Photoshop Interview: Jason D. Moore
For this edition of the Photoshop Interviews series we have quite the interviewee, if I do say so myself. Friend-of-the-Blog Andy Smith of Visual Realia posed a few really interesting questions of me this time around and I appreciate the time and thought he put in. So, here we go!
Andy Smith: Is there a processing technique, camera feature or other photography related item that you don’t get why others are so interested in?
Jason D. Moore: There are a couple of things that pop into my head right off the bat. The Lens Baby. I’ve used one briefly from BorrowLenses.com and have seen a number of shots that others have taken but I’ve never really seen what the big deal was. I can see the draw, and I appreciate and respect the drive and desire to get it right in-camera – even, and especially, when it comes to special effects – but I also think that you can get the same results in post and have more control to get the results you want.
The other thing is certain examples of HDR. Not all HDR, mind you. I really like most HDR images, it’s just when people process the images so much that they look cartoony or like alien worlds that I start to lose interest. You know when you see a gymnist going through their routine and it looks effortless? If you see the effort, the art of it would get lost. And that’s kind of how I feel about HDR. Once you get to that almost over-processed look, I think the art of it gets lost for me.
AS: Looking at your own portfolio, what category(s) of photographs don’t you seem to take very often?
JDM: I’ve got a number of city shots, nature, landscapes, still-lives, etc. but I’d have to say that I don’t shoot a lot of portraits.
AS: Why do you think that is?
JDM: I’m not sure. I really wish I could do more portraits, more photography as a whole, actually. I suppose I don’t do a lot of portrait photography because I know I’m not very good at it. I just wish I had the time to practice.
AS: If time, location and money (if necessary) were not a factor, what would you like to do more of, in terms of photography?
JDM: If money weren’t an issue, I’d do it full time. I would love to have more time to practice and hone my style. I’d like to be able to set up a real studio with proper lighting equipment and a dedicated system for editing, video recording, storage, and backups. I’d also like to get to the point where I could do some writing, more video tutorials, and lead seminars and workshops so I could share my knowledge and skills so others can develop theirs further.
Thanks Andy!
Interview Me
For the next edition of the Photoshop Interviews series I thought I would do something different.
I get asked a lot of questions by readers about me, my process, where I get inspiration, how to do this or that, and countless other things. So, instead of doing it on an individual basis I thought I would open it up to everyone to submit questions so that I could respond to everyone in the form of an interview.
Send in your questions either in the comments below or by emailing me by the end of the day tomorrow (Friday) and I’ll respond in Monday’s post. I will determine which questions are most relevant and moderate any duplicate questions.
I’m also thinking of expanding this idea into a regular series along the lines of an “Ask Jason” column where you can send in your Photoshop/Photography/Design/Whatever questions and I’ll answer them each week or so. Let me know what you think of that idea and if you have any questions that you would like to ask as part of that series.
Also, while I have you here, I just want to remind you that I am still accepting submissions for Photo Reviews. If you have a shot you would like me to look at and provide a critique, please check out my photo reviews post for complete info!
The lines are open! Let the inquisition begin!
Photoshop Interview: David Ziser
This month we welcome wedding photographer, lighting expert, trainer, blogger, and all-around great guy, David Ziser of Digital ProTalk. I first got in touch with David back when he was a newbie blogger in the summer of 2007 and he’s now logged well over 1650 posts in the midst of his regular schedule of shooting weddings, running his successful master class for photographers, traveling around the country to run photography workshops, and writing a new book.
I was lucky enough to sit down with David over the phone about a week ago to talk a little bit about where he comes from and where he’s headed.
Jason D. Moore Photography: First off, thank you for taking the time to sit down with me today. Tell me a little bit about your background and how did you get into photography?
David Ziser: I never really went to school for photography. My dad always told me to get a “real” job, while he was alive. My background is actually in physics and engineering. I’ve got a degree in physics and I’ve got another degree in engineering. And I was actually trying to attempt a triple major back in my college days so I’m like 2 classes short of a computer science degree.
I worked my way through college as a photographer so I’ve actually been shooting weddings for 45 years.
I graduated college in 1971 and worked as an engineer for a couple of years. My friends started to get married and asked me to do their weddings ‘cause they knew that I’d been doing it since I was 15 years old. So it was actually in October of 1978, 31 years ago, when I opened my studio doors for business and I’ve been doing it ever since. And, as a matter of fact, I started winning different awards by around 1979-1980 and was asked to start lecturing by Art Leather, the album company, around 1982/83. Lisle Ramsey got word about what I was up to and put me on the international circuit around 1984 so I had already lectured in New Zealand only 5-6 years into my career and then again in Australia. And the rest is history.
I’m a guy who carefully avoided public speaking my entire high school and college career and now it’s about half of what I do for a living.
JDMP: How did you get started with Photoshop?
DZ: I’m not like some of these guys who jumped in with version two, I didn’t jump on board until around version 5.
I shot my first digital wedding at the end of 2000. I was an expert, I could just about use the dodge and burn tool and maybe the rubber stamp tool and that was about it! If I didn’t need it I never really tried it. Finally with Photoshop 7 I started getting more involved with it because by then we were into the whole digital swing of things.
Now I feel like I’m pretty good at it. I wouldn’t call myself a Julieanne Kost or a Scott Kelby or any of those guys but I know my way around a Layer Mask or two.
We probably do 80% of our image adjustments and enhancements in Lightroom and just go to Photoshop for the heavy lifting, do skin retouching and taking out big exit signs or something like that.
JDMP: How do you see the relationship between these tools and the execution of the artist’s vision?
DZ: The camera is a tool and the software is a tool. For Ansel Adams the developer and the developing time and exposure, those were his tools to get what he wanted, and burning and dodging and so forth. And aren’t we doing that with the software now? What’s cool with the software these days is our vision can change. I think the software can even modify your first impressions of what you wanted image to be.
Look at the painters from the traditional painters to the modern art painters. We can adjust any pixel the way we want it, and they adjusted any pigment on their canvas the way they wanted it. Who cares if it’s pixels or pigments we still have the control and the latitude and the creativity that we can bring to it with our knowledge of how our tools work, whether it be brushes and pigments and inks, on the painter’s side, or pixels in Photoshop and Lightroom on the digital photographer’s side.
Some photographers say, get it right in the camera, you don’t need Photoshop. My rule is, if it takes you longer to get it right in the camera than it does in Lightroom or Photoshop, than go to Lightroom or Photoshop. Take the darn picture and fix it in two minutes in Photoshop or Lightroom.
JDMP: What about those who think you need to have the latest and greatest camera?
DZ: I had this slide in my PowerPoint about a year ago, when Nikon was running the ads with Ashton Kutcher, and the question was, “Do you think the camera lets you take a better picture?” And it was something like 40% thought most of the time, and like 30% thought all the time. It was a goofy number like 79% of the people thought that the camera would help you take a better picture. I would agree to that, to some extent, that you can get the exposure down and everything else but A good picture is more than just a properly exposed photograph.
JDMP: How did you first get into blogging?
DZ: I’m a two-finger typist, by the way, so when I blog, I really invest myself into this thing!
Scott Kelby and I had been emailing while he was doing his Lightroom 1 tour and asked me how to tweak the lighting before he went up on stage. By the time I got to email him back I said, “Well why don’t you come up to help me with a wedding?” The timing worked out and it was July 27, 2007. We finished the wedding at about 1, we went back to my home and we sat up talking until about 3/3:30 in the morning about blogging because I was curious about trying it and what he said to me was, “You’ve got to feed the monster every day or it dies. And that was where we left it.” My wife and I took a trip to Paris and I started blogging the trip. It was called “David and LaDawn on the Road” and that was my first blog.
We came back and I started Digital ProTalk in mid-August. #1 I find the blog to be creative for me. It gets me thinking about what I do: photography and teaching. It’s leveraged how I teach because I put something on there every day. And another thing, and I’m not sure if others will say the same thing, I find it to be relaxing and rewarding when I wake up at 6 or 6:30.
I’ve done 1650 posts to date, and counting.
JDMP: You have a new tour just getting started. Tell me a little bit about your Digital WakeUp Call Tour.
DZ: I’m a photographer who has studied classical lighting and posing and this and that and everything else and I wasn’t seeing that a lot in many wedding photographs. So we went out in ’06 and we talked about composition and good lighting and also some software things and some business building things.
Everyone was telling me to do it again and ‘09 was the year to do it. So for the last 6 months we’ve been putting together the content of the tour and designing the presentation and we started right after Photoshop World.
It’s 4 hours long and we’re talking about lighting, lightning and even more lighting – how to get the best use out of your on-camera flash and how to use off-camera flash to really make your images sing. There’s way too much software and way too little time to learn it all so what I talk about are “Software Magic Bullets” – things that make your workflow really streamlined. And the last part of the program is about business building and what any photographer can do, from seasoned professionals to part-time photographers to emerging professional photographers, to build their business.
The tour has caught fire! We’re giving away ¼ million dollars in giveaways over the course of the tour. It’s generated a tone of interest and people are loving it. I’m really excited about it!
JDMP: What else do you have going on?
DZ: I’ve got my first book coming out this summer and I teach my Digital Master Class, a week-long class where photographers come in here for about 50 hours a week. I think we’re the best value class going. It’s photography for 2 days, software for about a day or so and then, of course, business building at a price that doesn’t break the bank.
JDMP: Thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me! It’s been a real pleasure!
DZ: Thanks for your support and for linking over, and I really appreciate it! We’ll have to guest blog for each other sometime.
Photoshop Interviews is brought to you in part by Towner Jones Photography, LLC. Check out all of the great things Rob is doing over there!
If you would like to sponsor Photoshop Interviews or any of our other regular series, or if you would like to advertise with us, visit our Become a Sponsor page today!
Interviewed in Ireland
I just got a note this morning that an interview I did with Irish design and training blog Laughing Lion Design has just been published.
Thank you to Jennifer Farley for the interview and for being a supporter of the blog over the past couple of years.
To get to know a little bit more about me, head on over to her design blog from Ireland!
Photoshop Interview: Mike McHugh
This month I sit down with Adobe Creative Systems Engineer, author, trainer, host of the popular Creative Sweet TV video podcast, and all-around good guy, Mike McHugh.
Jason D. Moore Photography: Hi Mike! First off, thank you for sitting down with me today! I’d like to help give everyone an idea about who you are and what your background is. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? What is your educational/professional background? That sort of thing….
Mike McHugh: I was a finished artist once upon a time. I started working in Graphic Design in about 1994 and even got to do the artwork on an official Sydney Olympic poster in 2000. Heaps of Photoshop and Illustrator work in those days. I’m based in Melbourne Australia, Ive always been here and Now I work for Adobe.
JDMP: Along similar lines, what is your current job and what does it entail?
MM: I’m a Creative Systems Engineer for Adobe that means I do A LOT of CS4 Presentations, Last week we finished a 5 State roadshow and spoke to over 6000 people, That was fun.
JDMP: In your excellent video podcast, Creative Sweet TV, you touch on individual parts of the Adobe Creative Suite as well as how they can work together. How did Creative Sweet TV get its start?
MM: I used to write for a local Magazine here called Desktop. On one occasion I decided to record the article with Audio instructions and posted it for download, that was really the first episode. It was utter rubbish but got me thinking.
JDMP: You spend a good deal of time with Adobe users and get to learn about their experiences with the software, positive and not so positive. What are some of the favorite new features of Photoshop that you’ve heard from users? What are the biggest gripes?
MM: The content aware Scale blows people away, but my personal favorite is the 3d stuff. I love making anoglphs and viewing them with the 3D glasses. Of course when Adobe changes anything people complain, even if they don’t realise its much better. Things like the application frame and the new Zoom and Pan Features.
JDMP: I know the majority of my readers are from the US and Europe, with a growing audience from other parts of the world. Here in the US Photoshop and the concept of all types of media perceived as being “Photoshopped” has become a regular part of the culture. From your perspective, what effect has Photoshop – or image manipulation in general – had on culture or how people consume media in Australia?
MM: People are now more savvy to that concept. I think its a generational thing. Young people tend to realize that a certain amount of Photoshop work goes on, still not sure if they know the extent. I find that on social network sites like facebook, people tend to want a glamorous looking Profile image, if only they knew about Surface Blur and good layer mask!
JDMP: Conversely, and I imagine you might have a unique perspective on this as an Adobe engineer, what effect as the creative community had on the development of the various Adobe products?
MM: Certainly other technology has a great effect, like the introduction of Digital Video and Cameras. Something like an economic downturn also has an effect. People want to do more with less. For example we have a customer with a large workforce of print designers can now extend the workforce but introducing InDesign CS4. Now those designers can design for the web and flash with the SWF export.
JDMP: Regardless of the day job, it’s important to have a means to stretch our creative muscles. Aside from your professional work with Adobe, what are some of your personal creative ventures/outlets?
MM: I love Photography and have recently become interested in Photography for Astrology. (Photographing the stars and Planets) Look out for more on that real soon.
JDMP: Where can our members and readers go to find out more?
MM: www.creativesweettv.com or follow me on twitter mmchugh
JDMP: My last question is always the same, is there anything else that I haven’t given you a chance to say? Any areas that you feel need to be touched on?
MM: Lets all get excited about editing video, there is too much rubbish on youtube and we need to lift our game and do some cool creative stuff.
JDMP: Thanks for sitting down with me, Mike! And keep up the great work with the podcast!
MM: Thanks again!
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Photoshop Interviews is brought to you in part by Towner Jones Photography, LLC. Check out all of the great things Rob is doing over there!
If you would like to sponsor Photoshop Interviews or any of our other regular series, or if you would like to advertise with us, visit our Become a Sponsor page today!
Mentioned on NAPP News!
A special welcome to anyone who has made their way here for the first time from NAPP News or Scott Kelby’s blog!
Friend-of-the-Blog Scott Kelby mentioned me this past Friday in his Friday News Stuff and NAPP Executive Director Larry Becker was kind enough to mention his interview with me in this week’s NAPP News segment. Thanks Scott and Larry!
If you are a NAPP member, head on over to the NAPP member website and check out what Larry had to say. If you’re not a NAPP member, go and sign-up! It’s a great organization to be a part of and is an excellent source for education, training, and inspiration for photographers and Photoshop users of all levels.
Thanks again, Guys! And Welcome!
Photoshop Interview: Larry Becker
This month I sit down with NAPP Executive Director Larry Becker to talk about Photoshop, NAPP, and the community of users from around the world that has built up because of this software.
Jason D. Moore Photography: First off, welcome! Thank you for taking the time to sit down with me. Let’s start off with some background. Tell me about yourself – where you come from, a little history about life before NAPP, education, personally, etc. If you would, include what brought you to NAPP and to your current position.
Larry Becker: I’ve been in advertising and marketing as the owner of my own small shop in central Florida, and I’ve been a public speaker since my first post-college job with United Way. It was at United Way that I started down the path to what I’m doing today, though I never would have guessed it back then. I was there for 5 years and my job required speaking in front of groups of 5 to 500 people. The other part of my job was layout and design of all of the printed materials for the local United Way. Ironically, because of my background and early adoption of desktop publishing, I wound up teaching PageMaker and Quark Express after hours to all of the local print shops in the county.
After my stint with United Way, I started my own small ad agency and when the web started to explode commercially, and became a part of business marketing, I was an early adopter and provider. About 2 years into the web marketing thing, I followed another one of my early adopter passions, and made the first ever, Palm Pilot training video. The Palm training thing was just a fun side business and I only intended to post the videos for sale on the web, which I did. But the response was so overwhelming that I sold my web marketing firm and went on the road as a Palm PDA trainer. Luckily for me, Palm thought their devices were so simple nobody needed video training or live seminar training on their devices, so I was cleaning up. I had clients like Pepsi, GE, the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Sony, and eventually even Palm, Inc. hired me to come to their headquarters and teach their own employees how to best use their device!
The entire time I had the Palm training business, I was doing my own marketing and stayed up on the latest developments with Photoshop. I attended a 1-day seminar put on by Scott Kelby and his partner, and sponsored by their magazine, Mac Today. I became fast friends with Scott and his partner Jim and, as it turned out, Scott and I grew up a block apart from one another and had lots of friends in common. I helped my buddies with their fledgling magazine by distributing copies to Mac User Groups, by taking time off from my Palm training business to work at their 1-day seminars, and eventually by becoming their web editor for the magazine as it went national and became Mac Design magazine.
During those years their business was growing and they asked me several times to consider leaving my Palm gig and working for them full time. I kept taking time off from my Palm job to help them with their growing Photoshop training business and eventually began to help them with hosting duties at Photoshop World conventions. Even though I wasn’t really working for what is now the Kelby Media Group, I was always at their events and writing for their magazines. Around the time the Palm popularity began to fade and smartphones were taking their place, I was starting the difficult task of exploring totally new markets, because Palm PDA users weren’t automatically smartphone users, so my customer base was changing dramatically. It was then (3 and a half years ago) that Scott and the partners offered me the job of Executive Director of NAPP. As a charter member and unofficial part-time employee, I made the jump to join the group full time and haven’t looked back. I love working with these crazy folks!
JDMP: Though you are known to a wider audience through your weekly NAPP News segments, you are more of a behind the scenes kind of guy making things run smoothly. Tell us about your current position and what your job entails, both the day-to-day and on a larger scale.
LB: Well, essentially I do whatever I can to make the member experience of NAPP better. I do a mix of customer service, arranging discounts, marketing messaging, program development, and in order to stay in touch with members on a user level, I even do occasional training tutorials.
JDMP: As a person who has worked with Photoshop regularly over the years you’ve had a chance to witness tremendous growth and advancement, what have been some of your favorite features/tools/etc. over the lifespan of the software? Obviously it’s an evolving program, but is there anything you thought was unnecessary or wasn’t done quite right, even if it was updated or will probably change in a future version?
LB: I have been using Photoshop long enough to remember how thrilled I was when they added layers. I remember being excited about the ability to add noise to images or parts of images to help them blend with other images. And it seems like there’s a lot I’m thrilled about in Photoshop every time the software revs. As far as being critical of Photoshop features that weren’t or aren’t exactly what I’d wish, I’ve got to defer to the high-end power users like Scott Kelby and Dave Cross. I love thinking of myself as a power user but because of how I use the software, I don’t really have time to contemplate how Photoshop might be better if only they would… Scott and Dave do that because it’s so directly tied to their job. I try to use my creative thinking for things like, ‘NAPP could be better if we would only…’
JDMP: What effect has Photoshop had on the creative community? How has it helped? And have you seen any ways in which it may even get in the way of our creative process?
LB: There’s no question that Photoshop is the tool of choice for graphics and for photo retouching, so as capabilities are added to the software and as tutorials are developed to show the masses how various ‘hot techniques’ are done, that there has been a solid progression and continuing improvement in the world of visual imagery. Overall it’s a good thing and with clever artists, photographers, and designers constantly creating new effects, as well as Adobe and 3rd parties always enhancing Photoshop’s capabilities, there are bound to be continued improvements. And certainly, when powerful tools of any type become available to a wider audience, there are bound to be big, ugly visual mistakes that assault the viewer. It’s a tradeoff, but the balance sheet is heavily weighted toward more quality from more people and better images for everyone.
JDMP: Speaking of the creative community, I know a large part of your job is to connect with and support the NAPP community. Are there any stories that stick out for you that illustrate the kind of community that has grown up around this piece of software?
LB: Wow! There are hundreds of them and I read about individual success stories every day in our NAPP member forums. It’s a place where people meet in our virtual community and sharing ideas and success. And since they’re NAPP’s forums, I read and contribute ideas and answers there almost daily.
There have been lots of different types of successes at all levels, but one that really stands out is the story of a member named Lisa Sage. She is a gifted, classically trained painter who had to give up her love of painting because of a reaction the chemicals. A friend told her about Photoshop and while she was investigating Photoshop, she discovered the Wacom tablet and was sure she wanted to get back into art in this new medium. I love Lisa’s story (we’ve even run it as a story in our magazine) because she’s a perfect example of a hard-working, gifted artist who has taken full advantage of everything NAPP offers our members.
Lisa learned from our tutorials and constantly contacted our Help Desk to get good at Photoshop. She lurked in the member forums for over a year before posting questions and answers but now she’s a regular there who contributes help, answers and even tutorials. She regularly uploaded her works to our member portfolios so I had seen and been impressed by her work, so when I met her at a Photoshop World convention in Boston a couple years back, I commented how great her imagers were. Up to that point, she hadn’t done anything commercially using Photoshop, but just seven months later she called me and let me know what was going on.
She had a 4’x5’ gallery print hanging in a Boca Raton, Florida gallery (she lives in Maine), she was painting matte paintings for a theater-released motion picture, and she was selected as the still artist for the release of a Spider Man video game’s ad campaign. And while she worked hard and applied for lots of freelance work, she let me know that most of the folks who hired her had originally found out about her because THEY were NAPP forum users too. Heck, Lisa is kind of our NAPP poster-child artist.
JDMP: NAPP has been at the forefront of Photoshop education and has resourced so many of us in unique and entertaining ways. It has also been an advocate for members providing benefits and challenges to help us do what we love to do. What’s next for NAPP? Are there areas that you are exploring for growth? Any new and exciting projects coming down the pike?
LB: Well, we certainly do have some new ideas and we’re working on reaching new markets, but I’ve got to take the Apple corporate approach to this answer and say that we can’t discuss any new programs until they’re officially announced. Still, there are programs that are already out there, which lots of folks don’t know about. For example, we’re always talking about the fact that members get free shipping with B&H photo, and that we have the whole Apple store, but with lower prices for our members… and every single time I go to a 1-day seminar, I meet NAPP members who have never heard about those discounts! It’s amazing to me. And if they don’t know about the discounts, I’m sure they miss things like the fact that we have a whole library of around 1,000 videos, each 30-60 seconds long, that simply explain a single menu item or terminology of Photoshop. It’s an amazing library we call the How to Education Library for Photoshop (H.E.L.P.) and that doesn’t even include our 450+ tutorial videos that are 5 minutes or so each, which teach beginning through advanced Photoshop techniques.
JDMP: Working with Scott, Dave, Matt, Corey, and RC everyday – as well as the tremendous team that we often don’t see – it must be just an awesome work environment. And you must have some great stories to tell! What’s it like working in a place that is filled with such creative individuals?
LB: It’s awesome. I worked for myself for more than a decade before joining this team, and I thought I’d never work for anybody but myself again. But this company/family is so amazing that I like it better than working for myself. Still, there’s a lot more to my answer than just that.
As you know, Scott Kelby has a guest blogger every Wednesday on his amazingly popular Photoshop Insider blog. When I had a chance to write up a story for him, I did a complete behind-the-scenes thing. If you’d like to see it, there’s a link here: http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/1912
JDMP: I know you led a photowalk back in August as part of Scott’s Worldwide Photowalk, but I’m not sure many people have seen your photography. Do you get a chance to do any personal shooing in the midst of your schedule? Is there a place we can go to see your work?
LB: Well, the quick answer is that I have a few items in my NAPP portfolio here:
http://www.photoshopuser.com/members/portfolios/view/gallery/67554
JDMP: My last question is always the same. What would you like to say that I haven’t given you a chance to say?
LB: First of all, thanks. Obviously I love having a chance to talk about NAPP any time I can, and not because I’ve been here for nearly 4 years. I love NAPP because I’ve been a member for 11 years (since the beginning) and I used the resources NAPP made available to me as an artist, designer, and photographer. It’s one of the easiest $99 I ever spent because it paid me back so many times over with savings, education, and keeping me ahead of my competitors. — It’s like cheating off the smart kid’s paper in Photoshop class, without the guilt. — With the recent economic news, people are watching every penny they spend and I’m thrilled that so many members understand that they need to renew because NAPP helps them make more money or save production time, or both. That’s a strong testament to NAPP’s value.
But the one thing I haven’t mentioned yet that really keeps NAPP on track is our members. They help one another. And they help us by telling us what they want and what they need. It’s a great symbiotic relationship… we need members for NAPP to be successful, and our members tell us what they need from us in order to succeed. The formula has helped us become the largest image-related association in the world and even though we’re 11 years old, it feels like we’re just getting started.
JDMP: Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us!
For more information or to become a member yourself, please visit the NAPP site at photoshopuser.com today!
*****
Photoshop Interviews is brought to you in part by Towner Jones Photography, LLC. Check out all of the great things Rob is doing over there!
If you would like to sponsor Photoshop Interviews or any of our other regular series, or if you would like to advertise with us, visit our Become a Sponsor page today!
Photoshop Interview: John Nack
To kick off our new series of Photoshop Interviews, where better to start than Adobe? Today we welcome Principal Project Manager for Adobe Photoshop & Bridge, and Photoshop Hall of Famer, John Nack.
Jason D. Moore Photography: First off, welcome John! It’s an honor to have you with us. Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about your background both Educationally and Professionally?
John Nack: I graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in history–which has nothing whatsoever to do with Web design or product management, the two things I’ve done professionally.
I’ve loved drawing since I was little, and when I saw the first Macintosh at my friend’s birthday party in 1984, it completely blew my mind. I finally talked my parents into getting an Apple IIgs in the late 80’s, and in college I taught myself Web technologies while helping professors put their coursework online. My job at AGENCY.COM New York (‘98-2000) gave me intensive hands-on design and production experience, and it introduced me to folks from Adobe, Macromedia, and other tech companies. My desire to improve Flash production led me to Adobe in 2000 to work on LiveMotion.
JDMP: What is your current job? And could you describe for us a little bit of what that entails?
JN: You know, I’m never really clear on what it is I do, except that it seems to involve an awful lot of email. 
In a nutshell I try to figure out what people need (and hence will pay for), and then I work with the team to get that built. That means talking to customers via a variety of means (blogs, forums, face-to-face meetings, etc.) and working with the team to keep making feature decisions and refining priorities. There’s also an enormous amount of semi-random work (answering press inquiries, supporting tradeshows and user groups, and so forth).
JDMP: Photoshop has come a long way since version 1, with many milestones along the way (layers, adjustment layers, smart objects, HDR, etc). For you, what have been some of the most significant advances over the life of the software? Any missteps?
JN: I think the greatest hits are pretty obvious: Layers, the History palette, re-editable type, the Healing Brush, and Camera Raw jump to mind. Save for Web and ImageReady were pretty huge for me in my past life.
As for missteps, I’ve certainly championed things that it *seems* people should love, but which go largely unused (e.g. Layer Comps, the How To content under the Help menu). I sometimes say that there are problems people have & problems people will let you solve. The latter set is much smaller than the former.
A certain set of things like Smart Objects and customizability are underused, but I think that’s because we haven’t yet finished what we started. Sometimes you have to build a house brick by brick, and the whole thing looks a little silly until it’s complete.
JDMP: There have been a lot of new arenas in which Photoshop has delved, especially starting with CS3 Extended. What was the motivation for developing areas of Photoshop with the medical and scientific fields in mind?
JN: Well, from very early on Photoshop has been used by people outside the traditional core markets (photography, graphic design, etc.). I remember reading about an early version where Mark Hamburg bumped up the maximum document dimensions to 30,000×30,000 pixels at the request of government users (the CIA, if I remember right) who were processing satellite imagery.
He figured “That ought to hold them for a while”–and it did. Of course, years later we raised the limits again by 100x, and I’m sure that’ll happen again someday.
In any case, even though we were aware of these specialized uses of Photoshop, each market was too small to justify a lot of direct investment. That is, we couldn’t justify making their needs a priority at the expense of more broadly applicable features. Photoshop Extended gives us a chance to say, “Here’s a version that adds just the kind of things you’ve requested.”
We don’t market it as “Photoshop Pro” or “Photoshop Premium,” i.e. as the version that everyone would buy if money were no object. Instead we try to present it as a version that extends beyond Photoshop in some targeted ways.
JDMP: In a related question, what is the process for including new features? How do you determine what’s in and what has to wait for the next version?
JN: I’d love to tell you that the process is simple or straightforward, but it’s more complex than that. At the front of our minds, of course, is the feedback we’re getting from customers. The thing is, we get so many more good requests than we’d ever have time to address that we have to consider other factors.
Various engineers have specific skill sets, so it’s not always possible to mix and match. Some people are great at user interface code, others at math (HDR, warping, etc.), others at deep software architecture, and so on. We also need to make time to keep improving the Photoshop architecture and requests/requirements established by the Suite. And, of course, sometimes feature work goes faster than expected, sometimes slower, so we’re constantly adjusting plans.
At the end of the day we have to deliver a release that’s a good mix of power for a wide range of customers. Otherwise it just won’t entice customers to upgrade.
*****
Thanks again to John for being our first guest as part of the Photoshop Interviews Series here at Jason D. Moore Photography! We’ll have “Part II” of the conversation in the coming days.
For more information about John Nack and his work at Adobe you can visit his blog, John Nack on Adobe, at http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack.
And be sure to come back on Monday, February 9th when I sit down with NAPP Executive Director Larry Becker!
*****
Also, we welcome a new sponsor for the Photoshop Interviews series, Towner Jones Photography! If you would like to become a sponsor of this, or any other series here at Jason D. Moore Photography, please visit our “Become a Sponsor” page to find out how!
P&P Weekly: #105
Welcome to week #105 of The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll’s P&P Weekly!
I’d like to start off today’s edition with a Welcome! to any new visitors that may have made their way here from Friends-of-the-Blog Jeff Revell of PhotoWalkPro, Jason Anderson of CanonBlogger (who got there from Friend-of-the-Blog Scott Kelby of Photoshop Insider). Thanks Jeff and Jason for your kind words and continued support! I couldn’t have gotten here without your support. I hope that you will take a look around and soon become regulars here!
You’ve come at a really exciting time here at Jason D. Moore Photography. We’ve recently announced a few new series that I think will prove to be informative, inspirational, challenging, and fun!
Read on for more information!
Monthly Photo Contests
Our new monthly photo contest for January continues to be open for entries. Full details can be found on our Monthly Photo Contest post and you can submit your shot(s) to our Monthly Photo Contest Flickr Group. Prizes for January’s contest include:
(Embroidered “Ps” logo on a dark blue shirt with navy collar and sleeves)
(Blue, with black ink)
(1″x1″)
I hope you’ll throw your images into the ring!
Starting this Friday and continuing every other Friday, we will welcome a new guest blogger that will share their personal workflow with all of us. They will take one of their own photos and walk us through the how’s and why’s of their post-processing techniques so that we might learn and expand our own workflows.
If you would like to participate in this new series, please email me via the link above, or leave a comment!
This friday we will have our first guest post from blogroll member Marshall Garlington of f/11.
As announced yesterday one of our newer and more exciting series, for me at least, is Photoshop Interviews. Once a month I will sit down with a member of the Photoshop community and talk about the software, the creative community, and how they influence each other.
Be sure to stop by on Monday for our first interview with Photoshop Hall of Fame inductee and Principal Project Manager for Adobe Photoshop and Bridge (and Friend-of-the-Blog) John Nack!
Our next new series, which has already begun, is the “On the 4th” Photo Project. On the 4th of each month throughout the year I invite you to take a photo and send it in. Join me and other photographers from around the world in documenting a day in the life, of sorts. For full details, take a look at our introductory post.
Geographic Composition
The Geographic Composition series is now open to anyone who would like to contribute. A special welcome to our newest participants! And I hope some of you are inspired to join us next time. Our upcoming themes – and their posting dates – are:
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Week #45 – January 16: “Green”
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Week #46 – January 30: “Shadows”
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Week #47 – Frbruary 13: “Round”
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Week #48 – February 27: “Contasts”
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Week #49 – March 13: “Wood”
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Week #50 - March 27: Contributor’s Favorites
More details about Geographic Composition.
Starting in January I am offering special desktop wallpaper calendars. These desktop calendars will feature my personal photography as well as a listing of holidays and important dates. I offer these wallpaper calendars in a variety of sizes to accommodate a number of screen resolutions. The January Desktop Calendars are up now and February’s will be posted towards the end of the month.
Get Your Monthly Desktop Calendar Today!
In the meantime…
Click here to become a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. A great resource for training, tips, and connecting with other creatives.
And as always, take a moment to grab one of the chicklet links to show your support for this blog and, for blogroll members, be sure to pick up your P&P Blogroll Member badge link.
My apologies for those of you hoping for the weekly round-up of the top half of the blogroll. Due to time constraints, I had to forego that portion of “The Weekly” this time around but I will do what I can to get back to a more regular schedule starting next week.
Thanks for stopping by! And be sure to come back tomorrow for more!
New for 2009: Photoshop Interviews
Lately, many sites have been coming out with series of photographer interviews to help share the work and inspiration of our creative fellows with the larger photographic community. From Crash Taylor to Canon Blogger to Dave Cross’ “Finish the Sentence.” And I think it’s great! In some small way, I like to think that my “P&P Blogger Profiles” had something to do with this new dialogue, but I doubt it.
As I look around at these sites and take in all of the tremendous insights and experience of the featured guest, I notice that Photoshop and post-processing as a whole is only a small part of the discussion. It’s true that these days it’s almost impossible to talk about photography without talking about what happens in post. But there hasn’t been much of a forum for talking about Photoshop’s place in culture or to hope and dream, or gripe, about one of our favorite pieces of software.
That’s about to change. On the second Monday of each month, starting next Monday, we will feature a new interview with a member of the Photoshop community.
I’ve already got a “Who’s Who” of interviewees lined up including Adobe’s Project Manager for Photoshop John Nack, NAPP Executive Director Larry Becker, Adobe Creative Systems Engineer Mike McHugh, African Safari leader Andy Biggs, and photowalker extrodinaire Jeff Revell. And I’m waiting for confirmation from a number of others.
As this will be an on-going series, I am always open to suggestions for new subjects to interview. If you have any ideas, please let me know so I can make contact and secure them as an upcoming guest.
Please be sure to stop back on Monday for my interview with Adobe’s own John Nack!
