Free Webinar this Friday with Chris Orwig Explores Lightroom

Lightroom Webinar with Chris OrwigCalifornia-based photographer, author and educator Chris Orwig, who has a reputation for bringing practical experience, technical expertise and passion to the teaching he provides, will lead a free webinar hosted by X-Rite this Friday, April 11, starting at 1 p.m. ET.

Using his own images from start to finish, Chris will highlight how photographers can use an X-Rite ColorChecker Passport with Adobe Lightroom, to make better photographs. Attendees of this live webinar will also have the opportunity to ask Chris questions.

Here are some of the topics Chris will discuss:

  • Lightroom new features
  • Working with Catalogs and backing up your work
  • Creating custom profiles with the ColorChecker Passport
  • Organizing with the Library Module
  • Enhancing your photographs with Develop Module
  • Crafting expressive photographs
  • Lightroom workflow from start to finish

To register for the free 1 p.m. ET webinar on April 11, visit:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/357466666

PDN Photo Annual Contest Deadline is Tomorrow

PDNYou can win cash and prizes in PDN‘s 2013 Photo Annual Contest, including the $15,000 Arnold Newman prize for the New Directions in Photographic Portraiture and The Marty Forscher Fellowship Fund, a cash award that goes to one pro and one student. The deadline to enter is Jan., 29 (or tomorrow, if you prefer).

Other prizes include the PDN Publisher’s Choice Award, The Adobe presents the Breakthrough Photography Award, The Sony Emerging Photographer Award and The Epson Creativity Award.

Categories include Advertising, Magazine/Editorial, Photo Books, Photojournalism/Sports, Documentary, Corporate Design, Photo Products/Self Promo Pieces, Personal, Stock Photography, Web Sites, Student Work and Video.

Each single entry is $45 ($32 for members, $25 for students) and each series entry is $55 ($40 for members, $25 for students).

For more information about the contest, go to pdnphotoannual.com, click here to enter and click here to see last year’s winners.

Add a Printer to Your RIP for No Charge with this ONYX Thrive Promo

Printer production workflow softwareONYX announced an SGIA show special that starts now: Purchase Thrive 211 by Nov. 30 and you can add another printer to the RIP software at no cost, a $1,295 value. The SGIA Expo is in Las Vegas this year and runs from Oct. 18-20, but you can take advantage of this deal through LexJet any time between now and Nov. 30.

Thrive is an Adobe-based workflow product for production printing. The big news here is the ability with Thrive to run on multiple computers with one license, and Thrive’s Adobe PDF Print Engine.

“One of our customers was trying to drive six printers with one ProductionHouse license, but now with Thrive they can spread it out to other computers without having to buy multiple licenses and they’ve been able to double their production,” explains Mark Maynard, ONYX general manager for the Americas. “With PDF files, sometimes you have to go into Illustrator and flatten the file or save it as a TIFF, so there’s an extra step involved in that case. Since Thrive is an Adobe-based workflow solution it RIPs the file the first time around without having to do additional work to the file.”

Maynard adds that Thrive offers print shops a cost-effective way to grow their business by spreading out the workflow across multiple computers and streamlining the Adobe print process. Therefore, Thrive is more easily scalable as the print shop adds more printers and grows their business.

Plus, you can drive production from a mobile device, like an iPad, with the new Thrive Production Manager. With Thrive Production Manager on a secure network you simply open a browser, point it to the RIP Queue, and away you go, wherever you are.

ONYX Thrive comes in three different configurations: 211 for $3,295 (two RIPs, one large-format or grand-format printer and one Job Editor, formerly known as Preflight), 642 for $6,995 (six RIPs, four printers, two Job Editors) and 862 for $8,995 (eight RIPs, six printers, two Job Editors).

With ONYX Thrive, you can also add ONYX Advantage, a service program that includes software maintenance and Live! Web-based training – where you choose any three of a variety of instructor-led online sessions for the training that best suits your needs – and personalized training – a  two-hour personalized and custom Web-based training session for your print shop that provides the confidence that operators are maximizing the performance and automation of your ONYX Thrive workflow.

For more information about ONYX Thrive and ONYX Advantage, and to help figure out which products will work best for your business, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538.

Upcoming Landscape Photography Webinars from X-Rite

X-Rite Photo Marketing announces its schedule of July 2012 Webinars that have been developed for photographers to gain new confidence and learn quick, easy and powerful ways to enhance Free webinar on landscape photographytheir color workflow and improve their landscape photography. Webinar attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the live trainers.

Tuesday, July 24, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET
Landscape Image Edits and Enhancements in Lightroom 4:
Adobe’s new Lightroom 4 offers new options for editing and output that make this a must-have upgrade for Lightroom users. In this free webinar, Professional Photographer Joe Brady will explore both basic and advanced image editing techniques in this new update. During this session, he’ll focus on the new editing capabilities offered in this upgrade. (In future sessions, Joe Brady will explore the new modules and Lightroom file organization.)

One of the new additions to Lightroom 4 is its ability to soft-proof. Now users can choose their printer profile and see what effects it will have on the printed image. This makes monitor profiling and accurate printer profiles an important feature of Lightroom 4’s workflow.

Topics that will be covered include:

  • Why monitor color is important for Lightroom 4
  •  Image edits and batch processing including
  • Global image edits
  • Local color and light adjustments with Lightroom 4’s new options
  • Retouching
  • Composition
  • Image sharpening, noise reduction and lens profiles
  • Preparing files for lab printing

To register for this webinar at 11 a.m. ET, visit: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/998455034, and to register for this webinar at 1 p.m. ET, visit: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/350972954

Tuesday, July 31, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET
Edit & Enhance Landscape Images in Photoshop:
During this hour-long webinar featuring professional photographer Joe Brady, attendees will learn how to enhance landscape images using Adobe Photoshop. In this free webinar Joe Brady will share some of his favorite techniques and processes to bring out the beauty in landscape photography.

There are times when photographing landscapes when the conditions just don’t seem to want to cooperate. During this session, Joe will share his workflow, decision-making process and enhancement techniques to bring life into image files that don’t match the beauty and spirit of the scene the way the photographer remembered it.
Following a short discussion about workstation color and calibration, Joe will show attendees step-by-step Photoshop edits that they can put to work right away to bring life and drama back into their landscape images.

Topics that will be covered include:

  • Monitor color for consistent results
  • Image edits from minor to major
  • Using Adobe Camera RAW – even with JPEGs
  • Exposure, contrast and light shaping
  • Global and local color adjustments
  • Compositing new skies
  • Composition
  • Removing unwanted elements from an image
  • Image sharpening options
  • Preparing files for lab printing

To register for this webinar at 11 a.m. ET, visit:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/834446242, and to register for this webinar at 1 p.m. ET, visit: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/370895866

For more information an all X-Rite Photo webinars visit the Webinar page found under the Learning section on XritePhoto.com. All webinars are also archived for online viewing any time.

Keeping up with CS6: How to Print Targets for ICC Profiles

LexJet offers free custom profiles for a variety of printers and media to maximize the quality of your inkjet printing output. In the past we have posted articles and videos about printing targets for custom profiles with various versions of Photoshop. With the release of Photoshop CS6, the process for printing targets to create ICC profiles has changed.

Creating custom profiles in Adobe CS6In CS4 and earlier versions it used to be that you could simply select No Color Management in the print window when printing targets. With CS5, the No Color Management option was removed, but there was a workaround.

Now, with CS6, that workaround is no longer available. However, the Adobe Color Printer Utility (ACPU) can be used to output targets for creating ICC profiles if you are using CS5 or CS6. This is a free standalone utility provided by Adobe that allows users to properly print their targets for custom profiles with no color management to muddy the waters, so to speak.

Embedded below in the order shown learn how to print targets using the Adobe Color Printer Utility with an Epson Stylus Pro Printer (Mac), Epson Stylus Pro Printer (PC), and a Canon iPF Printer (PC).

At this point, unfortunately, there isn’t a way to easily achieve the proper results with a Canon iPF printer and a Mac. If you are using this combination, try to keep an older copy of Photoshop or print your targets through the imagePROGRAF Print Plug-in for Photoshop. If you have any questions about printing targets or anything else in the inkjet printing workflow, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538…

ONYX Thrive for Production Printing and Adobe Workflow Now Available

Print production workflow softwareONYX has introduced Thrive, an Adobe-based workflow product for production printing, and ONYX Advantage for Thrive. The big news here is the ability with Thrive to run on multiple computers with one license, and Thrive’s Adobe PDF Print Engine.

“One of our customers was trying to drive six printers with one ProductionHouse license, but now with Thrive they can spread it out to other computers without having to buy multiple licenses and they’ve been able to double their production,” explains Mark Maynard, ONYX general manager for the Americas. “With PDF files, sometimes you have to go into Illustrator and flatten the file or save it as a TIFF, so there’s an extra step involved in that case. Since Thrive is an Adobe-based workflow solution it RIPs the file the first time around without having to do additional work to the file.”

Maynard adds that Thrive offers print shops a cost-effective way to grow their business by spreading out the workflow across multiple computers and streamlining the Adobe print process. Therefore, Thrive is more easily scalable as the print shop adds more printers and grows their business.

Plus, you can drive production from a mobile device, like an iPad, with the new Thrive Production Manager. With Thrive Production Manager on a secure network you simply open a browser, point it to the RIP Queue, and away you go, wherever you are.

ONYX Thrive comes in three different configurations: 211 for $3,295 (two RIPs, one large-format or grand-format printer and one Job Editor, formerly known as Preflight), 642 for $6,995 (six RIPs, four printers, two Job Editors) and 862 for $8,995 (eight RIPs, six printers, two Job Editors).

With ONYX Thrive, you can also add ONYX Advantage, a service program that includes software maintenance and Live! Web-based training – where you choose any three of a variety of instructor-led online sessions for the training that best suits your needs – and personalized training – a  two-hour personalized and custom Web-based training session for your print shop that provides the confidence that operators are maximizing the performance and automation of your ONYX Thrive workflow.

For more information about ONYX Thrive and ONYX Advantage, and to help figure out which products will work best for your business, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538.