In this segment I demonstrated the advanced controls in Adobe Camera RAW and Lightroom. The Hue, Saturation, and Luminance controls allow you to selectively adjust each for a given hue in the image. In addition you can click “Convert to Grayscale” and use these same controls to map the black and white tones selectively based on the hues of the original hue of the objects in the colour image.

I also showed the ability to correct for vignetting effect of wide-angle lenses and how to correct colour aberration at the edge of the lens.

You can find a tutorial on these settings at this URL:

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/cs3/acr4.htm

If you always have an email program running in the background, you’re probably familiar with this scenario: you’re working away on a document, and as soon as you hear the sound that indicates you have new email, you switch to your mail client…and hit delete. Five minutes later, the same thing happens all over again. And then again. It’s time to stop letting email push you around!

The problem is that email notifications aren’t smart –- when the email chime goes off, it could be email from anyone…and you don’t have to give that time and attention away to just anyone.

The solution: configure email so that’s it’s not constantly waving its arms and yelling “pay attention to me!”

Tip #1: Check email less often
The default setting for many email clients is to check email every five minutes. That’s great if the main focus of your day is email, but very distracting if you’re trying to do work in another window. All email programs should allow you to change how often your mail client checks for new mail — set that to one hour instead of five minutes. And remember, you can always ask your email client to check mail at any time using the “get mail” button, so you won’t be stuck if you need to check mail in between the set intervals.

Tip #2: Turn off new mail notification icon and sound in mail program
Admit it, whenever you hear the email chime, you’re compelled to go check to see what it is. You know it’s probably spam or something you don’t need to deal with, but you still want to know what’s there. Even if you’re supposed to be working on something else. If you turn off the new mail notifications, including the bouncing icons and the new mail notification sound, it’ll remove that temptation.

Tip #3: Schedule time regularly to check email
If you’re worried that you’ll just stop checking email at all, schedule times to check. Put it into your calendar. Or make your email notification the hourly chime on your digital watch. But set a default time for yourself to check, and set aside some time for yourself to deal with replies to messages that need responses.

“Music 2.0 - Emerging Trends in how bands and fans interact” - how bands (from huge acts like Sony/Warner Brothers to myriad indie artists) are using technology to enrich their fans’ experience with interactive websites, meetups, contests, remixes and deep content. Using CMS tools as well as SMS, RSS to solve the distribution and promotion problem allows some bands to “fire their label” ( i.e. Barenaked Ladies), others to interact more (REM), and others to create careers doing “barn storming” tours to niche audiences (Myspace heros).

1 - The industry is being turned on its head with artists suddenly seeing the potential of making a living without a label (Barenaked Ladies fired their label, hired a top producer and made their own)

2 - Economic model is going back the future with concert and merchandising being key revenue streams rather than the label-loaded album sales and royalty revenue streams - SOCAN, ASCAP, RIAA etc. have been slow to embrace change and instead spend energy on alienating fans and digging heels in

3 - Bands using “the Grateful Dead model” and allowing fans to record and trade shows on the internet - removing market for bootlegs and increasing fan fervency (e.g. Tragically Hip, many “jam” bands and modern rock bands like Maroon 5 and My Chemical Romance - sometimes against label policy - Notable rockers like Jimmy Page actively collect bootlegs)

4 - Smart Myspace heros have started their own site and “label” releasing as they make it and garner fan opinion to create barnstorming gig tours rather than running the risk of long van rides to play for a few people and be further in debt to the label

5 - Merchandising is the rock bands’ secret weapon, and now bands can do it cheaper and easier using digital tools to make t-shirts and even physical CDs (shock) on an on-demand basis to sell at gigs or online without a third party craving into the thin margins