A True Original
Time magazine won the 2009 World Press Photo of the Year. It can command as many as 40 million readers worldwide, if you include Web site readership. And yet, guess where the bomb and change jar in these covers for the March 30 and April 27, 2009, issues came from?

They're both from iStockphoto. "New frugality," indeed!

The change jar photographer, Robert Lam, seems pleased by the magazine's choice, despite the fact that Time paid iStockphoto just $125 for an extended license, and Robert received only a fraction of that.

I'm not so happy about it. I know times are tough for print publications. But if a magazine as large as Time doesn't commission original work from pro photographers, who will? If you feel the same, click on the video below to enjoy the process of Peter Belanger's custom cover shoot for the September 2009 issue of Macworld magazine.

Do you object to Time using microstock that anyone could afford, that could appear at any time in any ad for anything? And what about the photographers in these kinds of situations? Is the exposure worth the fact that they're not paid much? Sound off in the forums.

Terri Stone - Editor in Chief

Critique This!
Designer and blogger Lauren Krause should add "teacher" to her list of accomplishments -- reading this article, a critique of an ad series, is a great way to learn design principles that you can then apply to any project.

CSS Fundamentals
To describe your Web designs, you need to understand the syntax of CSS. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be speaking in CSS in no time. Jason Cranford Teague makes it all as simple as ABC.

Free For All: Just What You're Looking For
Pariah Burke has found Web 2.0 Photoshop layer styles; fire and flame textures and backgrounds; an InDesign image library plug-in; easy scheduled emails; and a service that displays a Web design in 90 different browsers. Of course, they're all free for you!

Related Reading: Drink at the fountain of freeness!

Scanning Around with Gene: You Too Can Be a Famous Artist
The Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut, cultivated thousands of would-be artists through its extensive advertising and Who’s Who faculty. While digging in a thrift store, Gene Gable found the school's brochures and a chicken farmer's admission application, all from 1956.

Related Reading: More illustration nostalgia.

Smooth Operator: Make More Flattering Portraits
No matter how attractive the person you're photographing, most people can benefit from a bit of digital tweaking. Ben Long explains how to smooth skin texture and add a little oomph using Photoshop, and how to speed up the process using the Portraiture 2.0 plug-in.

The before shot is on the left; after is on the right:

Related Reading: Here's another portrait retouching tutorial.

Adobe CS5 Will Run on Intel Macs Only

Free AutoFit for InDesign CS4 Available

Logo Redesigns Dissected

Trade in Pantone Guides for a $500 Rebate

Sophisticated Image Editing for the iPhone

Weekly Podcast: Newsworthy cameras, SWF products, Photoshop tips

Flickr Friday: Take a Trip to India

Fess up -- some of your repairs look like this, don't they? (Hat tip to Erica Gamet for the link.)

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