Photoshop CS6 Beta

Photoshop released the new CS6 beta, and it's free! You can download it from here. To get the most out of this exciting new version, make sure to watch the training series on Lynda.com (for free as well!) here, and a playlist from Photoshop highlighting the new features.

Beauty & Fashion Photographer | Matthew Jordan Smith on Creativelive

Make sure to catch Matthew live this weekend on Creativelive! He's an amazing photographer, you will learn a lot from him!

Retouching Tips | Build a Stock Library

A background can add a lot to a picture, however you want to keep the main focus on the subject, especially for portrait photography. Here's where compositing comes into the picture..

Compositing [verb] combine (two or more images) to make a single picture, esp. electronically: photographic compositing by computer.

Matt Kloskowski released book called "Photoshop Compositing Secrets". Here's a review of the book. Graphics.com blogged about the 10 Things you need to know about compositing. I highly recommend reading that list, but one of these things mentioned in the article is to "build a background image library", and I couldn't emphasize that more! build a stock library.. build a stock library!!!! It will save you a lot of time and add amazing effects to your image.


Where to get free stock? Here are a few sites to get you started:
DeviantArt
MediaMilitia
FreeStockTextures
TextureKing
More?

Retouching Tips | How Not To Retouch

I always get a kick out of this website, It's called PSD Disasters. It features the worst work done with Photoshop. You'll be amazed by the number of horrible photoshopped work out there! Check out PSDisasters.com, and learn how to NOT retouch like this!

Retouching Tips | Skin Tones by the Numbers

Color correction for skin tones is very important in portrait photography; After all, 80% of the image is skin. Skin tones can be color corrected in many ways,  but in this post we'll talk about a very helpful way to do it; it's a reference formula for the CMYK values (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black).

i n s p i r e | Gavin O'Neill

Gavin O'Neill is by far my most favorite fashion/beauty photographer. His work is just breathtaking. Gavin was born in New Zealand, and specialises in beauty work, and also shoots beautiful swimwear and nudes. His worked has appeared in Vogue, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Sports Illustrated & GQ, and his commercial clients include Olay, Phillips, L'Oreal, Gillette and Oriflame.

Here are some of my favorites picks from his portfolio:

Mastering Photoshop | Saturation VS. Vibrance

AJ Woods discusses the difference between saturation and vibrance and ways to adjust them in Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

So what's the difference between them? it's fairly simply:
Saturation = targets ALL the colors in the image.
Vibrance = targets muted colors first.

Retouching Tips | Non-destructive Editing : Smart Objects

Working non-destructively is key when it comes to high-end retouching, especially if you're retouching for a client. You want to have the ability to go back if they don't agree on an edit. Here's a video explaining the use of smart objects, perfectly. Remember, non-destructive editing is king.

i n s p i r e | Joel Bedford Photography

Joel Bedford is an Ottawa-based photographer. He shoots weddings, commercial, editorial, fashion, real-estate, and fine art. His clients include Popular Photography Magazine, Digital Photography Magazine, String Magazine and Style Magazine. Here's some of my favorite portraits:

• Self-Portrait

Retouching Tip | How To Get High Resolution Images

One of the most important aspects in high-end retouching is actually starting off with a high quality image. These high resolutions images, aka hires (pronounced high-res), can be in a RAW format, or a high quality JPEG. A general rule is that your retouching is as good as your image quality. You can't work on a low resolution image and expect high-end results. It's just not possible.