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Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended
by wonkybox
I've been using Photoshop for a number of years both commercially and for my own pleasure, and have used CS5 for two commercial projects so far and numerous personal endeavours.
Photoshop has long been the exception to the industry-standard software rule, being a pleasure to use and not merely the standard because it has the ... most dominant publisher or had the most money thrown at it. Sadly Adobe still know that there's no real competition, and the package remains almost prohibitively expensive.
CS5 doesn't make any dramatic changes to the concept of the package, or change the work environment much, but there are some nice little additions that make life easier.
Given the nature of the stuff I do I haven't fiddled with all the new bits, but I'll review the ones I have used.
Straighten image. - This is quite useful if you have a diagonal element in your image and you want to warp it so it looks orthogonal. Using the rulers that surround the main work environment window you can drag lines into your image that will create constraints for the distortion of the image. It works very intuitively and I only needed to try it a few times without reading the manual to work out the basics.
HDR Toning. - You could already simulate HDR in previous versions of photoshop using multiple layers set to overlay with varying levels of gaussian blur, but now there's a special tool to simulate this in the Image menu. Using this you can control the HDR effect through slider bars to get a great image.
Mixer Brush. - This is a fantastic tool to use in conjunction with a drawing tablet, you can define two colours and paint with them simultaneously. You can also select different brush shapes to change the way the colours mix together. I've used this while painting along to a Bob Ross video and it really helps simulate traditional oil painting techniques.
RAW files. - The cameras that all the professionals seem to be using these days save their data as RAW files. These are massive files with a huge chromatic range. Not only can you open them in CS5 but you can fiddle about with them in the RAW plugin, altering the colour range much in the same way the existing colour balance options work. Photographers and clients can be very funny about exact colour matching, and RAW files help out with this with their greater range.
The RAW files were my main reason for upgrading to CS5 - if I'm going to continue scoring work I have to be able to interpret and manage these types of files.
64 Bit. - CS5 is a 64-bit application which means it can process information through several cores instead of just one so tasks can be completed faster. I don't always push the package to its absolute limit so it's hard for me to judge this one, but there seems to be fewer times when Photoshop is playing catchup when I've performed a paticularly taxing operation.
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Adobe Photoshop CS4
by jennikitten
Photoshop has been an industry-standard graphics editing program for as long as I can remember. It's kind of like the iPhone of the software industry...although there are no 'killers' that come anywhere close to being as good.
Photoshop, despite its name, isn't just for photos. You can do practically any kind of image ... creation and editing in it, which is one of the reasons for its hefty price tag. CS4 isn't the latest version; the current version is CS5, and the release cycle is every 18 months or so. At the moment you can buy Photoshop CS4 from Amazon for £475, with CS5 clocking in at a hefty £700. This isn't a 'I'll give it a go and see what I think' kind of purchase (trials are available if you're looking for that), but a professional grade editing and creation tool. If you're on a budget, then Photoshop Elements is pretty amazing for the much cheaper price of around £50 (even the people at Adobe say that this is an absolute bargain, considering).
To get the cheapest legal copy of Photoshop that you can, find somewhere that offers student discount (and get a student if you need one!) and then make sure you upgrade in the small window between versions where they offer existing customers a much cheaper upgrade.
Unless you're a designer or a web creative, you're probably going to be underwhelmed when you open up the software. Adobe CS4 has stricter piracy procedures in place than previous versions, and will check to see if it's a legitimate version every time you open the software. This does add valuable seconds to the start up time, and unless you have a plenty of RAM, you'll probably want to minimise the other programs you have open whilst you're running Photoshop, especially if you're working with high resolution images.
Once loaded, you'll get a grey screen with toolbars on the left and right, and a row of menus above. CS4 has a kind of built in tabbing effect, which means when you open or create images, they'll appear next to each other and you just click the tabs to navigate between them, or close them or save them as you wish.
Each version of Photoshop builds on the previous version, which means that a lot of features stay the same or have minor additions, and then you have a series of new features on top of that. This is great for people who work with different versions of the software or are upgrading from an earlier version as it means you don't have to 'relearn' the software and the placement of the tools from scratch. There are plenty of books available on learning Photoshop, and plenty of videos and written tutorials available for free online too. The best thing you can do though, is just familiarise yourself with the program on your own. Simply open a photo or other image and play around with all the effects on offer. Once you have an understanding of how you can adjust your images, and use layers and masks, then you can move on to more complicated effects. All you really need is a lot of time and some patience. I'd recommend avoiding some of the amazing examples of things you do can with Photoshop (particularly advanced tutorials) as you'll quickly feel frustrated and out of your depth.
Some examples of tools (and consequent effects) include:
- The crop tool - A basic tool to make your images smaller and remove bits. This tool is found in all image editing programs, and even things like MS Word.
- The selection tool - You can select text, parts of images and whole images with this to do things like remove backgrounds from images, create borders, and copy and paste images.
- Various text effects - You can do things like make your text 3D, add shadows, add different colours, create textured text and much more.
- Colour picker - Using this dropper you can identify the exact name/number of a specific colour within your image so you can use it elsewhere.
- Grid tool - Use this to align different layers on an image, to position things accurately, find dead centre of an image and so on.
One of the things I love about Photoshop is that there are so many things you can add to it. There are plenty of brushes you can download from the internet to give you lots of design shortcuts. You can use all the fonts on your computer in your images. You can also make use of patterns and textures to add to your images.
Photoshop supports a huge range of file types, so you can save your images as the standard .gif, .jpg, .png, and hundreds more. The only one I've ever missed is .ico, as Photoshop CS4 doesn't support that particular format.
There are plenty of cheap and free alternatives to Photoshop, but anyone who says they are 'just as good' clearly hasn't used (or needed to use) Photoshop to its full potential. It's got a hefty price tag but there's nothing quite like it. If you're a light user try Elements first because it's so much cheaper, but if you're a designer or a photographer then Photoshop is essential, and CS4 is a great option because it has almost the same functionality as CS5 for a lot less money.
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Adobe After Effects CS5
by TheReviewGuy
After effects CS5 may be a bit on the expensive side for some enthusiast filmakers, but it is essential if you are working with effects. The program isn't focused at editing, but effects and compositing. Large movie studios use this program to achieve some of the results that are on the big screen. Easy and advanced compositing let you ... add explosions, smoke, debris and more fast and easy. After effects comes with a library of effects and presets. There are already hundreds of plug-ins to mess around with. You can generate effects in After Effects too including rain and lens flares. There is also 3D options to allow you to 3D composite and work with CG. The possibilities with After Effects are endless and there is always another way of getting round something, meaning you will get the perfect result you wanted.
At first, it may be a bit daunting. When you get used to the interface and how it works though, you'll be fine.
A lot of the features however require keyboard shortcuts to bring them up. The shortcuts are always relevant to the feature however, like the rotation tools shortcut is "R". After effects includes every keyboard shortcut in the help tab though. You can edit on After Effects, though be warned that the program is not meant for it. The sound options are fantastic too and you can achieve fantastic results with audio, even though the program is not meant for that either. After Effects requires good computer specs though. When running normaly or previewing your video, it takes up 1GB of RAM. When rendering, it takes up over 2GB RAM.
There are hundreds of render options. There are also simple effects and transitions that you can add to your video. You can slow and speed clips up, and fade them in and out. The 3D options are great and allow you to do very powerful compositions. The installation is pretty quick and easy. You can download a free trial of the software off the Adobe website to see if you like it. A great piece of software that is an essential for a filmaker working with effects.
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