Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 12, 2010 at 5:13 AM
The much-anticipated press release for CS5 has been posted. I'm really hoping that handling/editing of HDR is greatly improved.
Posted by Carol Hyman on April 12, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Paul, it looks as tho' it's been greatly improved but in reality, we won't know til we upgrade
Ciao ;^)
Carol
Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 12, 2010 at 12:29 PM
LOL! Call me a fool, but I just watched the Adobe Launch webcast this morning, and after seeing what they'd added to Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects, I've already placed my Upgrade Preorder for the Production Premium suite at Amazon. I think the edge selection improvements alone in PS are worth the price of admission. I'm also amazed that the new Flash can produce native iPhone apps! This is huge for us photographers if we ever wanted to do a content-rich app and sell it in the Apple Store like Bret Edge and a few others have done. All of the work can be done in Photoshop and ported over to Flash with ZERO code in CS5. Amazin'!
But getting back to the main tool, what I saw in Photoshop just in the 5 minutes they had to demonstrate it was huge... and I got my wish: WAY better HDR editing control, even with a single image (sort of a digital double-processing). Very neat.
Posted by Zack Schnepf on April 12, 2010 at 12:41 PM
Looks like a great upgrade. I'll be ordering my upgrade later today.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 12, 2010 at 12:58 PM
One thing to mention regarding video for those of us with 5D2's and/or other HD DSLRs: yes, the new Adobe Mercury Playback Engine in Premiere will now make our video edit as smooth as silk (on a decent PC of course... e.g., I use an i7 processor, 12GB ram), but in order to leverage that you need a video card that's compatible. Other than the Nvidia Quadro series that cost upwards of two grand a piece (seriously, for one video card), there is one somewhat affordable card that Nvidia licensing has approved Adobe to use: the GTX285 (sorry, ATI isn't supported at this time). EVGA probably makes the best version, but most 285's will run about $350-$400 (I did say "somewhat affordable", lol!). So, I digress... I just listed my GTX260 for sale and will order a 285 later today.
Sorry for all the gear/geek talk, but I just wanted to make sure that the video card stuff was explained for anyone who is interested in the video side of these cameras. Adobe is touting this new wonderful feature in Premiere CS5, but the caveat is that you have another $400 to spend in video card hardware if you want to use it, assuming you already have a fast processor. And the 285's are HUGE, you need a gamer case to fit 'em.
Kinda makes still photography even more appealing, doesn't it??
It will be interesting to see what part of the CS5 technology migrates to Lightroom or Elements and if Adobe might be aiming to either create or cater to niche aspects of digital photography for those that don't wish all the features of CS5..
Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 12, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Good question... I mean, if they added layer support and soft proofing to Lightroom, most photographers wouldn't ever need to buy the full PS. Just a guess on my part, I don't use LR enough to know what else it has or doesn't have. I suffer with Elements 8 on my work PC because it's cheap, but it's frustrating. ACR for Elements is missing the local adjustment brush, which to me is the crowning feature that they finally put into ACR, which came from LR. Hmmmm, I think we need a fourth photo editor from Adobe, we don't have enough confusion at the moment, lol!
Not to rain on your parade about Flash's ability to make iPhone apps but Apple has already made a change to their SDK to prevent this and Adobe's hopping mad about it:
I mean, if they added layer support and soft proofing to Lightroom, most photographers wouldn't ever need to buy the full PS.
Exactly!
As it stands, I can do everything in PS that can be achieved in LR, along with much, much more than what LR offers.
Along with the other features in CS5 noted, I really look forward to the 'Mini-Bridge' feature.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 12, 2010 at 7:51 PM
Right, me too. PS is like a home away from home, and I've finally worked out a nice workflow with Bridge and naming conventions in Windows which did take some time, but now I'm really set in my ways with managing files, so LR doesn't offer me any advantage as far as DAM goes. I finally figured out how to name folders by date and get them to sort properly in Windows (I use YYYY MM-DD then a short description), so between that and Bridge I can quickly delete and organize.
It really helps when 93.6% of what you shoot is garbage and can be thrown out, makes sorting and storage real easy. Finally, my lack of expertise helps me!
Photoshop wasn't originally aimed at photographers but graphic designers to work with photographs. It has only been with the recent explosion in digital that it has been targeted directly at photographers. As technology changes, i.e. video, how long can it go being all things to all people?
Not that I mind paying a good price for good software, but suspect there are those who would like to see software closer to their needs rather than pay for a program in which many features aren't required.
Lightroom 4 anybody? :)
Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 13, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Lightroom 4 anybody? :)
If LR gets layer support I'd buy it for my PC here at work in a flash! Until then I'll struggle with Elements. Thankfully the big cahuna is on my home PC.
Honestly, Adobe just needs to take the few things like Layers and effect presets from Elements, mash it into LR, lower the price to $149, get rid of Elements, and make LR the one great choice for Photographers who don't need the big Cahuna. They already have a great name for the software, LightRoom is brilliant. The can bundle a "LR Light" with hardware and let it be LR without layers and a few other features, allowing an upgrade if desired. But we'd still have two products, either Photoshop or LightRoom. Simple and done.
Oh, forget this Extended Photoshop and non-Extended, just make Photoshop Extended THE Photoshop and still charge the $699 for it. Imagine the stress it would take off all of us when the beloved family member asks us what software to get with the new camera they purchased! "Get Lightroom, it's amazing and worth $149". They'd never know there was a time when it didn't have layers.
Posted by Andy Richards on April 17, 2010 at 5:45 PM
Funny. I still have the original LR version and use it SOLELY for cataloging software. SEEMs like we just upgraded to CS4. I am still trying to get a handle on the changes :-)
Posted by Paul DeCesare on April 17, 2010 at 7:12 PM
SEEMs like we just upgraded to CS4.
EXACTLY! I looked at my Amazon order for CS4, sure enough, pre-ordered in Sept 2008... it really has been 18 months. Feels like 3.
The worse part is that the changes are so significant in CS5, there's no option to sit this one out. Besides Photoshop, the changes in Premiere with the new rendering engine that finally leverages the GPU is huge. IF you also shoot video on your DSLR, that's a biggie.
Discussion
15 repliesCiao ;^)
Carol
But getting back to the main tool, what I saw in Photoshop just in the 5 minutes they had to demonstrate it was huge... and I got my wish: WAY better HDR editing control, even with a single image (sort of a digital double-processing). Very neat.
Sorry for all the gear/geek talk, but I just wanted to make sure that the video card stuff was explained for anyone who is interested in the video side of these cameras. Adobe is touting this new wonderful feature in Premiere CS5, but the caveat is that you have another $400 to spend in video card hardware if you want to use it, assuming you already have a fast processor. And the 285's are HUGE, you need a gamer case to fit 'em.
Kinda makes still photography even more appealing, doesn't it??
http://gizmodo.com/5512847/apple-takes-developers-hostage-in-war-on-adobe
S'pose I ought to just stick to my viewfinder and tripod and not get all hung up in software.
As it stands, I can do everything in PS that can be achieved in LR, along with much, much more than what LR offers.
Along with the other features in CS5 noted, I really look forward to the 'Mini-Bridge' feature.
It really helps when 93.6% of what you shoot is garbage and can be thrown out, makes sorting and storage real easy. Finally, my lack of expertise helps me!
LOL!!!!
Not that I mind paying a good price for good software, but suspect there are those who would like to see software closer to their needs rather than pay for a program in which many features aren't required.
Lightroom 4 anybody? :)
If LR gets layer support I'd buy it for my PC here at work in a flash! Until then I'll struggle with Elements. Thankfully the big cahuna is on my home PC.
Honestly, Adobe just needs to take the few things like Layers and effect presets from Elements, mash it into LR, lower the price to $149, get rid of Elements, and make LR the one great choice for Photographers who don't need the big Cahuna. They already have a great name for the software, LightRoom is brilliant. The can bundle a "LR Light" with hardware and let it be LR without layers and a few other features, allowing an upgrade if desired. But we'd still have two products, either Photoshop or LightRoom. Simple and done.
Oh, forget this Extended Photoshop and non-Extended, just make Photoshop Extended THE Photoshop and still charge the $699 for it. Imagine the stress it would take off all of us when the beloved family member asks us what software to get with the new camera they purchased! "Get Lightroom, it's amazing and worth $149". They'd never know there was a time when it didn't have layers.
EXACTLY! I looked at my Amazon order for CS4, sure enough, pre-ordered in Sept 2008... it really has been 18 months. Feels like 3.
The worse part is that the changes are so significant in CS5, there's no option to sit this one out. Besides Photoshop, the changes in Premiere with the new rendering engine that finally leverages the GPU is huge. IF you also shoot video on your DSLR, that's a biggie.