Photoclubalpha

Those who are using Photoshop CS4---have a look at Adobe's download area!

Update for Macintosh
Update for Windows

-- Olaf

Thanks Olaf, I already updated it.

Also have a look for updates from your graphics card's manufacturer. It seems Adobe is collaborating closely with Nvidia and ATI, and the makers of graphics cards obviously are pretty quick at updating their drivers when there are issues with Adobe products.

At least for my graphics card (ATI Radeon 2600 Pro), there is a very recent driver update (version 9.2, just a few days old) on the ATI website for download ... and I guess it's the same for other cards, too.

-- Olaf

Sonolta wrote:Doc, exactly what CS4 features are you using that CS3 did not offer.

-Sonolta

You mean why am I using CS4? Just simple, I received it as a gift.

And I'm not the only one in the family using it. So it's not just for me. Frankly, I use only Photoshop and Acrobat from within the CS4. Still am not used to Bridge and there are other softwares there I have no idea about. I don't have much time to use the computer too.

Dr. Harout wrote:You mean why am I using CS4? Just simple, I received it as a gift.

You must have nice friends Doc.
Hmm!, I wish I had some of those.

Sonolta wrote:
No, I meant the exact question that I asked you.

"Doc, exactly what CS4 features are you using that CS3 did not offer."

I guess you are a photoshop neewbie so you can't answer my question!

-Sonolta

Which feature exactly do you want to know? The list of improvements/modifications are on their site, and they explain much better than I do, as I'm a 'photoshop newbie' and you are way better than me on links

Bodak wrote:You must have nice friends Doc.
Hmm!, I wish I had some of those.

Yes, friends wise I'm very rich, and I'm sure you are too.

I use CS4 but I use it - through habit - in exactly the way I used CS3. I don't use the non-destructive layer based adjustments, I just work as always. I have experimented with the new features but I don't do enough serious comps and retouch work to need to keep layered versions with a big history I can go back through to undo changes. My main reason for updating to each new version of Design Suite Premium is to ensure compatibility with other people's files, with new raw formats, printer drivers etc. CS4 for example is better at handling printed output to my Epson 3800 printer than CS3 was, but it's still not remembering some important settings (we were promised it would!).

Good things I am not using enough in CS4 include the graded filter in the raw conversion (same goes for LR2). I also have a lot of third party plug ins and CS4 has 'broken' a few of these. Fortunately, Panotools still works which means I can do do fisheye remapping.

For me the best advantage of CS4 over CS3 has been the reversion of the feathered selection tool to CS2 behaviour. With CS3, if you selected one half of the pic then feathered it, the entire selection would be feathered including the edges which touch the edge of the pic. CS2, and CS4, leave any edge which is also the boundary of the photo unfeathered, and only feather any edge which has more photo beyond it. This means you can quickly grab a darker sky from a darker raw export, select, feather, copy and drop it onto a lighter exposure export for the ground (quick HDR substitute which I use all the time). If it would be a rectangle selection the graded filter tool does it in raw, but often my sky selection will be traced to follow trees, mountains, houses etc.

An even more useful change - new feature not a reversion to old behaviour - is the preview function of the clone tool. This shows the part you are cloning as a transparent patch meaning you can align it perfectly with the image you are cloning over, no guessing to placement of the cursor. It has made clone retouching SO accurate and fast, even just dust spot removal. Typical uses for me include retouching camera equipment shots where you can be sure there will always be little dust specks on a lens barrel. Now I can be totally sure of keeping the ribbed grip (etc) of the barrel looking perfect by exactly lining up a section to copy, before it was hard work getting the source and target matched.

But as with each version of Photoshop, it's the updated raw conversions which make it a must-have.

David

David Kilpatrick wrote:But as with each version of Photoshop, it's the updated raw conversions which make it a must-have.

That is really the only thing that is somewhat important to me, but I have decided as a matter of principle that I will not upgrade from PS CS2. The *only* reason would be for an updated ACR and I just won't do it for the amount of money they want on a regular basis. I don't care about the new stuff in PS CS3/CS4. If Adobe would offer just ACR updates for a small fee then I would do that, but they don't so I ain't.

And now in the category of broken records...
I have found that PSE 6 does 99% of what I typically use PS for except it has only the basic shadows/highlights function rather than having the advanced option like in PS. I used to use curves a lot, but with the PS advanced shadows/highlights I can do most of what I used to use curves for easier and usually better. PSE 6 has a crippled curves and a crippled shadows/highlights. As I have written elsewhere, it is really shameful that Adobe has so many bugs in the simple stuff, i.e., the PSE Windows interface. It is really bizarre and I am befuddled as to why something so simple that other Adobe products, everyone else's products, and freebies even manage to do properly. Does anyone know if PSE 7 has the more advanced shadows/highlights and/or has the Windows interface bugs fixed?