Among the most anticipated events at this week's Photoshop World conference was the announcement of this year's Guru Awards.

In a special ceremony during Tuesday's opening keynote event, the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) awarded 10 winners out of the 200 or so people estimated by John Kelby, director of NAPP, to have entered.

The Guru Awards featured eight specific categories and then a best-of-show award, as well as the Vincent Versace Award for Photographic Excellence, into which all photography candidates automatically were entered.

According to Kelby, a combination of students and Photoshop professionals of different stripes entered the competition.

He did note, however, that although some of the winners were professionals, many potential professional entrants probably did not have time to apply.

A panel of Photoshop experts and NAPP members judged the considered works. According to NAPP's Web site, each entry was judged 30 percent on the applicant's use of Photoshop, 30 percent on originality and artistic skills and 40 percent on the work's overall impact.

Winners must agree to allow NAPP and its affiliates to use their work to promote various promotional campaigns without their permission and without being compensated.

Winners, however, do receive exposure in Photoshop User, NAPP's official publication, along with prominent exposure on the Expo floor during the course of the conference.

For her part, Jennifer Ricker, winner of the Web Design category, said that winning the Guru was a huge honor for her, given that NAPP is the largest graphics-related association in the world. She said it is a great community of which to be part.

"I used Photoshop for every step of the project, from manipulating scanned images and digital photography that I collaged, to experimenting with Photoshop filters and Photoshop brushes I've made over the past few years. "I was able to use Photoshop to layer and merge all my ideas together to make one single [unified] creation," Ricker said.

Ricker, who works for Left Ear Design, an interactive design firm based in Jacksonville, Fla., said she has been a Web designer for five years, adding that she was mostly self-taught.

"I began using Photoshop to create Web graphics and Web design projects for my own use, [and] I became fascinated with the possibilities that digital artwork holds with such a powerful program," Ricker said.

"[I] soon found myself working as a freelance Web designer, working hard to expand my creative skills in every spare moment I could find."

The winners of this year's Guru Awards are:

• Artistic—Gabriel Naylor
• Commercial—Corey Barker
• Illustration—Warren Stanek
• Photography—Peter Christoph
• Photo Montage—Louis Leibowits
• Photo Retouch—Eduardo Rizo
• Restoration—Michael Dean
• Web Design—Jennifer Ricker
• Best of Show—Ozzie Ciliberti
• Vincent Versace Award for Photographic Excellence—Glauco Frizzera