Photoshop CS6 Review-Continued

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Photoshop CS6 Review-Continued

     I knew that it was too soon for the warm weather. Even with last week's temperature-breaking weather (high 60's F or 20's C), you just knew that this couldn't continue. Sure enough, it's 34 F 

or 3 C! And of course, it's snowing!

    Continuing along with the new Photoshop CS6 (suite) or version 112 of just photoshop, here are some more improvements. I've been following DPReview, because as I mentioned yesterday, here's a site that actually reviews a new software and provides examples. Almost 99% of everyone else's review is "copy and paste" form Adobe's press release without any photos!

 The above is a terrific improvement and new feature

The feature automatically saves the image that you are working on.

Personally, I've never"pulled my hair" out when I had a power failure or computer crash when I've worked on an image for 20 minutes or more.

However for whomever has, this is a great feature. The question simply is, why didi they wait so long?

 The above image capture illustrates how to adjust to your personal likings, 

the settings for saving a file .

The above is the sub-menu for finer adjustments for saving a file.

 CHere's a new feature that's been added to the

Filter>>Blur Menu

It adds 3 new instructions for blur: Field, Iris, and Tilt-Shift

I selected Field Blur to provide you an example of this feature.

There are fine-tunikng controls, but I chose the default (automatic) settings.

What you do is to use one of the many tools to capture the area that you want to blur.

I chose the magnetic lasso.

The Image without the new blur effect

The image with the new blur effect.

The new tool is simple tio use, and well-done as the result.

Another improvement is for adjusting the brightness and contrast.

The above scree-capture is from CS5.

The above screen-capture is from CS6

Once again, in automatic mode, the result is fast, well done, and easy to use.

One  more new feature allows you to correct the wide-angle distortion from a fish-eye lens.

I don't own a fish-euye lens, because it's too expensive, and I find for me that it would ha limited use.

Also, I find it "gimmicky".

I suppose Adobe's purpose  for this feature would be to be able to straighten out the excessive distortion that this lens produces, when it is needed in a vert confined space.

An example might be for an architectural photographer being in a small unique bathroom that a magazine needed a photo for.

The photographer could capture as much detail as possible with the W/A lens, and then  do the "straightening-up" of the image in Photoshop.

I've read some users comments about buying the new version of CS6. Their comments can be expanded to reflect most newer versions of any software if you already have the last version. I agree with them, and here's what the general opinion seem to be.

An "upgrade" costs less if you have the previous and last version of Photoshop. In this way, the cost of CS6 is moderately priced. If you've never bought Photoshop or have CS4, then you'll have to pay the full price. 

For myself, I'll have to wait and see. 

Personally, I can live with Cs5 or CS4 or Cs3 for that matter. The reason for this is that I usually never need to use most of Photoshop, and only use about 30% of the features of this terrific program, at any one time, on any one image.

When I was teaching, I would always buy the latest upgrade or version to be on top and current for the students. By as an individual, there are always 4-6 different ways to do the same thing in most image-editing programs. So if  your older version doesn't have the latest improvements, then use whatever you have to work around it.

If you don't have Photoshop, then of course the latest version is worth it, if you're a Pro photographer and decided to finally buy Photoshop. There are plenty of other image-editing softwares about, but then again, we can say the same thing for cars. I drive a Toyota Corolla, but I'd love to have a Porsche! As for Photoshop, that's what I was able to afford as a teacher with Adobe's (thank you)  discount, and that's what the "standard" is.

Could I live with GIMP (free)? 

Certainly!

GIMP has plenty of features that can can stand on an equal footing with Photoshop.

Would I buy Adobe's Photoshop Elements at a fraction of the price as the "regular" Photoshop and at a fraction of the price?

Certainly!

I probably could work with Elements, without even ever working with all of the sophisticated features of "regular" Photoshop.

Thanks for the visit, and

have a good morning, afternoon, or evening wherever you may be.