Photoshop CS (PS8) details and screenshots

Doug Nelson · #1 09-29-2003, 07:50 PM

I just got word from on high that it's now OK for me to discuss Adobe Photoshop CS, as long as I specify that all my comments and judgements are based on the beta version of the software. Consider it so specified.

Anyway, just looking at the PScs interface you'd have to squint to see any differences from PS7. The biggest changes are under the hood:

16 bit support virtually everywhere
Healing Brush now works with layers, including healing to a blank layer
Most of the built-in filters are combined into a Filter Gallery interface, which lets you stack filter usage, control the size of the preview, and have other fine controls over the filters (no, no other filters will use this interface)
Camera Raw is now included as an integral part of Photoshop
The new Shadow/Highlight adjustment is truly cool, works great, and I've been dying to tell everyone about it. But it's not available as an adjustment layer
Layer Comps are now available, which is kind of like storing a workspace, only for layer order and visibility. No, it's not like a history snapshot, if you delete a layer they won't come back
There's a new Color Replacement tool that uses Healing brush technology, but I honestly was never able to get any good results out of it
There's a new Photo Filter adjustment which applies traditional photo filtration to an image (ie: 85, 81, 82, etc.) and it is available as an adjustment layer
There's a new Match Color adjustment that lets you balance one image based on another image. Honestly, I haven't used this yet.
There's a new Histogram Palette that is truly cool, it shows your histogram change on-the-fly, and can even show them for each channel.
The only new filter that comes to mind is Lens Blur, which simulates photographic blurring with many variables
You can now remap all keyboard shortcuts and assign your own shortcut to just about anything via a special editor
There's a new History Log that will record everything you do (and I do mean everything) to a text file

There's a ton of other features, these are just those that come to mind right now.

Feel free to ask questions, and I'll try to answer them if I can.

Doug Nelson · #2 09-29-2003, 08:32 PM

Here's the expanded Histogram Palette from the beta version with most options turned on (it usually is the same size as the Info and Navigator palettes)

Doug Nelson · #3 09-29-2003, 08:34 PM

Here's the Shadow/Highlight adjustment in expanded view from the beta version

Doug Nelson · #4 09-29-2003, 08:35 PM

Here's the Lens Blur filter dialog from the beta version

Doug Nelson · #5 09-29-2003, 08:36 PM

Here's the Photo Filter adjustment layer dialog from the beta version

Doug Nelson · #6 09-29-2003, 08:38 PM

Here's the Filter Gallery interface from the beta version

Doug Nelson · #7 09-29-2003, 08:40 PM

Here's the Keyboard Shortcut editor from the beta version

Doug Nelson · #8 09-29-2003, 08:43 PM

Here's the General Preferences dialog showing the History Log options from the beta version

chiquitita · #9 09-30-2003, 12:34 PM

When is it going to be released?

Doug Nelson · #10 09-30-2003, 12:41 PM

I've seen no specific date mentioned by Adobe, but Amazon says it will ship late October (I put links to the Amazon pages over in our Reviews section).

Vikki · #11 09-30-2003, 04:10 PM

Thanks Doug!
I noticed that in those screenshots, the dialog boxes were huge (my only real peeve about v7). Is that really how big they are?
If so, can they be resized?
Vikki

Doug Nelson · #12 09-30-2003, 07:39 PM

The Histogram Palette, Keyboard Shortcuts, Lens Blur, and Filter Gallery are resizeable. I don't think the rest are. Remember that I had them all showing every possible option. Some get smaller when you turn off options.

Peter Booth · #13 10-03-2003, 02:58 AM

Hi Doug,Do you think its worth the cost of the upgrade from version 7? I'm still learning PS version 7 and forgetting approximatally one half tomorrow of what I learn today and only really using PS for restoring old and damaged photo's. I realise its a personal thing but wonder if it wouldn't be better to wait for the next upgrade in my particular case.I just had a thought ,I suppose that you can upgrade through two or more versions of PS ?

Doug Nelson · #14 10-03-2003, 07:20 AM

You can upgrade from any version of Photoshop to the current version. You can even upgrade from one OS to another, though it is slightly more complicated.

As for whether it is worth upgrading, as you say that is a personal decision. For some the ubiquitious 16bit support would be a life-saver, but to most it's probably irrelevant. My own personal favorite is the Healing brush's new multi-layer support, but I can't say if it would be worth the $150 upgrade cost.

I'd say generally that if you make money off Photoshop, it's probably worth the investment, since it will repay the cost soon enough in time-saving. However, for the hobbyist it would need some additional examination to cost-justify.

The new inclusion of Camera RAW would make the decision easy for many, since it is close to $100 separately.

Mike · #15 10-03-2003, 10:54 AM

Last year at the NAPP PhotoshopWorld in LA, they talked a lot of an improved extract tool. Did they do it?
Mike

Doug Nelson · #16 10-03-2003, 11:21 AM

I can see no obvious improvements, but that doesn't mean they haven't improved the internal workings. There is a new option checkbox for textured backgrounds, but that's the only "new" thing that catches my eye (can you tell I never use Extract?).

Andrew B. · #17 10-03-2003, 11:33 PM

>>The only new filter that comes to mind is Lens Blur

I read that there is also a fiber filter under the Render group.

Did they happen to add any sliders to Stylize|Diffuse|Anisotropic?

Doug Nelson · #18 10-04-2003, 09:09 AM

No to sliders, sorry.

And here's the Fiber dialog from the beta version

Andrew B. · #19 10-04-2003, 09:10 PM

Speaking of which, someone already posted a tutorial that uses the fiber filter to make curtains.

Doug Nelson · #20 10-08-2003, 09:00 PM

There's another nifty feature (suggested by Katrin Eismann) that, if you have more than one image or more than one version of an image open, you can select one and have all the others set to the same zoom level, display area, or both.

hizaam · #21 11-21-2003, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Doug Nelson [*]Most of the built-in filters are combined into a Filter Gallery interface, which lets you stack filter usage

What do you mean by stack?

Doug Nelson · #22 11-21-2003, 06:47 AM

You can literally stack filters in the Filter Gallery interface. Here I took an image and stacked 3 random filters. You can stack as many as you want, and the settings remain editable. You can also re-order the stack and delete individual filter layers.

hizaam · #23 11-21-2003, 05:36 PM

wow, that's awesome! thanks for the screen cap. (why aren't images shown inline?)

....

Is there any chance that either CS does now or a future planned version will have "dynamic" or live editable plugin layers like found in Painter 8 -- liquid metal layer?

Much like the little black-white circle button in the layers pallete bug for third party plugins. (the name of that feature escapes me at the moment)

Doug Nelson · #24 11-21-2003, 07:29 PM

Filter layers have been suggested for future versions. For more details than that, you'd have to ask Adobe

d_kendal · #25 11-25-2003, 10:17 PM

thanks for the preview Doug, I've been kinda out of touch with the whole photoshop scene for a while (I've been super busy with school and work) but I was curious to see what was going to be in this latest release of PS. The Filter gallery alone almost makes it a worthwhile upgrade for me alone, I've been waiting for them to come up with something like that, it looks great. I'll have to start saving up for this upgrade.

sPECtre · #26 11-26-2003, 12:41 PM

Hizaam, if you apply layer styles to an empty layer, you can get really close to filter layers or painter's chrome...

Same with most filters, just apply a hide everything mask on your image, and paint the filter back (thanks Greg Vander Houwen for that one)

So in a way, it is possible to acheive really close results of a live filter... even with PS7 and earlier versions...

I wish, still, to have a noise adjustment layer, or just be able to add noise to a gradient, instead of the current situation...

And I don't get why there is no blending mode choice, nor opacity slider in the filter gallery, nor inside every filter window, it would be a definite time saver, and would allow more adjustments...

Doug Nelson · #27 11-26-2003, 01:40 PM

sPECtre:

While it won't address most of your concerns, you can fade any filter immediately after applying using Edit>Fade Filter. It's non-editable afterwards, but it does give you a preview.

sPECtre · #28 11-30-2003, 05:09 AM

Yes, Doug, thanks for adding that, as I forgot to tell it in my post...

But, IMHO, fade should be in the filter dialog box: that way, you can vary the settings of the filters alongside with a different opacity and/or blending mode, instead of commiting the filter, then use fade to tweak and how it works with a certain opacity/blend mode, discard, re-launch the filter to change settings, etc...

Also , they need to put in the user guide that fade won't be available if you just applied a gaussian blur or unsharp mask to a layer with a layer mask, as these filters will affect both the mask and the layer, unless you unlink them...

This is non-standardized behaviour, yet undocumented, AFAIK

But this is not a features request section, and I am going way off-topic, sorry...