Song Title: Beat It! by Michael Jackson

It’s time for another fun photography assignment folks. Photo assignments are done bi-weekly in our forums, and are designed to help our members improve their photographic skills both technically and creatively. This one should be particularly fun, since the challenge is wide open on this one.

The theme for our 27th Photo Assignment is: Song Titles

That’s right folks! Pick any title from any song and shoot a photo that best represents the song title. Post your image (along with the title of the song you are shooting) in our forums to enter the assignment/challenge. You may submit up to 3 entries per assignment, and in this case, your 3 entries can be of different song titles. Photo submissions to the assignments must be taken during the assignment window (Nov 3rd to Nov 18th, 2009). So no going through your archives – the purpose of the assignments is to give you a creative or technical task to shoot! The top 3 photos for this challenge will also be published in a future issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine!

Entries are to be submitted here in our forums.
Have fun grooving and shooting this challenge!

Oct 23rd, 2009 – VANCOUVER, CANADA – PhotographyBB announced today, the release of the 21st edition of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. The PhotographyBB Online Magazine is a leading resource in the future of free information distribution, offering readers: Digital Photography tips and techniques, DSLR camera function training, and image post processing tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop™, and RAW processing in Photoshop Lightroom™.

The October 2009 edition oppropriately features Halloween themed tutorials such as “How to Photograph Ghosts” and “Digital Pumpkin Carving in Photoshop.” Additionally this issue explores a sneak peak at the new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Beta release, and some of the exciting new features that Adobe has to offer.

Editor in Chief, Dave Seeram had these comments regarding this recent release:

“I’m really proud of the work that our team has done with this issue. In addition to our regular photography and tutorial columns, this month we have a special feature – a sneak peak at the new features in the Lightroom 3 (Beta) release. Readers can check out these new features, then download their own beta copy from Adobe Labs and try it out for themselves. Additionally, since this month typically lends itself to gorgeous outdoor fall photography, we are also looking at outdoor portrait shooting techniques. For Halloween, we’ve even got some themed tutorials to really get out readers into the Halloween spirit. Couple that with the FAQ series where we answer questions from our readers, and the continuation in our popular HDR series, and I feel we have a special issue this month.

In our Photography Around the World feature, we’re whisked off the Ireland for a spectacular photographic view of the countryside, mountains, churches, and forts.”

By way of download in either PDF or ZIP formats, PhotographyBB continues its trend through the future of free downloadable magazine distribution. In a completely ad-free format, each issue contains informative and educational tutorials for amateur and intermediate level photographers.

In addition to articles which aide photographers in getting the most from their DSLR cameras, the PhotographyBB Online Magazine also features useful and applicable tutorials on how to use post-processing tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom, to build on digital photography post-processing skills.

PhotographyBB Online Magazine is available for free download through the PhotographyBB Website at: http://www.photographyBB.com/magazine

PhotographyBB was founded in Oct, 2006, and is a division of PowerButton Central (2004).
For more information, visit the PhotographyBB website at: http://www.photographybb.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/photographybb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photographybb

New Lightroom beta delivers faster performance, refined image processing and streamlined publishing

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Oct. 22, 2009 —Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today introduced Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 beta software for Macintosh and Windows®, a public preview of new and improved functionality to be delivered in the next major release. Lightroom is the essential digital photography workflow solution, helping serious amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase all their images from one application. Available as a free download on Adobe Labs, Lightroom 3 beta delivers a preview of new tools that will be in Lightroom 3, including more intuitive importing, unparalleled noise reduction and sharpening tools, enhanced slideshow capabilities and direct publishing to online photo sharing sites like Flickr®. Adobe encourages photographers to test this early selection of new features and provide the product team with their feedback.

“We are extremely fortunate that a strong community of photographers have rallied around Lightroom, helping to evolve the application and making it a meaningful part of their photographic workflows,” said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Professional Digital Imaging at Adobe. “While we’re still hard at work on Lightroom 3, we recognize the value our customers bring to the development process and want their input so we can deliver the best final product possible.”

New in Lightroom 3 Beta
Lightroom 3 beta has been completely redesigned with under-the-hood efficiencies to better handle growing image libraries and improve responsiveness with a higher-quality processing engine. In the Library module, a rebuilt import system makes bringing photos into the software more intuitive. Users can easily specify the source and destination of their images, and save common processing, metadata or destination settings as easy-to-reuse presets.

The Library module also includes new capabilities to publish collections on popular photo-sharing sites. Flickr users now have direct access to their accounts from within Lightroom and can drag and drop images directly into their Photostreams. Flickr Pro account users can automatically synch their images and even view comments made on Flickr directly within the Library. This functionality can be extended to additional sites by adding them as new plug-ins once they become available.

In the Develop module, an overhauled processing engine allows users to create the highest quality images. Improved Capture Sharpening and Color Noise Reduction tools provide superior results while still preserving an image’s edge detail and contrast. A new Grain tool adds a film-style grain to images, and two new Vignette modes help photographers get a more natural look.

Lightroom 3 beta also offers advanced output options, including the ability to export slideshows as videos with audio and title screens that can be posted to video-sharing sites or optimized for mobile media. New watermarking capabilities enable photographers to embed text or graphic information directly on an image and then adjust the size, position and opacity. In addition, photographers can customize print layouts and save settings for future use, giving them refined control over their images.

Adobe Photoshop Family
Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended software are at the heart of the Photoshop family, joined by solutions for users at every level who want to bring out the best in their digital images. Photoshop Lightroom addresses the workflow needs of serious amateur and professional photographers, helping them manage, find, enhance and showcase images in impactful ways. Adobe Photoshop Elements software provides exciting tools and sharing options for photo enthusiasts. Lastly, snap shooters can access Photoshop.com for free to simply fix and enhance photos, and quickly share those images on Photoshop.com or on social-networking sites.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 beta is available as a free download to anyone on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Visit to learn more and download the beta. Feedback can be submitted on the Lightroom forums: http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom. Users also can connect with Adobe at www.facebook.com/lightroom or www.twitter.com/AdobeLR, and can add the tag #AdobeLR3beta to tweets about the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 beta.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Portrait Magic Pro retains natural skin texture while smoothing imperfections, blemishes, and wrinkles. Additionally, the actions apply a unique portrait sharpening enhancement to give your portraits an instant one-click retouch in seconds! Detail in the eyes, hair, and teeth are preserved while skin is naturally smoothed to perfection. Portrait Magic Pro Actions will work with Photoshop versions CS2, CS3, and CS4 on both PC and Mac platforms.

PhotographyBB has included 5 different skin retouching effects in this pack, including a natural smoother, general use smoother, surreal smoothing, male skin smoother, and a special smoothing action optimized for headshot portraits. The pack also includes 5 skin glow effect actions to give portrait, glamour, fashion, and wedding photos extra “pop!” All of the actions operate in “one-click”, and for precision customization, a fully controllable version of the action is included for advanced users to have ultimate control over variables.

The package launches with a 30% discount on this action pack (and all existing action packs) for this entire weekend (Oct 16th-18th, 2009), by using the COUPON CODE: ATN30 in the shopping cart at: http://www.photographybb.com/actions

Welcome to the 2009 PhotographyBB Digital Pumpkin Carving Challenge!

Since digital pumpkins don’t dry out, we’re going to kick this event off right now, to give you all plenty of time to experiment and challenge yourselves with this one. You are free to carve your digital pumpkin or even choose a different pumpkin if you like. You are also encouraged to change the background, change colours, and get creative in your own unique way. Submit as many pumpkins as you would like!

For those of you who use Photoshop, we have a free “Pumpkin Carving” Action available for download at: PhotographyBB Actions Page

Submissions are to be made via our forums in this thread (where you’ll also be able to download the sample pumpkin image). Grab your digital carving tools and have a blast with this one. Once again, submit as many pumpkins as you would like, and get as creative as you can!

One of the coolest things about the “Lomo” effect is that it can spruce up and give a dramatic feeling to almost any photograph. Colours are slightly shifted, contrast is intensified, and a gorgeous vignette pulls the viewer deep into the photograph. This action pack comes with two versions, one for high-res images and one for low-res images. The Lomography Actions for Photoshop run in ONE-CLICK, and leave you with an unflattened set of layers to allow for any detailed customization which you may desire. Adjustable layers include the vignette layer, sharpness layer, Hue/Sat, and a curves layer for contrast control.

The Lomography Photoshop Action Pack is free, and is available for download at:
http://www.photographybb.com/actions

The question is simple: We want to know what your processing tool of choice is, and why? Leave your comments below!

Seasons are a great photo theme to work with because you must challenge yourself not only to capture the spirit of the theme, but to also try to capture an image which stands out from the crowd. Autumn brings about a time of change not only in the colour of the leaves, what other changes can you find?

This assignment runs from Oct 1st, 2009 through Oct 14th, 2009. All submissions are to be made here in our forums. Participants may submit up to 3 photos per assignment, and all photographs must have been taken during the assignment time window. The top 3 photos from our assignment challenge will be selected and published in an upcoming issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine.

Have fun with the assignment, and show us your best Autumn photo… Happy Photographing!

VANCOUVER, CANADA – PhotographyBB announced today, the release of the 20th edition of the PhotographyBB Magazine Online. The PhotographyBB Magazine Online is a leading resource in the future of free information distribution, offering readers: Digital Photography tips and techniques, DSLR camera function training, and image post processing tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop™, and RAW processing in Photoshop Lightroom™.

The September 2009 edition features a theme of image processing related articles. Readers also have their questions answered in the continuing FAQ series. What’s the best time of day to take photos? How to I get the best exposure in tough lighting conditions? Find out in this month’s FAQ column. In our “Portraiture Photography 101″ series, we examine methods for reconstructing the main elements of a portrait shoot, from analyzing an existing portraiture photo.

Editor in Chief, Dave Seeram had these comments regarding this recent release:

“This theme of this month’s edition is ‘It’s Processing Time.’ Often we find ourselves with a large collection of images gathering digital dust on our harddrives as they remain in their un-processed state. This month we’re looking at using all the tools including Photoshop, Photomerge, ACR, and even Adobe After Effects in a series of processing related articles. We’ll be showing you how to remove people from an image easily without having to use the clone tool, as well as some other exciting stuff!”

In our Photography Around the World feature, we’re off to Moscow’s Golden Ring cities, a photo-spectacular myriad of locations full of ancient architecture, history, and culture.”

By way of download in either PDF or ZIP formats, PhotographyBB continues its trend through the future of free downloadable magazine distribution. In a completely ad-free format, each issue contains informative and educational tutorials for amateur and intermediate level photographers.

In addition to articles which aide photographers in getting the most from their DSLR cameras, the PhotographyBB Online Magazine also features useful and applicable tutorials on how to use post-processing tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom, to build on digital photography post-processing skills.

PhotographyBB Online Magazine is available for free download through the PhotographyBB Website at: http://www.photographyBB.com/magazine

PhotographyBB was founded in Oct, 2006, and is a division of PowerButton Central (2004).
For more information, visit the PhotographyBB website at: http://www.photographybb.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/photographybb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photographybb