Adobe MAX 2023 Recap: Photoshop Creativity & Magic for Beginners ✨

Shout out to my friend Laura Coyle for snapping and sending this pic of my banner in the revolving speaker gallery! I never was able to see it in person… 😂

At last year’s MAX, I had to run (RUN!) directly from my session to catch my flight home. This year I cut myself some slack and flew out the day after which gave me the chance to mill around outside the LACC and soak up every last drop of inspiration and joy.

I taught three hands-on sessions in a fabulous lab with 75 workstations where we explored Photoshop Creativity and Magic for Beginners. We created a composite, dabbled in some AI features, then brought the whole thing to life as an animated GIF—all with a seasonally appropriate spooky theme. Good times! 👻

The feedback on the various session evaluations made my heart soar. 💖 The hours (and hours!) that go into crafting the session and workbook were rewarded with cheers, laughter, and a genuinely great time for all.

It was amazing to be supported by a fantastic team of Adobe managers, engineers, and product developers. Getting the inside scoop/backstory on the peculiarities of how certain features came to be the way they are is endlessly fascinating. Eye opening and mind-blowing at the same time!

Recently, I joined the Adobe Community of Experts and have been blown away by the passion, creativity, and team spirit of everyone involved, especially Sil Cleary whose enthusiasm and community-building prowess inspires me to new heights.

I’ve been at this for over two decades and every single day I pinch myself in disbelief (and with tremendous gratitude) that I have the privilege of being part of this industry and getting to play in the sandbox with so many inspiring humans. My cup is full and I’m ready to brew up more goodness to share!

Free Mask Wear & Care Printable

Making masks to give or sell? Make sure people know how to wear and care for them with this free printable!

I Made a Font!

After years of admiring well crafted fonts from a distance, I decided to get up close and personal by creating my own. The result is Happy Thoughts, a hand printed typeface with extras like ligatures, stylistic alternates, and multi-lingual support. You can grab it for just $12 at Creative Market or in my shop. Happy fonting!

Coming Soon to CreativeLive

I've got several new courses in the works for CreativeLive! One is about working with Adobe Spark, another is about creating Stylized Portraits in Photoshop, and the third is about working with Adobe Stock in Illustrator.

Here are a few images from the different projects we'll be creating—I hope you'll join me and follow along! The courses will be broadcast live on Tuesday, September 25th, after which you'll find them among my others in the CreativeLive course catalog.

The Enthusiast's Guide

Great news for shutter bugs everywhere, my good friends at Rockynook publishing have put together a series of books specifically for beginning photographers called The Enthusiast's Guide. It includes books on creating multi-shot techniques by Alan Hess, a guide to portraiture by Jarod Fosters, and a book on composition from yours truly. The series will be released this October. Good things to come!

Tackle Album Design Like a Boss

Alright people. It's a new year and wedding season will be upon us shortly (or may be already—depending on what part of the world you're in). The time to get a grip on your design/production workflow is now, before you get bogged down and fall behind, promising yourself you'll do a better next year.

If you're headed to WPPI next week, join me at 3pm on Wednesday for Wicked Fast Albums and get a grip on the chaos once and for all! I'll show you the basics of InDesign so you can rock not only albums (in record time), but studio marketing materials, ebooks, and even ipad apps! (What?!) For real.

And, I have a ton of great prizes from folks like Adobe, MpixPro, Finao, AsukaBook, Triple Scoop Music, Adorama, Kelly Moore Bags, and of course—Peachpit Press, RockYourWorkflow, and Banti Album Proofing.

Plus—free hugs to those who need 'em. Let's do this! Who's with me?

Thirst Relief Mentor Auction

I'm honored to be participating in Thirst Relief International's annual Mentor Auction again this year. If you're not already familiar with Thirst Relief and the amazing work they do, prepare to be blown away.

Their mission is to "overcome death and disease resulting from the consumption of contaminated water by providing safe, clean drinking water to those in need around the world."

Founded in 2005, Thirst Relief operates in nine countries to launch sustainable water projects in impoverished rural areas and urban slum communities.  100% of public donations go to their various water projects and amazingly—$5 provides 25 yrs. of clean water for one person.

Want to get in on the action and give yourself something to feel really great about? Make a donation to one of their projects —OR— get your bidding on to win a 90-minute mentoring session with yours truly (along with a copy of my Wicked Fast Wedding Workflow Guide and my InDesign Tutorial Video)!

Check out this video to learn more about the work they do, then feel awesome while you set the auction bids on fire! I'm looking forward to connecting with the highest bidder!

PS: Better hurry!  Bidding closes Sunday night (Feb. 3rd) at 10pm CST!

Thirst Relief Short from Anton Lorimer on Vimeo.