This week, you can find gobs of gleefully optimistic videos from Adobe and other folks demonstrating the new features in Photoshop CS5. Members of lynda.com will find hours of Photoshop CS5 movies from my cohorts Chris Orwig and Jan Kabili (not to mention still more hours of info on other CS5 apps from Mordy Golding, Anne-Marie Concepcion, and James Williamson).It’s all designed to get you hot and bothered about the next version of CS5 in general and Photoshop specifically. But as usual, I see my job as something a little different: To not only show you what new stuff is available, but also give you a sense for whether it’s any good.Which is why next week—beginning Monday, April 19—I’ll release a video blog each and every day called Photoshop CS5 Top 5. These are my reflections on the best features in the forthcoming version of Photoshop after several months of using the program on my own images. And while the features are uniformly welcome, many of them work quite differently—and significantly less magically—than the demos so far might imply.
Here’s what to expect:
- APRIL 19: Common-Sense Enhancements. A few weeks ago, Colleen and I (along with product managers John Nack and Bryan O’Neil Hughes) previewed a series of “just do it” (JDI) features created in response to user feedback. This video highlights the best of them, along with the small non-JDI enhancements like Content-Aware Fill and the Mini-Bridge.
- APRIL 20: HDR Pro. High Dynamic Range lets you milk every last luminance level from an image. CS4 and earlier supported HDR, but only barely. In contrast, CS5’s revamped HDR Pro is intelligible and produces great results.
- APRIL 21: Refining Your Masks. CS5 sports a redesigned Refine Edge (a.k.a. Refine Mask) command that can seep selections into hair and recolor edge fringing. I does not automate masking, but it’s an ingenious step forward.
- APRIL 22: Puppet Warp. Drop a few pins, move them to new locations, and you have yet another way to distort images in Photoshop. It’s great for stretching limbs and performing isolated nips and tucks. It’ll also make you snort Coke out your nose.
- APRIL 23: The New Painting Tools. CS5’s new bristle brushes and mixer brush let you transform a photograph into a hand-rendered painting. And rather than offer up a few examples of what others have done, I’ll convert a portrait photo to a painting right before your very eyes.
Each video ranges from 10 to 18 minutes long. And every one contains a head-spinning amount of real-world information, all of which represents a departure from what you can do in Photoshop as it presently stands.
Prepare to be genuinely and honestly informed.
Chicken or egg?
Which will Adobe do next, Deke?
Add the watermark removal tool to Elements-9 or put a smart watermarking tool in CS6.
Now there’s a Martini Hour for you.
Bob (in the UK)
Yes Yes Yes….
Hey Master!!! Keep Rocking!!
Black Seals ... White Reveals…!
mo’ ramblins on CS5
Watched the launch for CS5 yesterday, also had quick peek on terry whites podcast of some the new features..
I have to say I am well impressed with the new additions.
I dont use Indesign perhaps as much as I should, but now i think that will all change for me, Indesigns new features are an indicator that print is on the decline as web based stuff is on the up etc. Creating a swf in indesign without writing any code..bring it on:) How to make a slideshow in Indesign , il be looking out for that one.
Illustrators perspective tool is a winner too, I been wanting something like that for a while, my way til now was to scan in a drawing of mine.
Flash catalyst is a welcome member to CS5, still yet to actually have a go with it but like what i see for sure but loving the whole “no need to write code” idea..
Would like to some tutorials on Photoshop Repousse, ive seen 2 sneek peek vids , one was with type from some AE dude and well wasnt impressed with the 3d type features of Repousse.. But then i saw photoshop extendeds page with the dragon and pirateship on a map and the lil’ Repousse vid taster which looked better.
Congrats to adobe and long live the creative suite, things are heading in an exciting direction me thinks.. I have to say tho its a shame that the exchange rate for anyone outside US is not so good.
Deke when are your Lynda.com vids gonna appear on Lynda.com?
Who designed the CS5 artwork ..that we saw in background on the live launch, and on cover of master collection.. coz i likes it;O)
A friend of mine and I were wondering
How many days it would take people to figure out that you’ll be able to use content-aware fill to wipe out digital watermarks. (The superimposed kind.)
Apparently the answer is 1. Man I love living in a pseudo democratic republic.
Now if only a commercial set-top DVD/Blu-ray vendor would have the balls to block the FBI-Is-Going-to-Send-You-to-Jail-for-5-Years warning when we law-abiding paying customers are watching movies.
CS5 Extended Or Not.
Deke I am looking forward to upgrading from CS4 and your new videos, but if I just get CS5 and not Extended will the rotate view tool still work? what I mean is I don’t really do any 3D stuff
Thanks;)
heck
I can live with the FBI warning, it’s the mandatory trailer viewing that really frosts me.
Trailers
There are ways around those. Check here:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/skip-dvd-trailers/9742-1_53-50084412.html
(Hint: Stop>Stop>Play)
Rotate view
Works in all versions of CS4 and CS5.
My One-on-One Fundamentals, Advanced, and Mastery series all address the standard edition of the software. Though if time permits, I may devote a separate series to CS5 Extended as well.
Thanks Deke.
Looking forward to your videos;)
GREAT!
Cant wait although I wont be getting the cs5 serie for some time. But still cant wait for the videos,
Deke…. Please please
Deke….
Please please please
can you tell us what are your new series that you’re thinking of for CS5 -even it’s still just an Idea-but we like to know -we’re dying for that-
I’m dying for a new series of color adjustment of you
or blending modes in depth
or whatever ever series of you
Looking forward to your perspective
Deke, I’ve viewed most of the available videos on other sites, and there is no doubt that it’s worth the upgrade, BUT, I’m looking forward to your perspective on these new changes. I’ve already pre-ordered, so I’ll be soaking up as much information between now and then as I can.
New features in Photoshop CS5
are better than CS4 for sure. It’s come with lots of new exciting features.
Healing Blue Beard with CS5
In chapter 6 of CS4 one-on-one we spent a considerable amount of time healing the scratched picture and gnarled skin of an old Asian guy by Ed Simpson.
Content aware fill of CS5 made short work of healing the scratches on the image and taking care of the complexion problems. I didn’t switch the eye over, but I did color correct the beard after fixing the scratches and he looks marvelous!
Bug?
I tried to replace the eye, by changing the width to -100…And it yells at me saying the value must be between 1 and 400? Anybody confirm?
Yeah, Adobe broke the flip function in Clone Source
Kinda sucks, but there’s a workaround. Dup the image to a new layer, flip it, and then source from the dup’ed layer.
I document that—-and other revamped healing stuff in general—-using a new sample file in both the Photoshop CS5 One-on-One video (next week) and book (we’re hoping June).
Blue Beard is, sadly (happily?), dead. Altho good news that he can be healed with content-aware fill. I’m not surprised. He was a content-aware kinda guy.
Your emails.
Deke: Don’t know what’s happened but I haven’t received any e-mails from you since April 13.
I know there was some problems with the ISP, and have checked through junk mail etal., but still haven’t heard from you. I want to learn the new CS5, so need to really catch up. WHA’S UP! How do I get the latest blogs and stuff from Deke???? Help!
5/8/2010: Today I checked with my ISP, who was having problems for a few days, and they don’t have any record of receiving your emails either! So it’s back to you! HELP! HELP!
Shirley A Taylor