GridIron Flow gives creative professionals and workgroups the ability to see, access, and share all their project files in one simple, elegant interface. The product, which has been lauded by industry influencers and beta users as a “must have” productivity application, now includes even more features.

“We’ve waited a long time for this day, but the final product was worth the wait,” said Steve Forde, CEO of GridIron. “Thanks to a world-class development team and the thousands of beta testers who not only thoroughly tested the software but helped shape the final version, Flow is a product that will help all creative pros, whether they work alone or as part of a group, become more streamlined and productive. No more lost files, no more accidents, no more all-nighters.”

GridIron Flow has been used by thousands of creative professionals since the public beta of the product was released in February 18, 2009. Users have experienced how the software provides a unique and total understanding of each project being worked on and allows them to track all the components of a project, regardless of where the files are located. With instant access to any file or version needed, creative professionals can get a lot more done in a lot less time—without having to do anything differently.

Key features of the product include:

• Workflow Maps – Visual interface shows all project files and how they are connected
• Share Maps – Allows multiple users to view the same workflow map across the network
• Adobe CS4 Flow Flash Panel Provides access to GridIron Flow directly in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or Flash
• Real-time Asset Tracking – Tracks the connections between project files in real-time
• Visual Versioning – Accesses the complete history of a file and allows the user to revert to any version
• Visual Search – Finds any file, even if it’s offline, and shows how it fits into a project
• Foolproof Packaging – Gathers and updates all files automatically, keeping the package current
• Time Tracking – Automatically records how much time was spent on a file or project

“The ability for Flow to be accessed directly within Adobe CS4 applications via the new Flash Panel is impressive because of the value it brings users,” said Johnny Loiacono, senior vice president and general manager, Creative Solutions Business Unit, Adobe Systems. “CS4 already delivers significant increases in productivity and Flow takes that to an even higher level. It is a product that most of our Creative Suite customers will find valuable.”

For more information see the links below:

• GridIron Flow Tutorials: http://www.gridironsoftware.com/products/flow/flow_tutorials.html
• PhotoshopUser TV & Layers Magazine:  solid 10-minute tour
• Lynda.com: Flow Features Course
• For more about GridIron Flow – http://www.gridironsoftware.com/Flow/
• To visit GridIron’s blog – http://www.gridironsoftware.com/blog/

GridIron Flow is available for immediate purchase from GridIron’s website at http://www.gridironsoftware.com/store/. A single user license is $299 USD, with a three pack also available for $399.

Have you ever wanted to create an authentic looking Andy Warhol silkscreen? Deke shows you how to do it.

Looking for a  high-quality QuickTime movie?  right-click here or you can subscribe to dekePod via  iTunes.

Deke’s official marketing description:

They say you can’t be too rich or too thin. So how about getting rich by making others thin? Plenty of experienced retouchers make small but enviable fortunes shaving body fat off already lithe models. But rather than showing you a present-day example–honestly, how many times do we need to see underfed waifs made skinnier?–Deke takes us back to a time when ideas of beauty were very different: the High Renaissance. In those times of mean circumstances and manual labor, body fat was a thing to be envied. How best to take a well-fed model rendered by the likes of Raphael and turn her into a slim, trim, big-eyed beauty?

Deke’s great books and Tutorials are available on amazon

Deke McClelland released a new PhotoShop video tutorial teaching you how you can Fake the HRDI look.

Deke McClelland is a popular lecturer on Adobe Photoshop and the larger realm of computer graphics and design. You can subscribe to dekePod via RSS or iTunes.

Imagine yourself beneath the Eiffel Tower or in the heart of Times Square. Now imagine being able to see that exact scene in an amazing new way. With Photosynth, you can look up or down, pan from left to right, zoom in, or pull back to reveal the full sense of where you were. Photosynth provides incredibly realistic close-up detail of a place as seen in the collaboration with National Geographic. Exclusive synths of some of the world’s most renowned locations, such as Machu Picchu and the Parthenon, were created using photographs taken by National Geographic.

From the Photosynth takes a collection of regular photographs and reconstructs the scene or object in a 3-D environment. Photosynth is a potent mixture of two independent breakthroughs: the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from a bunch of flat photographs, and the technology to bring that experience to virtually anyone over the Internet.

Using techniques from the field of computer vision, Photosynth examines images for similarities to each other and uses that information to estimate the shape of the subject and the vantage point the photos were taken from. With this information, we recreate the space and use it as a canvas to display and navigate through the photos.

Providing that experience requires viewing a LOT of data though—much more than you generally get at any one time by surfing someone’s photo album on the web. That’s where our Seadragon™ technology comes in: delivering just the pixels you need, exactly when you need them. It allows you to browse through dozens of 5, 10, or 100(!) megapixel photos effortlessly, without fiddling with a bunch of thumbnails and waiting around for everything to load.

Photosynth is a radically new way to use your photography. To help you get the best results we’ve prepared the The Photosynth Photography Guide (1Mbyte pdf)

Using Photosynth

Getting started with Photosynth is easy:

• To begin, just take a few dozen digital photos — 20 to 300 photos are required, depending on the size of the place or object — with overlap between each shot, from a number of locations and angles.
• Next, download a small, free software application to your computer from http://photosynth.com. This software works in concert with the Photosynth Web site, which is also a free service.
• Build your synth in just two easy steps: First, from the Photosynth Web site, click on Create and select the pictures you want to use. Then, give your creation a name and click on Synth, and Photosynth automatically creates and uploads your synth. In about the same amount of time it would take to upload the pictures to a photo-sharing site, you can enjoy your pictures in dramatic and detailed 3-D.
• The finished synth can be accessed from any Windows XP- or Windows Vista-powered computer with a broadband connection. If you want to comment on other people’s synths or create your own, you’ll also need a free Windows Live ID.
• Once created, synths can also be embedded on Web sites, blogs and social networking sites or virtually anywhere HTML can be edited.

Lightroom 2 is now available

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.  According to Adobe Lightroom 2 should come with new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel® processors and Microsoft® Windows® Vista® 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate

The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.

In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/ .

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology

New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimize surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favorite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customized profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com ) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.

The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.

The NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) has launched their Lightroom 2 Learning Center.

New in Lightroom 2.0

(Source: Lightroom Journal)

Library

Streamlined Organization and Worfklow

Layout: The entire Library layout has been revisited to provide a more intuitive image organization experience.  The left hand panel of the Library has been streamlined to include only the most relevant image sources: the folders the images are physically stored in and collections of images that the photographer creates.

Folders: Photographers working across multiple hard drives will find that the enhanced volume and folder layout will make it a much more intuitive experience to manage images on one or many hard drives.  The volume indicators clearly indicate the hard drive that you’re working with and provide the option to show the online/offline status, the amount of space available, the number of photos you’re working with and there’s an indicator light that migrates from green to red as your hard drive fills up.  Now it’s visually much easier to move your images from hard drive to hard drive and understand where your images are stored when a external hard drive is no longer connected.

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Donnie takes you in his latest PhotoShop Video Tutorial through “Displacements”