Just got home, a great conference but very tiring.
So here is the scoop, Photoshop 8 is just rumors and nothing more, they are working on it but no plans anywhere in the near future, they have not fixed all the bugs in 7 yet, said they would have a few more upgrades on 7 before 8 is out but they did show a couple of goodies from 8 that will be features. Adobe is totally concentrating on Camera Raw their new program just released. Seemed pretty much digital photography was the main focus of everybodies attention there. All they could talk about was raw 16 bit inages and what you can do with them. The other significant interest was in Euro Collages, to hot to handle there, all the rage, all the focus. Some scanning stuff alot of color correction info, very little photo restoration, some digital art. Everything was digital photography and Euro collages, all that you heard being discussed.
The gossip was about how many companies were downsizing their computer departments, need so fewer employees to do the same work now much quicker and things like photo restoration being ruined by everybody who learns a little Photoshop thinking they can have a photo restoration business.

Thanks for the report.

What's a Euro collage?

It is where you start with a blank layer and put some color on it and then manipulate it with filters to make your own background and then they make some technological looking thing as a focus and then use type and other little bits and pieces (shapes) to add in, all this is done in a collage fashion, you see it a lot on magazine adds, TV. Basically a collage but with out photos or if they use a photo it is totally distorted to where you would never know what it was a photo of.

Platscha, thanks for the info -- every year I wish I could go, so I like to hear what it was like.

Were there workshops that particularly interested you, or helped you? I'm guessing that you're NOT into European collages or Raw format photos "yet"? DPreview had Adobe's RAW plug-in info also, but it'll be a while before I have any need for it, I think.

After hearing and seeing what an unbelievable difference it is in your digital shooting, that was the first thing I purchased and actually I found the euro collages very fun once you got into it. I think overall you just learn alot of neat things you were not aware of and of course you get to see the newest things on the market or soon to come which is fun.
The best part for me was on Thurs night, they have a "challenge" party called mid night madness that starts at !2:00 mid night until a little after 2 in the morning, only 200 people get in, it is first come get in thing. Any way the different instructors get up and do something, trying to out class every body else, show them something that maybe nobody else knows, each does one and then they open up to the audience, you can go up and do a demo, well this year it was a 12 year old kid and he was so good, he out did all the instructors, Deke McCelland, Monroy, Kelby, Jack Davis, all of them, it was just so neat, of course he won and what made it so nice was on Friday, in every class the instructors were talking about this "smart ass kid" that showed them all up, he will be doing a tutorial in Photoshop User Mag next month.

this year it was a 12 year old kid and he was so good, he out did all the instructors, Deke McCelland, Monroy, Kelby, Jack Davis, all of them

WoW! Imagine that - do you remember anything he did? I may have to renew my NAPP membership to see his article. :)

Sure i remember, it was so simple but so effective. He started with a blank doc, went to the gradient tool, set the modeto difference, picked a gradient or make your own and also does not matter what type gradient, linear, radial, what ever. Just start making little gradients on the page, just short-med clicks and each time the look changes dramatically. Then when you sort of like the look go to filter>styllize>find edges and apply.
It gives the unreal background or surreal looking painting. You can do others filters as well. The point of the challenge was first to be a quick one and then something everybody didn't know or had not seen some where before. Just something simple that was W O W ! Well this was it. Actually the other good one, the runner up to this was a guy took a photo and to create depth of field he used gausian blurr, but you can't just do gausian blur in one step so he broke it down into about 8 or so steps, adjusting the amount each time and it was really spetaculor, he was the front runner to win until the kid got up there.