CS5: the Latest & Greatest in Photoshop

One of the most needed I anticipate to be “yeah” factor in CS5 version is we will now be able to click drag to zoom in and out in a fast and efficient pace.  This will definitely speed up work flow in many image tasks we do on a day to day basis.  I’ll say it “yeah”!

A new feature called “Content Aware” when used with the spot healer enables for seamless removal of unwanted objects in images. It works like magical to remove and replace background pixels by taking like pixels from surrounding areas around the removed object. How cool is that? It skips a step for me as my process is to use the clone stamp and then spot heal the area. This task is taken care of quicker and more efficiently. God knows this tool could be used for good or evil depending on the user…  Another amazing feat in the world of Digitography.

New in the Bridge is actually a return of the popular “Mini Bridge” or browser in the main Photoshop screen.  For those of you who have being using Photoshop since the first CS version you may remember you were able to have a mini browser accessible at the bottom of the page where you were able to view and retrieve other documents.  This is a handy return for those of you who need to access and work simultaneously with many files across the suite.

One really cool feature added to Bridge is the ability to view all linked files. Montage, collage, illustrators and graphic designers who use many files in one document this feature should be very excited to see another smooth work flow aid as it allows you to view all files used in one document in the Bridge as linked files in one folder.

To enhance Photoshop’s processing of HDR files we see a new important box to check called “remove ghosts”.  This addition reminds me of the superior Photo Matix software…. Hmmmm… This feature allows us to create seamless overlays of images as it interprets and fixes image boo-boo ghosts caused by wind and other camera shake.  Have even more fun HDR Digitography people.  I’ll likely stick with one image being the stubborn I am.

So these are the thrillers. Not so thrilled?  I would stick with the CS4 version some of us are still getting our money’s worth.  Adobe proves greedy in releasing yet another quasi worthy version to update.  I envision CS6 will be right around the corner…