{"id":15598,"date":"2008-11-02T08:58:21","date_gmt":"2008-11-02T08:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnackdev\/2008\/11\/cs4-whats-in-it-for-photographers.html"},"modified":"2008-11-02T08:58:21","modified_gmt":"2008-11-02T08:58:21","slug":"cs4_whats_in_it_for_photographers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/02\/cs4_whats_in_it_for_photographers\/","title":{"rendered":"CS4: What&#039;s in it for Photographers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">I thought photographers might like to have a single, consolidated list of all the enhancements in Photoshop CS4 &amp; Bridge CS4 that can help improve their productivity.&nbsp; Photographer\/<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Black-White-Photoshop-Lightroom-monochromatic\/dp\/0240521595\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1225641437&amp;sr=8-1\">author<\/a>\/fellow Photoshop PM Bryan O&#8217;Neil Hughes kindly stepped up with a guest blog entry, below.&nbsp; It&#8217;s a <em>long<\/em> list, so I&#8217;ve put it into this post&#8217;s extended entry.&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnack\/2008\/11\/cs4_for_photographers.html#more\">Read on<\/a> for the good 411&#8230;&nbsp; &#8211;J. <\/span><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\"><strong>Photoshop<\/strong> <strong>CS4<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/adobe\/photoshop\/cs4_screenshots\/acr5.jpg\">Camera Raw 5<\/a><\/strong>: The comprehensive raw conversion engine in Photoshop and Bridge leaps forward with the ability to edit individual regions&#8211;dodging, burning, painting saturation, applying graduated filters, and more.&nbsp; ACR supports more than 200 proprietary raw formats, plus JPEGs and TIFFs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">GPU acceleration<\/span>: No more jagged pixels at various zoom levels.&nbsp; Instead, what you see is what you get at any zoom ratio, from .07% all the way up to 3200% (and everywhere in between). \u00a0This gives us previews of cloned\/healed data clipped to the brush and faster performance from the color management engine, HDR preview adjustments, and much more!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">64-bit<\/span> (Windows): If you\u2019re running Windows on a 64-bit OS (officially Vista, XP64 possible but unsupported) you can now address ridiculously large amounts of memory.&nbsp;<em> [Look for more performance benchmarks soon.&nbsp; &#8211;J.]<\/em> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Dramatically improved Dodge, Burn and Sponge<\/span> tools: More power, fidelity and control linked to the speed and flexibility of Photoshop\u2019s fast and flexible pressure-sensitive paint engine. \u00a0\u201cProtect Tones\u201d gives you dodging and burning where you need it (while preserving the areas you don\u2019t) and the Sponge tool can now saturate or de-saturate with the intelligence of the Vibrance logic (from Camera Raw and Lightroom).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/adobe\/photoshop\/cs4_screenshots\/adjustments.png\">Adjustments Panel<\/a><\/span>: The power of adjustment layers comes to a non-modal panel.&nbsp; That is, all of Photoshop is alive and available while you edit non-destructively. \u00a022 new presets (all user-configurable, of course) and on-image controls for both Curves and Hue\/Saturation. \u00a089% less mouse travel than a menu-driven layers workflow. \u00a0Faster, more powerful and no longer forcing you into a limited dialogue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Vibrance adjustment layer<\/span>: The intelligent preservation control that we know and love in both Lightroom and Camera Raw comes to Photoshop in the form of an adjustment layer. \u00a0Skin tones, we can now see you!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Masking Panel<\/span>: Quick and powerful masks from selections in this new, live, re-editable panel. \u00a0Whether you\u2019re creating detailed masks from scratch (pixel or vector), using the powerful and much improved Color Range control, Feathering or adjusting Density of your masks or even Refining what you have, the Mask panel offers a live spot for powerful one-stop selective editing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Alignment<\/span>: CS3 took the alignment of multiple images far, and CS4 goes even further. \u00a0CS4 offers better results, more choices for projection, even built-in profiles for common wide angle lenses.&nbsp; CS4 can even <strong>remove vignetting and geometric distortion<\/strong> as it aligns. \u00a0For example, here&#8217;s the same set of images <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/adobe\/photoshop\/cs4_screenshots\/vignetting_before_after.jpg\">aligned in CS3 vs. in CS4<\/a> (no auto-blending applied), courtesy of photographer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.computer-darkroom.com\/\">Ian Lyons<\/a>.&nbsp; Most importantly, this can all be handled automatically by Photoshop, whether handing off from Lightroom or from Bridge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Blending<\/span>: CS3 made panoramas and composites smooth, and CS4 makes those even smoother while doing entirely new things like blending focus from multiple images! \u00a0From the practical (multiple product shots with varying depth of field blended to \u201cbuy\u201d more focus) to the surreal (shallow depth of field for a subject in the foreground and the background, with a smooth bokeh between!). \u00a0There\u2019s a new option called \u201cSeamless Tones &amp; Colors\u201d as well, it blends exposure data \u2013 imagine two shots, one taken with a flash, the other without \u2013 you can now quickly enjoy the benefits of both in one image! \u00a0As with Alignment, there\u2019s no guesswork with the options, because Photoshop knows best, automatically, by default.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Content-Aware Scaling<\/span>: You may have seen the <a href=\"http:\/\/av.adobe.com\/russellbrown\/ContentAwareScale_SM.mov\">wild demo-candy<\/a> of sand and surf flying in and out of images as they\u2019re dramatically rescaled, but you\u2019re a serious shooter and you want to know what\u2019s in it for you. \u00a0That full-frame 11&#215;17, 8&#215;12, 5&#215;8 that needs to fit into the 11&#215;14, 8&#215;10 or 5&#215;7 frame&#8230;Content-Aware Scaling. \u00a0That wedding photo for the groom\u2019s iPhone rescaled without cutting his head off?&#8230;yep, CAS. \u00a0The fixed spot you have in the magazine layout that invariably loses an arm, a head or a loved one\u2019s face \u2013 we have your feature!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><strong>Designed for multiple monitors<\/strong>: As many as 50% of professional photographers use more than one monitor, and CS4\u2019s new interface is optimized for this.&nbsp; For example, palette\/panel groups can float and be minimized\/expanded across monitors (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/adobe\/photoshop\/cs4_screenshots\/flotilla.png\">screenshot<\/a>). \u00a0With the new UI and workspace switcher, custom configurations have never been easier or more capable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Print<\/span>: With more resolution in still images than ever before, and panoramas being easier than ever, people are printing larger than ever \u2013 so is Photoshop! \u00a0Co-developed alongside the major print manufacturers, Photoshop\u2019s print engine continues to grow more powerful and stable with CS4. \u00a0From <strong>gamut warnings<\/strong> to <strong>more powerful automation<\/strong>, we\u2019ve been working hard to make printing work for you. \u00a0If you\u2019re running OSX.5 and have a supported printer, you now have the option of <strong>printing 16-bit data<\/strong> \u2013 fine-art photographers rejoice!\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\"><strong>Bridge CS4<\/strong>:    <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">Auto-stacking and processing<\/span> of HDRs and Panoramas: Instead of going through a shoot, manually identifying the sets of images that constitute panoramas and\/or HDR merges, then handing off each set to Photoshop one at a time, let Bridge do the work for you.&nbsp; Bridge can examine both image content and EXIF metadata to identify image groups, then automatically create stacks of images.&nbsp; Once these stacks exist, you can hand them off to Photoshop to be batch processed into panos and HDR files. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\"><strong>Output<\/strong><\/span>: Bridge can now create PDF contact sheets or Web photo galleries.&nbsp; Web galleries can use Flash or HTML, and Bridge can even upload them to your Web server via FTP.&nbsp; PDFs can contain document security options (for example, disabling printing for a book of proofs). <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><strong>Full-screen previews &amp; Review Mode<\/strong>: Tap the spacebar to see any image in full-screen mode.&nbsp; Click anywhere on the image to zoom in to 100% view (great for checking sharpness).&nbsp;  Meanwhile the new Review Mode (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jnack.com\/adobe\/photoshop\/cs4_screenshots\/review_mode.jpg\">screenshot<\/a>) makes it easy to cycle through images, rating &amp; labeling while whittling down a selection by using the arrow keys to knock out shots that don&#8217;t fit.  Both modes leverage your system&#8217;s GPU for smooth hardware acceleration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\"><strong>Collections<\/strong><\/span>: In addition to the saved searches it has always supported (now dubbed <b>Smart Collections<\/b>), Bridge offers regular <b>Collections<\/b> as well&#8211;simple virtual folders into which you can drag images and other files.  An image can exist in multiple collections at once, and you can generate a collection automatically when exiting Review Mode.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Video<\/span>: As before you can preview and see still representations of the videos from your cameras (hmmmm D90 and 5D Mk. II!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Adobe Camera Raw<\/span> is just a click away: with a keyboard shortcut (R) from the new preview modes or with the click of the new task-based button, no more worrying about preferences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\"><strong>Photoshop CS4 Extended<\/strong>: <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe you\u2019re a student or have acquired Photoshop as part of a suite, if so there\u2019s a good chance you have CS4 Extended.  While we design CS4 to satisfy all of the needs of photographers, there are a couple of noteworthy features in CS4 that you should know about:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Video<\/span>: CS3 Extended added support for the import and export of video (thinking back to the suite, if you had Flash on board we could even export Flash video content).  CS4 adds a number of enhancements including sound and a much-improved display of non-square pixels.  I mention this, because video is very quickly becoming a big part of pro shooter\u2019s lives.  I have a strong suspicion that the D90 and 5D Mk. II are just the start.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">3D<\/span>: \u201cWhat does 3D have to do with 2D\u201d, you ask?  CS4 Extended can now create 3D postcards from 2D files \u2013 essentially adding another axis to your image to enjoy real-time, non-modal 3D control of your image.  For photographers this is similar to a quick WYSIWYG perspective control or even a really fast and fluid way to invert what you see.&nbsp; It also makes it easy to <strong>add lighting effects<\/strong> in a highly editable, comprehensive way.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/av.adobe.com\/russellbrown\/SphericalPanorama_SM.mov\"><strong>Spherical panorama editing<\/strong><\/a>:  You can now wrap images onto a 3D sphere inside which you place your camera.&nbsp; And why would you want to do that?&nbsp; Simply put, you can now use all your Photoshop 2D tools and techniques (painting, cloning, healing, merging layers, etc.) to adjust the projected data, making it much easier to retouch the image in its final form, rather than trying to tweak the unwrapped 2D form. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0;margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0\">-Bryan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought photographers might like to have a single, consolidated list of all the enhancements in Photoshop CS4 &amp; Bridge CS4 that can help improve their productivity.&nbsp; Photographer\/author\/fellow Photoshop PM Bryan O&#8217;Neil Hughes kindly stepped up with a guest blog entry, below.&nbsp; It&#8217;s a long list, so I&#8217;ve put it into this post&#8217;s extended entry.&nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15598"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}