Affinity Photo finally available for Windows

The Photoshop-alternative Affinity Photo, previously available only for Mac, is finally available for Windows users, and you'll definitely want to try it out.

Shortcut-S Photoshop Keyboard on Kickstarter

If you spend most of your time working in Photoshop, then you'll already know by heart many of those keyboard shortcuts that allow you to save valuable time. But if you're tired of twisting your fingers to press combinations like CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+G, then you'll definitely want to check out this Shortcut-S keyboard on Kickstarter.

While a regular computer keyboard has about 100 keys, leaving little to no space for programs to use special keys for specific funcions (other than the usual "F1" to "F12" function keys), this Shortcut keyboard offers 319 keys, specifically tuned to common - and not so common - photoshop tasks that you'll be able to do with a single key press.

Besides the specific photoshop function keys, you also get 20 completely customizable and programmable keys. And although the keyboard was designed for Photoshop, you can use it with any other number of photo and video editing programs. They are even considering creating different overlays you can place on your Shortcut-S keyboard for programs like Corel Draw, Premiere, Illustrator, Final Cut, Lightroom, etc.)

What kind of difference does it make? In a comparison test, a photo editing job that took nearly 9 minutes using a regular keyboard was cut down to just 3 minutes and 15 seconds using the Shortcut-S. Even in you factor in an initial learning period, it seems the benefits are very real. If you photoshop a lot, these $89 might be money very well spent.

How to add parallax depth effect to a photo

If you saw any documentary in the past year, you've probably come across a curious effect in which a regular 2D photo seems to have extra depth, with some of its elements popping out of the image. With a little bit of patience and the right tools, you can add the same effect to your own photos.

Showing a static photo in a video is... to put it simply... boring! You have easy ways to reduce that boredom, like resorting to the popular Ken Burns effect, zooming and panning around the image; but if you want to truly stand out, there's nothing like using the parallax 2.5D effect. However, if in the Ken Burns effect you can simply select it and its done, with the parallax effect you'll need to select each element by hand so you can later apply animation to create the illusion of depth and movement. Thankfully, with Photoshop and After Effects... it becomes a bit easier.

Once you're comfortable with this technique, nothing stop you from going even further. As you have the different elements in individual shapes and layers, you can distort them and create an even bigger illusion. When done properly, the results are truly astonishing. Check out the following video... and keep in mind that each scene you're about to see was made using nothing but a single photo!

The Free Adobe Photoshop... that Wasn't

In the past couple of days, a very intriguing announcement zipped across the web: Adobe was offering their popular image editing program - Photoshop - and several others, for free!

Sure, it was the older CS2 version, but hey... if it's free what's to complain? (And let's face it, even that old Photoshop is more than enough for 99.9% of the things most people will want to do.)

But, as I suspected, even this was too good to be true:

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated ...

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don't require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.) See forums.adobe.com.

You are only legally entitled to download and install with that serial number if you have a valid license to the product.

Meaning... Adobe is facing what all DRM-validated software activation will inevitably face: that eventually some old activation server will be shut down, and users will have to search around and find ways to bypass it. At least in this case they're providing some valid serials... and not simply redirecting customers to a "pirate" key generator.

The provided serials for end-of-life Adobe CS2 product follows:

Photoshop CS5 Puppet Warp

It may not be as amazing as the magical fill I showed you the other day, but just like the real content aware fill in  Photoshop CS5, this puppet warp is sure to make digital image manipulation a lot easier to a lot of people.

Photoshop CS5 Patch Match Intelligent Fill

After the amazing seamcarving technique, it was just a matter of time for it to be further expanded into things like the incredible patch match in Photoshop CS5.

This intelligent fill analyzes the texture of the selected areas, and allows you to easily remove elements from an image:

And, even more incredible, allows you to recreate missing parts of a picture based on its surroundings - which is really incredible when applied to panoramic stitched photos:

Here's a video showcasing these features in the upcoming Photoshop CS5:

Photoshop turns 20

Time does fly. The world's best known photo/image editing program Photoshop turns 20 years today!

Though it remains faithful to its origins, every new Photoshop version introduces features that simplify and/or allow the creation of more amazing effects. It would be hard to find an image somewhere that hasn't been retouched in photoshop.

 Photoshop 1.0

Photoshop CS4

Congrats Photoshop. May we all be celebrating your anniversary 20 years from now.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Preview

The most popular image editing software will soon become even more powerful. See some of the things the new Adobe Photoshop CS5 will allow you to do:



Seeing is no longer believing! :)

PatchMatch and Video Seamcarving

Do you remember that amazing resizing method called seamcarving?

Looks like Photoshop CS5 will take that even further by using a new patchmatch plugin that makes complex element moving a trivial task. Just see for yourself:


PatchMatch: Structural Image Editing from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

And if you think these thing only work in static images, just check this video seamcarving examples to see how we'll soon be able to rescale video at will:

How to Detect Edited Photos

In this day and age, most photographs you'll come in contact with will most likely be "digital photos".

And, with the ever improving photo-editing software, detecting if a photo is "real" or "edited" is becoming increasingly difficult.

...That's why this error level analysis utility can come in handy sometimes.

This program analyzes the digital image and enhances subtle variations that occur whenever someone alters the pixels. That makes it a lot easier to detect an altered photo.

Photoshop Express Will Stop Stealing Your Photos

A lot has been said and praised about Photoshop Express,the free online version of the image editing software Photoshop (probably the most famous in the World.)

While this online version only has a reduced subset of the editing functions found on the desktop version, it's still more than enough for the majority of users wanting to do just some quick fixes.

There was only a small problem...
(that kind of problem that usually comes written in the smallest letters...)

Whenever you uploaded an image to edit, you were given Adobe the full rights to do whatever they pleased with your images!

This includes them claiming full ownership and being able to sell your photos as their own!

But finally, it seems they've realized they went too far, and starting on April 10, they're only claiming "those limited rights that allow us to operate the service" and won't "claim ownership of your content and won't sell your images."

[Photoshop Express terms of Use via Gizmodo]