Photoshop has long been the trusted go-to tool for photographers, graphic designers and artists, among other creative types. Other software may vie for attention but if you are paid to do what you do in a field of creative expertise, chances are likely that you'll choose to do it using Photoshop.
So the question regarding new versions of the venerable image correction and manipulation software is not so much "is it worth buying" but "is it worth upgrading your current version"? And that's an easy question to answer. All that needs to be done is measure the value of new features.
So my list, in order of wow factor, is as follows.
Photoshop CS5 is now a 64-bit application. Curiously, my installation was set by default to open in 32-bit mode. I used it for almost a month before checking (embarrassing, huh?).
How do I describe performance in 64-bit mode? One word: ka-pow. More than one word: better than twice the speed when performing some complex tasks and overall much, much snappier. If you have a 64-bit version of Mac OS X, and you probably do, you will see a performance boost over CS4. For time-pressed retouchers, that may be enough on its own to justify upgrading both Photoshop and their Mac's RAM. Combine 64-bit performance with GPU acceleration and OpenGL and you take a leap forward in performance.
Closely following in the wow factor stakes is Content Aware fill and here's what it means to me. I shoot a lot of interiors and need to correct perspective distortion, especially in cases where wide-angle lenses are used in small spaces, such as a bathroom. When you use Photoshop's lens correction tool, which does a pretty good job, you often end up with wedges or triangles at the edges of the image as a result of scaling.
These blank spaces can be selected using an appropriate selection tool. Deleting the selection invokes a dialog for a Content Aware fill. Approve the fill and Photoshop does its best to figure out what to paste in the space. I found that where the fill needs to replicate a carpet or a wall, something fairly plain, Photoshop does a magnificent job of the fill, more often than not leaving me with nothing else to do. Certainly a major time saver compared to the clone and stamp routine of CS4.
On complex subjects, however, Photoshop can struggle with "guessing" the fill, and you'll need to resort to some well-worn techniques to sort it for yourself. On not so complex subjects, Photoshop gives you a lucky dip. Sometimes it works really well, requiring only minimal touch-up, and sometimes you'll need to start over.
Content Aware fill is, to my mind, the holy grail of image manipulation. When it works, it can save you a lot of time but, depending on the nature of your work, your results will vary. Nevertheless, it's a big step forward and refinements in future versions to content-aware actions is something to look forward to.
Pro tip: for better results using Content Aware fill, try applying a selection not exactly along the edge of where you want to apply the fill. You can just make out in the sample "before" image above that the edge of my selection along the wall and ceiling is a couple of pixels from the edge of the image. Had I left the selection where the yellow/white meets the black, the Content Aware fill would have blended the two areas.
My next favourite feature is a relatively unimportant one: scrubby zooming. I even love the name for it, and it works like so: enable the zoom tool and, while holding down the left mouse button, scroll left or right. Going right zooms in, going left zooms out. Or, just hold the button down in place. Stepless zooming. It means you can get to just the right measure of magnification you need for the task at hand. I like it a lot. Why? Because, with practise, it's faster than the old way of doubling zoom factors. Faster, usually, is good.
The next two noteworthy features are the brush settings and the refine edge tool. Each of these tools will feel familiar to anyone who's used Corel's Painter, with its natural media emulation, or Knockout.
The new brush mixer lets you adjust parameters such as number and hardness of bristles and brush wetness to achieve more natural media effects. I have to admit to not finding it very useful, but that's just me. As a photographer, I only put this to work on some minor retouching efforts. However, I've worked alongside graphic artists for long enough to know those operators will appreciate this addition to the feature set, especially when it saves them roundtripping an edit task through Painter or a similar app.
The refine edge feature makes knocking out objects, even complex ones with fine edge details, much easier than methods available in earlier Photoshop versions. It uses the "keep this, remove that" approach to routing an object.
I've never been very good at routing, finding it tedious and frustrating. The refine edge tool had me routing objects much faster than before, albeit not without some failures. Again, as with the content-aware fill, this is a tool that Photoshop will get either spot-on or well off the mark, but when you use it within the limitations with which you'll soon grow familiar, it's another great addition.
Auto lens correction is a well-received feature. Photoshop will identify your lens and focal length from the image metadata, look up lens data from the manufacturer, and apply corrections automatically. Not once has auto lens correction hit the mark perfectly for me but it's got very close to it and, again, that saves time. How? I reckon that when you launch into manual corrections to verticals, horizontals, vignetting and so on, you tend to overshoot the correction. After that, it's back and forth before you're satisfied. That's time-consuming.
With auto lens correction, I get much closer to the mark in the first place. I find myself stopping to assess what tweak is needed to correct distortion and apply it in fewer steps than if I'd jumped right in and, typically, over-corrected. Another time-saver.
Last of the two new features I've worked with a lot but ones I'm not personally very excited by are HDR Pro and Mini Bridge.
As already mentioned, I often shoot house interiors so HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging as a solution to handling difficult exposures in which interior lighting needs to be balanced with naturally lit outdoor scenes is of great interest. What I've found with HDR Pro is that I get better results more easily with the Photomatix plug-in for Aperture and with an Aperture-centric workflow that suits me fine.
But what I can't do with the Photomatix plug-in is apply HDR styling to a single image. When used this way, HDR Toning is not unlike the highlights/shadows slider. On steroids. Not surprisingly, the HDR Toning option is found right under the highlight/shadows tool via Image/Adjustments. The results tend to be garish but, if that over-satured, glowy, surreal look is what you're after, or even a more subtle variation of the same, HDR Toning offers a way to bring a HDR feel to a single image.
As for Mini Bridge, on seeing it I was reminded instantly of when Bridge first appeared in CS2. Back then, its value as an organisational tool was immediately apparent but as subsequent versions of Creative Suite were released, I became increasingly annoyed that while Bridge could help manage a workflow, it exists as a separate entity in the CS package. Helpful, but somehow distant, detached. Outside the workspace under your nose.
Adobe has tried to address that by offering Mini Bridge, which can be invoked and organised like any other panel. In use, it's like a mini file browser. Its appeal lies with being part of Photoshop, and I've found myself using it more as the months goes by. As a workflow tool, it's a welcome development, making it easy to ferret out an image. Bridge still launches in the background when Mini Bridge is invoked, so the first time it's used in any session requires waiting for Bridge, and that's a wee bit annoying. That said, I wonder if users well accustomed to a Bridge-centric workflow will change their habits to accommodate Mini Bridge. I expect not.
By no means is this an exhaustive assessment of Photoshop CS5's new features. These are the marquee new features but I'm sure many users will put a lot of value on some or all of the many other additions, among them enhancements to 3D performance, including extrusions with Repoussé; the puppet warp tool that provides a new method for applying image transformations; and the latest version of Camera Raw for better performance and features when handling RAW files.
All taken into consideration, Photoshop CS5 does offer a significant leap in performance and features from CS4. It is most certainly worth upgrading. Of that, there is no doubt.
Two versions of Photoshop CS5 are on offer. The standard version and the Extended version. The former doesn't have the enhanced 3D capabilities and motion-based content editing of the Extended version. If you can live without those features, there are savings to be had on both the upgrade and full purchase prices.
