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It's here. Months of secret briefings, internet rumours, guesses and leaks. Finally I can talk about the latest upgrade to the 800 lb gorilla that is Adobe Creative Suite.
This feature is based on about 3 weeks trial of the Beta versions of Adobe Creative Suite 3. You should be aware that Beta versions are generally feature software that still have bugs to be removed. The version of Photoshop and Bridge were CS3 Beta 2 which is a later version than the public beta.
Time for my famous 10 second summary. If you have tried the beta then you already know this.
If you use any version of Photoshop on an Intel Mac then buy CS3 immediately as soon as it is released. The speed upgrade will have you grinning all day. Anybody else - think carefully. There are some great new features but if you have CS2 you might want to sit this upgrade out.
Choices, choices
If you've used the public beta of Photoshop CS2 you'll see that it calls itself the “standard” version. This let one of the secrets out of the bag early - there are now two versions of Photoshop - Standard and Advanced.
If you spotted that Adobe bought Macromedia and thought about it for a minute or two then the next bit will be obvious too - there are bundles that are focused at web professionals too.
To cut to the chase - there are now 6 different bundles each containing different mixes of Adobe products. These basically run from Design Standard (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat) up to “Master” (pretty much everything). I tested Web Premium on a Mac Pro and Design Premium on my MacBook (which is why nobody's been allowed near my laptop for a month).
Advice here is to look at which products you need and buy the appropriate bundle. Since I don't yet have prices it's hard to make firm recommendations but bundles normally discount the “extra” products quite heavily.
However, for most readers on ThinkCamera you are probably going to want that old favourite, Photoshop Stand Alone. Or Photoshop CS3 Standard edition as it's now called.
Don't worry too much about Photoshop Extended. Chances are that if you need this you'll know about it - it adds functionality for 3D professionals and for image analysis and measurement. For photo editing you want the standard edition.
Pricing and availability details weren't available as I wrote this (they probably are now) but I've assumed Adobe will be sticking to their regular policy of allowing upgrades from any version of Photoshop for about £150.
The Bridge
OK. I'm going to say it. I LOVE the new Bridge. I've had it installed for a couple of months now and I can't imagine going back to the old Bridge (truth to tell I can't remember what the old Bridge looked like). If you've used Lightroom then Bridge CS3 looks very similar - grey panels showing you everything you could possibly want to know and are infinitely customisable.
The focus here is on usability - filters let you find the stuff you need very quickly. The new loupe tool lets you check sharpness without even opening the file, the zoom on the slideshow shows you the same thing with much more detail and the exif panel is a techno nerd's delight.
If you want to see the fullest detail possible just select your image, choose “view…slideshow” (Ctrl-L or Command-L) and hit “+”. You have your image at 100% without even starting Photoshop.
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Camera Raw
Photoshop CS3 also gets you Adobe Camera Raw version 4.0. As well as supporting a bunch more cameras, it has a number of improvements. It's pretty much like Adobe sat next to me while I was working and listened every time I got frustrated. Then they fixed it.
Here are some of the new goodies:
Features:
Retouch,
Zoom,
Zoom & Tabs,
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Full screen mode - yep with one click you can now fill that 30” cinema screen you paid for - and it looks gorgeous.
Retouch. This is huge. You can go into the raw file and retouch blemishes using a modified healing brush. Here, I'm retouching a spot but only affecting the raw file. Later when I find out this is actually a birth mark that runs in the family and is very important to my model I can simply remove the retouch without even reediting the file.
Fix red eye. Just like the retouch brush you can fix redeye right in the raw file. Select the tool, tweak the pupil size and red eye is gone.
Seven (count them - SEVEN) tabs for adjusting the file. Right from the raw dialogue I can not only alter tone curves and correct lens aberrations (like CS2) I can also perform beautiful black and white conversions, split toning, calibrate to my specific camera (right down to the serial number in case I have 2) and save presets.
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Jeff Schewe's famous quote that Photoshop is a pluggin to Camera Raw is becoming truer in every release.
Remember that anything we do to a raw file in ACR is saved alongside the file either in a database or in a sidecar file. The original file is not touched. The clever bit is you can now do this with jpegs too - yep, non destructive editing (including raw conversion) on jpegs.
If you work a lot with raw files in Bridge and ACR then you're probably sold on the upgrade right here - and we haven't even opened Photoshop yet.
Photoshop
I'm going to be brutal here - there aren't a huge number of upgrades to core Photoshop that most photographers will be interested in. There are a ton of features to make your day go quicker as they save you time. There are also some very cool tricks for people working in 3D or with some specific high end needs. But for most photographers, Photoshop CS3 won't do much that CS2 didn't - it will just do it faster, look better while it's doing it and in many cases provide easy ways to undo or redo things later.
Smart filters
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From the team that brought you smart objects come…smart filters. The idea's pretty simple. Convert your picture for smart filters (which converts it into a smart object) and then any filters you apply are non destructive. It's almost like duplicating the layer and applying the filter - but without the duplicated layer.
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New layers pop up in your palette with the filters. Take a close look at the one shown here though. I've used smart sharpen as a smart filter - yep, all of a sudden we have non destructive sharpening. I can sharpen the picture to show to a client then turn it off and on at will. All without affecting the original.
Spruced up palettes
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One of the big problems with Photoshop is that it's, well, so big. Lots of graphics pros use dual monitors - one for the image and one for the toolbars. That's great when you are in the studio with twin 30” monsters but how about on your laptop?
Adobe have tidied up the whole interface. You can customise anything you want so you can chuck palettes everywhere just like the good old days, but the default layout has a neat new palette dock.
Everything tucks away and flies out when you need it.
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Just like on older versions, you can hide all the palettes by hitting the tab key but now if you hover the mouse near the edge of the screen they reappear. Just like they do in Lightroom.
At last - Black and White
Most Photoshop Noobies who want to convert pictures to black and white head straight for the desaturate control. Pretty soon they realise that very clever people at Adobe have spent long hours calculating the exact mathematical worst black and white image you can possible create - and assigning it to the desaturate button.
Most people who work in black and white a lot have third party pluggins or their favourite recipes.
Now at last, there's a black and white conversion button - and it works rather nicely. Here I just ran through some of the presets.
But of course you can build your own recipes right within Photoshop now using the comprehensive sliders and do split toning as well.
Even better you can apply a new adjustment layer to give black and white conversions.
For even more looks there are now presets built into the channel mixer which will give you different styles of black and white conversion - there's sure to be one you like.
Select and refine
My two favourite new tools have to be the Quick selection tool and the refine edges dialogue.
The magic wand has come in for a bit of stick - leading some people to call it the “tragic” wand tool. The quick selection tool is like the magic wand with a small difference - it works. Paint over the area you want to select and it looks at colours edges and contrast. Then as if by magic it pretty well selects what you wanted it to.
Refine edge is really just an add on to the old “select…modify…” menu command except that you can get a live preview of how you are changing the selection and a whole bunch of sliders to tweak.
Quick selection plus refine edge got me from this to this in less than 10 seconds:
Not the best montage you'll ever see - but for 10 seconds work it makes a good start.
The bottom line
There are a lot of improvements in Photoshop CS3 - thinks work better and faster and there are a few refinements. I'd strongly encourage you to download the trial before purchasing.
On the basis that we don't yet know prices and availability, here's the ThinkCamera recommendation.
If you use Photoshop a lot and have an Intel Mac then buy CS3.
If you process raw files a lot and use Bridge or are unhappy with your current file manager, buy CS3.
If you do a lot of black and white conversions or need to do a lot of cutouts then strongly consider CS3.
If you are on version 6 or earlier then upgrade.
If you are a photographer and don't fall into any of the above categories then get the trial and check it out - you may find you love it.
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One more thing
If you've read my article on getting the right colour, you'll have heard me moan about "save for web". The web pretty much runs in sRGB colour space. Save for web is supposed to prep your pictures for a website but it doesn't convert to sRGB.
Well, now it does! Save a picture for the web and PS CS3 will automatically convert to sRGB. Not only does that save you a couple of clicks, it prevents the number one reason for your pictures looking nasty on the web.
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