Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop CS2 Upgrade (Mac) from Photoshop [Old Version]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Photoshop is one of the great software products ever created. It has continued to evolve to match the needs of advanced digital photography, offering some really astonishing capabilities -- assuming that you have the time and necessary instructional materials. It has a steep learning curve.

Where Photoshop falls short is in ease of use. Along with features development, Adobe should focus on making the application simpler where possible. Even advanced users can benefit from simplicity. For instance, it could be much easier to crop photos to the conventional 3-to-2 proportion for printing and commercial processing. Adobe could adopt the kiosk method of visual cropping using a moveable box without eliminating the existing approach. It is especially bothersome to work a non-standard image into the 3-2 format, and many commercial processors automatically (and crudely) crop irregularly sized photos instead of fitting them entirely within the selected print size. Adobe needs to acknowledge the reality of every day use, and offer a simplified solution. The company is a bit slow in this department, as evidenced by how long it took to create a relatively automated way to correct red eye.

There is always a group of users who defend software difficulty of use as they either profit from the time consumption (hourly billing), or it makes makes them feel important to gain mastery over something difficult. Adobe should ignore this minority and make Photoshop easier.

One nit that I pick with recent versions is that they have made the blur tool more clumsy. A high-pixel file need be viewed at 100 percent, or it is virtually impossible to see the effect of blurring. That wasn't necessary in the past, and it shouldn't be now.

Photoshop is a gem that Adobe can continue to polish and enhance.

Update: Adobe is working of a product calle Lightroom, which permits very easy cropping to precise sizes, such as 5 x 7, among many other features. I think the cropping capability should be part of Photoshop, and not require moving between two products. The combination of Photoshop, Lightroom, and Bridge presents a daunting combination of bloatware.

Everyman's Photoshop CS2 Review

The reason this is called an "everyman's" review is that I'm less than an expert. In fact, if Photoshop were a car, I'd be the one driving it cross-country in first gear.

I normally use Photoshop for creating Web graphics or sexing up photos - no shifting required, in other words. But Photoshop does way more than that, so much so that without it, most designers would curl up and die. For most of us though, running a full-bore image-editing app is like driving a Ferrari in the back yard. I ought to know: I've had access to the software for a long time and still don't know what all the tools are for - the latest version, Adobe Photoshop CS2, has even more. That said, if you have any kind of visual project in mind and a modicum of talent, there's hardly anything you can't do. It may take a while to get rolling, but once you do, you'll kill for a chance to have your very own copy. See what you can do?



Photoshop CS2 is available alone or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite 2, which includes Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe InDesign CS2, Version Cue CS2, Adobe GoLive CS2, and Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional in the Premium Edition. (This reviewer was slated to receive the full suite, but "only" the Photoshop component showed up. Color me stupendously grateful regardless, of course, but I won't be addressing the integration features in this review.)

At $599 for the standalone version, piracy has always been a problem for Adobe, but the company has gone out of its way to save you from yourself by requiring activation -- not the same thing as registration -- within 30 days of installation. In the past, you could buy the app and install it on all your computers (or any machine for that matter), but the new version only works on the user's primary and secondary computers. Frankly, the details of the activation process left me confused. According to Adobe's activation FAQ page (my emphasis):

The activation process supports installation on two machines. The Adobe product license agreement allows the primary user to install the product on a primary computer and also on a home or laptop computer for his or her use, provided that the two copies are not used simultaneously. While the activation process supports installing and activating Adobe software on two machines, the usage of the product on the second computer is restricted to the user who licensed the software. Allowing others to use a second copy of the software violates the product license agreement.

Call me dense, but I have no idea what they mean by not using both copies simultaneously. Shortly before submitting this review, I had Photoshop CS2 running on both of my computers and nothing blew up, nor did anyone unpleasant bust down my door. And apparently my wife isn't allowed to use the software on the TiBook, according to the above. Frankly, this is absurd, and I wish the company's lawyers would get a life. But be that as it may, the installation process itself was straightforward, although my 500 MHz TiBook with OS X 10.3 (an oldie but a goodie) required a few hard slaps on the case above the CD-ROM drive before the disk would mount. And the first thing I learned when launching the new app was that as usual, I was coloring outside the lines:

Mac OS X version 10.3.4 or later is recommended for maximum performance and correct operation of Adobe Photoshop CS2. An earlier version of Mac OS X was detected.

Oops! Despite the warning, the official system requirements listed in the reviewer's guide only call for a minimum of Mac OS X version 10.2.8, and I haven't seen any signs of "incorrect" operation yet. True, installing Photoshop on my 400 MHz Blue & White G3 with OS X 10.3 seems to have magically doubled the boot time, but that's it. If you don't have 10.3.4, I'd say go for it anyway. For those of you with older versions, there are more than enough useful new features in Photoshop CS2 to justify the $149.99 upgrade cost. A partial rundown includes the following, a few of which I'll expand upon later:

* Adobe Bridge (the File Browser on steroids)
* Vanishing Point (an extraordinary plane-based visual perspective tool)
* Image Warp (turns flat images into shaped graphics)
* Reduce Noise filter (corrects JPEG compression artifacts and more)
* 32-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) editing (creates images with the "widest possible dynamic range")
* Spot Healing Brush (one-click retouching)
* One-Click Red Eye tool
* Optical Lens Correction
* Animation (create animated GIFs directly in Photoshop)
* Smart Sharpen
* Enhanced 16-bit Filter Support
* Smart Objects (allow non-destructive scaling, rotation and warping of layers within Photoshop CS2)
* Multiple Layer Control (select, align, group and simultaneously move multiple layers)
* Multi-Image Camera Raw (um...)
* Video Preview (preview your work on a FireWire-connected monitor)
* WYSIWYG Font Menu (you're gonna love this)
* more color management options when printing
* all-new PDF engine (automatic optimization for Web viewing)
* High Capacity RAM Compatibility (can address 3.5 GB on a G5)
* expanded, integrated online services

See what I mean?

As for Adobe Bridge, I probably shouldn't comment, since I've never used the old File Browser [blush]. But here's what Adobe has to say:

The acclaimed File Browser has evolved into its own application - Adobe Bridge. Now, the two applications work efficiently in parallel - Adobe Bridge building thumbnails while you edit in Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS2 batch processing images while you continue to work in Adobe Bridge. Adding essential new features for photographers such as multiple-file Camera Raw processing, enhanced ranking and labeling, and a slideshow mode for quick review of your images, Adobe Bridge also integrates with Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2 and GoLive CS2, bridging the workflow across the new Creative Suite 2 applications.

I don't know about File Browser, but Bridge rocks, and I'm converted. Instead of locating a particular image in the Finder using column view, in Bridge I can browse any folder on my hard drive, see all the photos at once (Filmstrip View, below, is a hoot), and open any or all of them in Photoshop with just a click. Just five minutes of playing with this opened my eyes, and when a skeptic like me gets all mushy, people should pay attention.



The Vanishing Point filter, completely new to CS2, rates a whole review all by itself. As Adobe explains it, "First you define the perspective in your image by creating perspective grids, then you edit your image normally, and let Vanishing Point take care of adjusting your editing to the defined perspective." What that means in real terms is that you can do things you never dreamed of without doing hours of work, like pasting "WAY COOL" and "YOW!" into the image below. (How did I do the "Hah!"? Keep reading...)



Talk about serious empowerment! I've never even tried to do work on this level, but now I can. Once you've defined the planes (grids) in your image, you can drag objects into the distance and have them still be in correct perspective. And since the perspective grids are saved inside the image (or on a separate layer if you want), you can return to re-edit whatever's been placed in them. Edit in perspective? Yup. You can paint directly onto perspective planes with the Stamp Tool, make selections within them, and a whole lot more. This is one extraordinary feature.

Add Image Warp to the mix, and your inner package designer will wake up hollering. Adobe has thoughtfully included a full set of presets for common object shapes, and you can drag control points on the warp grid to customize as desired. Ever wonder how your logo would look on a coffee mug or baseball cap? Image Warp has it covered. This is what I used to place the "Hah!" text inside the Mexican pot, of course, and remember, I don't know what I'm doing - so power users ought to be able to effect miracles.

* * *

There's a lot more to talk about, but we only have one Web site, and I'm sure my MyMac colleagues will have more to say about Photoshop and the other CS2 applications. Meanwhile, my other picks for things to be thankful for in the CS2 version are the ability to make animated GIFs right inside Photoshop, the Spot Healing Brush for removing unwanted pixels with a single click, multiple layer control, and the WYSIWYG Font Menu. Those of you who import vector graphics from Illustrator ( I don't ) will be able to start a whole new religion with Smart Objects, and photographers will love the new Camera Raw format editing power.

This is an incredibly powerful and versatile application. If I were Santa Claus or a benevolent deity, I'd make sure every artist and designer with half an ounce of talent had a copy to carry him- or herself to the Promised Land. It really is that good, although I have to say the complexity is overwhelming for beginners. (The Adobe Help application is the best I've ever seen, however, and provided tremendous assistance in writing this review.) I'd have no hesitation whatsoever in giving Photoshop CS2 the highest possible rating, except for an intuition that the app has grown to the point where its sheer size and multitude of features, not to mention the price, are bound to limit expansion of the user base. Personally, I'd like to take a digital carving knife to Photoshop and create about half a dozen specialty image editing apps, but that's not the direction Adobe is going, especially after absorbing Macromedia, and who's to say I know better than them? I also have no love for the increasingly maddening anti-piracy and copy protection measures employed by the industry, although Adobe's activation process gave me no trouble. It's the principle of the thing, and I'm just old-fashioned when it comes to trusting people.

But if you can get yourself a copy (legally!), this is the one to have, hands down. That's why hesitation aside, there isn't even a contest. I love it, and it's already indispensable, even for a first-gear user.

MyMac.com Rating: 5 out of 5

Upgrading from PS 7 to CS2 is worth it for the advanced healing tools and the Vanishing Point alone. As for The Bridge, well, it still acts like a product that hasn't quite been finished. As opposed to others on these reviews, I think it's an improvement over the old Browser, but it is a bit slow, and if you regularly download hundreds of shots like I do, you best look at something like Photo Mechanic or Photo Mechanic LE ($50), which can be seamlessly integrated with PS CS2.

I have been using Photoshop since version 1.0, and it just keeps getting better and better. I received Photoshop CS just in time to use in building a website for a wedding. My customer provided me with digital photos taken by wedding guests. The Adjust > Shadow/Highlight saved me tons of work! Dark murky photos taken inside the church were transformed into quite acceptable images that required little further tweaking. There appears to be a few new filters, and something called "The Bridge," which I haven't checked out yet. This product is fabulous. Thank heavens Adobe has resisted the urge to fix something that ain't broke.!

It's great to see the huge program made more and more user friendly for the amateur photographer. This is a program for the pros but it has become more and more intuitive over the years and each new upgrade makes life easier for those of us who were not professionally trained. If you buy photoshop once, you are eligible for the upgrades seemingly forever, so once you purchase the full version, you are set for years to come!
For the new user, I strongly suggest Classroom in a Book and Scott Kelby's excellent book Photoshop for Photographers.

It's not that Photoshop is so great at what it does, really. It's that everyone else's programs are so far behind it. Every release gets a little better. Even the cheaper Photoshop Elements release has the new Shadow/Highlight tool and several of the other great Photoshop feaures. I'd love to buy a photo editing program by someone else. There are plenty of things about Photoshop that occasionally annoy me. Color correction can be some kind of voodoo ritual, for instance. There's just nothing else out there worth considering as a replacement, though. So, uh...I guess I'm a loyal Adobe customer.

I've only used this software for about a month, but so far it has performed like Photoshop 7 on steroids. The bridge software makes it incredibly fast and easy to create a photo contact sheet with labels, and the Camera Raw function gives impressive abilities to make horribly under-exposed images in lousy color environments print very well. I'd like to give the program 4 3/4 stars, but Amazon.com won't let me. The only shortcoming I've noticed is that saving the various Curves, Hue/Sat, and Levels settings (and probably others) does not automatically put them where I want, which is usually the folder in which I'm working, without my specially defining where I want them saved via a dialog menu. It's then annoying to try to find these settings if I forget to tell the program where I want them put.

Photoshop CS2 contains a number of improvements and after using it a month I give it 5 stars. The program Bridge 1.0 replaces the old File Browser from Photoshop CS. It is a GIANT step backward and after using it a month and updating to Bridge 1.01 I rate it ZERO stars. Bridge takes 25 seconds to start up on my Apple 1.5 Ghz 17 inch G4 Powerbook with 1 Gig of RAM. The old File Browser started up in less than a second.

Adobe assumes that their customers are their objects and may be treated as criminals at their whim. Built into the software is a humiliating exercise that inconveniences the user for greater profits for the company. It involves having to reenter activation numbers and serial numbers in order to use your property. If you have three computers you may only use the program on one of them. If you have questions, call Adobe and ask to speak to a supervisor who has no interest in speaking to you. The arrogance indicates that Adobe, (as with Garmin or Nikon) is so far removed from their customers that they are willing to ignore them.

Photoshop CS 2 Screen The Current Adobe Photoshop CS 2 Line

* The Adobe Bridge: The next generation of the Photoshop File Browser. This allows you to organize, browser and locate photos, images and movies across shared Adobe Creative Suite applications.

Since The Bridge is a standalone application, you can launch it separately or access it by double clicking on Adobe Photoshop CS 2 in the dock.

* New Camera Raw gives you control over your digital negatives in Adobe Photoshop CS 2. It is much easier to work on a several images at the same time. The Camera Raw has Auto checkbooks for Exposure, Shadows, Brightness and Contrast sliders.

* The Vanishing Point lets you clone, paint and transform images. Image Warping allows you to fold, stretch, pull, twist and wrap an image into shape by selecting an on-demand preset or dragging custom control points.

* Photoshop CS2's Smart Objects allow you to scale and transform images and vector illustrations without losing image quality, and

* Smart Guides appear when you're moving text or objects around, making it easier to align them.

Working within the 'Inner Core' of Adobe Photoshop CS 2

Most of my Photoshop CS work is done in the Browser. I single-click the photos that I need for my Photoshop CS project. Now I have a group of highlighted photos that can be used in the Browser's Automated menu.

The inner core of the Photoshop CS Browser's Automated menu contains: Batch, PDF Presentation, Contact Sheet II and Online Services. Also, Automated menu contains Photomerge, Picture Package and Web Photo Gallery.

Running these automated menu tasks from the File Browser saves me a lot of time. I can avoid opening each photo file separately in Photoshop CS.

The Photoshop CS 2 Browser has Sort capabilities that contains the Filename, Flag, Rank, Width and Height. Also, Sort capabilities that contains File Size, Resolution, File Type and Color Profile.

The Photoshop Browser's Sort contains Date Created, Date Modified, Copyright and Custom. You can sort them in ascending or descending order.

Photoshop CS Photomerge and PDF Presentations

In Photomerge, I can make a collage of photos and move them in any order. Also, I can take several sections photos of a large bridge using a tripod. I then take the section photos and join them together with Photoshop CS' Photomerge. I still have to edit the new Photomerge photo for length, size and contrast.

In PDF Presentation, I can turn my photos into Acrobat PDFs and stitch them together. The fun is turning my new creation into a slideshow with various transitions. The PDF Presentation is cross-platform that can be used on a Mac and Windows computers.

Working with the 'Outer Core' of Adobe Photoshop CS 2

Keyboard Commands

The one-key letter shortcuts that I use quite often is M for Marquee, V for Moving objects, T for Text, I for Eyedropper and C for Crop. There is a multitude of Toolbox one-key letter shortcuts that you can use or change.

Toolbox uses the Shift bar to get to related tools on the same pop-out menu. For example, to cycle through the Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, and Magnetic Lasso tools, hold down Shift bar and keep pressing "L" key.

Change Keyboard Commands in Photoshop CS 2

This means that missing Photoshop CS Menu keyboard commands can now be added. For example, I am constantly making changes to my images by changing the photos' contrast and brightness.

Now without using the computer mouse, I use the Command, Control, and C keys in unison. Like a piano chord, I can now change the contrast and brightness in my digital photographs.

I use Command, Control, and letter keys for adding keyboard commands. This works well within the menus and plugin filters that I use in Photoshop CS.

Pro Reaction

Photoshop CS offers flexibility and nondestructive editing. Photoshop's Welcome screen and improved Help ease the learning curve for new users. The Help menu is changeable. I find Photoshop CS' Help menu an excellent way to learn the various functions of Photoshop program. Photoshop CS comes with a paper, hardcopy paper manual. Photoshop CS 2 works best within Mac OS X 10.4 Macs including Intel Macs.

Con Reaction

You have to read and work with hardcopy paper manual. The Bridge does not work in older Photoshop programs.

Final Words

Photoshop remains the industry standard for professional photo editing, graphic design, and digital imaging. Adobe Photoshop is considered the industry standard. Photoshop skills are required for employment in the graphic design field.

Digital photographers will benefit from Adobe Photoshop with its strong digital-camera raw workflow.

Paul Gerstenbluth is President of the ARIE Foundation and is a Macintosh consultant. The ARIE Foundation's mission is to provide VA hospitalized patients with hobby materials and Macintosh Powerbooks that helps in their stay and recovery.