Adobe Photoshop

A Brief History of the Lens Flares Technique — and the End of Film

Capsule ARt Reviews: "Cruz Ortiz: I Speak Lightning," "Farewell Ruins: Julia Haft-Candell and Julia Kunin," "Janice Jakielski: Constructing Solitude," "John Cage: Prints, Drawings, and a Music Box," "Jonathan Leach: Time Does Not Exist Here," "Lisa L

Capsule Art Reviews: "Greg Miller: Over Time," "Janice Jakielski: Constructing Solitude," "Joshua Goode: Origin of Myth," "Lisa Ludwig: Black Black Forest," "Maggie Taylor: No Ordinary Days"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Joshua Goode: Origin of Myth," "Mac Whitney: Sculptures and Paintings," "Maggie Taylor: No Ordinary Days," "Mie Olise: Crystal Bites of Dust," "The Progress of Love," "Rosa Loy: Souvenir," "Wilo Vargas: Hierophany and Pareidolia"

Found Art: A Collection Of NBA All-Star Party Flyers From The Streets Of Downtown Houston

Yes, these were picked up off the ground along 100 yards of Polk near the Toyota Center, including a cool one from the City Of Houston about parking. The flyers are for parties, parties, and more parties, with appearances by Diddy, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Gary Payton, Jay-Z, Casey Anthony, Cassi ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Ewan Gibbs: Arlington National Cemetery," "[Houston Times Eight]," "Kathryn Kelley: "The uncontrollable nature of grief and forgiveness (or lack of)," "Mac Whitney: Sculptures and Paintings," "Maggie Taylor: No Ordinary Days"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Claes Oldenburg: Strange Eggs," "Common Objects," "Ewan Gibbs: Arlington National Cemetery," "Maggie Taylor: No Ordinary Days,"

App of the Week: Camera Awesome, the Most...Um...Awesome Photo App Ever

App: Camera Awesome Platform: iPhone, iPad Website: Awesomize.com Cost: Free I've reviewed a number of camera/photography apps in this space. It comes with being a photographer who appreciates technology. I wanted a digital SLR camera as soon as one hit the market and I enjoy shooting photos with m ... More >>

Best-Selling Single Of All Time "Candle In The Wind 1997" Turns 15 Years Old

Re-written in the wake of his friend Princess Diana's car accident death on August 31, 1997, Elton John's "Candle In The Wind" was merely a maudlin tribute to Marilyn Monroe before tragedy struck. Diana died from her wounds in a Paris road tunnel crash, along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and the d ... More >>

Alternatives to Five of the Pricier Software Titles

The Business Software Alliance announced last week that it had come to an agreement with local business Affordable Power, LP, to settle legal claims that the company pirated software titles. According to the release: As part of the settlement, Affordable Power agreed to pay $150,000 to settle legal ... More >>

Life in the Cloud: The Complications and Conveniences of a Connected World

Over the last year or so, I've grown increasingly aware of and interested in the idea of life without a hard drive. My existence is, admittedly, a bit unique. I spend a lot of time on my laptop; in fact, it is my main computer. When I'm in my office, it is connected to a big monitor for convenience, ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "CTRL group two," "Elixir," "Neurotic," "Space Zombie Mayan Apocalyptic Human Sacrifice Uplift Mofo Party Plan Spring Break 2012"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Between Heaven and Home," "Gunplay," "Layers," "Neurotic," "Pictures and Words"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Neurotic," "The Cowboy Spirit: Faces of the American West," "The Livable Forest," "Pictures and Words," "Push Play," "Thin Places"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Gunplay," "Neurotic," "The Livable Forest," "Perspectives 177: McArthur Binion"

7 Insane Foods We'd Like to See At the Rodeo

Every year at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, it seems like the food just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Fried Oreos? Pizza on a stick? Zany! And yet somehow it just doesn't go far enough. We thought up some ideas to truly shatter the border between flavor and insanity. With any luck, some ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "New Formations: Czech Avant-Garde Art and Modern Glass from the Roy and Mary Cullen Collection," "New Paintings: Geoff Hippenstiel," "Perspectives 177: McArthur Binion," "Peter Massing: Time After Time," "Sherrie Levine: Selected

Google Shuttering Popular Photo Editing Tool Picnik: Top 8 Alternatives

Google announced that as of April 19, it will shut down Picnik, an online photo editing tool acquired by the company in 2010, and bundle some of the editing tools into their over-arching Google platform. The staff of Picnik remains with Google and apparently is working to add features from the edit ... More >>

Looks Can Be Deceiving at PG Contemporary

David Lozano's paintings lie to you. In "Since I've Been Away," his solo show at PG Contemporary's new space, there's image after image of psychedelic patterns of blues, magentas and greens. These ribboned, weaving or spastic splashes of color stretch out, like pours of paint, over fuzzed-out, blown ... More >>

Six Examples of Really Bad Mixtape Cover Art

​When Das Racist came to Fitzgerald's this past October, we got to chat with the subject of this Frida Kahlo knockoff painting: Lakutis. While standing on the upstairs balcony before they went on stage, the group's hypeman's hypeman told us that MishkaNYC was putting out his very first mixtape ... More >>

Happy 31st Birthday, Turducken: 8 Foods Born in 1980

Thirty-one is officially too old to try to learn how to use Photoshop.​Tomorrow, on 11-11-11, I will turn 31 years old. Last year, for my 30th birthday, my uncle sent me a Facebook message that contained only the following Pink Floyd quote and a "Happy Birthday" at the end: So you run and you ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Collections: Annual HSPVA Juried Show," "Crafting Live(s): 10 Years of Artists-In-Residence," "Hayden Fosdick: Paper Compounds," Marc Swanson: The Second Story, "Mitch Dobrowner: New Work," "R.W. Northcutt: Indigenous Genius"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Collections: Annual HSPVA Juried Show" "Crafting Live(s): 10 Years of Artists-In-Residence" "Hayden Fosdick: Paper Compounds" Marc Swanson: The Second Story "Mitch Dobrowner: New Work" "R.W. Northcutt: Indigenous Genius" "Use Your Il

Capsule Art Reviews: "Collections: Annual HSPVA Juried Show", "Dan Kopp: TIMEAWAY" and "Josh Bernstein: Galveston", Hardbodies, Marc Swanson: The Second Story, Mitch Dobrowner: New Work, Musicians Who Make Art

Five Tips for Shooting Food Photos with Your iPhone

Photo by hirotomoThe iPhone really can take good photos if done correctly.​Lots of you like snapping photos of your food while preparing it or after it is served. Most of the time, that means using a point-and-shoot digital camera or something nicer if you have it despite the weird looks of wa ... More >>

Bread People

​ If you want a quick tutorial in the breads and pastries of the world, look no further than Bread People on Tumblr. If you have ever wanted to sound cultured about chewy and flaky carbs at the next food event, just picture some of these famous faces in your head. Bread People is an online pi ... More >>

Top 12 Sexiest Christmas Album Covers

​Above is the cover of the new Christmas single by once-popular barroom grunge act Buckcherry. We have to say, we like it a lot better than we like their music. It continues a tradition of sexy yuletide album covers, which Rocks Off is proud to document for your ogling pleasure. We'll try to ... More >>

Eight Halloween Ideas For Today's Hottest Pop Stars

Photo Illustrations by Monica FuentesJohn Mayer as Justin Bieber​Halloween is only a little over a week away, and the spirit of the season is in the air. Rocks Off knows everyone has already picked out their costumes: Girls are starving themselves to fit into that slutty nurse or cop uniform, ... More >>

Musical Moms That Make Us Melt

​ With Mother's Day fast approaching, we can't help but recognize all the hot rocker mamas out there making music and babies. It can't be easy to write the next great pop song and have a tiny human being inside you sucking nutrients from your body, in the process girding their loins for making you ... More >>

Idol Beat: Lennon-McCartney, Weak

"Paul, I'm starting to wish we'd never written these songs."​There was no mentor this week on American Idol, though I find myself pining for one when I realized that that meant this week's taped bits would be the kind of cheesy and unfeeling montages in which the contestants talk about how muc ... More >>

American Idol: Lennon-McCartney, Weak

"Paul, I'm starting to wish we'd never written these songs."​There was no mentor this week on American Idol, though I find myself pining for one when I realized that that meant this week's taped bits would be the kind of cheesy and unfeeling montages in which the contestants talk about how muc ... More >>

New On The Net: Scorn For NASA Having A Little Fun

​What's hot on the web today? Making fun of NASA for goofy mission posters.Gizmodo got its hands on mission posters made for internal NASA use -- they're on the web at the agency's Space Flight Awareness page -- and went to town."NASA Mission Posters Are Hilariously Painful," reads the headline, a ... More >>

Beyonce: Not Just Dangerously In Love, Dangerous To Your Computer

Daniel Kramer​Via the Houston site of examiner.com, anti-viral software company McAfee ranks Beyonce near the top of celebrities for whom Internet searches are likely to lead to pages containing spyware, viruses or other technology-borne maladies. Searching Beyonce and other boldfaced names like J ... More >>

The Likely Conspiracies Behind The Katy ISD Counterfeit Ring

Various news outlets reported Wednesday that the Katy Independent School District received 10 reports of counterfeit bills passed in school cafeterias in the past couple of months. These include several high schools and an elementary school.Steve Stanford, district spokesperson for KISD, tells Hair ... More >>

First Tuesdays at the Houston Center for Photography

What if Annie Leibovitz had stayed home?

Frank Olson and Mike Field

Artists compute abstract art

Photoshop Phun At The Baylor College Of Medicine

The wonders of Photoshop are bountiful -- they let Sooner football fans taunt UT; they allow people to make bold, trenchant analysis of the current socio-political world by showing George Bush in his "Mission Accomplished" flightsuit in unlikely settings; they probably have something to do with lolc ... More >>

Change We Can't Believe In

Meet & Greet The Real (Art) World Residents

Artists Maria Guzman, Tina Kotrla, Kia Neill and Eric Zapata do the grip-and-grin at DiverseWorks

“Shoot from the Hip”

Artstorm offers up some interesting photo processes

Drenched In Blog: Thom Yorke Presents WTF Friday

Channel Surfing

There's more than one way to play with your Wii

Law of Averages

Jason Salavon sets his computer in motion and sits back to see what it tells us about ourselves

Picture Perfect

Digital technology blurs the real, the imagined and the meaning of photos as art