In this review we look at the Power Retouche range of plug-ins for Photoshop and compatible applications Power Retouche publish a larger number (24 at last count) of Photoshop and compatible application plug-ins for photographers and those editing images. They can be bought individually or in one of two complete sets: in the cheaper they are limited to working on 8-bit RGB images, in the second, pro, version, they will work in 8-bit or 16-bit mode in RGB, Grayscale, Duotone. CMYK, Multichannel or Lab. Because of the number of filters, we’ll spend more time on some than on others. I’ll mention here one limitation I have noticed across multiple filters. When you have a side by side, before and after, view up, you can only move around within the limitation of the … Read entire article »

In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine Vanishing Point, Printing, PDF and Zoomify. Vanishing PointVanishing Point is now on the way to supporting multiple, connected planes with angle adjustments so that planes do not need to joint at 90 degrees. In practice I feel this part still has a long way to go. It works well but, at least to me, it feels massively limited by not being able to clone in from another image. I’d call this a work in progress. PrintingThis is great. It puts everything you need in one place and provides a meaningful preview to show you exactly what you will get. As it comes up it shows the color management area on the right You … Read entire article »

In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine Cloning, Healing, Performance, Blending Modes and Brightness/Contrast. Cloning and Healing The new Clone Source Palette is a great help and extends the functionality of cloning and healing in an efficient way. It puts nice numerical values in view (and for change), which is immensely helpful for certain cloning tasks, allows rotation and scaling, several clone sources to be defined, a visible overlay and more. Plus there is more functionality in the tool options bar. Performance Even for a Beta, CS3 is an improvement over CS2. Bridge is much faster generating thumbnails and Photoshop seems generally snappier. Blending modes Old and New Two new blending modes join the mix, Lighter Color and Darker Color, which fairly obviously … Read entire article »

In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine Auto Photomerge Auto PhotomergeThis new facility makes much use of the Align Selected Layers Based On Content and Blend Selected Layers Based On Content features to make the stitching or panoramas or mosaics easy. It can operate in five modes Auto seemed to always select Perspective, at least with me Perspective Cylindrical Reposition only Interactive Layout I found Interactive Layout gave the best result for me, as these two examples show, including verticals. You can work manually or automatically. You can turn off automatic snap to image, allowing you to position the images in anyway you like, including obviously strange ways. Auto Photomerge works amazingly well. Since I have the latest version of Stitcher to review, I will do … Read entire article »

In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine Auto Align, Quick Select and Refine Edge AlignAuto Align based on image content is a great tool for putting together mosaics (where you shoot overlapping images to build up a higher resolution image than your camera is capable of with one image) and panoramas. This is a useful facility and I can see lots of uses for it in my own work. It gives another option to using the Auto Photomerge facility. Quick Selections and Refine EdgeQuick Select is another selection tool, and you can never have too many of those to choose from. Seriously. I find myself switching from one to another, adding to or removing from a selection. It … Read entire article »

In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine Black and White. Black and White The Black and White conversion functionality that is now in Camera RAW is brought out into the Image > Adjustments menu. The Black and White adjustment allows you to individually control how different colors are rendered into tone. There are also standard presets and you can save your own. The presets give you quite a range of effects You can also add a tint to the image from in the same dialog. The new BW features are a useful addition. … Read entire article »

In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine Smart Filters. Smart FiltersSmart Filters have been probably the most eagerly awaited new PS feature. Planned for CS2, they could not get it going in time for that release to the team’s satisfaction. So it now appears. To apply Smart Filters you must first convert a Layer (or selected group of Layers) to a Smart Object You get a warning you can turn off And the thumbnail changes appearance to show you this After that, as you apply filters to the Layer(s) you will get these added to the layer display. Note that all the filters you apply will have one, collective mask. This could be a limitation for some, and it would be … Read entire article »

In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine the user interface changes. Photoshop is a big beast of a program, and since there are also a big number of changes and additions, we have chosen to tackle this in pieces. This is Part 1. MIAThe big Missing In Action item is ImageReady. It has ceased to be. Some of its functionality is now in PS, which actually makes a lot of sense. But not all of ImageReady’s functionality is incorporated, at least not in the Beta. Missing, for example, is the ability to create rollovers. This was a great feature of ImageReady and it allowed some very sophisticated web pages to be built without having to resort to Flash. User … Read entire article »

In our coverage of the CS3 Beta we now look at the new version of Camera RAW and find that it has much in common with the RAW handling in Adobe’s Lightroom. It is of little surprise that Adobe are moving to a consistent RAW handling across products, and thus that the Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) in CS3 PS and Bridge would follow that in the Lightroom Beta. And so the changes we see in ACR are more those of bringing it into line rather than much that is new. In this light, in this article I’ll not only run through what is new compared to CS2 ACR but also run through how I use most of these features. On starting ACR CS3 Beta you notice that more tabs have been added … Read entire article »

New features, new usability and new speed sum up the present state of the beta of Bridge. Bridge took a huge step forward yesterday with the release of the CS3 Beta version. Not only is thumbnail generation faster (yes, even in a Beta) but it has taken a huge step forward in functionality. The New The Old The user interface is even better. Fully customizable, you can create tabbed panels with components that you rarely use simultaneously, such as say keywords and metadata, in the same panel. And, as before, you can save your Workspace configuration. But now you can have three of them displayed as small icons at bottom right of the display, making switching fast and easy. Slideshow mode becomes more useful. You have various configuration options. When you play the slideshow … Read entire article »