Making lists seems to be a popular way of blogging. (Maybe we are getting too much David Letterman.) Anyway, at least for this post, I’ve decided to follow the heard. Photoshop CS 5 (and Lightroom 3) have been out for a while and I’ve had a chance to revamp how I work on images because of the new features in them. In order to make the list the feature must have a significant impact on how I work on images. Here are my top five new features in Photoshop CS5.
- Updated Refine Edge
- ACR’s Process 2010
- ACR’s updated Lens Correction
- Enhanced Noise Reduction in ACR
- Content Aware
Updated Refine Edge. Refine edge is not new but how it works has been given a major overhaul. Being able to turn on edge detection logic and then paint on the image where you want Photoshop to take another look at the selection/mask makes simple, quick work out of what used to be complex tasks. This has already saved me hours!
ACR’s Process 2010. Prior to this release Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) used a demosaicing algorithm that was developed in 2003. In software years that’s very very old. (BTW, all updates to ACR also apply to Lightroom 3 Develop module.) The new Process 2010 produces much cleaner images requiring a lot less noise reduction and a little less capture sharpening. New files are automatically converted with Process 2010. Older, previously converted, files stay in Process 2003 with the option to update to Process 2010.
ACR’s updated Lens Correction. The Lens Correction tab now contains two sub-tabs. One for Automatic Correction and one for manual correction. Using the EXIF information about the lens the image was shot with ACR picks a lens profile and automatically corrects lens distortions, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. In the manual tab, besides being able to manually correct chromatic aberration and vignetting like you could in previous versions, you can now correct lens distortion. In fact, you can use these tools to apply perspective corrections while inside ACR. Now there will be even fewer image that now need to go into Photoshop. (I’d say somewhere between 75-80% of my images a completely worked in ACR/Develop Module and never see Photoshop.)
Enhanced Noise Reduction in ACR. Besides having less noise to deal with because of Process 2010; the tools in the update Detail Panel now do a much better job of mitigating noise while minimizing effects on image detail.
Content Aware. Content Aware technology has been added to Fill and Heal tools. Content Aware fill can be used to fill large areas fairly intelligently. It doesn’t always for a perfect job but cleaning up is MUCH easier that doing the fill the old way. Previously the healing brush did not work when trying to heal near edges, especially, near high contrast edges. Now Content Aware heal can make quick work of retouching.
There are quite a few new major features that did not make my top 5. Most are useful and welcomed but do not help me much in how I work on images. Just to name a few, there are Mini Bridge, Puppet-Warp, and HDR Pro. I may occasionally take advantage of these but not nearly as often as a do those that made the top 5.
Upgade? You may have noticed that 3 of the five are located in ACR. IMHO, the updates to the raw converter are so significant that they are reason enough to upgrade to either. or both, Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3.
If you agree with my picks or if you have others don’t hesitate to leave a comment.