Adobe Introduces Photoshop Express

Recently Adobe introduced Photoshop Express, a free online version of photoshop where anyone can create an account and edit their pictures. You can only edit your own pictures if you create an account, but it is free so why not. If you just want to check it out, there is an option to test drive the feature. But not only can’t you use your own images in test drive, but you can’t save either.

After you choose to take a test drive, click on ‘My Pictures’ to choose a photo to play with. Just double click it and you will be able to edit it. It’s really easy to get started, just click something on the sidebar on your left, play with the options that appear on top of the picture, then click the green check mark to modify your photo. You can also choose the orange undo arrow to undo changes or the red ‘x’ to cancel changes. After taking a quick look you will see that Photoshop Express is no replacement for the full Photoshop version, but it seems like it will be great for non-designers to quickly edit their pictures without any technical training needed. It seems perfect for MySpacers to add artsy effects to their self-portraits and for Moms to do simple photo retouching to family pictures.

But back to the test drive. Here is a runthrough of the features and what you can do with them:

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A Sport for Design Geeks: Layer Tennis

I just discovered Coudal Partners’ Layer Tennis this week and it is awesome.   Layer Tennis is a competition of two artists.  It’s basically sending an image back and forth and changing it.  It’s starts with a ’serve’ image then continues for 10 ‘volleys’.  They have 15 minutes to return the volley and it has to either have something to do with the same theme as the last image (or movie.  Layer Tennis is also played with Adobe Flash and After Effects) or use the same imagery.  Then at the end of the competition a winner is announced.

Two of my favorite artists played this week, Cindy Li and Veerle Pieters.  A winner won’t be announced until Monday, but I’m thinking it’s going to be Veerle.  We will see.