In the article below, Martin Evening discusses several of the new and exciting features offered in Photoshop CS4.
“This latest release of Photoshop has a lot of interesting new features. The new Camera Raw has all the new tools that were featured in Lightroom 2, allowing you to work more smoothly between the two programs. The interface refinements incorporate a task-based workflow approach in which image adjustments like curves can be edited via an Adjustments panel. The new Masking panel means that you can edit masks, such as increase the feathering, as well as the usual Refine Edge command that you could use in CS3 to edit a layer mask. Color Range employs a more sophisticated color selection algorithm and now allows you to generate color-based masks more easily. There is also a new Content-Aware scaling feature that allows you to resize images without distorting the shape of important components within a picture.
Bridge has been given a makeover too. Among the most significant changes is the task-based workspace menu that makes it easier for you to switch between different Bridge workspace settings. You can now click with the Spacebar to toggle displaying a full-screen preview of a selected photo. The output panel for Web or PDF is in some ways a small improvement on the Web Photo Gallery and Contact Sheet features. Although some will find these to be something of a backward step, if you have Lightroom 2, it is unlikely that you would ever need to use these anyway.
The problem with Photoshop is that Adobe keeps adding stuff into the program without taking much out. This, in turn, has made it harder to keep updating the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers book series without the book becoming too bloated. The release of Photoshop CS4 has provided a good opportunity to update Adobe Photoshop for Photographers. The new book will be the same size as previous editions and concentrate on the essentials of image editing in Photoshop as well as all that's new in Photoshop and Bridge CS4. Meanwhile, I have been collaborating with Jeff Schewe to work on a joint book that will be called Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop. This new book means that the Photoshop for Photographers series has now expanded to offer a spin-off book in which readers can gain more in-depth expertise about how to use Photoshop, written by two of the world's leading experts in digital imaging and Photoshop.”
Martin Evening
Jeff Schewe and Martin Evening, Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers. The Ultimate Workshop, Focal Press, 416 p. + DVD featuring tutorial movies coming March, 2009.
Martin Evening, Adobe Photoshop for Photographers. A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC, Focal Press, 2009, 704 pages + DVD with 120 minutes movies is now in stock.
Credit: http://www.focalpress.com/
Last update : 18.12.2008