VerveCast

I love this article… Need Extra Money for the Holidays? Just Become a Photographer!

Why do I love it? Because it’s hilarious…

Most of us in the creative and/or technology industry have had to deal with this.

Designers, web developers, photographers, you name it.

Since the price of computers, software, cameras, and other previously expensive or specialized equipment has come down to the level that the average person can afford them, everyone thinks they are a designer, or web developer, or photographer.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people learning new skills and trying their hand at making money with those skills, but if it were that easy, we’d all be doing it, and we’d all be rich… or broke… or something.

And I’m not about to tell people they are ruining an industry. If you love doing something, then you should do it. If you can provide amazing work cheaper than someone else, go for it. It’ll be up to you to decide if you’re ruining an industry. But keep in mind, after years of honing your craft, someone else will come along and offer to do what you do even cheaper. That’s just how it works.

Whew, I didn’t mean to get all heavy there… What I meant was, Happy Holidays! And if you need extra cash this holiday season, you might have better luck looking for loose change in the couch cushions than you will if you have no photography skills and try selling portraits of people after the fact.

Happy New Year! :)

I’ve spent about a week with the iPhone 4S, and while the main difference from my previous iPhone is the overall increase in speed, the breakthrough technology so far has to be Siri.

Apple says “Siri on iPhone 4S lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more” and I’ve found that to be pretty accurate.

If you don’t come into it thinking you’re on the bridge of the Enterprise and the computer can understand everything you say, it should amaze you. (In other words, set realistic expectations and you won’t be disappointed.)

The other day while driving I got a phone call and ended up setting up a doctor appointment. Once the call was finished it was extremely easy to have Siri add the appointment to my calendar. I also had Siri compose an email to myself so I’d remember to bring my insurance card to the appointment.

I wouldn’t have attempted to enter that information into my phone while driving, and without Siri I probably would have just waited until I got to where I was going to add it to my calendar. And as for texting while driving? Let Siri do it for you… Yeah, it’s that easy.

Some folks will point out that Apple didn’t exactly invent this stuff, and that’s true, but what Apple did is that they always do: take a technology, make it better, and make it mainstream. If you look at the iPhone 4S sales since its release, and consider that a good amount of those people gave Siri a try, you can imagine how this technology will only improve and gain popularity in the future.

(Although we’re all a bit disappointed Siri doesn’t have a good response to “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot”, you can ask Siri to open the pod bay doors and see what response you get back.)

The latest “cool thing” in the office has been Kern Type, the kerning game, where you attempt to kern type. I know, you designers and typography nerds know what I’m talking about (at least I hope so!) but for the rest of you, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters to achieve proper visual balance. In the olden days of setting type, this was an art form. Sadly, many new designers nowadays never learned how to properly kern type… but now they can!

Here’s a great example… and hey, the Wave just happens to be one of or clients! (Looks like I should have moved the A just a bit closer to the W, and the V just a tad closer to the A.)

It’s even multitouch capable, so you can play along on your iPad.

You can also share your score with others to show off your mad kerning skillzz.

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a pretty amazing thing. It’s basically a web site that allows creatives to pitch their ideas, and for people to support those ideas with monetary pledges.

This is just a little bit revolutionary. Years ago if you wanted to record an album, or produce a film, you had to raise enough money up front to rent studio time and equipment, and pay for any expenses like a crew or consumables out of your own pocket. Now you can pitch your idea, and if enough people believe in it, they become stakeholders in making it happen. As the artist, you get the money only if you have enough backers to reach the goal. What is the goal? It’s the dollar amount that you set. And that’s the tricky part… determining what to ask for. Ask for too much, and if you don’t get enough backers to reach the goal, you get nothing. Ask for too little, and if you didn’t properly estimate the cost of your project, you may end up funding a good chunk of it yourself. (There are fees taken out of the total by Kickstarter, transaction agents, etc.)

There are also rewards. If you back the Sensu Brush at the $25 level, you actually get one of them, with the knowledge that the final product will probably cost $5 to $10 more. This is a great way to get people to back your project. Determining rewards at the various levels is another way to convince people to back your project, and the folks behind the Sensu Brush have done a good job. They were hoping to get $7,500 and are currently at $37,412. So well over 1,000 people thought this would make an awesome product and were willing to put down some money to make it happen.

But as we in the marketing world know, having a great idea is only part of the battle. You also need to tell people about your great idea, and then execute your great idea. That “tell people” part is called marketing. I’ve seen a lot of projects on Kickstarter, and one of the things I like to see is a good video that clearly explains things. Add to that a good title, descriptive text, images/photos, and any relevant links, and you’ve come much closer to getting my money.

Maybe it’s not surprising that designers on Kickstarter are doing pretty good. They tend to get the marketing part of it. Take a look at the design category and see if you find something you’d be willing to back…

This isn’t as much a Photoshop Tutorial as an insight on human nature.

We all settle in to a certain workflow, no matter what your job. You reach a comfort level and with deadlines, client demands and The Daily Grind it becomes difficult to shake yourself out of that routine.

Which brings me to the other day. I was working on a video project for PORON® Cushioning with Jason, our video intern. We needed to take the photo below and clip out the hiker, replacing the clipped area with the background that would appear if he were not there. The result would be an animation effect that would hopefully be more interesting than a flat stock photo.

My usual approach would be to make a clipping path around the hiker, create a new layer with the hiker on it, and use the clone tool and various other techniques to try to seamlessly fill in the area. Then, something occurred to me.

Before Photoshop CS5 was released, a YouTube video of one of its new features started floating around. This feature was jaw-dropping and I remember counting down the days until I could give it a go and incorporate it into my workflow. Unfortunately, The Daily Grind took over and I never took an opportunity to use it, until now.

The feature is called Content-Aware Fill; what it does is analyze the contents of the image to figure out what the photo would have looked like if the unwanted object or area had never been there. Let’s have a look at the hiker.

First, I’ll use the lasso tool to draw a selection around the area I want removed; in this case, the hiker.

Then I’ll hit the delete key and a dialog box will appear asking me what I’d like to replace the deleted area with. I’m going to select; Use: Content-Aware, Blending: Normal, Opacity: 100% and click OK.

Eureka! Granted, results vary from photo to photo and a perfectionist would still take the time to clean up the rough spots, but Photoshop has given us a great start on accomplishing what we set out to do.

Lesson learned, no matter what your line of work, it pays to take a time-out and attempt to learn something that may be out of your comfort zone, no matter how small. In this case, I saved a ton of time and now I have a new trick.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some deadlines to meet.