This CS5 announcements has been a long time coming, and as someone who fortunate enough to work with Adobe as an alpha and beta tester, it was a bit of a relief! :) There is so much cool stuff in CS5 that not being able to share the new capabilities with creative professionals and others like myself, was a test of willpower this cycle. Let me give you a few of the highlights from the new CS5 Production Suite.
Adobe CS5 Suites
Photoshop CS5 in particular is a really excellent upgrade. Probably the best single improvement I’ve seen in 15+ years of using the app. During that time I’ve enjoyed (along with the rest of the pixel-pushing community) the advent of History, the Brush Engine (Ps 7), and many other cool features like Vanishing Point. But CS5 takes the cake. Not only is it fully 64 bit for the Mac and PC now, but the new features are outstanding and applicable to several workflow types.
Photographers: for me the most impressive new capability is the HDR Pro function, which now provides Photoshop users with a truly professional solution for combining exposures to create high dynamic range images. There tone-mapping controls are much improved, there is a deghosting function to remove ghosts from overlaid exposures of moving subjects like trees, clouds or plants. There is also an excellent corner point feature in the Curves that allow for very precise control over image contrast region-by-region.
But that’s not all for photographers by a long-shot. We also have a more accurate an intelligent Refine Selection / Refine Edge command that uses Smart (Edge) Radius technology to quickly isolate your subject from background clutter or color bleed. And you’ve no doubt seen the retoucher’s dream by now, the Content Aware Fill command. Now there will be a lot more creating and a lot less clone, patch, heal… clone, patch, heal. :)
Still not done though. The new Luminance and Color Noise Reduction technology you’ve seen in Lightroom 3 Beta, is available in ACR 6 as well. Photoshop CS5 also has a brand new Lens Correction capability, that profiles individual cameras and lens combos and makes automatic corrections. This feature will become bread-and-butter for many photographers, as Nikon, Canon and others provide robust profiles for their pro zoom and wide angle glass. Last and certainly not least Adobe has created a new Mixer Brush and live Bristle Tips, which allow photographers to create beautiful digital paintings and photo-illlustrations from their pictures!
You can learn about all of these features and more in my upcoming title: Photoshop 105: Retouching & Image Adjustment!
Designers: if you’re a graphic designer or work with more creative workflows in Photoshop, there are three huge additions to CS5. First the Puppet Warp tool allows you to take a subject that is isolated on a transparent layer, and warp it in realistic ways (not dissimilar to AE’s Puppet tool), while filling the hole in the background layer with Content Aware Fill. There’s also Repousse, which addresses the long-standing request for a text and shape extrusion tool in Photoshop. Be warned though: you’ll want to use a computer with a pretty powerful GPU to get the most from Repousse or other Photoshop 3D features. And the same Mixer Brush and Bristle tips noted above, can allow Photoshop artists to create painterly creations from scratch, without the need for 3rd party apps. Or at least the need will be less frequent.
After Effects and Premiere Pro CS5 also have major improvements to offer for video editors and motion graphics artists, including both being optimized for 64 bit computing, GPU acceleration and in some features, multi-core CPU acceleration. For Production Suite users, you’re going to want to have at least 12GB of RAM available on your machine to get the most from Photoshop, AE, and Pr at the same time. Remember: RAM is still relatively cheap so it’s a great way to boost performance for not a lot of money.
Video / FX: For those who are given the unenviable task of Rotoscoping, the new RotoBrush in After Effects allows you to intuitively paint around a subject and as the frames advance, using various slider settings and brush tweaks to let AE “fill in the blanks” and follow your subject around. Maybe more important in my mind is the improved performance and stability across the range of functions for Premiere Pro, and the improved speed of Dynamic Link workflows for AE – Premiere and Encore.
In the weeks ahead I will be posting free demos over various CS5 functions and linking them up here at Colortrails, so check back often!
