Due to the overwhelming positive responses I’ve been receiving, along with the many requests for an extension on this contest, we’ve decided to run this contest for one additional month. At PhotographyBB, we firmly believe in a life long learning process, hence the decision to extend this contest! If you are not familiar with the contest yet, here’s how it goes:

Beginners are free to ask any photography or image processing related questions they have on their mind, and our more experienced members (”experts”) are free to add their responses to the questions. At the end of the new deadline (April 5th, 2010), we’ll be picking one beginner question, and one “expert” answer to receive a prize pack each! Here are the details and rules one more time:

Beginners: Ask Your Questions!
We want all of the great folks who are just getting started with photography, digital SLR cameras, and image processing to put on your thinking caps and ask any question you may have burning inside you. There are 3 categories for you to post your questions in, and they MUST follow a specific format (see the brief “Rules” section for details).

The categories are:

• Digital Photography
• Photoshop
• Lightroom / Bridge / ACR

Beginner’s Rules:

1. All questions must be submitted in the CORRECT category in the PhotographyBB Forums. If you are not yet a forum member, registration is extremely fast and free. Any questions submitted into the wrong category will be eliminated.
2. When posting a question, the SUBJECT line of your posting must be related to your question. For example, we will not accept subject lines that read, “I need help!”. An example of an appropriate subject line would be, “What is Manual Mode?” If your question is a long one (which is great) please title the subject line appropriately so the “experts” can have some idea what the posted question will be regarding.
3. Maximum of 5 questions per person.
4. Contest period runs from Feb 5th to March 5th, 2010.

Experts: Share Your Knowledge!
To all of our more experienced members and those of you who enjoy sharing knowledge and helping others, we haven’t forgotten you! We want you to post your answers to the beginners’ questions, and since we want to encourage your participation you may answer as many questions as you can. There are some rules for our expert submissions too, namely:

1. You may answer as many questions as you would like to, however, the most thorough and easy to understand responses will be most likely to win our “experts” prize package.
2. If a response to a question has already been posted, you are still free to add to the reply. Once we feel that the question has been answered appropriately and thoroughly, the thread will be locked.

That’s really all there is to it folks! Once again, we will have 2 prize packages, one for the beginners and one for the experts. The winner of the beginners contest will receive Scott Kelby’s “The Digital Photography Book” volumes 1 through 3. The winner of the experts contest will receive a copy of “VisionMongers” by David duChemin. Both groups will also receive our entire collection of Premium Photoshop Actions. There will be some additional prizes to be added, which we will reveal shortly! Check out the categories, have fun asking and answering questions, and in the process we’ll be helping the whole photography community!

Feb 26th, 2010 – VANCOUVER, CANADA: PhotographyBB announced today, the release of the 25th edition of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. This edition marks the two year anniversary milestone for PhotographyBB, who continue to educate beginner and intermediate level photographers in digital photography. PhotographyBB Online Magazine has become a leading resource in the future of free information distribution, offering readers: Digital Photography tips and techniques, DSLR camera function training, and image post processing tutorials in Adobe® Photoshop™, and RAW processing in Photoshop Lightroom™.

The Two-Year Anniversary edition examines the role of amateur photographers looking to break into the professional realm, along with the impact on the photography industry. Additionally, portraiture and flash lighting techniques are featured, along with a guide on what to look for when purchasing a new lens.

Editor in Chief, Dave Seeram had these comments regarding this recent release:

“I am extremely proud to announce the release of our Two-Year Anniversary edition. It’s been an amazing journey so far, and thanks to the help of our talented team of contributing authors coupled with our growing readership, the magazine continues to grow and evolve as we head through 2010.

This edition covers portraiture lighting techniques, and how to achieve a balance between ambient lighting conditions and portable flash units. We also continue our detailed look at some of the new features in the Lightroom 3 beta release, including the Watermarking Tools and the new Identity Plate. We are also extremely pleased to welcome world-renowned photographer, Kevin Kubota, into the spotlight. Kevin was very forthcoming in telling us about his professional life as a photographer and how he got to where he is today, and it was a pleasure to do this interview.

In our Photography Around the World feature, we’re off to Canada for a trip through the Canadian Rockies. From the wildlife to the icefields, you’ll get a great look at the spectacular scenery which British Columbia and Alberta have to offer.”

By way of download in either PDF or ZIP formats, PhotographyBB continues its trend through the future of free downloadable magazine distribution. In a completely ad-free format, each issue contains informative and educational tutorials for amateur and intermediate level photographers.

In addition to articles which aide photographers in getting the most from their DSLR cameras, the PhotographyBB Online Magazine also features useful and applicable tutorials on how to use post-processing tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom, to build on digital photography post-processing skills.

PhotographyBB Online Magazine is available for free download through the PhotographyBB Website at: http://www.photographyBB.com/magazine

PhotographyBB was founded in Oct, 2006, and is a division of PowerButton Central (2004).
For more information, visit the PhotographyBB website at: http://www.photographybb.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/photographybb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photographybb

Firstly, a very Happy 20th Anniversary to the wonderful folks who created and who continue to create Photoshop! Where would your life as a graphic artist or digital photographer be without this wonderful tool? Check out this 17 minute video of various clips throughout the history of Photoshop, as well as a modern look 20 years later to today’s current version.

Happy 20th Birthday to Adobe Photoshop! Just look at the evolution of this marvelous piece of software genius. Here’s to 20 more years (and more) success in the industry of graphics, image processing, and most importantly… innovation. Can you remember which was the first version of Photoshop you used? Remember to visit the link we posted yesterday to view the Adobe TV presentation with the original architects of Photoshop as they run the original Photoshop 1.0 on a rebuilt Apple Macintosh – sweet!

Additionally, in celebration of this event, PhotographyBB is having a one-day 20% off sale on all our Pro Photoshop Action Packs. Just use the coupon code: ATN20 in the shopping cart to receive your 20th Anniversary discount.

Once again, congratulations to the fine folks at Adobe, NAPP, and all of the other Photoshop professionals who continue to succeed in an ever changing industry. All the best, and Happy 20th Anniversary Photoshop!

On the eve of the 20th anniversary since the launch of our favourite image editing software, the birthday celebrations are in full swing for our beloved Photoshop! Here’s a cool little look back at some of the thoughts of the original architects of the software, in a clip of a video which Photoshop TV will air tomorrow night. Just imaging if these guys hadn’t gone forward with their plans… where would we be today?

This event will be broadcast via the web and the video will be available in it’s entirety here: http://tv.adobe.com/go/photoshop-20th-anniversary

Also, you won’t want to miss NAPP’s (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) Photoshop party being held tonight at 7:30PM PST where you will see all of the Photoshop gurus like Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, and some special surprise guests. The party will also include a look at some cool stuff that nobody has seen yet, and we’re all invited! NAPP is streaming the event live through this site here: http://www.photoshopuser.com/photoshop20th

It’s sure to be quite the party, so join in the fun. If you are a “Tweeter” then you can participate by adding the hashtag #PS20 to your Tweets, or follow the Photoshop Fan page on Facebook for some additional social networking celebrations. Today and tomorrow, PhotographyBB will be having a 20% off all our Photoshop Actions in celebration of this great achievement in software design and longevity (for 20% off, use discount code ATN20 in shopping cart). Congratulations Photoshop!

It’s been a short break from our usual biweekly assignments, but our photography assignments are back! What are the photo assignments all about? Our photography assignments are engineered to challenge our members by having you shoot photos based on a given theme. The themes are designed to inspire and help photographers break out of their shells, and push the boundaries of your creativity and photography, thus making us all better photographers in the process. Assignments are open to everyone, you must simply be a member of the PhotographyBB Forums. If you are not yet a member, please consider joining and participating in the fun – it’s free afterall!

Your assignment theme is: Long Exposure (1-second or longer).

That’s right! We want to see what you can come up with, given the theme above. Your exposure must be longer than 1-second (up to any length), so think hard about all of the things you can capture given the parameters of having a long exposure. Tip: A long exposure doesn’t necessarily have to capture motion in the photo. As with all challenges, you may submit up to 3 photos, and photos MUST be taken during the assignment time window (Feb 17th – Mar 3rd, 2010). Top choices will be selected and published in an upcoming issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine.

Entries must be submitted here. Click to view and/or submit your photo.

Be creative, have fun, and happy photographing!

The day has finally arrived! Olympic fever is sure to kick into high gear today, as we all get set to watch the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. I’ll be out with the camera snapping as much as I can, and if any of you have non-event related photo request please feel free to comment them and I’ll do my best. It looks like rain for the next little while, but I won’t be letting it stop me from testing the shutter button.

Shown above are the Olympic Rings shot from Stanley Park with the city as a nice backdrop. It’s a great place to walk around, not only for Olympic sights, but for plenty of photo-ops in general. The rings light a different colour every night, and some nights they light in multi-colour (which I have yet to capture!).

Just a quick and friendly reminder for anyone who is interested in picking up either our newest Action Pack – Watercolor Pro Actions, or any other Action pack for that matter. The 20% off discount ends tonight at midnight, so if you are thinking of purchasing any, please take advantage of this sale while it’s on. The discount code is ATN20 and must be entered into the shopping cart before you checkout. As always, I love seeing your results with the Actions, so please feel free to email me your creations, or post them for everyone to admire in the PhotographyBB Forums. Enjoy!

VANCOUVER, Canada – Feb 9th, 2010 – Today, PhotographyBB announces the release of the Watercolor Pro Action Package for Photoshop®. Unleash your inner artist and turn your photography into sensational works of art, perfect for framing, making personalized cards, keepsakes, portraits, or simply to share in your online gallery!

Watercolor Pro produces realistic and high quality painted watercolor effects suitable for portraits, wedding photos, beautiful landscape artwork, night shots, architecture and more. The images you produce will turn your already beautiful photos into stunning pieces of artwork, and does it all in one-click! Watercolor Pro Actions will work with Photoshop versions CS, CS2, CS3, and CS4 (English only versions) on both PC and Mac platforms.

PhotographyBB Watercolor Pro Actions include 6 different watercolor paint effects, 7 brush stroke effects, 4 “texture” effects, and 6 start-to-finish preset effects in this pack, including a natural watercolor effect, a “wavey” watercolor effect for a freehand painted look, and a special “cafe-style” art effect. The actions all run in a single click, while the different paint, brush, and texture options allow for limitless variations and combinations of painted styles. Two versions of this action are included: One which produces images suitable for the web and small prints, and one version for full prints and/or enlargements.

The package launches with a 20% discount on this action pack (and all existing action packs) for three days only (Feb 9th – 11th, 2009), by using the COUPON CODE: ATN20 in the shopping cart at: http://www.photographybb.com/actions

Welcome back to the next round in our new year of contests and challenges folks. This particular contest should be an interesting one as we face off the beginners against the experts. Since we believe in life-long learning at PhotographyBB, we want to reward those who seek knowledge, as well as those who are kind enough to mentor and/or provide knowledge.

For some time now, we’ve had great success with our “No Stupid Questions” room in the PhotographyBB Forums. Here, beginners can feel free to post any photography related question they’ve had on their minds, and receive an answer from one of our more experienced members. It’s worked great and we’ve helped many people who may have otherwise been too shy to ask their question… until now…. We have a lovely prize package for one lucky “beginner” as well as one lucky “expert.” So here’s how this is going to work:

Beginners: Ask Your Questions!
We want all of the great folks who are just getting started with photography, digital SLR cameras, and image processing to put on your thinking caps and ask any question you may have burning inside you. There are 3 categories for you to post your questions in, and they MUST follow a specific format (see the brief “Rules” section for details).

The categories are:

• Digital Photography
• Photoshop
• Lightroom / Bridge / ACR

Beginner’s Rules:

1. All questions must be submitted in the CORRECT category in the PhotographyBB Forums. If you are not yet a forum member, registration is extremely fast and free. Any questions submitted into the wrong category will be eliminated.
2. When posting a question, the SUBJECT line of your posting must be related to your question. For example, we will not accept subject lines that read, “I need help!”. An example of an appropriate subject line would be, “What is Manual Mode?” If your question is a long one (which is great) please title the subject line appropriately so the “experts” can have some idea what the posted question will be regarding.
3. Maximum of 5 questions per person.
4. Contest period runs from Feb 5th to March 5th, 2010.

Experts: Share Your Knowledge!
To all of our more experienced members and those of you who enjoy sharing knowledge and helping others, we haven’t forgotten you! We want you to post your answers to the beginners’ questions, and since we want to encourage your participation you may answer as many questions as you can. There are some rules for our expert submissions too, namely:

1. You may answer as many questions as you would like to, however, the most thorough and easy to understand responses will be most likely to win our “experts” prize package.
2. If a response to a question has already been posted, you are still free to add to the reply. Once we feel that the question has been answered appropriately and thoroughly, the thread will be locked.

That’s really all there is to it folks! Once again, we will have 2 prize packages, one for the beginners and one for the experts. The winner of the beginners contest will receive Scott Kelby’s “The Digital Photography Book” volumes 1 through 3. The winner of the experts contest will receive a copy of “VisionMongers” by David duChemin. Both groups will also receive our entire collection of Premium Photoshop Actions. Additionally, more prizes will be revealed as the contest goes on! Let’s all have a great time learning and enjoying digital photography and image processing. Bring on your questions and answers!