Photoshop CS5 Reviewed

Photoshop CS5 introduces powerful new features that change the way you work with images.

IMPROVED: CS5 improved High Dynamic Range photo processing offers better rendering and gives more options to tweak your image.

Adobe has always set the standard for image editing with every new version of its Photoshopapplication.

Photoshop CS5, has even more tools and features that will make your work easier and more fun.

However, there are so many major updates in CS5 that it's impossible to cover them all. So, we'll be focusing on the more important ones in this review.

The user interface has received a facelift but if you are a Photoshop user, you will not have any trouble using it.

When you are working with images, CS5 uses a tabbed interface for switching between projects so you can manage multiple jobs easily.

Another cool feature is called Mini Bridge, an extension that allows browsing of photos within the app.

Mini Bridge can be launched and minimised anytime and it is certainly a lot faster and smoother than using Photoshop Bridge.

Other more subtle changes in CS5 include a built-in rule of thirds grid within the crop tool for easily framing your photos before cropping them.

Sharpening images has also been improved so that you don't accidentally overdo it and make the images look unnatural.

There is now an option that can protect the image so that detail is not lost when over sharpening.

One of the biggest improvements in is the Content Aware brush. It is a more refined tool used to edit out specific parts of the image.

Think of it as an improved Heal brush but one that is aware of the content that you are working on.

And the big feature that has everyone talking is the Content Aware Fill (CAF) option.

The way this tool works is quite amazing. Say, you have a photo of the Eiffel Tower but it is being blocked by a crowd of people.

Normally you would have to manually erase them using the clone tool, a time consuming and tedious process.

CAF can automatically remove the crowd and fill the space by making smart guesses based on other parts of the image.

Another good use for CAF is when you have a wide panaromic shot and don't wish to crop the top and bottom part of the image.

REFINED TOOL: Photoshop CS5's new Content Aware Fill allows you to selective edit out portions of a picture.

However, after toying with CAF, we were not overly impressed because it is not a tool that will work with all images.

It works well with images that have a simple background but it gets steadily worse when working with more and more complicated images.

Very often it would end up sampling very close the part of the image that you want to remove, which usually results in a garbled mash of colours and shapes.

We tried using CAF to remove a person in a group shot but in the end we had to resort to using the Clone Stamp to get better results.

Another new tool for photographers is the Automatic Lens Correction filter. You will find it really handy for quickly correcting photos for distortions, vignetting and chromatic aberrations.

CS5 maintains a detailed database of various camera bodies and lenses so it minimises guess work when applying the corrections.

This will definitely help many photographers get their pictures looking the way they want without spending hours manually correcting their photos.

As the tool uses crowd sourced information to continually update its database, users like yourself can also do you part to keep it accurate and complete.

So if there are lenses that you own that aren't included in the database, you can always add their profiles and share them with others.

Another much talked about feature that CS5 has is Puppet Warp, which is basically an advanced Warp tool that let's you bend and twist parts of an image.

You have to place control points on an image that serve as anchor points for the process.

One of the applications for Puppet Warp is for changing the position of a subject's limbs.

If a person is holding his hands up instead of putting them on his waist, you can add control points to his joints and bend the arms into position.

Usually, the distortion is minimal and the results are quite impressive but it's not always natural looking.

While the application for photographers to manipulate images through this method is limited, it may prove more useful for image compositors who want to correct perspective lines or straighten something out.

For graphics artists, Adobe has added advanced new brushes in CS5, allowing them to paint as if they are using actual paint brushes.

For example, you can mix colours from a paint palette with your brushes to create new colours, so red and yellow makes orange while blue with yellow makes green and so forth.

It's even better if you have a tablet because CS5's new Brush tools will allow you to work as if you were using a real brush.

Users are given a preview of what shape the brush looks like in real time as you twist and turn it, giving you all sorts of different shapes and patterns that could only have been produced by a real brush.

Conclusion

Adobe is again trying to push the boundaries with Photoshop CS5.

Features such as Puppet Warp, Lens Correction Filter and Advanced Brushes are great for photo editing. Plus, lots of tweaks and improvements also make CS5 an even more refined software for working with images.

However, some tools didn't quite work as we expected them to and one of them is CAF.

The new features, enhanced interface and improved performance will benefit serious users.

Casual users who won't be taking advantage of advanced features can opt for the more basic Photoshop Elements.

Pros: Enhanced user interface; Mini Bridge for accessing images fast; Lens Correction Filter is handy; Improved brushes.

Cons: CAF and Puppet Warp needs tweaking.

Photoshop CS5
(Adobe Systems Inc)
Photo editing software
System requirements: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor, 1GB RAM, 1GB HDD space, 16-bit video card with OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0 support, QuickTime 7.6.2, Internet connection
Website: www.adobe.com
Price: US$699 (RM2,300) for Adobe Photoshop CS5; US$999 (RM3,300) for Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended