The last version—Adobe CS3—came out in 2007 and offered a host of significant improvements, particularly for any Mac user who had bought one of the then-new Intel-based Apple computers. Because CS3 was a so-called "universal binary" version, it ran significantly faster than the previous CS2 package. In a review of Photoshop CS3 in the July 2007 issue of PDN, I clocked the Intel-friendly version about 70 percent faster at launching Photoshop and 50 percent faster overall.
Though there were a host of other new tools and a better-organized, redesigned interface in CS3, I heartily recommended the upgrade to anyone who was using an Intel-based Mac, based on the increased performance alone.
The latest versions of Photoshop—Adobe Photoshop CS4 and CS4 Extended—don't have the same major selling points, and feel more like an incremental upgrade than the jump from CS2 to CS3. While there is still plenty to like about these newest versions including some great new time-saving tools and a better-organized overall structure to Photoshop, Bridge, and Adobe Camera RAW, if you're already a user of CS3, there's less urgency to make the jump to the new versions.
Getting Creative in a Recession
Adobe is offering CS3 users a $200 upgrade price for CS4, which is the same cost for moving between the two previous versions; it is still a relatively good deal. (It would be nice if Adobe offered some kind of "recession-special" for photographers, and maybe lowered the upgrade price to $150. Wishful thinking perhaps.)
On their own, both Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended are not cheap, selling for $649 and $999, respectively. (These prices are in line with what Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended sold for at their introduction.)
Of course, Adobe would probably be happy if you bought one of the complete suite packages. They offer these bundles in their usual, confusing array of configurations from the "basic" Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Standard ($1,399) package all the way to the comprehensive Creative Suite 4 Master Collection ($2,499), which includes a total of 16 programs.
Do photographers really need all this CS4 software—Encore CS4, Fireworks CS4 and Soundbooth CS4—alongside the more essential Photoshop, Bridge, etc.?
Probably not. That's why I'd once again recommend the "bare-bones" Adobe Photoshop CS4 over the suite packages.
IS CS4 for Photographers?
All of which begs the question: Is Adobe's latest version of Photoshop even aimed at photographers any more, if it ever was? (Many pre-press people would argue that it really was built for them in the first place, but that's another story.) Certainly the various CS4 packages— Design, Web, Production, and Master—are directed at a larger audience than just professional photographers.
But what about making CS4 for photographers? Does such a thing even exist? I'm convinced that it could, if Adobe would let it. Why not create an Adobe CS4 Photo package that bundles Photoshop, Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw with Lightroom 2.0 and throw in some imaging extras, such as a bunch of third-party plug-ins or actions? (Or maybe, here's a thought, Adobe could come up with some of its own photography plug-ins or actions and add them to the mix?)
Though Photoshop is still an essential imaging program and the new CS4 version is a definite improvement with a lot of great tweaks, truthfully there's not a lot to get super excited about from a photography standpoint. But let's take a look at the highlights.
Tabbed Interface = Less Clutter
The question is: how do you train a big, unwieldy, 800-pound gorilla? With Photoshop CS4, one of the first design changes you'll notice to get this beast to behave better is a new unified tabbed interface. Somewhat similar to tabbed browsing on Firefox and other Web browsers, the new Photoshop CS4 will conveniently create individual tabs for each image you've opened, which you can then click on to reveal the picture. Though this is a simple tweak, it makes opening a group of images in Photoshop much less confusing and annoying than having multiple windows floating around.
There's also an Arrange Documents button that will let you create two-ups, three-ups, four-ups and other photo configurations to maximize your screen's real estate. Panels are self-adjusting, so you can manage the interface as a single, connected frame that you can move around without causing individual sections to overlap. This is a nice touch and very much in keeping with Web browsing trends, which are more tab-based than window-based these days.
Another logical design change is a new Adjustments Panel, which helps speed up the overall Photoshop workflow a notch or two. Instead of having to plow through confusing dialog boxes, the Adjustments panel puts a batch of non-destructive correction tools right in front of you, such as a new Vibrance adjustment for changing color saturation while preserving subtle tones like skin color. Other on-image adjustments include Hue/ Saturation and Curves and 20 new presets that are handy in a pinch.
Like the tabbed browsing design feature, these aren't earth-shaking overhauls to Photoshop CS4, but they are helpful and appreciated.
Less Scary Masks; Better Dodging, Burning, & Sponging
Complicated, precise masks usually give photographers the most headaches in Photoshop, but in CS4 things get a tad easier. A new Masks panel will please a lot of people by making it simpler to create and adjust pixel and vector masks by letting you apply effects locally to images rather than globally. For instance, if you want to boost the color on a piece of clothing in an image—such as a tie or hat—while keeping the rest looking natural, the improved Color Range mask feature makes it easier. Meanwhile, simple sliders let you adjust the density and feathering of a mask to help you control edge sharpness. A Refine Mask feature gives you more intuitive control over mask sizes and edges.
Some of the most useful upgrades in Photoshop CS4 for photographers are better Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools, which let you do spot corrections for exposure and color saturation while maintaining tonal quality. I love it that these "old" terms have found new homes in the latest software but I have been frustrated at how clumsy they've operated in the past.
In CS4 you get more precise Range control for adjusting for Shadows, Midtones and Highlights, and a Protect Tones option that helps preserve skin tones while dodging or burning. Meanwhile, the sponging tool has a Vibrance protection option so you don't lose visual pop while making your edits.
Cleaner Panoramas; Extended Depth of Field; Fluid Rotation
Creating cleaner panoramas of your images is certainly easier in CS4, but it doesn't feel a lot faster. Though I have a more recent MacBook Pro with 3 gigs of RAM, I do most of my work and some of my software testing on an original Intel-based MacBook with just 1 gb of RAM to see what it's like, as a point of comparison, for "regular" folks.
Much of Photoshop CS4 feels more processor-intensive than CS3 and this was particularly true in using the Photomerge tool to stitch a panorama (especially a new "360-degree" panorama). While I was pleased with the results and liked Vignette Removal and Geometric Distortion options for smoother-looking panoramas, the enhanced auto-blending features took several minutes of churning to stitch together a wide landscape on the MacBook. The faster MacBook Pro had fewer problems but it wasn't, by any means, speedy.
This slowness was particularly evident in the useful (but buggy) Extended Depth of Field feature, which combines CS4's auto-align and auto-blend technology. The feature will let you blend together several images of varying exposure, color, and focal points to create a single, color-corrected image with an expanded depth of field. While it sounds great in principle, the process gave my MacBook fits, causing it to crash several times.
Though the technology eventually produced a properly balanced product close-up with extended depth of field (which will be great for advertising and commercial photographers) as with most of the expanded features in CS4 you're going to want a powerful computer with a Quad Core or 8-core processor to run the program. (The Mac Pro workstation I reviewed in the July 2008 issue of PDN would be ideal.)
You're also going to need an OpenGL 2.0-compatible video card in your computer to run many of the more eye-catching new features such as Fluid Canvas rotation, which lets you spin your image like a painting to touch up specific areas. I couldn't get the feature to work at all on the MacBook and had only limited success with the MacBook Pro.
The same was true with the ultra-smooth pan, zoom, preview and painting tools, which let you zoom in smoothly on precise pixels to make targeted tweaks. It was a non-starter on the MacBook, which uses an older Intel GMA950 integrated graphics card, but worked fine on the MacBook, which uses a more recent, ATI Radeon X1600 video card. A word to the wise: before you buy Photoshop CS4, check the Adobe Web site to make sure your video card is compatible with the OpenGL 2.0 features in the program.
Better Bridge; Tighter Lightroom 2.0 Integration; RAW Deal
I'm happy to say that Adobe Bridge CS4 is another big step forward in the better, faster Bridge evolution. One simple change is the option to launch Bridge in the background at start-up. Though this isn't a real speed improvement—just a default command—it gets the program up and running automatically so it's readily available when you need it.
There's also a kind of cool Review Mode that lets you check out your shots in a slide-carousel format, and a much-needed Search Bar that lets you track down images by keywords. You can also use the Search Bar in Bridge CS4 in conjunction with Spotlight in Mac OSX or Desktop Search in Windows for more global searches.
The new Path Bar navigation is another intuitive organizational addition I liked quite a bit along with a bevy of one-click buttons for a range of actions including automated camera imports, Web/PDF output, and changing workspaces.
Though Adobe still sells its Bridge image browser and Lightroom asset manager separately, they've become more integrated in CS4. For instance, there's a much-improved cross-application support between the various programs—including Adobe Camera RAW 5—so if you've made changes in one program it will be reflected immediately in the other programs.
Speaking of Adobe Camera RAW 5 in CS 4, it's added some localized, nondestructive adjustment tools, letting you more easily paint an area you want to change and then adjust via sliders. There's also a nice new Post Crop Vignetting feature if you want to add a dramatic vignette and other, gradient-based, localized corrections.
Lastly, further 3-D editing and compositing in Photoshop CS4 Extended that makes it easier to add a 2-D layer to a 3-D model.
I also was intrigued by the Content Aware Scaling feature, which Adobe first showed at the NDA press workshop on CS4 this summer. The feature automatically recomposes an image as you resize it, meanwhile maintaining the scale of important areas as the image adjusts to the new dimensions. This is definitely one of the "must-see" features of Photoshop CS4.
The Bottom Line
Adobe has once again improved its venerable image- editing program with the release of Photoshop CS4. While there's a lot I liked about this latest release including its cleaner interface; improved image-editing tools; and a better Bridge browser, it feels more like an incremental step-up from CS3 than a great leap forward. If you already own CS3, I don't recommend that you rush to spend the $200 for the upgrade. First make sure you have enough money in your bank account—times are tough, after all—and then double check that you have an OpenGL 2.0-compatible video card in your computer. On the other hand, if you haven't upgraded since CS2, this new release of Photoshop is definitely worth it, especially for Intel Mac-based users with enough RAM and the right video cards in their machines.
| Adobe Photoshop CS4 |
| www.adobe.com
Pros: Intuitive, tab-based interface reduces desktop clutter; more refined and expanded image-editing tools; better Bridge with clearer navigation and search functions Cons: Not a huge speed and performance difference from CS3; you'll need OpenGL 2.0-compatible video card in your computer to access some of the new features; wish there were a CS4 package aimed specifically at photographers Pricing: $649 for Photoshop CS4; $999 for Photoshop CS4 Extended; $200 for upgrade |
