Monday, June 12, 2006
Adobe Photoshop CS2
by Les Parisek, Product Review Coordinator Photoshop CS2, Adobe’s flagship digital image editing program, is packed with powerful new filters and tools that provide a little something for just about anyone working with digital image editing.For the Photographer
Photoshop CS2 has added support for 32-bit HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, Camera Raw 3, and the Adobe backed DNG (Digital Negative) standard. The Merge to HDR command allows you to combine multiple exposures of a scene into 32-bit HDR images. Enhanced Camera Raw support includes simultaneous background processing of Raw images from a wide range of digital camera models. And there is support for a new archival format (DNG) for the raw files generated by digital cameras. Further enhancements include one-click Red Eye correction, Noise Reduction, and Spot Healing Brush to eradicate some of the more common photo flaws. Finally, a few new Lens Correction filters have been added for correcting common forms of optical image distortion like pincushion distortion, barrel distortion, and perspective adjustments.
For the Digital Artist
The latest release of Photoshop has added a number of tools and filters to expand the Digital Artist’s bag of tricks. Vanishing Point, although a difficult tool to master, is a filter with tools for drawing grids that define the perspective in your scene. Once the perspective has been defined, a layer can be added to the image to paint, clone, map text, or a texture to the image and Vanishing Point will automatically distort the layer to match the perspective of the scene. Photoshop CS2’s new Warp filter provides vector-based warping, similar to the Warp Text effect, with the addition of Beziér control points for tweaking your image. Unlike other warp effects, the new Warp filter doesn’t stretch the image and can create break or ripping effects in the image, hence the need for fine control of the Warp tool. Photoshop CS2’s Smart Objects are a boon to the digital editing process. A Smart Object is basically selecting layers with raster or vector art and grouping them as a Smart Object. Smart Objects can then be edited just like any other layer. Move them, transform them, change their opacity and/or blending mode, and apply layer styles without altering the original image. You can always open, edit, and change the original and the change will be reflected in the Smart Object. Other additions include enhanced high color image editing in tools like Liquify and Shadow/Highlight, native Animated Gif tools similar to those in Image Ready, and Smart Guides that help with layer alignment.
Workflow and Overall usability
Photoshop CS2 has updated the old file manager with Adobe Bridge, a visual file browser that displays thumbnail images and access to edit a file’s metadata. Adobe has also updated its memory manager to keep pace with today’s RAM happy desktops and users are able to devote RAM in excess of 2 GB to the program. Long overdue enhancements to the interface include a WYSIWYG font menu and menu customization. Users are now able to preview images destined for video directly on an external monitor. And automation enhancements like updated actions and scripts, variables, and event-based scripting help to streamline batch image processing and repetitive graphic production.
