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| Free hands-on session at Adobe on the trade show floor. |
By Marian Wertalka
This year’s Photoshop World rolled in to the Miami Beach Convention Center, and was billed as the world’s largest Photoshop event. Anything and everything to do with Photoshop was on display, for sale, or given away.
If you ever wanted to see something, try it hands on, or ask a question about how it worked, this was the place to be. Several Gold Coast members, including myself, got a free pass to go to the trade show when it opened to the public on Wednesday Oct 1.
Adobe obviously had a huge presence with continuous demos of the new Creative Suite coming out soon. They also held classes, where you could grab a seat (if you were quick) at one of many Mac G5’s with a Wacom tablet. At a Photoshop session, I watched a tidal wave wash over the Golden Gate Bridge, thanks to layer masks and blending modes. Over at the Corel area, I saw a class turn a photo of a telephone booth into a pencil sketch with a watercolor overlay, using Painter 8. And I finally witnessed the Wacom Cintiq in action. It’s a monitor and a tablet in one that lets you “draw” directly on the flat screen, very cool!
The theme for the trade show floor was "hands-on." You could play with just about everything there, including the new Nikon D2H digital camera. The floor was plug in heaven with Nik color filters that tint or polarize like traditional camera filters; Digital Anarchy texture and chroma key plug ins; and Extensis color correction, sharpening and masking tools, to name a few. Over in the Apple section, a row of new G5’s was set up, side panel off and clear plastic drool guard in place. The Matrix trailer was playing in full screen view on a vibrant 23-inch Cinema Display.
Of course, Photoshop World was more than the trade show. The 3-day conference offered a mind-boggling array of advanced workshops and sessions. Those sessions covered retouching, web animation and motion graphics, and were taught by some of the biggest names in the Photoshop field, such as Deke McClelland and Scott Kelby.
I didn't attend the conference, but I've heard the sessions are intense, and you learn a lot. Registration fees ranged from $399 - $599. In the meantime, I'll settle for a copy of Kelby's "Photoshop 7.0 Down and Dirty Tricks," 30% off with the Peachpit Press discount coupon [please see Esver Camacho for the code, Ed.].
Keep an eye out for next year’s Photoshop World. It’s worth it!
November 2003
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