Adobe releases Creative Suite 5, the newest version of its popular suite of applications. Included with this suite is Photoshop, the industry standard app for editing and manipulating images and the most popular app among design professionals. Photoshop CS5 marks the 12th version of the popular software package and is the latest version in the application's 20-year history.
Weeks ago, Adobe gave us the opportunity to test out their latest product and some of the exciting new features that come with it. Like you, we were impressed with some of the teaser videos that we saw in the lead up to the launch so we were excited to finally test them out for ourselves and see if the new version lived up to the hype.
Ultimately, we found that Photoshop CS5 is the most powerful version of the app to date, but, is it worth an upgrade or is this just another attempt to from Adobe to raid our wallets? In the following Photoshop CS5 Review we will summarize some of the new features available in Adobe Photoshop CS5, try them out, and see if an upgrade to Photoshop CS5 is really worth the hefty price tag.
Content Aware Fill
The Content Aware Fill feature was by far the most impressive and talked about feature in the lead up to the launch of Photoshop CS5. Like you, we saw the videos demonstrating this feature at Photoshop World 2010 so we were really excited to try this feature out in particular.
If you are just now hearing about Content Aware Fill, Content Aware Fill is sort of like a combination of the Patch Tool and the Spot Healing Brush; except on steroids. It examines the area around a selection and replaces it based on what it decides is a good match. For instance, let's say you wanted to remove an object from a photo. In the past, you would have had to use the Clone Tool, the Patch Tool, or the Spot Healing Brush to manually remove that object. Those tools work really well if the object is surrounded by similar textures and surfaces but if there is a lot of overlap, you may be in trouble. Content Aware Fill does this automatically.
After a bit of experimentation we found that we really liked this tool. It is exceptionally easy to figure out. Just create a selection with the Lasso, Marquee, or any other selection method and hit your Delete key. Photoshop will throw up a dialogue box, which will enable you to choose Content Aware Fill. Once you hit OK, Photoshop will automatically detect the content surrounding your selection and produce a fill based on your selection.
sestdiena, 2010. gada 17. aprīlis
Photoshop CS5 Comes as a bit of a suprise
At a time when most creative software seems to be stuck in a rut, Photoshop CS5 comes as a bit of a surprise. It’s packed with startlingly impressive new features, some of which herald a significant leap for the sophistication of image-editing software. Considering that Photoshop CS4 was already so mature, elegant and stacked to the rafters with powerful features, this update exceeds our highest expectations.
Before we get too carried away, let’s take a look at the more down-to-Earth improvements. Photoshop is now available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions; we measured a performance boost of up to 40 per cent when comparing the two versions on a Windows 7 64-bit PC with 8GB RAM, although some tests only showed a six per cent increase.
RAW processing benefits from more sophisticated noise reduction. Lens correction includes automatic correction of distortions, chromatic aberrations and vignetting, all calculated by referencing photos’ EXIF data against profiles for various SLR lenses. The profile database is currently pretty small but that should improve with time. A new Mixer Brush delivers an interesting hybrid between painting and smudging, and works well with the new Bristle Tips, which emulate a variety of natural paintbrush shapes.
The most impressive new feature is Content-Aware Fill, which crops up as an innocuous looking button in the Spot Healing Brush’s options. This brush was already invaluable for removing dust spots, bits of rubbish and skin blemishes, pasting the texture from a nearby area and colour-matching it to its new surroundings.
Before we get too carried away, let’s take a look at the more down-to-Earth improvements. Photoshop is now available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions; we measured a performance boost of up to 40 per cent when comparing the two versions on a Windows 7 64-bit PC with 8GB RAM, although some tests only showed a six per cent increase.
RAW processing benefits from more sophisticated noise reduction. Lens correction includes automatic correction of distortions, chromatic aberrations and vignetting, all calculated by referencing photos’ EXIF data against profiles for various SLR lenses. The profile database is currently pretty small but that should improve with time. A new Mixer Brush delivers an interesting hybrid between painting and smudging, and works well with the new Bristle Tips, which emulate a variety of natural paintbrush shapes.
The most impressive new feature is Content-Aware Fill, which crops up as an innocuous looking button in the Spot Healing Brush’s options. This brush was already invaluable for removing dust spots, bits of rubbish and skin blemishes, pasting the texture from a nearby area and colour-matching it to its new surroundings.
EXPERT ABOUT PHOTOSHOP CS5
The first impact with Photoshop CS5 was very straightforward and intuitive, mostly because the interface is pretty much like the previous version. There are a lot of improvements and small tweaks that will definitely speed up and improve your workflow, but you won't get lost on it. My first hour with it was about experimenting with the new features and tools.
The feature in which I had the most interest on was the Repoussé Tool, a versatile tool that would allow me to convert my 2D shapes to 3D geometry so I was really curious about this one. After some minutes with it I was very happy with the results, started by creating basic 3D objects such as circles and triangles, followed by more complicated shapes such as typography.
Repoussé will definitely be useful for those without any 3D editing software knowledge since it's very intuitive, allowing you to easily manipulate your 3D objects properties such as materials, lights and render settings, among others, and getting great results in a short amount of time.
Next was to try the feature everyone talks about: Content Aware Filling. Like many others I've been surprised by what this amazing tool can do; creating or deleting content from your photos was never so easy. Extremely useful for photo retouchers, it will be essential for me to prepare stock photos to be used on my works so I grabbed a couple of random photos and started experimenting with it... yes, it works! And best of all, it only needs a selection and a couple of clicks, Spot Healing Tool on steroids.
Lastly I tried the new warp tool called Puppet Warp. At first I did the obvious experiment and used it on a wood puppet image, creating control points on strategic points and moving the arms and legs around and making it fatter. Next I used it on a simple bold line I created, making knots and deforming the line in complicated ways, at the end I was very satisfied since such tasks required some patience.
CS5 brings several outstanding new features, I would say it's worth the price of the upgrade just for those 3 new tools alone but it offers so much more, Adobe has done a great job and the amount of time the new features will save you is totally worth the upgrade.
The feature in which I had the most interest on was the Repoussé Tool, a versatile tool that would allow me to convert my 2D shapes to 3D geometry so I was really curious about this one. After some minutes with it I was very happy with the results, started by creating basic 3D objects such as circles and triangles, followed by more complicated shapes such as typography.
Repoussé will definitely be useful for those without any 3D editing software knowledge since it's very intuitive, allowing you to easily manipulate your 3D objects properties such as materials, lights and render settings, among others, and getting great results in a short amount of time.
Next was to try the feature everyone talks about: Content Aware Filling. Like many others I've been surprised by what this amazing tool can do; creating or deleting content from your photos was never so easy. Extremely useful for photo retouchers, it will be essential for me to prepare stock photos to be used on my works so I grabbed a couple of random photos and started experimenting with it... yes, it works! And best of all, it only needs a selection and a couple of clicks, Spot Healing Tool on steroids.
Lastly I tried the new warp tool called Puppet Warp. At first I did the obvious experiment and used it on a wood puppet image, creating control points on strategic points and moving the arms and legs around and making it fatter. Next I used it on a simple bold line I created, making knots and deforming the line in complicated ways, at the end I was very satisfied since such tasks required some patience.
CS5 brings several outstanding new features, I would say it's worth the price of the upgrade just for those 3 new tools alone but it offers so much more, Adobe has done a great job and the amount of time the new features will save you is totally worth the upgrade.
piektdiena, 2010. gada 16. aprīlis
ADOBE CS5 IS OUT
Adobe Evangelist Terry White demos the hottest new CS5 features for designers, including new features in Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, and Flash Catalyst. And now we can show you links, where u can get it for free.
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