointed. So, this year I decided to pay close attention to detail and it paid off as I was pretty happy with the above shot.

One thing that made a big difference was the use of a reflector. I had just purchased a Lastolite reflector and was looking for a chance to try it out. As it happened, I only had to go out my front door. My first attempt using the reflector has sold me on it. In the past, I’ve been shooting the amaryllis mostly with natural light. Of course, when the sun is out the shadows can be harsh. And when it’s not the colors lose a little something. I’ve tried using fill flash but either my technique leaves something to be desired or it’s been the wrong solution. But the effect of using the reflector was wonderful. I was able to add a nice glow and soften the shadows. And the extra light meant that I could use a faster shutter speed. I was using a tripod but with a light breeze there can still be some motion of the flower.

The final element was paying close attention to the focus and depth of field. I made several groups of captures, checking after each sequence to see what I was getting. By the third round I had some keepers.

The post-processing on this image was minimal:

1. A slight curves adjustment to recover some detail in the highlights
2. A light tonal contrast adjustment in Color Efex Pro
3. A bit of structure added to the anthers on the stamen

The post The Amaryllis are Blooming appeared first on The Photo Performance.

I recently had a great time at a four-day photography workshop at Santa Fe Photography Workshops in New Mexico. I’ve been shooting for a long time and have the basics of exposure, focus and other technical concerns down pretty well but I knew I needed some help with composition. That’s why I signed up for their Composition and Light in Outdoor Photography workshop with Bill Ellzey. The workshop description says it is about “seeing, and seeing deeply. It’s about developing your awareness to composition and to light.” That’s just what I was looking for and I feel like I got a big boost in my ability to do those things.

We began on Wednesday morning with a talk by instructor Bill Ellzey on the basics of composition in which he showed examples of his own work that beautifully illustrated the principles. We also looked at each student’s “portfolio” of six or seven images and Bill gave thoughtful, sensitive and helpful critiques. We had some time that afternoon for a hands-on explanation of equipment and Q & A. On Wednesday evening there was a slideshow and talk by the four instructors who were all leading classes that week at Santa Fe Photography Workshops. We saw examples of some great work and heard from these very accomplished photographers which included Bill Ellzey, Michael Clark, Cig Harvey and David Robin.

The next morning we were up before dawn for a sunrise photo shoot at a nearby location which featured interesting desert rock formations. Throughout the morning Bill circulated among the ten class participants answering questions and offering suggestions. Later that morning we moved to another location which featured a landscape of red rocks and other mineral colors in the hills. That afternoon we were back at the school’s digital lab which is beautifully equipped with Mac Pros and high-end Epson printers. We imported our photos into Lightroom and processed them with help, as needed, from Bill and his two assistants. I previously looked at Lightroom and had decided that I preferred to stick with Bridge and Photoshop for my workflow. But since then, V4 has been released and now V5 is in beta. Bill Ellzey and the folks at Santa Fe Photography Workshops are enthusiastic Lightroom users so I’m going to have a look at the Lightroom beta and will be posting my findings here in the next month or two.

On Friday we were up before dawn again for another sunrise shoot, this time at nearby Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. Here we saw more fantastic-looking rock formations as we progressed up the Slot Canyon Trail. As before, Bill circulated, providing advice and assistance. That afternoon we were back at the digital lab for more processing. That evening there was a sunset shoot followed by a group dinner but I couldn’t make it because my wife and a friend had arrived in town.

Next morning, Saturday, we were back at the digital lab for more processing with assistance from Bill and the two helpful assistants. Each student selected about seven or eight photos from the previous few days which we then discussed as a group. From those, about five or six of each student’s top images were chosen to be shown that night at a dinner at the El Dorado Hotel. The SFPW staff assembled a delightful video slideshow with music from the photos taken by our class as well as the other three classes happening that week. Much of the work I saw that evening was of professional caliber.

All in all, I had a great time at the workshop and got just what I had hoped for. There were a few problems including a failed hard disk which meant that Bill was missing some of his instructional materials. Also, I felt that the pacing of the classroom instruction could have been better. At times, things moved slowly and we could have packed more in if the pacing had been better organized. As it was, the days were long, with activities planned for sunrise until after sunset on Thursday and Friday. I appreciate that SFPW wants to give good value but for me those days were just too long so I opted out of the evening photo shoots. But overall I had a great time and learned a lot. And the food provided by Santa Fe Photographic Workshops was terrific and there was always plenty of it.

The post Composition and Light Workshop appeared first on The Photo Performance.

screenshot of new Photo Performance design based on the Creative Folio template

I’m in the process of redesigning this blog and I wanted to include some notes here on the redesign process. I selected the Creative Folio template from {wrap}bootstrap because I like the design and because it’s built on the Bootstrap framework. Bootstrap provides a foundation for building responsive websites. “Responsive” means that the page design automatically adapts to different size devices from phones to tablets to widescreen desktop displays. You can see how that works by clicking the Creative Folio link above, then clicking the Live Preview button and changing the width of your browser window. Assuming that you’re on a desktop PC or laptop with a medium size to large screen you will be able to see the page layout changing as you increase or decrease the width of your browser window. Because so many people are accessing websites today from different devices it’s important to provide a good experience for visitors regardless of what type or size of device they are using.

This blog runs on WordPress which means that its design can be changed relatively easily by changing themes. However, the Creative Folio template is not a WordPress theme. It’s a set of sample pages which implement the design and provide a set of HTML, JavaScript and CSS components for building a website. So, I’m in the process of creating a WordPress theme based on the Creative Folio template. As it turns out, that’s not a job for the faint of heart. I’m a software developer by profession so it’s a task that I’m able to handle but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone without experience building websites from scratch.

A nice thing about the Creative Folio template is that it not only features an attractive, adaptive web design but it also provides a set of pre-selected jQuery components that are useful for photographers. The disadvantage is that there is no documentation and sometimes things don’t work. For example, the template uses the prettyPhoto and Elastislide jQuery plugins which offer nice viewing options for images. Unfortunately, the two don’t always play well together and it took me half a day of low-level debugging to fix the problem. The template, priced at $15, is cheap but there are no instructions and no support so if you’re interested in one of the {wrap}bootstrap templates you need to be prepared to tackle any problems on your own.

At this point, I have the WordPress home page almost done and will need to then implement the blog, single post and a few other pages. It will probably take me a couple of weeks to finish that before I can go live here with the new design. In the meantime, let me know your experiences and questions about implementing WordPress themes. And, later this week I’ll be posting a write-up of my recent trip to New Mexico for a workshop at Santa Fe Photographic Workshops.

The post WordPress Theme Redesign appeared first on The Photo Performance.

Spring is in the air and with it comes the reawakening of this blog. I’ve just returned from a four-day workshop with Santa Fe Photography Workshops in New Mexico. My next post will be a trip/workshop write-up but right now I’d just like to mention that I’m working on a redesign of this blog and will be relaunching soon. I’ll have some posts about that process as well as posts on a variety of photo topics.

One of the things I’ll be doing is taking a second look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The folks at Santa Fe Photography Workshops are enthusiastic Lightroom users and, as a result, I’ve been thinking about how I might streamline my workflow with it. If you read my previous post on Lightroom you’ll know that I had some objections to it in the past. But seeing how other photographers are using it in a highly efficient manner has caused me to rethink my position. I’m not sold yet but I’m willing to take a second look at the latest version.

I’ll also be posting a trip write-up of the Composition and Light workshop I did at SFPW along with some suggestions on how to develop a better feel for composition.

Watch for that and lots of other new information along with a more attractive and responsive web design during the coming weeks and months.

The post Spring Awakening appeared first on The Photo Performance.

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Photoshop Touch File Format Limitations

If you import a layered PSD file into Photoshop Touch what you get is a merged-down version of the file.  That’s disappointing because in some cases it might be nice to have the flexibility provided by having the image content separated into its various layers. But I can see the problems that would arise in trying to handle layered files. There are many different kinds of layers that can be included in a PSD file from adjustment layers to clipping masks to Smart Objects to third-party plug-ins. It would clearly be impossible for Photoshop Touch to support all the different types of layers. Adobe might have chosen to have Photoshop Touch simply ignore unrecognized layer types but even that poses a problem. First, if your image doesn’t look right what good is it? Second, PSD files can have hundreds of layers. Just trying to download such a large file could choke your network connection and Photoshop Touch. And, you have to ask what would be the scenario for needing layered PSD support? I could imagine a situation in a meeting where you might want to make some quick changes to the layers from your tablet. But beyond that sort of thing, if you already have a layered PSD file chances are that you’d want to make any further changes with the desktop version of Photoshop anyway.

No TIF Support

A more serious problem is that Photoshop Touch cannot import TIF files from the Creative Cloud. There’s really no good reason why this couldn’t be supported. The Creative Cloud could do the necessary conversion to provide the image to Photoshop Touch in a generic format like PNG. Now, you could potentially have the same problems with layers in TIF files as you do with PSD files. But, of course, the same solution would apply.

No RAW File Support

You also cannot use RAW files such as Nikon’s NEF files or Adobe’s own DNG format in Photoshop Touch. That’s unfortunate because one use case I could imagine is uploading files to the Creative Cloud while on a trip and then using your tablet to make some minimal edits and post to Facebook. Even compact cameras like the Nikon J1 and V1 are capable of outputting RAW files. You could make the argument that you need a laptop to upload the files to the cloud so if you have a laptop you probably have the full version of Photoshop and it would be easier to make your edits there. But there are cases where you might have 15 minutes in a hotel lobby or half an hour in an airport, for example, where you could pull out your tablet and make some quick edits. Or maybe you’re in an impromptu meeting with a colleague or a client. In these kinds of scenario you’re less likely to want to pull out your laptop. Or maybe you just don’t have your laptop with you.

You can’t even view RAW files within PS Touch. All you can see is a grayed-out thumbnail. Given that previews are rendered on the server there is no technical reason why you couldn’t be allowed to view them. In fact, Creative Cloud already does this to allow you to view them in a browser. So, they could very easily extend that to PS Touch.

You can, of course, go to your mobile browser on your tablet to view your RAW files. But that’s a separate operation. And it can take several minutes to get logged into the Creative Cloud from your mobile browser especially if you have a long username and a difficult password like I do. But you’re already logged in automatically from Photoshop Touch and you’re right there browsing your photos. Why not let us look at our RAW files?

User Interface Quirks

I was disappointed to discover that there is no portrait mode editing in Photoshop Touch. When you rotate the tablet it stays in landscape orientation. End of story.

Within Photoshop Touch there doesn’t seem to be any straightforward way of forcing a resync with the Creative Cloud. It does sync automatically when you start the app but if someone changes the content on your Creative Cloud the need to resync can arise. The workaround I’ve found is to turn syncing off and then back on. That does work but it seems like there ought to be an obvious button to click for that purpose instead. On the flip side, a nice thing is that whenever you finish editing files in Photoshop Touch the changes are reflected immediately in your browser window when logged into the Creative Cloud.

Another minor annoyance is that some settings dialogs, like the Refine Edge and fx dialogs, slide up to appear at the bottom of the screen obscuring part of the image in the process. These dialogs cannot be moved so they can potentially be a problem when adjusting the settings. If you need to see a part of the image that is blocked by the dialog you’re out of luck. So far, this hasn’t actually been a problem for me in my editing. However, the dialogs do cover as much as about 13% of the image so the potential for a conflict is definitely there. A simple solution would be to allow repositioning the dialog.

When saving a project Photoshop Touch doesn’t ask you to provide a filename. It automatically saves as Untitled (or Untitled 2, 3, etc.). You can rename the project after saving is complete but this is an extra step.

For many operations Photoshop Touch uses a verb-object grammar. In other words, you choose the action first and then the object on which you want to perform the action. In most file managers it’s the opposite. For example, in the Finder or Windows Explorer you would select a file, copy it, navigate to the destination folder and then paste. Or you would drag and drop it. Not in PS Touch. Here’s the sequence of operations:

• Tap the folder icon on the toolbar and select the Move Projects menu item.
• Tap the project to be moved.
• Tap OK. (It says “Project(s) to be moved already resides in this directory.” This is another oddity. Of course, it does. Why are you telling me this?)
• Tap the folder you want to move to.
• Tap Move.

So, the process is backwards from the way most of us are using to doing things and, as far as I can tell, there is no way to avoid the odd warning message in step 3.

Exporting Photos from Photoshop Touch

Currently, there are four possible destinations for photos that you’ve edited on PS Touch:

• Your tablet’s gallery
• Facebook
• Email
• The Creative Cloud

Photoshop Touch projects are automatically saved to the Creative Cloud as you exit editing mode so that’s not really exporting, strictly speaking. And, if you don’t have an internet connection at the time of exiting the project is saved locally to your tablet and uploaded later when you do have a connection. (There’s no clue where Photoshop Touch caches your projects but it doesn’t seem there is any real need for the user to worry about this.)

If you want to share files using any of the other three methods listed above the process is pretty simple. But if you want to share anywhere else, like say, Instagram, flickr, Google +, or 500px you’re on your own. Another question in my mind is why there is no connection to Revel, Adobe’s photo sharing cloud service.

Creative Cloud Shortcomings

The biggest problem I see with the Creative Cloud is its lack of integration with the desktop apps. Right now, downloading and uploading are separate steps that you must perform within your web browser. There’s no way to browse directly from Bridge or Lightroom. Similarly, there’s no way to open or save files directly from Photoshop (desktop version). For it to be truly convenient (and for Adobe to induce people to upgrade to higher storage capacities) this kind of capability needs to be offered.

Adobe may already be planning something like this. On the Creative Cloud Team blog in May, 2012 they announced something called the Creative Cloud Connection which they describe as a “desktop client.” The specific features and functionality of this software are vague though so we’ll have to wait and see what they actually deliver.

Conclusion

At this point, I’m still trying to figure out Adobe’s target audience for Photoshop Touch.  There’s a whole lot of photo editing power here. In fact, there’s more power in Photoshop Touch than there was in Photoshop V1 on the desktop! But the limitations in file formats and getting files into and out of Photoshop Touch can be inconvenient. To avoid the need for a laptop in the field you might be able to connect your Android tablet to a card reader via USB. But, as far as I know, the iPad doesn’t support USB connections so most tablet users will still need a laptop. Given these difficulties it’s hard to see how professional photographers will get a lot of use out of Photoshop Touch. You pretty much have to have a laptop with you when on location or on the road anyway. So, why wouldn’t you just use the desktop version of Photoshop to do your edits?

And if you’re a casual photographer who wants to edit photos from your phone the complication of needing to email photos to yourself one or two at a time is a real problem. If you’re an Android user the Instant Upload feature can help a lot. But you still have limited sharing options. You can export to your Android Gallery and then share from there. But every additional step that is needed on a portable device just makes it that much less likely that you will bother.

So, I’m unclear who will be using Photoshop Touch in this initial incarnation and what kind of a workflow will be most convenient. Still, for $9.99 you’re getting a tremendous amount of image editing power so it’s hard to go wrong. And, I suspect that Adobe is already considering some of these issues. The blog post I mentioned above alludes to some issues related to those I’ve raised here. So, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see streamlined workflows coming in a future version of the Adobe Creative Cloud.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear how you are incorporating Photoshop Touch into your workflow. How do you use Photoshop Touch?

The post Adobe Creative Cloud for Photographers, Part 3 appeared first on The Photo Performance.