"Project: Photoshop and Lightroom reaffirms Adobe's commitment to photography and photographic education," said Julieanne Kost, senior evangelist at Adobe. "This program enables students and educators to experience the Lightroom beta first hand, get in-depth training on Photoshop as well as serve as a conduit from which they can freely share their work, ideas and tips through a dynamic online community."

There will be a two-day seminar at each venue with world-renowned documentary photographer and four-time Picture of the Year Award winner Colin Finlay taking participants under his wing. He will share some tidbits of his career as a photographer, while Julianne Kost will take the wheel on the second day, briefing students on how to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Lightroom beta. A selected group of students will be chosen to join Finlay in a workshop assignment. Students will place images from this assignment into a portfolio which will be uploaded to the Web site for sharing with the extended community.

Adobe Lightroom, available in public beta for both Windows® and Macintosh platforms.

Schedule:

Sept. 5-6, Lansing Community College, Lansing, Mich.
Sept. 7-8, Tyler Junior College, Tyler, Texas Sept. 11-12, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, Calif.
Sept. 13-14, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Calif.
Sept. 15-16, Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Sept. 18-19, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, Calif.
Sept. 20-21, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.
Sept. 26-27, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y.
Sept. 28-29, Syracuse University, The Newhouse School of Communications, Syracuse, N.Y.
Oct. 5-6, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Oct. 9-10, Antonelli Institute, near Philadelphia, Pa.
Oct 11-12, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M.
Oct. 16-17, Art Institute of Colorado, Denver, Colo.
Oct. 18-19, Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City, Utah Oct 23-24, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City, N.Y.
Oct. 27, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, New York City, N.Y.
Oct. 28, Parsons - The New School for Design, New York City, N.Y.
Nov. 6-7, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Ga.
Nov 15-16, Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, Fl.
Nov. 27-28, New England School of Photography, Boston, Mass.
Nov. 29-30, Hallmark Institute of Photography, Turner's Falls, Mass.
Dec 4 - 5, Art Institute of Seattle, Seattle, Wash.
Dec 7 - 8, School of Visual Arts, New York City, New York

As we all know, digital cameras have already replaced the old film-type cameras. After all, you can take as many shots as you want with a digicam and not worry about wasting film, you can print your own photos at home, and - more often than not - a digicam also doubles as a video camera and a portable USB flash drive, all in one package. Plus, digicams are very pretty.

However, with all the features that we want and all the convenience and hipness they promise, digicams are not cheap either. So if you're about to go out and pick yourself your own cam, you might first want to stop for a minute or two since there are certain things that you might want to know about before forking over your hard-earned cash.

Over at Camera2Photo.com, a guide of 25 essential tips have been compiled to help the casual (and maybe even the pro) photographer pick out the perfect digital camera. Tips that have been included range from how to gauge the price of your selection as compared to its features, warnings to not get wowed by the megapixels that a model supposedly sports, as well as why one should consider optical zoom over a camera's digital zoom capability.

This is one set of rules to follow since it may possibly save you or someone you know either lots of money or from the heartache that is caused by buyer's guilt. Check out the rules by checking out the link below.

Soon, you won't have to delete your blurry pictures, thanks to a new process of deblurring images revealed by MIT and University of Toronto researchers. This is good news because as mobile phones and digital cameras become smaller and lighter, even the smallest hand jitters will distort your pictures.

The MIT-U of Toronto team unveiled their technique for "Removing Camera Shake from a Single Photograph" at the 33rd Annual Siggraph Conference in Boston. They did it in a seminar called "Removing Camera Shake from a Single Photograph" (don't you love how scientific papers have such creative titles?).

Research papers are not exactly light reading, so if esoteric mathematics makes you break out in rashes, then you can just look at the pretty picture below from DigitalCameraInfo.com:

How is this possible? Well, a motion-blurred picture is actually (deep down inside) a clear picture, but the camera lens moved while the picture was being taken, so a blur got "overlapped" on the sharp picture (math geniuses would get all excited about this and call it a "convolution," but we'll spare you the details). To make a long story short: the MIT-U of Toronto researchers created a "deconvolution" technique. By calculating the blur, they can sort of subtract it to reveal a clear picture.

This is great because not everybody wants to carry around a huge tripod just to take pictures using a mobile phone. Unfortunately, it will take a while (maybe two years) before the technique is ready for software for the general market. Also, the process does not correct other kinds of blur (like when the lens is out of focus, when an object is moving too fast for the camera's shutter speed, or when trying to capture motion in pictures). That said, this nifty new process is a most welcome solution to a bothersome problem.

Wondering how jewelry photography works? Fret no more. Here are some guidelines on how to take effective pictures of jewelry.

Focus - Before starting, let's have a rundown on things that you might want to consider before going on a jewelry-snapping frenzy. One is getting to know your camera's "spot focus mode." You see, the normal focus mode of digital cameras is an "average focus mode." That means the camera will focus on a "a wide area of scene" and focus on that wide area. However, since you're going to do jewelry photography, you want your subject to be the center of attention, and not have it share the limelight with anything else. You're going to need a digital camera with a "good manual focus capability." In this "experiment," the digital camera used was a Canon Digital Rebel.

Lighting - Another thing you might want to keep in mind is lighting. According to our source, soft lighting works well with jewelry, and daylight balanced compact fluorescent bulbs are recommended for lighting. Also, the camera's flash doesn't work well with jewelry, so you'll really need good lighting to get the best pictures.

Exposure - You might also want to review your camera's exposure compensation controls (known as "EV" for Exposure Value). Setting your camera at +1 is recommended, but you might want to try other values that suit your picture just right.

Lastly, having a tripod, studio lights and an EZCube are recommended, as they are used in all techniques.

To add sparkle to gems, you're going to need three lights: two for both sides of the EZCube, and another for highlighting a gem's sparkle (to do this, you must position the light directly on the gem). Remember, the third light should be weaker than the two side lights. After that, you're ready to shoot away!

Another technique is using a white or clear high gloss acrylic platform to show the jewelry's reflection. Just place your subject on top of it and try taking pictures of the piece in different positions to see which angle is most flattering.

You could also use a black acrylic platform for a dramatic effect. Remember to also place a black piece of paper on top of the EZCube to remove all unwanted reflections.

And to make your accessories (such as pendants) stand upright without the help of a bust, get a bead of wax and place your subject on top of it.

So, snap away and let's see how you'll manage to capture your very elegant (not to mention expensive) pieces of jewelry using these techniques discussed.

Do you enjoy snapping away at itsy-bitsy spiders and other tiny creatures just for fun?

If you're into taking close-up pictures of things, which in fancy terms is called macro photography, then we have some great tips for you. You might want to take note of these things whenever you head out to the great outdoors with your cam.

Avoid camera shake - We understand that nothing can get you more excited than seeing a caterpillar nibbling on a leaf, but we advice you to not let your excitment take over you when you start taking pictures. This will make your hands all shaky and your picture all blurry as well. If you can't contain your joy (or you can't prevent your hands from shaking), maybe you could consider bringing a sturdy tripod with you instead.

Experiment with Apertures - The smallest aperture (the largest f-number) will give your subject sharp focus, while larger apertures (small f-numbers) do the opposite. Both could be very effective with certain subjects, though, so take time to experiment with it.

Keep the focus pin sharp - The best way to do this is to use manual focus so you'll be able to focus on your spot of choice. Decide which will be the key point of your composition and set your focus on that.

Watch for subject movement - However good you are keeping your hands steady and your cameras focused, you can't control everything especially when your subject moves. You might want to check our previous article on this tip.

Additional Light - White cards or aluminum foils make great reflectors whenever you need additional light.

Don't let the background "drown" your subject - Remember that your subject is the focal point of the picture, so be careful not to let your background overpower it.

We hope these tips help you in your quest to snap away at all things small and beautiful.

The wonders of nature - most of them invisible to the naked eye. But some scientists, out to prove that they do have an artistic side, have captured these wonders in images (via light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, etc.) to make us all realize the beauties that nature throws our way.

The Medical Photographic Library has just selected the winners of the Biomedical Image Awards, which promises a "striking display of shapes and patterns, and illustrates the microscopic structures of living organisms in a spectacular variety of ways". Here are some of the amazing photos that made it to the 2006 list:

Hugh Sturrock has captured the Anopheles stephensi, more popularly known as a mosquito, with its abdomen brimming with blood. This mosquito is known for killing "more than half the humans that have ever lived" due to its role in transmitting malaria and yellow fever.

This is a confocal micrograph by Ludovic Collin showing a cluster of special nerve cells called cerebellar granule cells.

The black spot represents the optic disc, where blood vessels in the retina are shown emerging. This image is called a "blind spot" as no light receptor cells are present. This image was captured by Freya Mowat via confocal micrograph.

Check out the rest of the Biomedical Image Awards Gallery 2006 here.

Summer usually brings the most memorable trips. And isn't it sad that sometimes the trips that we want to etch most in our minds are the ones without visual memories? In this age of digital cameras and camera phones, that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Now you might already have all those summer getaways and activities documented, but have you already taken time to chronicle the trip itself? Well, Seb Chevrel has.

Chevrel has taken time out to actually take pictures of a five day Portland-Oregon-New Hampshire trip in June 2003. With 12,397 pictures taken automatically every 10 seconds from the backseat of the car, he was able to produce a 'short film' from the original, unprocessed shots assembled at 15 frames per second. Check out the outcome at Chevrel's website.

Use of simple geometric forms placed in non-illusionistic space combined with nonobjective compositions equate to geometric art. And John Powers' work embodies this definition.

Born in Chicago in 1970, Powers began his art career in Washington State as an apprentice to sculptor Tom Jay. His time with the sculptor opened him to bronze casting and the works of the northwest native carvers (whom he also worked with). An alumnus of both Pratt Institute and Hunter College, Powers also studied anatomy while learning to pull the ropes of art with Jay.

If you like John Powers' geometric art works and sculptures, view more of his works via his official website.

Do you have a good grip on reality or do you see a blurred line dividing reality and make-believe? Well, if you have some idle time in your hands, maybe you can take this challenge. The challenge - created by Autodesk - is pretty simple: all you have to do is take a good, hard look at the images then choose if it's a real photo or if it's created by computer graphics (CG).

To take on the challenge, click on the 'Read' link and see for yourself if you have a great grasp on what's real and what's not. Plus, if you get a perfect score, you'll have a chance to play in a bonus round. For now, here are some of the photos that you'll have to distinguish. Tell us all about your test scores!

Over a month ago I began rounding-up links for great tips on photographing fireworks.  But I felt it was too soon and would get lost in the mix, had I posted it then.  So with the Independence Day Celebration just 6 days away, I think it's a good time.  (Thanks to whomever put a Digg article up on the same topic as a reminder to me!)

The New York Institute of Photography has 3 great pieces on the topic, so I'd start there.  They do a good job of covering all the different points, so you could probably end with them.
- Photographing Fireworks
- Photographing Fireworks with Digital Cameras
- Photographing Fireworks in the Back Yard

Here are a few responses from a mailing list, on how a couple individuals have found goo results.

A nice collection of basics to shooting.  Lots of good info, but not a long read. 

Inexact Recommendations for an Inexact Shooting Situation

And if you just want a quick & dirty rundown, Kodak has you covered.

All of these links more or less cover the same points, but there tend to be little bits here and there that made each valuable (in my opinion).  So skim through them, or just choose one.  You should get a good handle on things for your next Fireworks show photographs.

I've personally only attempted the backyard sort of shots, but hope to get some good big firework shots this coming holiday weekend.  Please feel free to post any other tips you may have.  And also, please share your fireworks shots in our QJ Photography Flickr Pool!