A link roundup for Photoshop lovers and people who want to learn more about Adobe Photoshop.

• 15 Essential Tutorials For Photoshop Beginners
• 5 Secrets of the Photoshop Crop Tool
• Using Workspaces in Photoshop
• Photoshop CS3 – Adding a Neutral Density Gradient Filter
• How to Manipulate Colours in Photoshop using Fill Layers
• The Ultimate Guide To Cloning In Photoshop
• Use Photoshop Actions to automate actions
• How to Pop Color Selectively Using Channel Mixers and Layer Masks in Photoshop
• Enhancing Midtones in Photoshop

Bateleur des savanes / Bateleur Eagle

Returning from Botswana, I started to publish a few of the good pictures I shot in May 2010 while on a photo safari trip. If you are interested, you will find these images on my personal web site and some of them on sale at RedBubble.com. New photos will keep appearing on a daily basis, at least during all June 2010.

In parallel, I had been asked to describe my photographic workflow and the preparation of these photos from Botswana is a good opportunity to go and check this together.

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Adobe just announced the new features of Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended. Don’t panic! These software programs will not be available before next month and for a price relatively normal at Adobe (read “relatively expensive”; See at the end of the article).

What these new versions of Creative Suite (CS so CS5) bring? I will point you more specifically to 5 features:

• Easier HDR: We will see more and more of these extreme pictures (for the best and for the worst)
• Intelligent fill (Content-Aware Fill)
• More efficient selection tool: To ease the selection of very complex shapes, to fine tune the border of a selection (like hair, always difficult to cut out)
• Improved RAW management: Camera Raw v6 will improve noise management and correction of vignetting
• Adaptation to 64-bit computers and systems, for a higher performance

Press Release

Milestone Release Celebrates 20 Years of Unrivalled Image Editing and Innovation

London, UK — April 12, 2010 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended software, must-have releases of the professional industry standard for digital imaging. With millions of users celebrating the product’s 20th anniversary this year, Photoshop CS5 builds upon a rich history of innovation and leadership with groundbreaking features and performance gains that boost creativity and workflow efficiency. Packing in more technological advancements from Adobe Labs than any other release and incorporating enhancements to everyday tasks requested by the Photoshop community, the software has greater intelligence and awareness of the content within images, allowing for complex and magical manipulation in just a few clicks. Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended delivers everything in Photoshop CS5, as well as advanced tools for 3-D which address the unique needs of the video, Web, medical, manufacturing and engineering industries.

Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended will be available as stand-alone applications or key components of the Adobe Creative Suite® 5 family.

“The past two decades have demonstrated an amazing interplay between customers who want to push the limits of their personal creativity and a passionate team of Adobe engineers who make those visions a reality,� said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for professional digital imaging at Adobe. “We experienced this firsthand when we posted a ‘sneak peek’ video of the team’s work on the Content Aware Fill feature a few weeks ago. It quickly became the number one viral video online, with close to 2 million views and its ‘magic’ was one of the top trending Twitter topics of discussion. This version of Photoshop has some of the most innovative and extraordinary technologies to ever come from our labs and clearly customers are already clamouring for it.�

Redefining the Image-Editing Experience
Now a native 64-bit application on both Mac and Windows®, Photoshop CS5 delivers superior tools and creative control so users can perform advanced image manipulations and compositing with ease. Revolutionary image intelligence behind Content-Aware Fill magically removes any image detail or object, examines the surroundings and seamlessly fills in the space left behind. Lighting, tone and noise of the surrounding area match perfectly, looking as if the removed content never existed. New Refine Edge makes nearly-impossible image selections possible. This innovative technology precisely detects and masks the trickiest types of edges, such as hair and foliage, while eliminating background colour contamination.

For photographers, Photoshop CS5 now offers next-generation high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities. When combining multiple exposures into a single HDR image, Photoshop CS5 preserves the full tonal range of a scene with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The new HDR Pro offers exceptional ghost artefact removal and greater tone mapping and adjustment control. With HDR toning, users can emulate the striking look of an HDR image with any single-exposure image.

Photoshop CS5 provides revolutionary tools that maximise users’ creative impact. Breakthrough painting capabilities include a Mixer Brush that blends an infinite combination of colours onto a single paintbrush tip, and Bristle Tips that offer lifelike brush strokes. Puppet Warp gives users the power to precisely reposition or warp any image element, such as straightening a bent arm in a photo or manipulating the landscape to generate a new perspective.

“Since its inception, Adobe Photoshop has been a key tool for pre-and post-production work in the motion picture industry,� said Jon Landau, Academy Award winning producer of Avatar and Titanic. “With Photoshop CS5 Extended, Adobe gives filmmakers new painting, HDR and 3-D tools that will help them push the limits of creativity. Faster performance with cross-platform 64-bit support and tight integration with other Adobe Creative Suite 5 software makes Photoshop CS5 an even more powerful tool in a filmmaker’s arsenal. Photoshop empowers filmmakers and creative professionals in virtually every other industry to turn their imagined ideas into onscreen reality.�

Community Involvement Drives Enhancements
In addition, more than 30 features and enhancements requested directly by the Photoshop community have been added to this release, including automatic image straightening, rule-of-thirds crop tool, colour picker and the ability to save 16-bit images as JPEGs. The goal of this engineering effort was to address seemingly minor enhancements that directly impact everyday workflow, but aren’t always at the top of the development list for a new release. A new customisable Adobe Mini Bridge panel is also available directly in the software for faster file browsing and management.

Taking 3D and Motion to the Next Level
Photoshop CS5 Extended includes everything in Photoshop CS5 plus tools for editing 3D and motion-based content. With new Adobe Repoussé technology, users can easily create 3D logos and artwork from any text layer, shape or mask, as well as twist, rotate and extrude designs for different looks. To mirror the realism and appearance of 3D objects, a new materials library offers a breadth of rich options, including chrome, glass and cork. Users can also enhance the appearance of 3D objects by quickly creating shadows with the new shadow catcher. For motion content, tools including paint, text and clone can be used directly over multiple frames of a video sequence with ease using single-key shortcuts.

Adobe Photoshop Family
Building upon the 20-year history of Photoshop innovation and leadership, Adobe offers a line of Photoshop solutions for every level of user. Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended software are at the heart of the Photoshop family, providing unrivalled power and editing freedom. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® addresses the workflow needs of serious, amateur and professional photographers, helping them find, manage, enhance and showcase images in powerful ways. Adobe Photoshop Elements software provides accessible tools and sharing options for photo enthusiasts. Snap-shooters can quickly and easily share and edit photos with simple gestures using the free Photoshop.com Mobile application on their iPhone or Android™ devices. Photoshop.com completes the Photoshop line providing an online photo sharing, editing and hosting resource for all.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CS5 Extended are scheduled to ship within 30 days with availability through Adobe Authorised Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for Adobe Photoshop CS5 is £548 (ex-VAT) and £794 (ex-VAT) for Photoshop CS5 Extended. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available. For more detailed information about features, OS support, upgrade policies and pricing, please visit http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop/family/

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionises how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com/uk

Price

• Adobe Photoshop CS5: US $699 / £548 (ex-VAT)
• Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended: US $999 / 1015€ TTC / £794 (ex-VAT)

Upgrades from the previous versions of Adobe Photoshop: US $149 and $349 respectively.

Monday 12 April, Adobe will announce the features of its new Adobe Photoshop CS5.

The most interesting will certainly be the “content-aware fill” that allows to fill empty parts of an image with adequate data without using the copy-paste or drawing tools.

Many a photographer will be listening. But the actual product will only be available later.

This new feature for Photoshop CS5 is really impressive. Just remove what you want to remove and CS5 will fill back with adequate data built from the rest of the image.

Adobe Photoshop: A wonderful tool.

Click onto the image below to reach the official launch site of Photoshop CS5:

Update: Let’s be as clear as possible. On April 12, don’t expect to be able to buy a new box of Photoshop CS5. It will be only a technical presentation. We will still have to wait for the real availability (maybe during this Summer).

After the recent announcements, it would be useful to look where Adobe is going now, or in the coming months. Here, it is OK to start using the bits of news becoming available.

First, of course, Lightroom v3 will soon be available (you can download the beta 2, already). DPReview obtained an interview with Tom Hogarty from Adobe which reveals some important elements about the new RAW file engine that you will find inside L3: “Adobe discusses latest Lightroom 3 Beta” tells us (with pictures) how much progress is stacked up in this beta compared to the previous versions.

Of course, as usual for Adobe, this technology will be present in the next version of Photoshop under the guise of an Adobe Camera Raw tool integrated into Photoshop CS5. But CS5 is not announced yet! You’re right, but the rumor had it that Photoshop CS5 would be presented in April. It’s now official that its launch will happen on April 12.

Once again, let’s check my bag of fine Photoshop-related articles found on the web. For sure, most of them did not need to receive a full article here, but you will admit with me that they are worth reading.

• Paste Images on Tilted Surfaces in Photoshop
• Understanding the basics of Sharpening in Photoshop
• Create Seamless Textures with Photoshop CS4
• Agrandissez votre studio dans Photoshop
• Détourage #1 : utilisation des couches dans un cas simple

GIMP is an excellent image edition software which could (should?) attract all those who do not want to pay the full price of Photoshop, while they work with Apple, Windows or Linux. the differences are real, but the most obvious one is certainly the interface (and Adobe clearly did a nice work on it). So, why not try to prep up your GIMP to make it look like a near-clone of Photoshop?

photo credit: See-ming Lee ��明 SML

Blair Mathis decided to reduce the distance between them by the installation of several plugins on GIMP. And the result is astonishingly interesting. All the more because the process is fully documented step-by-step, which makes it little more than a longer software installation.

1. PSPI
2. Layers
3. Separate+ from Yellowmagic
4. Liquid Rescale from Wikidot (for an image rescale without deformation as in CS4)
5. Additional brushes from Blendfu
6. GIMP Animation Package
7. Enable GEGL

But if this is not enough, there are also a few hacked versions of GIMP that have been already prepared for the Photoshop lovers. The most renowned are:

• GimpShop whose interface is specially good
• GimPhoto is slightly less convincing but is based on a more recent (and more powerful) GIMP version

Once again, here is how you can (nearly) download Photoshop for free, while being well on the right side of law.

In composition, it is often considered that putting objects of interest on the key attention points helps build more powerful images. Daniel Cohen-Or and Lior Wolf at Tel-Aviv University, Israel, with colleagues at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, created a software program that automatically re-organizes photos to make them more powerful, more pleasing.

Is this to announce one of the following:

1. The picture police?
2. A new powerful feature in Photoshop CS5 and other picture edit tools?

Even before Photoshop was available, some photographers tried to improve their photos. Sometimes, it was to clean little blemishes, but it could go to quite significant upgrades: removing somebody form a group portrait (like with chairman Mao, below), putting a better body under the head of VIP, etc.

This guy is no longer welcome here!

Source: NY Times.

Photoshop is not the only photo editing tool on the market, but it is definitely a leader. Despite this, or because it has to be the best tool for so many people, it takes a very long time to start Photoshop on your computer.

On Windows, Photoshop SpeedUp is a freeware that can solve part of this issue. It gives all the tools to reduce load times for the big Adobe Photoshop tool.

Photoshop SpeedUP

photo credit: John Flinchbaugh

For all of us who would hesitate to use GIMP because of the stock of brushes they collected and use with Photoshop, I like to remind that GIMP supports the Photoshop brushes (in ABR brush file format) from version 2.4. This is limiting the risks and issues to the strict minimum.

GIMP has a default of 48 brushes; It is also possible to create and download new ones. Even better, the compatibility of GIMP with Photoshop brushes allows to install ABR format brushes which is very common on the Web. These brushes are then usable with all tools: pencil, rubber, aerograph, clone, perspective/3D clone and correction.

To be noticed too:

• AbrViewer is a small Windows program that does not need to be install and allows to export .ABR file to .PNG format (for easier viewing).
• Gimp Batch Brush Converter Script can be used to convert a Photoshop brush into a GIMP brush for those of you who may still have transfer or compatibility issues.

You know this album cover from The Police. Digital Photography School, inspired by the album cover, teaches you how to do the same effect with your own photos.

The Police - Synchronicity

→

How would you create this?

Source: Photoshop Inspiration: Police CD Label.

Of course, this comparison is simplifying a few things, but it helps to have a synthetic comparison for online editors targetting the photo amateur. The list of online photo editors contains Adobe tools (Photoshop.com), but it alos covers most of what are the best online photo editors of today.

Source: CNet.

Adobe just published a patch/upgrade to Photoshop CS4. Those who are equipped with this software program will probably be interested in visiting http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/ to get the upgrade in order to correct a few performance and feature bugs.

Moreover, the users of MacBook Air and recent MacBook Pro systems can use mutli-touch to rotate documents frame.But, sometimes, it turns out (!) being a nightmare if this is too sensitive. So, Adobe decided to offer a free plug-in to optionnally disable the rotation/zoom commands through muti-touch gestures.