October 23, 2007: It started at Photoplus Expo (PPE) as a tickle in the back of my throat and the occasional cold chill. By today, I’ve spent half the day in bed and just want to mainline some Nyquil. So, sorry for not blogging earlier about all the cool stuff I saw at PPE, but it’s one of those weeks where if I can’t do it while I’m sleeping, I’m just not that interested.

Still, I’ll push past the pain and let you know that, incipient flu-like symptoms aside, I had a ball at PPE. Not as much fun as I would have had if Michael had come along, but a good time nonetheless. Here are some of the new and interesting things I saw (I’ll be talking more about these on the next few shows, and there will be some contests and give-aways as well).

OnOne Software’s New Programs Rock The House: OnOne was bringing it on with a couple of new and/or updated programs. The one that blew my socks off was PhotoTools. It’s a Photoshop plug-in that soups up your ability to apply and stack actions and filters. It’s also a great workspace where you can do almost all of your image-editing with easier-than-Photoshop tools. It incorporates a bunch of actions from Jack Davis and DPS favorite Kevin Kubota that really give your shots a professional and artistic feel. OnOne was also showing a very intuitive color-correction program called PhotoTune and an updated/upgrade version of PhotoFrame. You’ll hear more about these when we interview OnOne’s Mike Wong on an upcoming show.

Everyone Loves Wacom: The Wacom booth was insane with people trying to get their hands on tablets. Especially the Cintiqs, the tablets that are also a monitor: You draw and edit right on your image. Wow. I’ve never been to a photo show where people weren’t standing in line to get to the Wacom displays.

The Ubiquitous Rick Sammon: Rick was everywhere – it was nuts. Off the top of my head, I can remember he was doing presentations for MPIX, Lexar and xTrain. At the MPIX booth, I was standing at the back of the booth watching him talk about his photographs when the woman next to me whispered “His pictures are really good – does he have a website?” I told her to go to www.RickSammon.com. “Oh, that’s Rick Sammon?” she asked. “I know him. He’s cute!”

The Adobe Press Event: This year, I was again lucky to be invited to Adobe’s special press event. They always have them in a fabulous restaurant and this year was no exception – thanks, Grayz! Kevin Connor from Adobe gave us a sneak peek of Photoshop Express – Adobe’s still-in-development web-based image editing program. It makes heavy use of Flash technology to provide you with online photo editing (did you know that Adobe acquired Flash? I didn’t’). The program looked very cool. Even though it’s still in development, with a few rough spots, you could see the potential. It has more of a consumer-level Photoshop Elements feel than a true Photoshop vibe, but, hey, for a web-based program? Amazing. It really did look and operate like a desktop program. Very robust and feature-filled. How much longer will we be buying disc-based software, anyway?

Nik Color Efex 3.0 Gives You Results You Can See: Michael and I both have Color Efex 2.0, and the only thing we would have improved about the program was the preview window. We’ve talked on-air about how we found it a little too small to be truly effective. All that’s changed with version 3.0 which has a much bigger preview window. It also has a bunch of new filters and it uses Nik’s very cool U Point technology to precisely fine tune your effects.

Hip Photographer David Jay: I interviewed him for the show – this depressingly young entrepreneur (he’s 28 - kill me now!) has not only been ranked in the top fifteen wedding photographers in the world, but he also markets his own software and Lightroom plug-ins. David’s either an incredibly nice and sincere guy or he’s very good at faking it. He’s another one that was featured by a lot of different companies at the show. I bet he becomes another Friend of the Show. Although I have to say that he has one of those very nifty Flash-based websites where I can can’t find a darn thing that I want to.

The Super-Hot Nikon D3 – I didn’t get to play with the new Nikon D300 at the show, but I did have 20 minutes with the pro-level D3. I wish Michael were there! Not being familiar with Nikon’s interface, I had a hard time handling it. I can tell you it’s a very substantial camera – it feels as solid as a tank and only slightly less heavy. There are a million buttons and dials, including what appeared to be a microphone and record button. Can I podcast from my camera? Unfortunately, the guy from Nikon who was showing me around it was also unfamiliar with it – he couldn’t figure out how to change the ISO! That being said, it looks like an incredible piece of equipment, and the high-resolution LCD makes a huge difference in judging whether or not your shot is in focus.

Bling It, Baby!: Vertus Software showed a very impressive program called Bling It that does a very specific job: It makes your product shots look extraordinary, especially if you’re posting them on Ebay or another online auction site. Although I’m sure there are other uses from the program – which automates the task of masking your main subject out from the background and jazzing it up with text and special effects – it obvious application is to pimp out your Ebay auctions. It’s a consumer-level version of their very powerful Fluid Mask program. As one of the principals of Vertus told me, it’s all about the democratization of the technology – putting fantastically powerful tools into the hands of anyone willing to spend five minutes learning the program.

The Slim and Sexy ShootSac: Saying that we don’t feature enough products that appeal primarily to women, listener Leslie pointed me towards the booth for the Shootsac, a very light, well-made and useful shoulder bag that lives to carry and protect your lenses. It’s for the active shooter who’s holding and using his or her camera and wants quick access to different lenses. In its basic black version, it can be carried by anyone, but I can see why woman – or fashion-conscious men – would be attracted to its interchangeable cover. ShootSac offers a bunch of very attractive and stylish fabric covers to match your every outfit. You can even send them fabric for your own custom-made cover. It reminds me of that scene in Mel Brook’s High Anxiety where super-stylish Madeline Kahn is wearing a matching plaid suit, shoes and bag, and the camera pulls back to reveal she’s just gotten out of a coordinating plaid car.

Rock Stars Scott Kelby and Gary Fong: I wasn’t shocked that Scott Kelby was mobbed when he presented on the Kelbytraining stage at the show. I assume he was talking about his new Photoshop Seven-Point System – I couldn’t get close enough to tell! But I know that Scott has a huge following, so it wasn’t exactly news to see him in front of an overflow crowd.

But I was surprised that the other person who had people lining up to see him and his products was Gary Fong. Gary is a photographer who has a line of flash-lighting accessories as well as a bunch of other tools primarily geared towards the wedding photographer. I’d have to say his was consistently the busiest booth I saw …people were standing three and four deep to get to the long counter. Gary’s a very interesting guy – we’re going to try and get him on the show.

So, that’s it for my initial impressions. We’ll feature audio I taped at the show over the next few episodes, and I’ll tell you more about the products and photographers I saw at PPE. Now, I’m off to bed again. Cough, cough.

Scott

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