Photoshop CS5 is Worth the Upgrade!

 Photoshop CS5 is Worth the Upgrade!
Adobe Photoshop has long been one of the standard graphic and photographic editing applications on the market. Its cross-platform sophistication reaches further than just features and capability, it has been a leader in its field with many applications following in its footsteps.

Last year, Adobe released its Creative Suite 5 (CS5) upgrade that further expands the program's capabilities into the world of modern digital photography. CS5 continues its standard toolset of editing gizmos, including a host of adjustment and transform filters that can perform an enormous amount of image manipulation. Those involved in the development of website graphics and image manipulation will be happy to see these features still intact, but the logical question is, what's new? Is it worth the investment to upgrade? How will it benefit me?

These are all good questions and the answers focus primarily on enhancements to digital imaging in the modern era of digital photography. CS5 has been enhanced to fully support the high definition resolution (HDR) capabilities of modern digital cameras. These HDR cameras contain high dynamic range sensors that increase bit rates from 12-bit to 14-bit RAW files. This four-fold increase in digital information packs an enormous amount of added information in picture details, such as shadows.

The new CS5 HDR features enable multiple exposures to be combined to create images with stunning realism. Past Photoshop versions supported HDR, but its use was limited and difficult to use. Photoshop CS5 has enhanced HDR performance with an easier interface that no longer need multiple exposures the create HDR photographs. Multiple exposures can be created from a single exposure using HDR Toning, which simulates an HDR photograph.

New tools are also added to enhance image editing. Puppet Wrap tags portions of an image, then that image portion can be reshaped. Think of a drooping daisy. With Puppet Wrap, the stem of the daisy can be tagged and the daisy reshaped so the stem is no longer dropping, but straight.

Content aware fill is a feature that turned heads at the Photoshop World 2010 conference. Content aware fill combines the patch tool and the spot healing brush and expands on its performance with stunning results. Objects within an image can be removed and the image reworked such that it's nearly impossible to detect the object was ever there.

Automatic lens correction has been added with powerful features that compensate for lens distortion. This new feature uses three correcting algorithms that fix various types of lens distortion: chromatic aberration, geometric distortion, and vignetting. The results are really amazing. An image with fish eye distortion can be corrected with seemingly perfect results.

Another area where CS5 excels is in the area of visual noise reduction (image sharpening). CS5 contains a new Camera RAW 6 format that makes it very easy to remove noise from images taken with high ISO settings. An area of improvement for future Photoshop releases is to extend this feature so noise reduction settings can be viewed even when the existing image isn't viewed in its actual size. Currently, to see the result of any setting, the image needs to be zoomed out to its original size.

CS5 has an added minibridge module that enhances image organization by switching between Bridge and Photoshop. This makes locating images much more efficient. This addition is an example of dozens of new, smaller enhancements that assist in efficiency. There are numerous added developments that enhance straightening, cropping, conversions, and more.

CS5 also provides 3D brushes and warping tools with Adobe's Repousse, which converts a 2D, flat image to an image with a 3D relief. This can be immensely helpful for the development of website graphics where buttons and icons are designed to pop off the screen.

The system requirements for CS5 are the same as prior versions with full support for 64-bit systems. Cross-platform 64-bit support enables images of much larger size to be opened with increased speed.

Overall, Photoshop CS5 is an impressive piece of work that increases the application's performance to meet today's digital imaging needs. Its added tools and features make this version arguably the most impressive and important release to date. With added content management features and support for its past feature base, CS5 is a version that gives those who have been holding out a real reason to upgrade.