Though overall attendance has grown, event organizers said what has been most notable is the increase in the presence of digital photography at a show that previously had been the province of graphic artists.

Reflecting this increasing reality, Deb Whitman, vice president of product marketing for digital imaging at Adobe Systems Inc., used her keynote appearance to announce news for professional digital photographers.

First, she said, Adobe has updated its RAW image plug-in, adding support for almost a dozen new digital cameras, bringing the total to more than 70. She also announced that Adobe's proposed DNG (Digital Negative Specification) will be supported by camera manufacturers Leica Camera AG and Hasselblad USA Inc.

Publish.com took some photographs at Photoshop World. Click here to see them.

According to Dave Moser, chief operating officer at NAPP (the National Association of Photoshop Professionals), Photoshop World used to be attended by "100 percent graphic artists," whereas recent shows have seen a solid mix of designers and photographers interested in the show's three days of seminars. Moser added that this week's show had more than 3,000 registered attendees, up from about 2,000 at last year's Las Vegas edition.

At the show's Tech Expo floor, almost 80 exhibitors showed wares from Adobe, Microsoft Corp., video training companies and others. More than half hawked hardware targeted at photographers, from stock photo collections to photo laminations.

"There's absolutely more digital photography use of Photoshop,"said John Nock, product manager for Photoshop and ImageReady at Adobe. He noted that the application tends to reflect how people have used it. "In the '90s, it was Web design," he said. "But the last couple of years, the momentum has been around digital photography."

Both Robert Leong, director of business development at Extensis Inc., and Dan Harlacher, the company's product manager, agreed that digital photography is a growth market for Photoshop. Leong said Extensis saw a "record-breaking quarter" for its Photoshop plug-in products.

Leong said the reported increase in Windows-based Photoshop users does not really represent a "shift away from the Mac, but the market growing."

"As digital imaging is going more mainstream," he said, "we're seeing more home users picking up Photoshop."

Harlacher agreed, saying, "On the consumer side, there are more Windows users, though often advanced amateurs go from a PC to a Mac."

Nock noted that Photoshop has sold well to "a lot of folks at home, which you wouldn't expect" for a professionally priced application. "But for someone who goes with a $1,000 digital SLR camera, they want the most comprehensive image-editing application," he said.

He added that Adobe has been rolling into Photoshop features targeted at digital photographers. Nock noted Photoshop's file browser, the incorporation of the Camera RAW conversion application and contact sheets.

"Digital photography is the biggest growth for Photoshop right now," Nock said.

Giving support to Nock's assertion was David Leslie Johnston, art director at State Magazine, the official publication of the U.S. State Department. He said he attended Photoshop World to "brush up on his skills" and "to see that latest technology," such as new scanners.

Johnston said he uses Photoshop "a lot" for digital photography. Many images he uses in the magazine come from oversea posts and require retouching and masking.

In addition, Johnston said, many of his contributors are switching to digital cameras, though this doesn't reduce the "major work" he has to apply to them—using Photoshop.

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