| Product: |
Adobe Photoshop 5.5 |
| Date: |
07.05.04 (264 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Wide Range of Functions and Facilities, User Friendly, Good Online support network, , Beauitfully sharp images
Disadvantages: Can taje a while to get used to , Slow Loading
* Initial Note *
I love Adobe Photoshop. It is absoloutley brilliant. I LOVE IT I LOVE IT. I have been using this program for a long while now, and have not only expressed my inner personality through it, but have used it to express an heir of style on a numerous amount of websites (http://ants-web.8k.com - my personal website from when I was 14 ( has 5 years passed already!!) and http://www.sbhlexport.co.uk - a company i worked for)
I wouldnt advise visiting my company website, but if you would like to find out more about me, feel free to visit my website and leave a comment (caution that I look about 12 on the photo)
The software includes a wide wealth of different facilities to allow you to create your personal photograph, your best photograph (a bit of touching up), you perfect graphic for a greeting card or business card, the perfect screensaver, the perfect poster , or anything, personally designed to suit your tastes.
In this review I will go through the immesnse capabilities of this program, and attempt to describe the beautiful effects that can be created.
* The Review *
I have the version Adobe Photoshop 5.5 , which I think, for the general consumer is the best one. I have used more updated ones, and have found them much more complicated, and therefore much more unusuable than the version that I have ie more unusable for the basic consumer.
I also think that corel draw is the same. Corel draw is very complicated in my opinion, and theyre manual is abosoloutley rubbish. My aunty ( a lady who I had stayed with for over a month) had Corel Draw, and I really really struggled with the manual while I was there,as well as the menus and options available. To be honest with you, amongst the graphics and media industry, Adobe Photoshop is used much more than that of the Corel package.
With Adobe Photoshop, it is generally self explanitory what each of the different meanings -mean, but never the
less, I will talk through them with you, to try and allow you to see what they will be, or may be capable of doing if you purchase this software.
- Going through the menu -
* File *
The first options include New, Open and open as. When you select the New option you have an option to create the dimensions that you want (i.e. width and length in both centimetres, inches and pixels mainly- and for the more advanced users, columns, picas, and points). Once you have selected the size of your canvas you can then select the pxels per inch you want or the detail (the pixels control the amount of dots per inch - the more pixels there are, the more detail scope there is) You can select the amount of pixels per inch or by centimetre.
You then also have the option to have it in different colour options ( do you want greyscale to produce a kind of authentic feel, or do you want to use different formats of colour i.e. RGB, CMYK, or Lab Colour for example)
You then have to decide the canvas colour - either transparent, white, or the colour which is already selected (usually the last colour that you selected from the previous session you used the program)
After these options you have the save options. You have save (which allows you to savethe drawing you have just done with the layers, and options still availble) Save as, meaning that it is saved in the format that you want, or Save for web (which allows you to save your image in a different amount of web compatible formats - JPEG, GIF, PNG-8,. and PNG-24)
When using the safe for web option, you can also save the quality that you want, which for obvious reasons affect the size of your image (in bytes). I usually use the middle option, as it is not much different to the higher quality options, but yet a lot much lower in terms of memory space.
This is a very useful tool, when creating a website,as the more images you have, the more you have to comprimise in qua
lity to allow for speed for loading. (A good point also, is that it shows you how long it takes to load on a 28.8K modem, and therefore allows you to , if calculate how many seconds per Kb, can work out how long it takes to load with variances in connection speeds) If you are targting richer clients, it is likely that you wouldnt comprimise quality, as it is likely that they would have quicker data transfer capibilities.
You can also blur the image on the safe for web functon, to give it a little effect (unless you want a sharp image). I dont know if you have seen some of the food items that are displayed in the Sainsburys food catalogue, but they have a partial blur, usually on a white background which really makes the display of the product really effective.
As you move further down the menu, you have the option to import or export from a TWAIN 32 port (i.e. a scanner), and automation option, a file info option (allowing you to see the details of the file that you are creating), Page setup ( do you want it landsace or portrait priniting, what are the dimensions of the print etc), A jump - to funtion which allows you to move the image to other Adobe packages (only have Adobe Imageready apart from this, which I think is very similar anyway, and therefore dont really use this function), Preferences which allow you to modify the way you save files, the way you draw files (i.e is there a grid when you are drawing) and many more.
I have learnt since that some people use this as a computer aided design package, which I am a little surpised at to be honest with you. Although it does have numeric functions, it really doesnt cater enough for automated computer aided design fucntionality.
- Edit -
The first option in the edit menu, is undo paintbrush. This means that you can basically undo the last action that you have just done ( bearing in mind that if you have done loads of mistakes, you will have to go on to the actions menu a
nd one by one, delete every action until you have restored the image you had before making mistakes)
Following this is the normal, standard options that you would get with any graphics program, including Microsoft Windows' Paintbrush, which include cut, copy, copy merged, paste, paste info, and clear. Think they are quite self explanatory - if not, message me and I`ll describe them to you.
You then have fill, and stroke - again easy to understand. Proceding this is the transform options. If you have created a line, you can make it curvy, a different size, or just generally modify it very easilly in to the shape or form that you desire.
You can transform it numerically, transform it in freeform by using the pointers around the image, or alternatively modifying it using a selection of modification options. They include modifciation by scale, Rotation, skey, distort and perspective.
This can contribute to making your image hvae a 3D feel to it. A very useful, and easy to use range of tools. You then also have a small selection of degrees that you want to rotate the image (180 CCW/CW, 90 CCW/CW)
You can also define a pattern on the image, and purge it. (havent used the purge option to be honest with ya)
- Image -
With the image options menu, you can edit the image you have created or edited in a numerous amount of ways.
You firstly have mode, which allows you to change the colour type of the image, after initial creation. I know that you can create the colour you want initially, but if for example you want to change the image to black and white afterwards, you still have the option and scope to do so.
You then have an adjust option which you can adjust the following properties of the image:
- Levels
- Auto Levels
- Contrast
- Curves
- COlour Balance (or displayed in the american style)
- Brightness and Contrast
- Hue/Saturation
- Desaturate
- Replace Colour
- Seperate Colour
- Channel Mixer
- Invert (this means make the colours turn to the opposite, i.e. white to black, red to blue etc..)
- Threshold
-Posterize
Proceeding this you can duplicate the image, apply image (i.e. merge it with another) and modify calculations (i.e blending options by numerical value)
You also have scope to change the size of the image, as well as the canvas size ( if you want to add some more detail around the main image) Rotate the canvas if you want to make the image fit better on the background, a histogram option, as well as an extraction facility to move parts of the image layers to a different package.
- Layers -
In adobe photoshop you can layer the image (i.e. have different personalised images appear in front or behind each other). The layers section, allows you to modify each layer that you select. They include the following very easy to use functions:
* The first option allows you to create a new layer over the top of the layer that you are currently working on. You can also duplicate the layer, as well as delete it ( the delete function is very useful- have many a times hated the bakground for example, and deleted it, without destroying the whole image)
You also have an effects option which you can do some VERRRY funky things with. I will now descibe them one by one, so you can really appreciate which one is capable of doing:
-Drop Shadow-
This allows you to drop a shadow underneath the image you have created. I have often used this on text to make it look a bit different to normal text. It is a bit naff if you use Microsoft Word all the time, and it looks very hard, and well, un-original. You can also modify the direction of the light so that you can have the cast of the shadow in different directions, subject to your personal tastes.
- Inner Shadow -
This basically means if you want the shadow to com
e from within the detail, bearing in mind that you dont have to use a dark colour, but any one you wish. It can be used to manipulate the image to produce a kind of glow. A nice effect when you get to grips with it
- Inner and Outer Glow -
Whether you want the effect to shine toward the centre of the image layer, or outwards. Again, similar to to the inner shadow funtion, with the scope to select the colour, and the brightness that you require.
- Belevel and Emboss -
My favorite funtion especially for text. This gives your image a bit of a 3d feel to it, by raising the image, such as text, off the canvas. It also gives a bit of a shadow, but not to the same extent as the shadow functions.
-Colour Fill -
Wanna change colours - use this function which allows you to change colours, without trying to put the mouse pointer in the correct place so that everything doesnt go the same colour.( have you ever done that - its so annoying isnt it?)
You then have additional options to merge a layer with another (usually when you are satisfied with one part of the image, and ring it in together with the rest, so that it doesnt become impossible to manage), flatten the image (i.e. merge everything together or as the option suggests flatten it out on the canvas)
The final options include:
- Add Layer Mask
- Enable Layer Mask
- Group With Previous
- Ungroup
- Arrange
- Align Linked
- Distribute Linked
- Merge Down
- Merge Visible
- Flatten Image
- Matting
- The Filter Menu -
The filter menu allows you to do a lot of creative and imaginitive things to your image. For example if you wanted to make the lines or strokes that you made to look like it had been created with a paintbrush you could do it.
You could also make the image look as if its rushing off to the left, around in circles, or all over the place with the very effe
ctive blur effect.
My favorite however is the lens flare. This produces a lovely 3d lens flare - yeah and that made sense. It basically looks like a sun, with light effects following off in to the distance of the image.
I would advise that you visit the adobe website to take advantage of percieving the filter functions properly, as theyre not reallt effective in words (you need to see them as an image)
Their website is, if visiting from the UK, www.adobe.co.uk
- Other functions -
You then have view, Window and Help. View will allow you to change the different toolbars that are displayed on the header menu i.e. menu, edit etc.
The window funtion will allow you to open up different windows. For example, the different types of brushes window, the tools menu, the layers menu, the colours menu etc.
The help facility on this is brilliant. Very comprehensive, with a perfectly good search capaibility allowing you to find the exact problem you are having. When I first started using this, the help function really did allow me to progress with the use of the program. It is extremely clear, precise, and easy to comprehend, and even if you dont understand it, their website instructions can be compared to the "-for dummies" book range.
- Final Conclusion -
I have possibly described in too much detail, but I certainly think it was necessary. The funcitons on this program are so flexible, it as if you are painting for real life- but easier, more convenient, and generally better.
If you want to create some really nifty graphics, this is definately the one to use. After a little patience and determination, I am sure you will grow to love it, just like I have
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