Okay. I can officially say it. I’m a beta-tester for Adobe Photoshop CS5.

There, I got it off of my chest. Wow. Huge relief.

No, this isn’t an addiction although at times I think some people must think so. How many people want to subject their computers intentionally to something that can crash them? And crash it often and with some severity. (If you ever heard screams late at night emerging from my home, now you know why. And no, I was not sacrificing animals!)

But – wow! The folks at Adobe (Adobe.com) have come up with some fantastic changes. Lots of these changes are subtle, improved performance, more logical defaults, etc., and may give the idea that it is not worth updating. Of course, there are people who believe the earth is flat, also. So, let me work on telling you more about this.

I’ll tell you now — the program continues to grow more complex yet more capable. For Apple users, there is a subtle yet large change that has made the program seemingly more stable and faster on these systems. They changed the language over to Cocoa and that has given the user interface a much better feel. The interface still looks similar to CS4 but it works more smoothly.

They have also incorporated more and more to take full advantage of 64-bit operating systems. What does this mean? Well, for Apple users not as much as for Windows users — as Apple already allowed you to take advantage of it.

Windows, on the other hand, operates normally at 32-bit which has always meant that not as much RAM memory can be used as is possible and it operated slower. For most Windows users this will make no difference as they don’t operate with 64 bit machines but for those who’ve upgraded, its nice. On the other hand, if you use lots of plug-ins with Photoshop many of those developers are still playing catch up to allow you to use the system as a 64 bit. (As a note, I refuse to get into the debate on which is better, PC or Apple – as I find both systems do certain things well and other things poorly.)

I was also a beta tester for the last version that came out — and must say that I am more impressed with the current version.

Now, let’s dig in and see what has changed, at least a few items.

The user-interface is much like CS4s — but there are differences! One of the first and most visible is a little symbol at the top that now says mb — standing for mini-bridge. This allows a browser like device to open inside of PS4 to help you locate images. Why — you might ask — not exactly sure and it is not something I have found useful, yet. Sometimes it takes me some time to find a reason to do something.

One of the biggest tools is a concept called Content Awareness — I had planned on doing my own little tutorial but one of the other testers created such a good example that I am going to give you the link instead. Check out: Content Awareness

What content awareness does is create more of an image by figuring out what the surrounding area is like and then creating new parts. If you are familiar with a concept called cloning, then think of this as cloning on steroids. Cloning can create repetitive patterns very easily that someone can see in an image that makes it known that the photo was altered, no so with Content Awareness. Check out the video and you’ll learn more about it. However, when it messes up it really messes up.

Another big change is that for years Adobe has ceded the painting world to Corel — no more, they have upgraded and changed and improved the paint brushes and paint brush features to the point of where you won’t recognize what to do immediately.

For photographers who want to seek the ultimate in non-lens distortion, Photoshop has added more to the lens correction feature — and now have the ability to correct distortions created by a variety of different cameras and lenses. There are many profiles already part of the system, more on the way and there is even a tool that you can use to create your own lens profiles.

For the first time in ages Adobe is actually radically improving their noise reduction filters — actually using what many plug-ins have used for years with a better ability to address luminance.

I have to say — in some ways I almost feel like Adobe has been watching all the success many companies have with selling their plug-in products for Photoshop and trying to incorporate those changes so you don’t have to buy the plug-ins. I doubt you will ever see that comment emerge from Adobe — but I do know that I might not want to buy a new plug-in or upgrade if my Photoshop version already handles what I wanted.

They also have continued to refine their ability to create masks — adding a smart radius feature that gives a better ability to mask complex subjects (hair!)

For those of you shooting High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, you’ll find a whole new set of controls. They have created better algorithms for better aligning images and — what I love! A tone-mapping feature. Now — I have add, I still like what Photomatix does better. But, if you did not have Photomatix this gives you a whole new choice and better tools to make your HDR images sing!

Another large change is a new camera-raw processor — love the refined brush and graduated filters along with a noise-reduction feature that removed noise that I did not think was possible earlier. They also fine-tuned the vignetting adjustments so you have more control and can create more natural looking vignettes.

For those who can’t do without the liquify filter (hey, a great way to reduce those double chins or love handles) then you will be fascinated by something called the puppet-warp tool. I’m not big into making some of the changes that some photographers do — so I can’t say too much about this feature as I have a feeling I’ve only scratched the surface. I can say that the feature is cool but I find it more complicated to use than I want to spend the time doing.

There is a lot more than what I’ve mentioned so far. When looking at the Extended version of PS5 you will find a whole new chapter being written for 3D projects and 3D workflow. I’m not a user of the 3D side of things, so I did not do much with seeing what was possible. But, from reading comments from other testers, they are impressed.

Finally, the biggest thing I like is that the program has seemingly grown friendlier. Things like a clickable button on Do Not Show This Message again so you don’t keep answering the same message time after time. Or an actual Straighten button when using a ruler to straighten out an image. It not only straighten the image but does the crop for you also! You can still use it the way you used to. Gads, to explain how to do this to students otherwise always was an adventure.

There is a new piece that allows you to create your own interface — called Configurator. Now, there is a bit of work to make it your own and you have to know Photoshop fairly well to do so — but you can create your own custom interface and not even leave your tools on. I have created one that has only the tools that I use often along with some different actions and such. And I can go with just that up on the screen. This can help eliminate clutter on the screen/desk top.

Finally — I have one big complaint and I frankly don’t think this will ever be addressed to my satisfaction. Realize, I have been teaching digital photography for four years now at a community college (Richland Community College) and each year I have two sets of new students. Some are very unfamiliar with Photoshop. What I find is that Photoshop as it continues to improve, makes it more and more difficult for new students to learn. But, Adobe does see this as a problem and has expanded their help sections and video sections to attempt to address it.

Of course, part of the problem is that my school is using an antiquated version of photoshop (CS2) so that the interface has changed enough to be confusing by just in going from CS2 to CS4 (or CS5 now!)

I will be throwing up some images and more details in the next few weeks for you to see — but I wanted to get at least something up and running on the blog as I have been working on this beta testing for months and had to bottle up my comments!

If there are specific questions, please contact me! I know I wrote a lot and it might not make much sense but I’ll try and clear up any confusions. Photoshop CS5 may be far more tool than you need — or ever will need. Or it might be just the upgrade you need. But, be prepared, the learning curve includes new features, new shortcuts and new adventures!