CS5: A real improvement over CS4

[Blazing fire]

I would like to share with you this video tutorial that explains 4-5 very useful features found exclusively in CS5 photoshop. I'm sure this tutorial will convince those sceptics that CS5 is without a doubt better than CS4.

I really admire those software engineers. The AI in CS5 is mind boggling... It's truely an engineering masterpiece. How did they manage to create content-aware-fill?

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/photoshop-...-cs5-features/

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks for the heads up on this. Certainly worth looking at.

[carregwen]

Amazing. I don't know how they keep coming up with new stuff. I'm staying on CS4 at the moment as I need a new machine soon, but I'll definitely get CS5.

[arith]

Nothing can compete with it; nothing will do better than a 1D MK IV either unless it costs a quarter of a million, no well not quite that much but still, CS5 might as well be a quarter of a million since I cannot afford it. Just means it would take a miracle for any of my pics to be as good as a professionals where you can not only move a horse say onto a third but make it look more interesting as well.

[Colin Southern]

How did they manage to create content-aware-fill?

I believe they have an algorithm that examines a bunch of random locations and compares what it's come up with to what it thinks is needed.

[rick55]

I upgraded to CS5 in April, taking advantage of one of the "WOW, IT'S NEW" offers. I forget how much the upgrade cost, but it wasn't too bad.

The content-aware fill is probably the single most valuable feature I've found. Where before I'd spend lots of time cloning something, I can now just sweep the spot-healing brush over the area, and 80+% of the time, it will nail it. It really is impressive. It's a huge time-saver.

One of the main reasons I was interested in CS5 was the smart edge detection in the selection tool, and all the tutorials about "selecting hair." I've tried it half a dozen times, with only fair success. It's certainly a time-saver: I can do a good job on a fuzzy boundary in 5 minutes, where before I might spend 20 minutes. But it isn't what the tutorials promise (at least for me): "The Holy Grail." What I want is the individual hairs, and which is actually unrealistic, I imagine, since the background will bleed through the edge of the hair. But maybe someday the software will be able to subtract the background.

Bottom line, I like CS5 a lot, and I'm glad I upgraded. It's not as if I'm doing a lot of things I couldn't do with CS4, but it's a big time-saver.

Cheers,
Rick

[Blazing fire]

Thanks for your input rick55 .

[Davey]

I have been using cs5 for around 2 months but find it is a mixed bag. I only upgraded because work bought it and would have thought about it longer otherwise. I find some improvements like content aware fill nice, most the improvements for me are in Illustrator and a tiny amount but nothing to write home about in Indesign.

All three packages seem slower, much slower despite meeting recommended specs and having dedicated scratch disk. It isn't a show killer but still it is much more noticable and photoshop seems to be the biggest slowdown out of the 3 applications. Also I have had stability issues with a few hangs for a bit and a few crashes although bug fixes over time should bring this in line and I can live with it as isn't too bad but I had zero issues on cs4.

On the plus side I think ACR updates are probably one of the biggest pluses and handiest for photographers who use acr for development, especially for new cameras and it has new noise reduction tools. If someone didn't have cs4 or perhaps cs3 then I'd recommend it, likewise if they really needed a new feature or newest ACR but otherwise if they were happy with their current version then upgrade isn't something I'd jump at immediately but thats just my opinion.

Looking back I could have lived with cs4 photoshop and indesign easy enough but illustrator improvements made my life a lot easier so unwilling to go back for that reason.

[rick55]

Hi, Davey;

I'm interested that you've found CS5 slower. I switched from CS4 to CS5 and didn't see any real difference. I run a fairly old Dell laptop (Latitude E5500), dual core 2.5GHz, with 4GB of RAM, but only 32-bit OS (Win7), so 3.5GB or so usable RAM.

Cheers,
Rick

[Colin Southern]

Hi, Davey;

I'm interested that you've found CS5 slower. I switched from CS4 to CS5 and didn't see any real difference.

I think mine is running a little slower, but either it's got faster as caching kicked in or I've just got used to it ... and I run it on the fastest CPU Intel make* for a PC (i7 Extreme Edition)

* as of a few months ago - I believe they've subsequently released a 6 core with hyperthreading version; mine is "only" 4 core with hyperthreading (8 logical cores).