Adobe CS4 Impressions \Photoshop

[wallaby]

Just thought I'd create an ongoing thread with CS4 impressions. I've downloaded the trials to Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, and InDesign (my main three design programs), so I'll let you know how they compare to CS3 (as I don't remember using CS2 much, and the only adobe programs I used prior were Photoshop 5.0 ).

\Photoshop CS4
+So far, I like the Windowed interface. It feels like I have more control over my screen, and the tabbed interface is nice if you're working between 2-6 images. More than that, I imagine the tabs would stop being so useful.
+Movement and zooming feels much smoother. The hand tool can get annoying sometimes with its inertia thing, so I might end up turning that off eventually.
+3D is fairly easy to use. It's not going to replace Bodypaint or any other 3D program anytime soon, but it's a nice bonus for mockups and might make a decent replacement for SketchUp.

More later...

 

[spetykowski]

very nice list OP. Here are a few things I enjoy in CS4. ( not in front of my mac, so my terminology is a little off)

• I enjoy the addition of perfect resolutions at all zoom levels.

• The new content-aware scale feature also works great.

• Making panoramas in photoshop is much better in CS4. Better selections from photos are made.

 

[polar-blair]

I started collage a few months ago and though it would be best to pick up the Adobe suite, to do work at collage so I waited for CS4 to come out, it is my first Adobe suite so I cant compare it to CS3, but at collage they still use Photoshop CS2 and Freehand, The differences in Freehand compared to Illustrator are huge! There are a lot of really good improvements but a lot of things that can be easily done in freehand I am finding difficult in illustrator.

Except from that I am finding the whole suite a lot of fun to play with and very good to work with, I seem to spend a lot of time in after effects (Nothing to do with my course )

 

[wallaby]

• The new scalding feature also works great.

Could you tell me how this works? Is it a separate tool, or just integrated into the transform tool? I couldn't find it the other night.

 

[spetykowski]

Could you tell me how this works? Is it a separate tool, or just integrated into the transform tool? I couldn't find it the other night.

Yeah, its called Content-Aware Scale. Its located in Edit>Content-Aware Scale. Photoshop recognizes the subject in the image and puts an imaginary mask around it. As you move your scale points and transform your picture, the background of your photo begins get scaled while the subject stays protected from becoming misshapen. Check out the example i included, the clouds and car stay the same, photoshop eliminates the blue in the sky before it starts to effect the clouds.

 

[design-is]

It's very clever stuff. Can't wait to try CS4 out simply for the scaling

 

[spetykowski]

It's very clever stuff. Can't wait to try CS4 out simply for the scaling

yeah, this feature is very useful, when you have a great portrait image and you want a landscape print, you can use this trick opposed to cropping and losing some of the image.

I've used CS2 through CS4, and there have been tons of improvements throughout these versions. Though, to focus on CS4 besides what i have mentioned above,

I love the overall feel of it, I use the windowed mode of PS, as mentioned by the OP, it is a lot easier to work with in my opinion. though i actually disagree and like the hand tools use of inertia when moving around a zoomed in image. it makes it epically easy to get from the top of the image to the bottom when using a MBP.

the screens feature is very useful, it allows me to edit/clean up an image while i keep a copy of image the same image open for reference. The screens mode allows me to evenly space apart these images.

 

[Psycdude]

I wanted to buy something to do some amateur photo editing, making brushes, touchups, etc. I was considering buying Adobe elements for around $100.

I just checked with my school and saw that I qualify for an educational discount price, and can buy Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended for $194.

This might sound like a simple question, but is there any reason to not just get the better one (CS4) if I can afford it?

Thanks.