Adobe Photoshop CS4 Review and series of Mini Tutorials on New Features
This long article covers the main new features and provides short tutorials on how to use some of the new features.
Top new and enhanced features in Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended and Bridge, and How to Use Them
The new version of Photoshop is out. Here are the main new features and how to make use of them.
Well, it is here, the next iteration of Adobe’s Creative Suite. In this article we focus on the photographer tools: Photoshop, Photoshop Extended and Bridge.
This is, in my view, a significant update for Photoshop. Not because it suddenly has some major new functionality that has blown me away, but because of a major development of the user interface. Yes, new features abound, but as is always the case individual ones will be an 'Oh wow' for some people and a 'So what' for others, depending on their individual work and approach. But the user interface affects us all.
I've been finding Photoshop CS4 a significant productivity improvement over CS3.
Note, these screenshots and my experience has been with a late beta version.
Live, nondestructive corrections with the Adjustments panel
The new Adjustments Panel places front and center the adjustment layer capability of PS. This is a major change to PS, in my view.
The panel presents you with icons for the available adjustment types, adding one for the new Vibrancy adjustment we’ve seen elsewhere. Beneath the icons is a scrollable list of presets. Many of these presets will not be relevant to any given user but a good cross-section is offered. Across the bottom of the panel are three icons:
- A forward arrow to take you back into the adjustments for whichever one is currently selected (once you have added at least one adjustment)
- Expanded or reduced view of the panel
- A button to control whether new adjustments only affect the current layer or all layers beneath.
Once you have selected an adjustment the dialog for the adjustment appears in the panel and the buttons across the bottom of the panel change. These are:
- A back button to return to the adjustment list
- The same expanded or reduced view button
- A button that tells you whether it affects all layers beneath or just the current layer, and to toggle between these
- An eye so you can toggle the adjustment on and off
- A press button that allows you to view the previous state of the adjustment. This is useful for determining if you are moving closer to or further away from the desired effect
- A reset to default adjustment button
- A delete this adjustment button.
I never felt that photographers in general made enough use of the adjustment layer approach, despite its great usefulness. This puts it front and center and, in fact, makes it easier to use adjustment layers than to do the adjustments straight into the image layer. As you add adjustments you will see the adjustment layers appear in the layer palette.
Re-editable, feathered, density controlled masks
By default, with the new Adjustment Palette, is the new Masks Panel on its own tab. This panel makes mask adjustments easy. Plus by putting it front and center it reminds you of the various ways you can adjust layer masks, whether on layers or on adjustment layers.
Two sliders are in the mask panel: density and feather, as well as three buttons grouped as Refine: Mask Edge, Color Range and Invert.
I must say that I find the Density slider counter intuitive, though I know this is because of the way I am thinking of the mask. With a mask, of course, black blocks and white indicates that no masking applies. When you move the Density slider away from the default 100% it reduces the density of the black in the mask, which obviously makes more of the layer or adjustment that has the mask visible or affecting the underlying image. This seems wrong to me though it does make sense. The difference comes from the way we can use masks. I typically use them as predominantly black, filling in white where I want an adjustment or layer to take effect. So for me density does the opposite to what I would want. Rather than reducing the adjustment or visibility, it actually increases how much of the underlying image is adjusted or has the masked layer impose itself. If you typically work the other way, of only masking out small areas of an image or adjustment, then the way Density works makes sense.
When you click the Mask Edge button a Refine Mask dialog opens that allows you to work on the edges of the mask, smoothing, feathering, expanding or contracting as needed. You have a huge amount of control, all nicely encapsulated in the one place.
Clicking the Color Range button brings up a dialog box with the usual color range controls.
Clicking Invert obviously inverts the mask.
More refined, natural results with Dodge, Burn, and Sponge
There is now a Protect Tones checkbox in the tool options toolbar and with the activated there is a significant difference in the way these tools work compared to CS3. In some situations it will be subtle but at other times I found it quite noticeable and a very worthwhile improvement.
Enhanced Auto-Align, Auto-Blend, and new 360° panoramas
Adobe has improved and added to the alignment and blending technology used in Photomerge and Merge to HDR functions. New vignetting and lens geometric distortion correction produces better results and you can now create 360 degree panoramas.
Extended depth of field
Computational photography is the way of the future and Photoshop now has more of it built in with the ability to extend the depth of field in an image by stacking multiple images show with different focal points and stitching them together for maximum sharpness.
This is what can happen when you have too few images without any or enough overlap of sharp zones.
Step by step, this what you do:
1. Select the images in Bridge and go Tools-> Photoshop ->Load Files into Photoshop Layers
2. In Photoshop, select all layers
3. Do Edit -> Auto Align Layers
4. Do Edit ->Auto-Blend Layers being sure to select Stack Images and Seamless Tones and Colors options
5. All done
If you start with a series like this
you end up with this
Provided you have a decent overlap of sharp zones from image to image, it works extremely well.
Fluid canvas rotation
This works as long as you have an OpenGL capable video card (my Macbook did not work with this) then it allows you to freely rotate the canvas to a more natural position. You are not rotating the image, just the canvas view.
Ultra-smooth pan, zoom, preview, and painting tools
These also use OpenGL and the power of the graphics processor on the video card to make the user interface much faster.
Tighter integration with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom®
Lightroom 2 will allow you to directly open multiple images into Photoshop layers, work with HDR and panoramic images or smart objects.
Camera Raw 5 with localized, nondestructive adjustments
See the section under Bridge below.
Breakthrough 3D editing and compositing (in the Extended edition)
Enhanced motion graphics (in the Extended edition)
If you are into video or web animation you will like this.
Volume Rendering (in the Extended edition)
You need OpenGL to work with this.
Easier data collection and analysis with the Count tool (in the Extended edition)
Highly specialised, but if you need it, you need it.
Unified tabbed interface with self-adjusting panels
When you start up Photoshop CS4 it is both familiar and different. The familiar tools are down the left side and the panels on the right. But then you see a new Application Bar at the top of the window with, from left to right:
- A button to start Bridge
- A view extras dropdown menu to control the visibility of the grid and guides
- A zoom level drop down menu that shows the current zoom percentage and offers immediate access to 25%, 50%, 100% and 200%
- A second instance of the hand tool
- A second instance of the magnifying glass tool
- A new Rotate View Tool that just rotates the canvas (provided your computer has an OpenGL enabled video card)
- An arrange windows menu that offers a good selection of N-up and tiling options
- A screen Mode menu that offers standard, full screen with menu bar and full screen
- Over the far right a Workspace Switcher menu offering quick access to different workspace arrangements.
Another big change is to a tabbed interface. Now, by default, when you have multiple images open they all sit together and are accessed by tabs. If you drag them out then you get back normal image windows. This seems a good option to have to maximize screen space for images and reduce clutter.
The last big interface change is a move to an application frame even on the Mac. There will be mixed reactions to this but it is nice to have the option. Personally I find the grey background sitting behind the images better than whatever clutter I have on my desktop or other applications open beneath.
Smarter Smart Objects
You can now apply perspective transformations to Smart Objects, use linked layer masks and more.
More powerful printing options
You can preview out of gamut colors and use a cleaner printing interface. 16-bit printing is now available on the Mac OS X versions only (at present).
Higher performance on very large images
On the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, Photoshop can use more RAM to better handle large images.
Additional refinements
There are many extras but here are two.
The Clone Stamp and Healing Brush give a live preview cursor so that you can better handle them. This means it will show you what you will get as you work.
Since the panels are SWF format, developers of specialist applications can readily add to the interface.
Creative Pro Online Services
Adobe is doing a major expansion into online services. Well be looking at those in a later article.
What’s new in Adobe Bridge CS4
Bridge has a major look upgrade, but the upgrades go much further than just look.
The user interface is clean and informative. One click and you can change the workspace.
Faster performance from startup to browsing, including an option to display previews embedded in raw images
Bridge is noticeably snappier in operation.
Easier access to task-based workspaces
Your can either access different workspaces from drop down menu or, if you have the screen space, pull out some of them to form a list next to the menu.
A new List view with rich data and familiar sorting controls
Built-in preview and creation of HTML and Flash web galleries, and PDF contact sheets
Collections for organizing related assets in freeform or search-based virtual groups—even when assets are spread across multiple folders
Fast, detailed search results thanks to tight integration with Spotlight in Mac OS X and Desktop Search in Windows Vista
New review modes, such as Carousel View for quickly cycling through assets
Smart analysis and auto-stacking of High Dynamic Range (HDR) and panoramic images for handoff to Photoshop
New support for previewing 3D images
Camera Raw improvements, including non-destructive application of dodge, burn, sharpen, and other adjustments
This is a pretty major adjustment, allowing you to work locally on the image in ACR. With the Adjustment Brush, for example, you can make significant adjustments to an image, locally, which can be erased later with no effect to the image.
The Graduated Filter lets you place a graduated effect across the image, It works amazingly well.
All told, I consider this an impressive upgrade to Photoshop. If you work with 3D and/or video/animation then the extended edition should be worth upgrading for. For photographers I believe the improvements to productivity make it a highly worthwhile upgrade.
I'll be putting more tutorials up once I receive the final shipping version.