Come and explore the world of HDR imagery!  Gene McCullagh will tell us all about HDR and how to process your images so you can create stunning photographs to impress friends and family!

Our Meeting will be held at New Horizons Computer Learning Center at 5151 Belt Line, Suite 1212, Dallas, TX, 75254 USA. Click here for a map.

Greetings & Salutations!!!

I hope everyone is having a great week. Next month Dave Gillem, Interactive Creative Director for Travelocity, will be delivering a one day Flash Bootcamp for beginners & intermediate users. This hands-on workshop will run from 10AM to 4:30PM on Saturday, March 6th. Lunch will be provided to participants. 
Cost for this workshop is only $50!!!

What an unbelievable price you say? Other workshops easily cost $300 or more. It's because funds from this workshop will go directly to Vipers basketball team coached by Dave.

Workshop information & registration can be done online via EventBrite.

If you're the least bit curious about Flash don't miss this opportunity for some hands-on instruction.

Adobe has let it be known that if you want to get the latest info as it comes in on CS5, and you are on twitter, then you'll want to follow this twitter page: http://twitter.com/CreativeSuite

Congratulations to our User Group Manager Gene McCullagh who returns with Photoshop Guru Chris Tarantino and A.J. Wood as Adobe Community Professionals for 2010. We are also proud to welcome 2D Animator Extraordinaire J. Schuh who was invited to participate for his outstanding community work.

Do you want to know more about Adobe Illustrator? Confused by gradients and free transforms? Looking for some new graphic mojo? Then don't miss J Schuh as he dazzles us with some Illustrator insights and magic!

Our Meeting will be held at New Horizons Computer Learning Center at 5151 Belt Line, Suite 1212, Dallas, TX, 75254 USA. Click here for a map. 

Here's a tip for some would-be HD shooters wondering why get a 1080i or 1080p camera - two shots for the price of one. I always edit 720p, because that's what most local TV stations are putting out right now. But, if you shoot 1080, you really get two shots in one.

Just capture your footage, bring it into a 720p timeline, and start cutting. If you need some shot variance, just right click a clip and deselect 'scale to frame size', and magically you go to a tighter shot.

This way, you can cut back in and out of the action.

Digital photography has come a long way in the last few years. Few today would argue that digital cannot stand as film's equal. In many cases the technology now surpasses film. Not only do we have a digital substitute for film, we also have digital substitutes for most physical filters. Between the built in tools in Lightroom and the many sets of plugins available there are really only two physical filters needed today.

The effects of a polarizing filter cannot be reproduced digitally. Yes, there are a few digital polarizing effects which attempt to approximate some aspects of a polarizer. But only a physical polarizer present between the subject and the sensor can remove reflections and deepen the sky's shade of blue. You can get close with digital effects but it's much more work that just putting that filter on the lens.

Thanks again to Chuck Mallott for an excellent tour of Fireworks! Chuck sent along links to his materials in case you want to play around with your new Fireworks knowledge!

Chuck's Slides are at: http://oaktreecreative.com/projects/dfwaug/dwfw.pdf

Chuck's layered PNG file is at: http://oaktreecreative.com/projects/dfwaug/page.png

The GUILD and DFW Adobe User Group are pleased to support the All-Industry Holiday Party Set for December 17.

Things are looking up for all of us in North Texas and as the moving image industry folks prep for a good year ahead, we want to take time to share holiday greetings and network with those who keep this business moving and shaking.  Come one, come all to the All-Industry Holiday Party December 17  from 7 pm – midnight at Gilley’s, a few blocks south of downtown Dallas at 1135 S. Lamar Street.  Anticipate a night of camaraderie with music and dancing, billiards, bull-riding, and a silent auction benefiting Texas Motion Picture Alliance. Advance tickets are only $10 and available at www.txmpa.org .  Tickets will be available at the door for $15.  Studio Bar & Grill, located in the Gilley’s complex, will be open for food purchases and there will be a cash bar.  Plenty of free parking exists on-sight. Come as you are or dress like a star – it’s anything goes and a good time for all. 

Net proceeds will go to TXMPA’s mission to bring more business to Texas and we will collect non-perishable food donations for the North Texas Food Bank.  See you there!

You know that sinking feeling you get when you go to open a file and it's not there or the entire hard drive just won't mount? Your mind races. You wonder where you put that backup. Wait! Did you back that up? It is usually an event like this that finally makes all those articles about backing up make so much sense. Well, if you haven't paid heed thus far perhaps this article will finally give you that extra push. At least as far as Lightroom is concerned. That's it. Start small and build up to full backups!

Before we look at what Lightroom provides for backing up we should touch on the general need for backing up your data overall. The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), with funding from the Library of Congress, has put together an amazing site that every digital photographer should visit regularly, dpBestFlow.org. For our purposes you should take a look at the backup sections for a complete discussion of backup philosophy. Develop the mindset that no file exists until it exists in three places (and one of those needs to be offsite!).