What's new in Adobe Photoshop CS3
by Zaid Al Hilali
I couldn't believe it when Adobe released a public beta of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Bridge CS3 last December. This application was and still is Adobe's crown jewell of all their popular products. Timing of this public release was crucial for Apple Macintosh and Windows Vista users who were having trouble running CS2 applications on new technology. Such move was an excellent public relations coup from Adobe. I have used Photoshop CS3 Beta version for some time now and thought of listing some of the new features in Photoshop CS3 and try to explain each feature.
Download and try it
Surely the easiest way to see what's new in Adobe Photoshop CS3 on your own is to download the beast (labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshopcs3). You need a licensed copy of Photoshop CS2 to be able to try the beta. Once installed you choose Window > Workspace > What's New in CS3 and all new or enhanced features will then be highlighted in light blue colour in top menus. I will choose some of the interesting one to share it with you here.
Photomerge
Photomerge found under File > Automate is really an old Photoshop feature, but it’s been enhanced in CS3. Photomerge is an automated photo stitching process to create a panoramic scene when sequence of camera shots taken side by side to any large area. Zoomify found under File > Export means no more hard thinking of how much to downsize an image for the internet. Designers could keep large images as they are and export them through Zoomify and place them on the net. Result would be a number of slices of exported image, html file and zoomify (swf) engine to view within internet browser quickly without the need to download full image.
Black and White Conversion
Black and White conversion found under Image > Adjustments. I have yet to see anything so clear and easy to use in any other computer application. Open a colour image, select the Black & White function then point with the mouse on any part of the image, hold the mouse button down and drag to the right to lighten that area, or left to darken it. There is no need to select and isolate areas any more prior to applying this feature.
Merge to HDR
Merge to HDR found under File > Automate. Some enhanced controls for the resulted 32 bit per channel picture. Now more filters, adjustment commands can be applied on the amazing final image. High Dynamic Range images are created from two or more snapshots of the same scene, each shot is taken with different "f" stop by changing camera's aperture setting. When Photoshop merge all images of same scene, you will end up with amazing details in shadows and highlight areas that cannot be achieved with other methods.
Quick Selection Tool
What used to be fast, now is faster with this easy–to–use tool. Basically run the pointer over any area of your image that you desire to select, just try to be within area's borders and see how smooth your selection is. As if this tool is not silly easy to use, Adobe has even added Auto Enhance and Refine Edge features to make a novice user select like a pro.
Conclusion
There is much that is new in Photoshop CS3 public beta. Of course we know Adobe will surely add more before the final version is released. And let’s not forget what’s arguably the biggest new feature of all, that Photoshop is now Universal Binary, meaning it runs full speed on Intel Macs.