[loopy]

I've been using Photoshop 6.0 for the last 5 years or so, and I think it's time to upgrade Has anyone had a chance to play with CS2 yet, and if so, what are your thoughts?

Cheers,


Brad

[StudioJ]

I've been playing with a trial version for a couple of weeks now, these are my impressions;

Smart Sharpen - Not very exciting, I still prefer working with my own sharpening techniques, lots of visible halo's and quirky behaviour.

Adobe Bridge (replaces file browser) - Definitely a decent upgrade, much quicker than the old version while it retains much the same. A bit limited yet for me as it works best when interfacing with the whole Adobe Creative Suite. It is also detached from the main program (but it can be docked).

Noise Reduction - Works well for simple noise reduction and great when used in automation where some other packages fall down as they are plug-ins rather than filters.

WYSIWYG Fonts - This is great, something that has been lacking for a few versions, I have thousands of fonts and its great to be able to see them.

Customizable Workspace - Not really very useful from what I have seen so far, it is limited to a set of pre-defined styles.

It also supports Smart Objects which are great in Go-Live and In-Design so its good to see them here, makes batching a lot easier. One feature that I can't get to work is the HDR (High Dynamic Range) images where you can capture several different images with highlights and shadows and them combine them into a single HDR exposure, I've tried several times shooting from scratch and also providing it with adjusted C1 exposure images.

There is lots that I haven't played with such as Image Wrap, Vanishing Point etc. But it looks like quite a decent upgrade from CS with further added support for working in 16 bit and now 32 bit. Adobe's Camera Raw has been updated and I had a quick play, its definitely improvement especially being able to work with multiple images and have it running in the background.

There are lots of smaller upgrades if you come from CS that speed up editing, new shortcut keys and changes to the layers palette plus smart guides which make aligning things MUCH easier.

[wayney]

Nice mini review

[slejhamer]

From PS6 to CS2, you'll also pick up improved support for actions (a PS7 enhancement), the great shadow/highlight tool (CS), and of course ACR (much improved in CS2).

Adding to J's comments:

Smart Sharpen - not so smart, eh? Get the Focal Blade plugin instead. Or Fred Miranda's Intellisharpen. They are excellent.

Adobe Bridge (replaces file browser) - ANYTHING would be better than the old file browswer. Heck, Windows Explorer is better than the old file browser. What were they thinking? But Breezebrowser remains superior, IHMO.

Noise Reduction - if you're using a modern DSLR at ISO 800 or lower this might be of limited use. But for P&S cameras, and for the infrequent ISO 1600-3200 DSLR shot, it might come in handy. And for RAW shooters, noise reduction is already part of ACR.

Adobe's Camera Raw - they have made a big workflow improvement, from what I've seen (there's an overview of it in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro magazine.) Looks a lot like Capture One now, with some plusses and minuses. I still like C1 better, but this is definitely competitive. C1 will have to make big strides in their next release or ACR will soon pass them by.

Everything else: fluff, IMHO.

Personally I see no reason to u/g from CS, but from PS6 I think you'll find some nice enhancements.

An alternative would be to get PS Elements 3 and Richard Lynch's "Hidden Power" book ... you'll get 90% of CS functionality at 20% of the price ...

[Toad]

I generally purchase very second version of PhotoShop - the feature set increase is worth it then, typically. As I have CS - I will probably go for the successor to CS2.

Thanks for the mini review - this is all good info.

[loopy]

Thanks for the info guys.

I ran with a trial version of CS for the 30 days or whatever it was, but never really had the urge to upgrade. I liked the patch and healing tools (definitely a big improvement over cloning!), but yeah, I think it is time to upgrade now. I dropped HT a line to see if I qualify for the Academic version, and if so, I'll put the order in soon. Much cheaper than the full thing - only $450 or so

Cheers,


Brad

[Rufus]

Wooooo! I'm doing DVD based training in CS2

[shuttertalk]

Cool... how is it?

[Wedding Shooter]

I recently upgraded form 6.0 to CS (at home) and CS2 (at work). On top of everything else mentioned - if you are a Mac user you get Mac OS X compatability from version 7.0 onwards.