The Photoshop Nuts – Letters to Santa

Dear Santa,

There’s something I’ve been asking for for some time but you seem to think I’ve been too naughty, a Wacom Cintiq 12WX. I know I don’t need one, and that I’m not talented enough to really put it through it’s paces but it makes me drool every time I see one. Don’t get me wrong, the Intuos is lovely, but it doesn’t excite me like the Cintiq.

I know I should try and get a decent picture with a standard lens but I’d love to have a Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 so that I could have a real go at Tilt – Shift.

Finally, if you could sway things, I’d really love all the Nuts to get together next year and have a beer or two. If you could drop a plane / train ticket in their stockings that would be awesome! I’d invite all our readers to come along too of course, we could have a Photoshop party!

Dear Santa,

How ya doin? How’s the wife? The Reindeer? The Little People? I’ve been good – no, really, I have! Lots-o-stuff good! Honest!

First on my list this Christmas is a Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner. Not for me, because I already have one, but for all my friends! See, Santa, even if they think they don’t need one of these, they really, really do! They will find so many uses for this nifty little bit of goodness that it will amaze them all, not the least of which is the ability to sit in front of the T.V. watching their favorite edifying shows whilst scanning on their family photos at the same time! For real! Finally, no excuses to get those photos scanned and archived for all those future generations! Talk about Peace on Earth!

So now that I’ve taken care of my friends, here’s what I want this year. I’d like OnOne Software’s Perfect Resize 7. I’ve loved Genuine Fractals from the very beginning and have said, over and over, that it’s my one must have plugin. It takes the resizing abilities of Photoshop to the next level, and beyond!

The only other things I’d like for Christmas, Mr. Claus, would be a corporate sponsor or two, and maybe the opportunity to try a couple really great photo / negative scanners. Oh, and that Peace on Earth thing…

Be careful not to step in any Reindeer poop!

Janine Smith

Dear Santa

I know you’re busy and I know I should be grateful for anything I get in my stocking, but if you’re stuck for ideas. Please find below my Christmas list.

Software… After last year where you accidentally left me a copy of Paintshop Pro, I think we’d better avoid any software this year. However if you could get me on the Photoshop beta testing team that would be nice.

Computer… Lets keep it simple. Can I have an iPad please. To be honest I don’t know why I want one or what I‘d do with it, but everyone else seems to have one so they must be good.

Camera Body… I understand Canon will be bring out a replacement for the 5d Mark 2 fairly soon, so one of those would be good. You’re welcome to take my broken Canon 20D in part exchange if that helps.

Lens… I really need a 17-400 f2.8 IS lens that’s compact, weather proof, and painted white. If you can’t do that a Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS will just have to do.

Gavin Hoey

Dear Santa…

I suppose the D3S and 200mm f2 are out of the question again? Yes? Oh well, there is always next year. So I need to come up with something that is both affordable and useful and it has to be sort of Photoshop/Lightroom biased. Well let me introduce, at number one on my wishlist, the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport. This little baby helps create unique camera profiles for you.

What, I hear you asking, are camera profiles? These are ways that Lightroom will interpret your Raw images and for some strange reason, Adobe see fit to hide them away in the bottom palette in the Develop module. How the ColorChecker works is that you take a photograph of it in a shoot and when you upload the images to your computer you use the included X-Rite software to analyse the photograph of the ColorChecker and create an individual camera profile for that situation, correcting white balance, colour etc. Obviously if you change the lighting or move location you need to take another reference shot but the process is easy as the ColorChecker is quite small and the software is quick and easy to use. So Santa, if you are listening, yes please.

Richard Hales

Dear St. Nick,

I realize space on your sleigh is limited and Reindeer fuel prices have shot through the roof, but if you could find a way, I’d certainly appreciate a new Epson Stylus Pro 4900 printer under my tree this year. With new wide-gamut HDR inks, support for 16×20 format and easy switching between glossy and matte setups, my prints will never be the same. Green and orange inks, Nick… Green and Orange!

Sincerely,
Dan Moughamian

My gift suggestion for creatives this year is get yourself a tablet. It doesn’t matter if you grab an iPad, Playbook, Streak, Tab or any number of contenders. You’ll benefit from having your portfolio on hand wherever you go. Whether you’re a photographer, graphic designer, web specialist, video engineer, or simply enjoy multimedia, tablets are the presentation devices of today. Not to mention they’re a great replacement for everyday computing, e.g., email, web browsing.

I have only had my iPad for three weeks, and it’s already paid for itself 10x over. My only regret is I didn’t grab one earlier this year. You can tell me my gift idea wasn’t very original, but with over 3 million tablets already out there, it’s okay to be a little bland this season.

AJ Wood