Adobe Photoshop CS4 Review

• Adjustments and Masks panel
  The new adjustment panel in Adobe Photoshop CS4 is a very welcome addition and one that is no longer an exclusive feature of Lightroom 2.x. The new adjustment panel makes it easy for virtually anyone to correct exposure, color, and saturation - all without affecting the original file or worrying about layers. Each adjustment that is selected automatically creates a new layer on top of the original image that can later be re-adjusted, moved, or deleted. Adjustments also include a built-in mask that allows users to focus the effects of an adjustment to a particular range of colors or to any area not covered by the mask. The mask panel allows you to adjust feathering, density, and range of colors without having to wade through menus. Of all the new features in CS4 the adjustment and mask panel will be the most used and as such should be the focus of learning for all CS4 users.


• Content-Aware Scaling
  One of the most attention-getting features, Content-Aware Scaling is a feature that is incredible to see in action. It provides a way to change the aspect ratio of a photo, either vertically or horizontally, without squishing or distorting important elements in a scene, such as people or buildings. This allows you to resize a photo to fit various dimensions without having to crop out parts of an image. Take a horizontal shot and make fit a vertical space or vice-versa. The software will even allow you to manually select objects in a scene that shouldn't be distorted when resizing.
  
  Demonstration of Content-Aware Scaling
  
  
  Watch it in High Definition


• Smooth Zooming
  Adobe Photoshop CS4 does away with the old step-zoom and has replaced it with the intuitive smooth zoom feature. Just select the magnifying glass and hold it down over the area that you want to zoom in on and CS4 will smoothly get you there. Release the mouse button at any point along the way to stop zooming.


• Fluid Panning and Rotation
  Another welcome addition is the ability to quickly pan around an image, even a 21-megapixel image, without waiting for the screen to redraw as new sections of the image appear. CS4 also offers this same feature when rotating the canvas, allowing users to easily and smoothly turn the canvas for distortion-free viewing.
  
  
• Birds-Eye View
  Birds-Eye view is another new feature that makes it easier to move around your image - this time while zoomed in. You can enable this new feature whenever you're zoomed in on an image by pressing (and holding) the "h" key while clicking the mouse. The view will instantly zoom out and a box will appear on the screen that represents the zoomed area. This box will now move around the screen as you move your mouse. Just move it to a new area and release the mouse and the screen will instantly zoom in. This feature works instantly without having to wait for screen redraws. See example below:
  
  Note: The smooth zooming, fluid panning, canvas rotation, birds-eye view, 3D Movements, HDR tone mapping, fluid panning, and fast anti-aliasing are accelerated when CS4 detects a compatible GPU (graphics processing unit) accelerator (NVIDIA GeForce GTX280, 8600 GT, and others). My Dell Inspiron 530 is compatible thanks to the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT card, although I find that Photoshop sometimes forgets that I've enabled "OpenGL Drawing" inside the preferences/performance dialog box. When that happens I just have to go back in and check the box again.
  
  Not sure if you have a video card with compatible GPU? Open and image and look at the bottom and right edges. If you see a drop-shadow then you're all set to go. If not, you still might be in luck. Go to the EDIT menu and select Preferences/performance. In the area titled "GPU Settings" check to see if "Enable OpenGL Drawing" is available to check. If it is, just check it. If it's grayed out then your graphics card is not compatible with some of these enhanced features.


• Non-Destructive RAW editing with Camera Raw 5 Plug-in
  If you've been craving some of the new tools in Lightroom 2.0, you'll be thrilled to know that many of the hottest tools (localized corrections, post-crop vignetting, and non-destructive JPEG and TIFF processing are included in the Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 5 plug-in, included with Photoshop CS4. It would have been nice to have these tools incorporated within Photoshop itself as I found myself missing the adjustment brush while working on other aspects of a photo.


• Tabbed Documents
  A big improvement for handling multiple open documents is the new tab layout. Each open image appears in a full screen windows with tabs above showing any other open image. Just click on a tab to jump to another image. This new feature also makes it a breeze to drag layers from one image to another. Just select the image to copy then drag it up to another tab. Hold it there for a second or so until the screen view switches to the other image. You can now place this new layer anywhere you desire on this other image.


• Palettes Out, Panels In
  What was once called Palettes is now called Panels in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and across the entire suite of applications. Panels are small windows that contain all relevant attributes for a given feature, making it easy to alter settings without having to wade through menus. Panels can be grouped together by sliding one panel on top of another. A tab then appears above the panel group for easy selection of the appropriate panel.
  Photoshop CS4 includes the following panels: Layers, Channels, Actions, Paths, Adjustments, Masks, Color, Swatches, Styles, 3D (CS4 Extended), Histogram, Brushes, Navigator, Character, Paragraph, and Clone Source.


• New Target Adjustment
  Adobe Photoshop CS4 now offers Target Adjustments in the Hue/Saturation, Curves, and Black & White Panels. First offered in Lightroom 2.x, the Target Adjustment feature allows you to click over any part of the photograph and drag the mouse left or right (while holding down the mouse button) to alter the tones, hues or saturation. This new feature allows everyone to make adjustments to their image without worrying about how the tone curve works and makes it easy to correct your photos in a more intuitive way.
  
  Target Adjustment Tool Demonstration
  


• Clone Stamp Preview
  Cloning is one of the more popular uses of Adobe Photoshop. The clone tool allows you to remove blemishes, take out unwanted elements in a photo, duplicate objects, and more. While the clone tool was never difficult to use, the new real-time preview added in Photoshop CS4 will make it easier to align objects while cloning. The preview shows you what will appear under the brush when you click. This makes it possible to visibly align edges, lines, and see whether or not a particular color gradient will work before you start cloning.


• New, Enhanced Photomerge
  If you have ever been let down by Photoshop's less than stellar panorama stitching then you'll love the new and improved Photomerge feature. Adobe has finally got it right thanks to improved blending and alignment. I loaded up frames from some older panorama's that I've all but given up on and was blown away by the results - the stitching was flawless. Just another reason why you should think twice before deleting photographs that you might think are unusable or unsalvageable.
  
  This screenshot shows Photomerge in action. As you can see Photomerge does a lot more than just edge alignment. After analyzing and aligning images, Photomerge then auto-blends each image to create a near panorama.
  
  
  The photo below is the finalized stitched panorama.
  
  
  Here is another finished panorama shot at the same location.
  
  
  
• Extended depth of field
  Auto blend and auto-align not only can be used to create stitched panoramas but can also be used to create images with incredible depth-of-field. If you're a macro photographer you'll love this feature. Think of it as HDR for sharpness. When doing macro photography it is very difficult to capture great depth of field, but with this new feature all you have to do is shoot your subject with different focus points and Photoshop CS4 will automatically combine and blend the layers to create a single image with extreme detail from back to front.



• Spring Loaded Keyboard Shortcuts
  This is one of those "why didn't anyone think of this sooner" features. Many users of Photoshop will use quick keyboard shortcuts to change tools (M for mask, L for Lasso, S for clone "Stamp" tool, etc.) while editing a photo. In Photoshop CS4, Adobe now makes it even easier by offering spring loaded keys. Here's how it works. Let's say your using the clone tool and you get to an area where you want to contain the cloning to a particular area. All you have to do is hold down the "L" (lasso) key, draw a selection around the area you want the clone to affect, then release the "L" key. As soon as you release the key, you'll be right back using the clone tool. Essentially the new tool is only 'live' while you hold down its keyboard equivalent. When you release the key the previous tool becomes active again. This is a great time saver and is a feature that you won't want to be without once you've used it.
  
  Download Photoshop CS4 Keyboard Shortcuts (PDF by D-solmedia.com)


• Adobe ConnectNow: Free Screen Sharing
  If you're working on a project with others, Photoshop CS4 now offers a Share My Screen feature that allows up to 3 people to share your screen. This is a free service that only requires that you get a free Adobe ID with an email address and password. "Share My Screen" also offers integrated audio, chat, video, and whiteboard collaboration.
  
  Below is a screenshot of what others will see when they sign on to view your screen. The Share my Screen allows you to share anything on your screen, not just Adobe Photoshop. It's a great way to provide one-on-one training as well.
  
  


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Page 2. Adobe Photoshop CS4 Review
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