Pro Photography Learning: Another New Photoshop Beta Version CS6-Part I

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Another New Photoshop

Beta Version CS6

Today's instalment has to do with several things. I don't know about you, but several things have always bothered me slightly when a new software version or a new test version software comes out. I'm not specifically targeting Photoshop, but generally speaking, any review by reviewers will seem to be like any other reviewer.

1. With the amount and quantity of technology coming out, I don't think most reviewers have the time or make the effort to actually test a new version of a software thoroughly.

What happens is:

i. A software manufacturer distributes a Press release to every press agency, software reviewer, websites catering to software and technology (cameras).

ii. In the release, the company mentions the 52 new improvements to the software.

iii. Most reviewers and technology sites then simply copy and paste the content of the press release, with only a handful actually taking the time to explore the new software and actually do something to present to the readership twhat they actually feel is their opinion of the new software.

2. Software is becoming too large in its size.

i. When I looked at the file sizes of Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta:

a. For Mac (DMG, 984 MG)

b. For Windows (ZIP, 1.7 GB)

These file sizes are huge considering that they're compressed first of all in the DMG or ZIP formats. I

remember when Photoshop came on 12, 1.44 floppy discs, but that was so long ago in computer time!

Then I remember when Photoshop came on a CD, and now a DVD!

Correspondingly my computer way back when had a memory of 8 MB and the hard drive was a huge 80 MB

Now my Imac dual 3.06 with a HD of 1 GB and 4 GB of Ram is already outdated, and that is with the 2 improvements of HD and memory!

ii. Like Microsoft, or Adobe, or any other program,or product (cellphone, Ipad, car, ), change is required, and the term "planned obsolescence" certainly is prevalent today. They're already talking about the next version of the IPad already.

iii. Every program seems to retain every function since day 1 of its release on to the mark. It's great to have improvements, but truly, how many everyday people actually use more than 30% of any program?

iv. Having been a teacher of Professional Photography, I was one of the few teachers in the department to actually upgrade my software. I remember 1 time, when I had just purchased the latest Microsoft software and had sent out a memo in Word to all of the teachers in the department (9). 5 of them couldn't open up the file. The same 5 never even bothered to upgrade their home computers because they felt they should be given free copies by the College. In the end the College did give free licensed copies to the teachers, about 5 years later! This was even when there are reduced software costs to teachers by most software companies!

Software Review-Part I

Photoshop CS6 -Beta Version

I just checked on the Net, and I think I am one of the lucky selected people to have been e-mailed directly from Adobe to try the Beta version. Of course, anyone (I think)can download the version if they visit the Adobe site).

I don't want to chastise Adobe, since I've been appreciative of their initiative in offering discounts to teachers and students a long time ago in computer time. However, my problem with all software manufacturers is that they don't seem to cater to the average person! Download most software programs, and in 2012, it still takes me a while to figure out how to use the program. And that's when I've had with Microsoft Office or SnagIt, or Camtasia, or Photoshop ever since some of my readers were in diapers, and that's not so long ago!

There's an expression that I'd like to make an analogy to with computer software. "The measure of a country is how well it takes care of its weakest members of society"

I would like to see software designed in the same manner, that is to say, "a measure of the quality of a software should be measured in terms of how easy it is for the 'average' user to be able to learn and work with a program .

The first thing that you see when you open up CS6 is its appearance.

It's nice, but in previous versions you did have the option to view an image against white, black or grey background. There are also smaller changes which I will discuss in future instalments.

Since many reviewers had already "copied and pasted" the new or improved features of CS6 Beta, I decided to try out 1 feature that I've always had trouble with. I must admit that I haven't spent loads of time trying to learn this feature, but as with any other software program, there are 20 other ways to do the same thing!

What I'm talking about is a feature in Photoshop called content aware.

If you don't know what content aware is, it's a feature that allows toy to remove distracting objects from a photo. Lets' say you're doing a portrait of 5 people, and a dog ends up in the photo. THe dog is on the lawn where you took the portrait.

What content aware allows you to do (in theory), is to remove the dog and replace him/her with the lawn as if the dog was never there. Sometimes content aware had worked marvellously for me and many times it hasn't. So since most reviewers mentioned that Adobe, the makers of Photoshop had used new algorithms (sophisticated mathematical equations or formulas)to dramatically improve this feature, this is the first utility that I thought I'd try out.

1.I tried to select the car from the whole photo, and do a "content-aware command, but that didn't work

2. Then I copied just the car

3a. I then created a new file

3b. I pasted the copy of the car into a new file

3c. I selected the green, and then did an inversion. An inversion simply means that all of the original green selected is changed to selected all of the silver (unpainted parts)