Updates: Adobe Camera Raw 6.4, Lightroom 3.4

Adobe photography application icons

Adobe has released Camera Raw 6.4 and Lightroom 3.4. You can read about the new supported raw formats, new lens profiles, new cameras supported for tethered shooting, and the list of bug fixes in a blog post by Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty:

Lightroom Journal: Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 are now available

As usual, you can read the release notes and download the installers from

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/

or:

To update Photoshop and Camera Raw directly, start Photoshop and choose Help > Updates.

To update Lightroom directly, start Lightroom and choose Help > Updates.

Snow Leopard Font Update fixes OpenType font issues

Snow Leopard Font Update in Software Update

In Mac OS X 10.6.7, Apple introduced a bug where if you have a document containing OpenType fonts, and used the OS X PDF engine to generate a PDF, you could have trouble opening it in Adobe Acrobat or printing it to to a PostScript printer. Apple has now addressed the problem through the Snow Leopard Font Update.

This bug may seem obscure to some, but OpenType is a high-quality cross-platform font standard that professional designers rely on, so it was messing up some workflows. Also, OpenType fonts are bundled with some Adobe Creative Suite applications, so you may have those fonts on your computer even if you don’t remember installing them.

Download Snow Leopard Font Update

Read Snow Leopard Font Update release notes

Background on the Snow Leopard OpenType font problem

Understanding HDR Toning in Adobe Photoshop CS5: Peachpit.com article

Understanding HDR Toning in Adobe Photoshop CS5

Want to get the HDR look without having to shoot multiple exposures? You can do this with the new HDR Toning feature in Adobe Photoshop CS5, which lets you apply HDR-style controls to a single image. In an article I wrote for Peachpit.com, I explain how to use HDR Toning and some of the differences between HDR Toning and the multiple-image Merge to HDR Pro command. On top of that, I give you tips on how to prepare an image so that you get the most out of HDR Toning.

Click the link below to read the article at Peachpit.com:
Understanding HDR Toning in Adobe Photoshop CS5

This article is an expanded version of a topic in my book, Real World Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers (Adobe Press).

Photoshop CS5: Keyboard shortcut issue fixed by Mac OS X 10.6.7

Photoshop + Software Update = happy

Have you found that some keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop CS5 (Mac) haven’t been working? Or are some tools acting strangely, as if the Option or Shift keys were pressed? It turns out that Mac OS X 10.6.5 introduced a bug where modifier keys might stick; for example, you might always see the Hand tool, as if the spacebar was pressed, and you might be unable to switch away from the Hand tool. One way I experienced it was when I tried to press the Command and Spacebar keys to get the temporary Zoom tool, but nothing would happen.

The bug was also in Mac OS X 10.6.6, but Adobe reports that Apple finally fixed the problem in the Mac OS X 10.6.7 update. So while there have been various workarounds that involve tracking down software conflicts, now that Mac OS X 10.6.7 is out, the fastest and simplest solution is to download and install the Apple update. As usual, you can run Software Update to get the new version, or you can download the Combo installer from the link above.

While the problem isn’t mentioned in Apple’s release notes for 10.6.7, this issue is related to a change that Apple made to an API in Mac OS X 10.6.5, as explained in this forum post. A number of Mac applications were affected, but Photoshop was the most prominent one, and there are several threads discussing it on the Adobe User-to-User Forum for Photoshop.

Update: OpenType issues introduced with Mac OS X 10.6.7

Upgrading to 10.6.7 is no longer a no-brainer. Apple has apparently introduced a new bug related to OpenType fonts in PDF files generated by Mac OS X 10.6.7, so if you use OpenType fonts (and who wouldn’t, since they’re modern and cross-platform) you may have problems printing or rendering from them in 10.6.7. I suppose it comes down to whether it’s more important to you to have your keyboard shortcuts working in programs like Photoshop (in which case you’d upgrade to 10.6.7), or whether you need reliable handling of OpenType fonts (in which case you’d stick with 10.6.6).

(Update to this update: Apple has fixed this OpenType issue in the Snow Leopard Font Update, so make sure you run that update after updating to 10.6.7.)

Canon rebates update, March 2011

Canon has camera, lens, and printer rebates expiring in March 2011. Check the Canon Professional Imaging Promotions page. Some of them expire on March 19, so if you’re shopping, better get going…