Review: Adobe Photoshop PS3 beta

Editor's note: Ever had a piece of software so good it kept you up all night? How about a new version of software you already own that is so good you lose sleep? We asked Karen Parker to take a look at the beta of Photoshop CS3. She's very familiar with Photoshop but is a version or two behind the current one. She had 48 hours to test drive CS3. She didn't get much sleep… We'll be running a full review of CS3 when the final shipping version is ready but for now, sit back and enjoy the ride.

CS3 is actually what you might call a three piece suite - it contains Photoshop, an upgraded version of the photo management utility called The Bridge and last but not least a new Adobe Device Central (an editing program to let you preview images on specific devices - useful for mobiles and computer screens.) Oh and there's Adobe Camera Raw version 4 too - kind of a 3 piece suite plus Barker Lounger.

Organisation
This new version is pretty special, it has an enhanced file browser with plenty of innovations and enhancements and on launch there's a welcome screen inviting you to access new features and tutorials. At this early stage, it's all rather spookily user-friendly but does it just lull you into a false sense of security?

When you access the Bridge it is a beautiful thing to behold and just like a large welsh dresser, everything has a place.

Bridge

You can easily organise your work using the onscreen lightbox, you don't even have to open images to search, sort, compare or flag and it gets better - you can now view large high quality previews. The line between Bridge and Photoshop is now blurring a little as you organise and preview in Bridge and edit in Photoshop without really realising that you moved from one application to another.

Bridge - Thumbnails

CS3 - RAW

CS3 - Screen sizes

You can decide the size of thumbnails and the layout of the window to your own personal preference. Close down palettes that you don't use and increase the sizes of those that are most useful. It's fun at your fingertips and when fully utilised, provides what is essentially bespoke software. You can call up predefined workspaces such as “metadata focus” and “horizontal filmstrip” for one click access to a complete layout. And once you have the workspace how you like it you can save your own customisations - you might like to have different layouts for portraits and holiday pictures.

Customization also occurs via custom panels and fields (within the info dialogue). You can use the file browser to edit the metadata of single or multiple images at a time and assign instant copyright info amongst other options. Once again, saving valuable time. With a single click you can easily toggle between full-screen and off-screen which is handy for checking all-important detail. When you're not distracted with various icons, your workplace can suddenly possess an enforced simplicity which is almost zen like.

CS3 - Metadata

CS3 - Metadata

CS3 - Keywords

Metadata templates can be easily created to embed key info and you can add in keyword sets in the blink of a proverbial eye.

Although digital camera technology is moving at breakneck speed, CS3 does support most major digital camera models. If it doesn't support yours I reckon it's a great excuse to finally take the leap and upgrade - with this kind of technology it would be a crime to scrape by with inferior camera equipment. Harsh but fair.

CS3 - Shrunk

If you're in the middle of something and you suddenly have to write an email or view some urgent images, one simple click on the compact view option can shrink The Bridge to give you a little more available workspace. If you require even more space (or perhaps are working on something confidential) select the ultra compact option and the whole thing shrinks to a strip - voila your desktop has had a Brazilian.

CS3 - Editing

Editing

In Photoshop itself, the palette system lets you get on with things the way you want allowing the user to work faster and be ultra-organised. You can customize keyboard shortcuts (create, edit and save) for menu items, tools and palette commands. At last you're able to access those 'most used' functions speedily and easily without having to mouse all over the shop.

CS3 - What's new menus

Accessibility is the name of the game and this software is a real player, some of it is surprisingly simple - like the fact that you can switch to a “what's new view” where some options are highlighted (in colour) in menu bars. Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's not ultra-useful. You begin to think 'why hasn't this been done before?' and 'I wish I'd thought of that.'

You can also customize the help menu and add in your own help topics and guides - a must for those with short memories and those who have a habit of discovering something pretty cool at 3'oclock in the morning.

CS3 - One Touch Spot Healing	CS3 - Background Eraser
CS3 - User swatches

Each palette can be moved individually and with a single click minimized. Brilliant. For precise colour matching you can even create your own bespoke swatches. This will come into it's own when you start to play with its colour matching process which, by the way, guarantees consistency - now that's something to write home about.

CS3 - Notes

There's also an additional tool that lets you type notes directly onto an image - like a digital post-it and reminiscent of the much-loved stickies. If ever you've emailed or attached instructions with an image and they've gone astray you'll no doubt love and appreciate this. It would be a useful tool for designers and other graphics professionals or anyone who has to obtain input and feedback from various departments/individuals.

If the info is literally staring you in the face, in theory, it can't go far wrong. (But beware this incredibly simple yet brilliant idea could be taken advantage of - just imagine at the bottom of the corrections it says “mine's white with two sugars, when you've got a min.”) However, there's already a great variation to this tool and that's the audio annotation which records a sound bite of info - now that's what I call deeply impressive - just imagine the fun you could have with that…

Another great tool is the new loupe tool, which lets you zoom in up to 800% - take care though, as some things can look pretty scary at that magnification.

Automatic processing makes it possible for images to be input into a variety of applications such as web galleries, pic packages, online print ordering…etc. These guys have really thought this stuff out and brought it bang up-to-date.

The vital history log is now even better as it not only tracks your onscreen editing but also your time spent on Photoshop - an absolute joy for client billing, file audits etc. Once again helping photographers and creatives organise their workload and simplify their life. CS3 is appearing more like a labour saving device than a piece of software.

You can also work with multiple filters simultaneously and using the filter gallery browse and plan your effects with ease. Designers will find this a great boon, as it will allow them to use layer comps to quickly capture design variants and then output alternatives for fast client feedback.

If you like to experiment with panoramas these can be created automatically and results are seamless - most importantly each element is retained as a separate layer for even more control. This in itself, as you would imagine, is a fantastic timesaver for those photographers who specialise in landscape and/ architecture and can take creativity to another level.

There are, as you would expect a plethora of new filters for your to get your teeth into and a new generation camera raw plug-in which means that you can directly manipulate raw camera data - sexy stuff for those requiring the ultimate in image control. Start with your best images and you can't fail to be blown away with the options available.

If you're the type that works with type, you can create and manipulate text on any path/inside any closed path - making complex typographic design a joy to work on.

It's also worth mentioning that all core Photoshop features are now available to work with 16 bit images, in fact you can work with up to an amazing 56 channels per file in images up to 300,000 pixels by 300,000 pixels. The equivalent of image support for billboards, bus wraps and assorted large-scale POS applications and we all know that big is beautiful.

Output

For web work there's new Web Photo Gallery templates and interface features such as multiple object selection, manipulation and grouping, with nifty sounding smart guides to help with processing object alignment. However, at time of writing the Web Gallery option doesn't appear to be functioning in at least the Mac version of the beta. It's due for a complete rewrite from CS2 and will be ready for the final release. Hopefully Adobe will add this to a later revision of the beta.

CS3 - Colour Management

Improved colour management means true consistency across printers and monitors (hurrah) and the amount of colour options is truly phenomenal. There's also enhanced scripting which will automate repeated tasks such as output to jpeg, saving comps to pdf, crop, photomerge etc. I'm getting to love this stuff.

CS3 - Histograms

One of the major components of improved colour management, is match colour, which as it does what it says, should surely be renamed the Ronseal of Photoshop. Colour across layers and images are calibrated to be consistent - great for fashion, commercial and fine art applications. You can view an image and its histogram simultaneously using the aptly named Histogram palette as a result, you can monitor changes as you make them.

The Histogram palette can be expanded widthways and you can select from: an all channels view, or view stats and to make things nice and obvious, you can now view channels in glorious colour. This may be a situation of information overload but I'd much rather have too much than too little.

CS3 - Colour Reduction

CS3 - Colour Reduction

The new colour replacement tool makes it possible to alter image colour without interfering with texture and shading just select the replacement colour via the colour picker and then click on the chosen area of the image. (Don't forget you can choose to import/create your own swatch.) I tested this on some pears and even though I brushed over them rather haphazardly, the colour was just deployed on the fruit - absolutely no spillage. Genius. A much better result than by using previous options and another tool that will surely become hugely popular amongst those working with graphics on a daily basis.

If there are corrections to be made within shadow or highlight details you used to have a trade off and lose some of those all-important midtones but you can now cure exposure problems whilst preserving midtones. Changing over or underexposure becomes a digital doddle.

Our Verdict
Photoshop C3 is an amazing piece of software it's intuitive to the point of being spooky, its main remit is to streamline workflow and this obviously makes your life a lot easier. Many time consuming jobs are reduced to single or double clicks - it's just a dream to use.

C3 can appear complicated at the outset but you don't have to get stuck in, you can take things steady and go at your own pace. This software will leave you in no doubt, you're the one in control. As with any new software, there are glitches and to find out about these just visit some of the more popular forums but as a beta test, this software rocks.

I haven't managed to cover everything but I hope you'll be inspired by the highlights briefly covered and tempted to take a look for yourself. CS3 is the real deal, it's been developed in such a way that everything makes sense and the simplicity of some of the ideas is a revelation. It's as if every wish list a creative could possibly have has been noted, my only wish is to get my own copy asap.

Well, as it's nearly Christmas and I have about half an hour before the beta test is over I think it's time to shop till I drop…

What does “beta” mean…?

Beta testing is one of the final phases of software testing. When a product enters beta it should be feature complete (it does all the things it should) but will contain bugs (it won't do them all correctly). Adobe have taken quite a brave step in releasing a public beta - beta testing often goes on behind closed doors with a large group of expert users. It's important to remember that this is test software. Not only is it not guaranteed to work, it's actually pretty likely that it won't under some circumstances. Unless you are very comfortable with the idea of testing software and have backups of all your important data (and system files - it's unlikely but possible that beta software could do nasty things to your operating system) then stay away from the beta. There are already a couple of known omissions in the beta. On an Intel Mac running “native” the brushes do not work properly (though they work fine under Rosetta). Adobe need Apple to make an upgrade to fix this. The web photo gallery has “yet to be incorporated” and so does Help. You can catch up with all the fun at the Adobe Labs Forum.