[jgillert]

Hi! I'm from Texas and have been doing Photoshop for about 7 years as a hobby. The last 2 years I have been unable, due to the death of my wife, Hurricane Rita, Heart surgery, Back pain problems etc), to do much Photoshopping. I am trying to get back into it. I currently have version CS2 and am wondering if an investment in upgrading to Photoshop CS 3 is worth it?

Jim Gillert

[mdavis]

Tough question, so the answer is: it depends. I'd go to the Adobe web site and see if the free beta version is still available for a few days (probably not, but you can try). Then check the new features to see if what you do can be enhanced.

Bridge is better now with faster loading and a new interface look. The new ACR4 by itself has many new features similar to the new Lightroom product which allow you to make metadata changes to RAW or JPEG images before importing them into Photoshop for pixel level editing. There are improvements to the color sliders, highlight and shadow adjustments, b&w conversion controls, a new selection tool and a bunch of interesting things. I think there is a listing on the Adobe web site of these improvements.

[Kraellin]

welcome to RetouchPRO, jgillert.

i'm moving this thread to the software/photoshop area of the forums. hopefully, you'll get an answer there.

and like mdavis said, i would think trying out the demo would be the best way to analyze what you're trying to determine. i'm sure that even if the beta has expired, adobe will have a cs3 demo of some sort.

[creeduk]

They do not yet have a downloadable demo but if you know somebody wit a copy it WILL install with a 30 day option. Also if you hunt you can still find the link for the final copy of the Beta, I grabbed it for somebody just last week

[DannyRaphael]

Hi Jim,

It sounds like you are a casual user of Photoshop vs. someone who uses it professionally to put food on the table. Given your two year hiatus, you most likely did not have the opportunity to get into all the new bells/whistles that came in CS2.

If, by checking out the CS3 promo information, you are not able to identify $200 worth of "gotta have it" new features, I'd say dive into CS2 and wait until CS4. It will most likely be out ~ October 2008 (not that far off) if Adobe returns to their historical 18 month product cycle.

Welcome to RetouchPRO. Hope this helps.

~Danny~

[DannyRaphael]

http://www.creativepro.com/story/review/25418.html

Interesting summary of CS3 changes and new features.

[cardmnal]

Thanks for the link DannyRaphael....very informative.




Alan

[veera]

thanks this very informative

[DannyRaphael]

Interesting comments on this topic here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=23018406