A Photoshop 6 op repost for 5.5 users interested in maybe upgrading. (Adobe Photoshop 5.5)

Member Name: Todd L

Product:	Adobe Photoshop 5.5
Date:	06/11/01 (296 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Offers a bevvy of improvements/refinements over 5, industry-leading software, multi-purpose

Disadvantages: It's not completely different stuff, very expensive, isn't made out of fun jelly

Adobe Systems has long since asserted itself as the market leader in top-of-the-range graphics software. For some years, its Photoshop franchise has been dumping on all but the very best of its opposition from high, parading as it does the winsome mix of both a considerable amount of pioneering (and exclusive) technical wizardry, as well as an abundant sense of intelligence of design. Finding attention to minor details is an extremely satisfying sensation, and the boffs at Adobe hit the right note with its audience, with an obsessive quantity of "little touches" all adding to the bigger picture. As such, the end result is an extremely flexible graphical application which, although it's principally aimed at photographers wishing to give a touch-up job to their work, as per the title, is equally suited to producing cutting-edge graphic design and even digitised works of art, for output to both web and print.

But if that read too much like a corporate press release for you, then just look: by no stretch of the imagination does the product hold a monopoly on its market. Priced on the nauseating side of £600, there exists a seductive and wealthy opposition of (often considerably cheaper) alternatives to shadow Photoshop, with top-drawer offerings from Macromedia and Corel (the Fireworks and Draw series respectively) being the glittering highlights of a competitive selection. What does this mean ? Hang on - allow me to adjust my novelty neck-tie, and I will tell you what this means. ...There. A hotly contested market means that Adobe is continually being forced to push new innovations (or steal the best ones that other people have had, natch) and develop its flagship graphics app, teaching it new tricks in order to stay ahead. The result ? The entire market is booming, with prices falling (not as fast as hole-pocketed plebs like myself would like, admittedly) while most of the goods on offer boast a number of unique, and intriguing, features. It mak
es me salivate like a big dog. SLURP. See ? You see how I salivate. Like a big dog.

Offering number 5 probably had plenty more than enough to keep even the most explorative and adventurous artist busy for months playing with its bulging array of extras, and certainly seemed to push back the dreaded fence of every salesman: "Err... I don't think the toy can DO that..." So, turning their rouged faces to Photoshop 6.0, Adobe's engineers seemingly embarked on an intense programme of hair-splitting, travelling the world (very possibly several times over) seeking out the most obscure and bafflingly diverse ideas to justify yet another bi-annual update release. In such a dense market, we consumers can feel fully justified in being horribly picky and fickle: you need to serve up a "WOW !" factor, as well as the regular robust solidity of sequel-mania, in order to prevent our eyes from fleeting astray. Adobe have approached this a little differently from the norm, spending the two years since part 5 lavishing an obscene level of detailing and polish on 6, ignoring the trend for going all gimmicky - which can and indeed often does endow a product with instant "WOW !" factor (a phenomenon which I have patented 'INSTAWOW™', annoyingly in locked capital letters, just like that), but tends to deliver a net result that, while appealing and very glossy on the adverts and packaging, is objectively less use than a teapot made out of a smoked haddock and two broken cigarette lighters.

Being poor, I bear zealot-like allegiance to no one brand, because, like so many, I simply cannot afford to buy software in a touching (yet wildly uncertain) display of faith to any chosen marque. At as much as £700 a pop, I would feel cheated to the point that it would probably trigger some sort of horrible seizure were I to feel anything less than 480% justified at having expended every last pound - nay, every last PENNY - from my
lithe, imitation-leather wallet. Nevertheless, having, in early 2000, joined a happy fraternity of Photoshop users, I admit to having, for some time, worn a repulsively smug look that left onlookers in not doubt as to the astuteness of my decision (in the end, decided on a narcotics-laced game of 'Spin the Bottle'). I'm not going to bullshit you all by saying I've tried everything on the market - that's not honest, and therefore of no use to those seeking an unbiased opinion - but I can without doubt declare that I was sincerely impressed by the quality of what I was using. Having worked with a representative handful of the competition, coming more or less straight from painting with real, and not virtual, hands, I simultaneously expected very little (due to my radiant ignorance of the medium) and everything at once (because I was so stupid and ill-informed, there was no reason for me not to hope Mona Lisas were attainable in less than 20 minutes here). My small mind was a blank canvas, as it were. But, even with my significantly slimmed-down bank balance painfully fresh in mind, I was really impressed by Photoshop 5. Don't want to bore you reading the instruction manual, cos I'm sure anyone with a passing interest in all this has been bored by a friend or publication banging on about the brand's reputation. All I will say is this: only about 20% of what you've read is an overexaggeration. And seeing as such blatantly overhyped paraphernalia is usually at least 60% extortion, that is praise indeed. Although myself, my wallet and my bank manager are unanimously agreed that it still costs way too much.

Photoshop 5 made me happy then. As I said though, I can't buy sequels on the strength of prequels (certainly not in this price bracket anyway), so despite suffering from self-contentedness, I did not proceed to plot out an extended 8-year financial plan to allow the releasing of funds from my account in order to pay f
or the next 4 Photoshop incarnations, before I'd even tried them. Apart from anything else, during out last correspondence, my bank manager had continually glared at me with a burning scowl that went some distance toward utter hatred, and I feared that, were I to suggest such a thing, I might just disappear mysteriously, never to resurface (except perhaps on the shore of an isolated reservoir).

Like so much other floating detritus of the ever-evolving computer bathtub, Photoshop 6 was being trumpeted (to my considerable dismay) swiftly after 5 came out, naturally accompanied by all the usual forgettably cliched old tosh about bigger numbers, louder razzmatazz, an improved, expanded selection of features, better ideas and hairier firemen (well, all except the last one) - none of which I believed - except for the last one. Again, I declared vehemently, stamping my hand in a manly fashion for heroic effect (being neither heroic nor outstandingly manly, it didn't work and I hurt my wrist and broke the table), that I wouldn't fall foul of the hypemongers and do anything rash, on impulse, that I would undoubtedly regret afterwards. As per the norm with me, this was only a partial success.

Having at least been resilient enough to stumble out and pick up the software at its insanely inflated launch price of £699, I obtained a demo copy a few months ago with a cover disc from the superb Computer Arts magazine, something which I would recommend unhesitantly to anyone excited by, err, computer arts. This trial edition offered me 30 days uninhibited use of the full version of Adobe's new harbinger, on the odious condition that, once the 2 months were up, it would go up in smoke, or send me a nail bomb in the mail (I forget what exactly).

It's very difficult for the intelligent staff at Computer Arts to describe the look and feel (silicon equivalent to anthropometrics) exhibited by an inanimate computer programme using the writte
n world, so your writer here won't even try (being a dim-witted oik with at best half a command of the English language), especially without being able to show you some screenshots. Put so that I would understand it (so all you clever people will have no trouble at all), Photoshop is a pretty unassuming thing to use. For good, for bad, it doesn't ever feel like something "expensive" - for good, for bad - you will all have your own opinions as to whether that's a good thing or not considering the outlay. Personally, were I not occasionally possessed by an insuppressible desire to be creative, I'd much rather spend the money (or, preferably, considerably less money) on something I could hold, cuddle, sleep with, and show off to my mates in an awkward attempt to fool them into believing I'd gone upmarket, in true 'Keeping Up Appearances' fashion. But enough off this codshit - you're reading this to find out about Photoshop, right ? So sorry !

For those who haven't tried it, Photoshop is probably most closely resembled by Microsoft's Paint, which, coming bundled with Windows, I reckon most of you will've tried (Mac users have an equivalent, right ?). It's belongs to a family of what're called bitmap art programs, and that, without digressing into the foggy realms of techno-tedium, means that it deals with each pixel on your screen separately. Because this allows one to utilise pixel-by-pixel effects, such as smears, blurring, airbrushing, and feathering, it lends your work a soft-edged characteristic, reminiscent of manipulating a real canvas. It's ideally suited to so-called painterly effects, as opposed to the more graphics-oriented vector drawing alternative, which has its own market and its own distinct advantages.

Photoshop offers the same kind of control as aforementioned others, allowing you to physically "paint" onto a document with pencils, airbrushes, a big old paint-
can and more. Photoshop executes this with considerably more finesse than Paint and co, allowing toweringly better quality images, higher in resolution and richer in detail. And also softer and more naturalistic in appearance. The range and depth of the tools at hand is incomparable, with gradients, exact tones, custom brushes, custom textures, and custom fonts all at the users fingertips, and all almost endlessly definable in every direction. Photoshop has been adopted as the industry-standard application for computer generated stills, both manipulations of photos and in the genesis of unique, standalone pieces, and an hour or less spent in its company will reveal why.

Central to the experience are Filters, Layer Styles, and Blending Modes. Filters offer a staggeringly varied array of effects which can be applied to your work. Some 200 strong or-so in number straight out of the box (innumerable additions are obtainable on CD and from the Internet as 'Plug-Ins', which you simply drop in the program file to start using) and ranging from atmosphere-enhancing subtleties (from clouds and lens flare to watercoloury underpainting and brush techniques) to items which can morph what you have into something completely different altogether (witness the psychedelic 'wave' option at work, or the equally mad 'Polar Coordinates'). Layer Styles allow you to add emboss, lighting and shadow effects to your work (amongst other things), while blending modes mean that you can build up complex, multi-layered pieces compiled with limitless numbers of overlays. With some practise, you'll be able to knock out stuff with a depth of appearance that far belies the 2D nature of your screen.

Any existing users of lesser updates will find their surroundings instantly familiar, but don't think that this means there aren't enough new features to keep you in a bemused state of giggly happiness for hours on end. Users of version 5 or even later t
ake note: you will not feel in the slightest bit shortchanged here. Improvements to the font tool and the addition of a new 'Liquify' warp filter, and a new and expansive selection of vector shapes all add to the fun (and usefulness) of the programme. The latter is particularly of interest, as it shows the previously diametrically opposed idioms of vector and bitmap graphics beginning to integrate, something which will almost certainly grow considerably in the future. Dishearteningly for some, there are no new filters of note included here, the segregated 'Liqify' command excluded. There are no less, so it doesn't hurt, but for fans of the instant effects attainable with a few of these, this is a shame. Adobe, we frown in your direction here.

It can all be rigged up to your printer and hammered straight out on paper (for which photo-gloss worked best for me). Alternatively, if you're that kind of chal, you can save your images in all manner of formats suitable for use on the internet, with customisable GIF and JPEGS easily within reach. With minimum hassle, you can also import your work into 3D software to use as "skins", which can add a less mechanical edge to its target - or at least make it look more realistic. Is there more here ? Yes, indeed there is more to come now: Photoshop 6 comes bundled with Adobe ImageReady 3, the company's latest web graphics optimisation tool. It acts as kind of a stripped-down version of the big attraction, offering tools to compress file sizes while retaining picture quality, animation to bring your work to life, and shortcuts to creating reactive images, such as rollover buttons and the like. Haaaaam ! ImageReady is Adobe's soul concession to gimmickery here, and could have been absorbed into the main Photoshop 6 program with little trouble, streamlining usership. But it is very useful as an extra for "those wot web". And very free.

Even today, nearly a year sin
ce launch, at £586.99 Photoshop 6 is a towering sum to all but the most irritatingly wealthy fops. It's an awful lot of money, but it is also an awful lot FOR the money. This programme will flatter even the biggest rookie, and can immeasurably aid - and improve - the skills of a seasoned creative pro who's being stifled by the limitations of whatever they're using right now.

In part down to its sheer girth, not everybody finds it approachable - you could sit for 6 months and only scratch the surface (I did), and the onboard manual is sincerely duff. With persistence, though, and the help of some decent users guides or tutorials, it is an indispensable modern masterpiece and, neglecting the Queen's proper English for the first time in a while, a fucking minor marvel at that. It can be used to create, or it can be used to enhance the talent you already sport, and it does both impeccably. This flexibility is a rare thing indeed. I really hate to write you a review that perhaps seems so artificially upbeat, lest anyone believe I'm trying to plug it for whatever reason (and I wouldn't blame you for thinking that); you'll just have to believe that all I say is in the best possible interests of helping newcomers avoid all the pitfalls that I was terrified of stumbling into when I started venturing around with such crazy sums of money. Honestly, aching monetary resources aside, I have no regrets about my decision, and despite having enjoyed about 18 months of contended ownership now, still keep discovering new pathways that I'd swear weren't there the last time I looked. That is what justifies the price tag.

If you're serious about getting into graphics, don't look anywhere else and don't hesitate. I'd stake giving out my address and a free baseball bat that you won't wind up with egg on your face. If you're a Photoshop user yet to upgrade to 6, I can confirm that it's more than a big enough
leap over what came before to make the trouble worthwhile. And if you're casually interested in dabbling, why not try out the demo version at www.adobe.com/photoshop . Not only does this satisfied consumer approve, but I'm sure his bank manager would too.

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