Scott Kelby is one of the top names in Photoshop, educating millions of users about everyone’s favorite digital imaging app. He’s the president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), editor-in-chief of Layers magazine, author of dozens of books about Photoshop, and a nominee for the 2007 Photoshop Hall of Fame. We’re getting his take on the latest version of Photoshop, the Photoshop phenomenon, and more…

Q: I think many of us follow this timeline when we upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop: Get psyched for the new features, order the program the second it’s available, install it the second it arrives, and instantly fall back into the same old tools and workflow we’ve used for years. What’s a new feature of Photoshop CS3 that everyone should try right now and make part of their daily toolset?

Scott: If you’re a photographer, without a doubt it would be the new Camera Raw 4.1 in Photoshop CS3. It adds new features and tools that take raw editing to a whole new level, and honestly, it’s worth the entire upgrade price all by itself.

Photoshop CS3 Camera Raw interface

If you’re not a photographer, then I’d have to say that the Refine Edges feature and the Quick Select tool (together or separately) are definitely killer tools, and take the process of making selections up a big notch. Also, the CS3 Bridge is much improved, and has borrowed a number of features from Adobe Lightroom, so it’s made huge advances as well. And I’d highly recommend downloading Adobe’s free Adobe Media Gallery script for the Bridge 2.1. It’s the best photo-gallery Photoshop’s ever had by far.

Q: The most useful tools for a designer or digital photographer’s daily workflow aren’t always the most exciting ones. What new features have a lot of “cool factor” and are worth playing with, even if they don’t do much for the day-to-day?

Scott: The Auto Blend and Auto Align features are pretty darn amazing. Even though you won’t use them every day, when you do need them, boy do they make your life easier. Plus, they’re just fun to see in action. It’s pretty amazing technology.

Q: Speaking of cool factor, that’s what Photoshop’s all about for many people. What is it about Photoshop that has made it such a phenomenon? Why don’t other graphics programs have this kind of fanatical following?

Scott: I think it’s because of Photoshop’s depth. You never feel like you’ve taken the program as far as it can go, or that you’ve hit a wall because you know the program so well. With Photoshop it’s the other way around; the more you learn about, the more you realize you can do. With many other programs, as you master new features, it actually limits what’s left to do, but in Photoshop, it just opens a new door, and that’s incredibly appealing, and loads of fun.

Q: Word on the street is that some crazy things happen at Photoshop World, the impossibly huge conference for Photoshop lovers worldwide. What’s one of the most memorable things you’ve experienced there?

Scott: One of the most fun things is called “Photoshop Midnight Madness.” We have more than 80 Photoshop sessions, but at Midnight Madness we guarantee one thing; “You won’t learn a darn thing about Photoshop. Period!” It’s totally just for fun, and we come up with all kinds of wild games (like the 20,000 pixel pyramid, or “The Photoshop World Instructor Dating Game”), that get everybody just cracking up. One year, we did a spoof of “Dancing with the Stars” and we called it “Dancing with the Photoshop Stars.” We had three instructors team up with three random people from the audience, and they had 30 minutes to put together a live dance routine, and the winning team would win free iPod Videos. Here’s the thing; one team were secretly “ringers.” We hired a team of world champion ballroom dancers, and the guy pretended to be one of our digital photography instructors and his wife pretended to be on of our attendees. They did a brilliant job of making you think they were attendees, and they started dancing and they started off kind of clunky and silly, but all of a sudden they kicked into a routine that just blew everybody away. It was an amazing night, and it brought the house down. That night, I’ll never forget!!!!

Q: What makes events like Photoshop World and organizations like NAPP important for Photoshop users? Is this level of industry involvement only appropriate for expert users?

Scott: It’s funny you would ask that, because most of the people who belong to NAPP are NOT experts (most experts don’t feel they need training). NAPP is really for people who need to learn about Photoshop; who are hungry to learn more, or learn smarter and faster ways to do things. That’s really what we’re all about, so we have everybody from high-end pros to serious amateurs that are NAPP members.

Q: In recent years, the Photoshop family has grown, first with its consumer product Photoshop Elements in 2003, then with Photoshop Extended and Photoshop Lightroom earlier this year. Does this represent a change in the usership of Photoshop? Has Adobe’s own outlook on its flagship program changed?

Scott: I think the market has both grown dramatically, and evolved rapidly, and I think what you’re seeing is Adobe responding to what the market is asking for. The digital photography explosion has gotten everybody into digital, so you have consumers who want to take their photos to the next level (Elements users), then professionals using Photoshop, then pro photographers using Lightroom and Photoshop.

Q: While most photographers and designers don’t really need the Extended version, it comes with most CS3 bundles. Are there any Extended features that photographers and designers can learn to love?

The 3D tools are just amazing. It’s one of those things that once you see it, you’ve got to have it. Also, the video capabilities are really appealing, and we’re just starting to see some of things that can be done right from within Photoshop (stuff that’s way beyond what I think Adobe ever intended), and that will appeal to a wide range of users.

Q: About those 3D tools… Is Adobe looking to use these to compete with full 3D programs like SketchUp and Maya?

Scott: I don’t think Adobe is trying to compete with those products on any level. What I think they’re shooting for is more compatibility with those products, so you’d use Photoshop Extended with SketchUp and Maya; not instead of SketchUp and Maya. If you’re doing 3D, you have Photoshop already, and this just makes the new version that much more compelling to serious 3D users.

Q: Your latest book focuses on Photoshop Lightroom, a separate Adobe application for pro photographers. What exactly does Lightroom do that Photoshop itself doesn’t, and why is it a separate program?

Scott: I think pretty much everything that Lightroom does is better than the same features in Photoshop CS3. For example, I think the Library module of Lightroom just blows away the CS3 Bridge. Don’t get me wrong; the CS3 Bridge is the best Bridge there’s ever been by far; it’s just that Lightroom’s Library module is that much better. Lightroom’s Develop Module has more features than even the latest version of Camera Raw in CS3. The slideshow module in Lightroom is far better than the Bridge’s limited slideshow capabilities, and the Web module in Lightroom creates easier, and has far better photo galleries than any version of Photoshop by a country mile.
The final module in Lightroom, the Print Module, is so much better than Photoshop’s printing capabilities, most folks I’ve talked with who buy Lightroom never print from Photoshop again. It’s just that much better.
The reason why it’s different [software] is that it was built from the ground up, from scratch, just for photographers with their workflow, their issues, their problems, and their solutions in mind.

Q: What do you aim to teach folks about the digital photography workflow in The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers (New Riders Press)?

Scott: My goal is to give them back the fun of digital photography, which has been slowly going away because of large life sizes, and the hassle of dealing with managing thousands of images. My job is to show them how Lightroom can speed their workflow up, so they spend less time on the boring, repetitive, mundane stuff (the fun-killing stuff), and more time on the fun, creative, exciting stuff that we got into this for in the first place.

Q: Do you ever use any non-Adobe apps for your digital photography work, like Apple Aperture?

Scott: I do use Aperture for one thing: printing books. Their online books rock, and Lightroom doesn’t have any built-in book feature. So I do everything in Lightroom, then export the photos, import them into Aperture, and layout my custom books. That is one area that Apple just has down.

Q: It seems you never stop writing and touring. What’s up next on your education agenda?

Scott: I just finished my “Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers” and I’m working on Volume 2 of my book, “The Digtial Photgraphy Book,” which is simply about how to take better photos (hint: it’s not about the camera).

Q: What question are you asked most by Photoshop users, and why do you think this question comes up so often?

Scott: The most frequent questions are always about how to work faster. I think that’s why Lightroom is so important. I think the reason it comes up so often is because file sizes, and the amount of photos we take, are both larger than ever. Working smarter and faster is a real concern, so we can do the three things we really love: (1) shooting (2) making prints, and (3) adding those fun finishing touches that drew us to editing our photos on computer in the first place.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 10:21 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.