My New Adobe Photoshop CS5 Image Enhancement Mantra…

With some of its advanced tools, CS5 proves to be both a great time saver and a post-processing delight for fine art photographers: masking, motion blur, content aware patterns / rotation, and advanced puppet warp.
Let’s talk about some new videos

Russell Brown Russell has taken my learning to a higher level with 5 videos which detailed steps to become part of my new CS5 mantra. Explanations are clear; video examples let me easily understand and annotate mechanics involved.
Click on each title to step into a new world of tone mapping and image enhancement! Or, check out John Nack’s webpage for more videos…

Advanced Masking: edge detection for hands w Smart Radius. Refine Edge for hair and paint to find edges. Decontaminate colors and make new layer mask.

Advanced Motion Blur Masking: decontaminate colors in white dove wings. Blend results against brick background.

Content-Aware Rotation: Magically fill in missing parts to background of a rotated image with Content-Aware Fill.

I like the way Russell shows advancing stages of intricate steps using CS5. I usually have 2 windows open; the playing video (which I can stop at will) and Notepad (I can document each step for future review). I play the video thru to get flow, then replay to document important advances for my continuing Photoshop learning curve.
May I encourage you to take a look at all the videos – you will love the new stuff!

The Photoshop Guys
The Guys did a summary to their impromptu NAPP webinars from last week’s launch. You can find a downloadable video here or on iTunes. Here are my fav’s…
Refine Edge – masking every day
Plugin Decline – CS5 replaces many older plugins
Lens Correction Filter – camera, body, lens – corrections
HDR Pro – detail, radius, strength, spot removal, remove ghosts (water), base image

I blogged about NAPP’s free webinars (available for 30 days) here. Right click, Save Link As… and you’ve got a copy!

Enjoy…

CS5 Learning Coverage from Adobe TV and NAPP

CS5 Launch
Adobe’s Launch was exciting and Julieanne Kost presented a short 5 minute overview.
You can find some 23 videos from Adobe TV and 17 videos from NAPP.
My interest lies in photography; some of the fancier tools discussed by Adobe won’t enhance my workflow. So while I pay attention to selected videos from Adobe TV, my main emphasis follows… but, you can take a careful look by clicking above.

NAPP Video Teasers
NAPP has designed a series of 3-8 minute videos by Photoshop Guys. Seventeen Video Teasers:
Content Aware Fill-awesome enhancement of remarkable, highly used healing tool – expands hand-held pano
New HDR Pro-finally got some breadth in HDR-2nd live hour suggests ignore presets for HDR Pro – but they do endorse noise reduction in new Pro
HDR Single Image-not so sure (one image lacks quality of many)
Camera Raw Noise Removal-awesome
Camera Raw Process Version-maybe
Refine Selection Edges-enhances Smart Edge Detection, then paints with Touch Up Brush for more definition
Content Aware Healing-spot healing brush does content aware healing now
New Puppet Warp-subtle changes in panos and HDR composites
New Grain Features-maybe
Layer Improvements-paste in place, change opacities of multiple layers, drag images desktop to layer, layer styles, make default applies presets against multiple images
Lens Corrections-no video
Mixer Brush-paint your photos
Mini Bridge-quick manager of images and collections
Bridge Improvements-good for app mixture (eg, writing book w photos)-drag and drop for presets-batch rename (string substitution)-watermark pdf of jpgs
3D Repousse Part 1, 3D Repousse Part 2, 3D Repousse Part 3
As usual, the Photoshop Guys came thru again…

Initially, I expect to use about 70% to speed my workflow. It is quite clear several of these tools will reduce, if not stop, the eye-and-back strain from prior versions. With no hands-on experience yet, I can’t really indicate the full extent – that comes when you’ve played enough. Naturally, your workflow may be different and other tools might just make your day!

I was a bit surprised several NAPP videos would not play today; I suspect they had a heavy server load all day. On the other hand, much of today also faced a Comcast recast of this multi-computer system, so things were a bit rushed.
Enjoy…

Learning About CS5

Monday’s launch of Photoshop CS5 will ignite a tremendous flurry of effort to learn it’s newest tools… it’s an awesomely hot topic!

Googling ‘Photoshop CS5’
Limiting Google to only those two exciting words, I got 1,080,000 hits today. That’s a big deal, if somewhat hard to wade thru…
But, I learn best from reading.
Looking for new books with those key title words, Barnes & Noble has one due July 15. I don’t know the writer. Amazon has a big, fat 0!

If You Can’t Read, What Then?
Adobe’s Launch will cover highlights.
As soon as Adobe’s Launch Event wraps up, Scott and the "Photoshop Guys" (PhotoshopUser and National Association of Photoshop Professionals [NAPP]) will host their first in a week-long series of LIVE webinars. They'll show you some finer points of Photoshop CS5, answer your questions, and give away one free CS5 upgrade daily during their live webcasts!
So ~ this new Learning Center packed with training, overviews, interviews and more is only available to the public for 30 days - before it goes back behind the firewall for NAPP members only.
Watch their video here…

Past launches have been explained in weekly PhotoshopUser TV freebies available on iTunes. I use an iPod Touch for that.

Hackers Delight
Or, you can simply try a tool, look at how its sliders change you image, and teach yourself…
Enjoy…