Adobe Photoshop CS3 Review
by Theresa A. Husarik
Dateline: July 2008

With the release of Photoshop CS3 (AKA Photoshop 10), we are now faced with a choice as the software comes in two flavors: Regular Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended. The Extended version contains everything in the regular version and also gives us the opportunity to play with video, 3D and scientific applications. Since photographers generally are not likely to be interested in these features, this review will cover just what is new in the main program.

Registered owners of the CS2 version were offered a public beta version of CS3 to play with and provide feedback before the official release. So many people had the chance to see it before the rest of the world did.

As with previous versions, you get 1 user license, but you can install it on 2 machines (useful if you have a home office as well as a traveling office), and you must "activate" the software before use.

Cost:

• Photoshop CS3 -- full version = $649, upgrade = $199
• Photoshop CS3 Extended -- full version = $999, upgrade = $349

Interface Changes

The first thing you are going to see is a slightly altered interface. The mail toolbox is a single column (but you can change it to two columns if you want by clicking the double arrows at the top of the column.

You will notice the ImageReady launch button is no longer on the main toolbox. That is because ImageReady is no longer integrated with Photoshop (it is still a product, though.) Some of the functionality in Illustrator was moved to the Extended version.

Another change is that Quick Mask is now a toggle instead of two buttons.

The palettes are now called panels and they show up in a single column, too. You can customize your panels into groups of your favorites (this is also called "docking" them). You can change the size of the panels and also change the fonts for the text (under General Preferences, change the UI font). After playing with this docking and collapsing of panels for a few minutes, it's coolness became clear. Play with it yourself and get your workspace just how you want it.

The Options Bar (just under the menu) now includes a button for opening Bridge (which I'll discuss below) and one for opening Workspace. As you play with the panel placement and get it to your exact specifications, you can save it as a workspace and recover it under this Workspace button. You can also go back to the default (in case you made some changes you don't like and can't figure out how to fix) by selecting the default workspace.

Bridge

Bridge now opens in a separate window and is more stable and less cumbersome than its predecessor.

There is still a button for Adobe Stock Photos, however, as of April 2008, that feature is no longer available. If you really want to get rid of the button, you have to download the uninstaller, shut down Photoshop and run the patch.

The default interface might not be what you are used to or interested in, but that's okay, because it is also highly customizable. Move things around (click and drag tabs), get rid of others (Window -> and uncheck each panel you are not interested in) and come up with what works for your workflow. You can also easily change the size of the thumbnails by moving the slider bar at the bottom right of the window.

You'll notice that I like a very simple workspace, but that is just me. I have closed most of the information windows so there is maximum space for looking at the thumbnails and previewing a specific image. But you can keep as many of the windows open that is right for you.

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I also discovered that by moving the cursor around in the image, you get a small window with a magnified area. This lets you closely examine a section of the image without blowing up the whole thing.

Tonal Correction Tools

The Curves tool has a few new features. The dialogue box now has a histogram behind the curve, and the grid lines are now solid gray so it is easier on the eyes.

You can change how the tool re-maps tones as you modify the curve: tonal brightness is the default but you can also specify ink percentages. While this sounds cool, I am not sure most people will use it.

When you edit curves for individual channels, those changes show up overlaying the main curve.

The Load and Save buttons have disappeared, but have been replaced with preset buttons accessible by hitting the icon just to the left of the "OK" button.

The Brightness/Contrast tool has been modified and now works the way we thought it would from the get go: The Brightness slider adjusts the white point to brighten or darken the image in a more even amount, and the Contrast slider either increases or decreases contrast in your image without completely blowing things out.

The following example will show how the original version of the tool and the new version differ widely.

Original picture. Could stand to be lightened a bit.	Original version of the tool, with Brightness set at 50 and Contrast set at 40. Really blown out. Even small adjustments went too far too fast.	CS3 version of the tool with the same settings. The tool is much more usable now and the same settings look good.

While more experienced users will still turn to Levels or Curves for more intricate adjustments, some minor fixes may , benefit from this tool. And, beginners may find this easier to work with than the other tools.

A new tool, Black and White Conversion is accessed by going to Image -> Adjust -> Black and White and looks a lot like the channel mixer, but it behaves differently. Where the Channel Mixer adjusts the amounts of the red, green, and blue components in your mix, Black and White adjusts the actual colors in the image.

In other words, when you move the green slider in the Channel Mixer, the green components of all of the colors in the image are adjusted. In the Black and White Conversion tool, when you move the green slider only the actual green colors are affected.

And, you don't actually have to move the sliders at all. You can just point the cursor to a section of the image and drag to brighten or darken them. Or use one of the many presets (for things like Red Filter, Yellow Filter or even Infrared) that give a better starting point than you got with black and white filters in the previous versions.

This tool can be used as an adjustment layer and settings can be saved for subsequent loading.

Selection Tools

A new Quick Selection Tool sounds great, but I'm not so sure it is better than the old (and still present) magic wand. You simply click and drag (like painting) to select what you want and then refine the edges later.

There is a new option, to "Refine Edges" that is available to all selection tools. Once you have made a selection, you can do things like expand or contract, feather, or increase the contrast at the edges to further refine.

The Refine Edges option is also available in the Select Menu item.

Editing and Compositing

Auto Align Layers:
This tool (Edit -> Auto Align Layers) will automatically align layers based on common elements. So, when you are compositing and you bring a new layer in, using auto align will snap the images based on lines. This is a great tool for using techniques like sandwiching an image shot for the highlights and one shot for the shadows and combining into one perfectly exposed shot. This is best used with images shot in succession and with a tripod. It is also great for compositing several images that you are combining into a panoramic.

For the example below, I drug the lighter picture over the darker one, "selected" both layers and then did Edit -> AutoAlign. to align the edges. Then I simply erased the blown out highlights to get the third picture.

Note: If you don't have more than one layer "selected" the Edit -> Auto Align Layers will be "grayed out--unavailable.)

Image exposed for the highlights with no detail in the shadows.	Image exposed for the shadows with blown out highlights.	Put the two as separate layers in the same document, use auto-align layers then erase and voila.

Clone Source Palette:
Clone Source (Window -> Clone Source) is a new option for the clone tool. You can pick up to 5 separate clone source points and have them stored in the palette. The ability to have multiple sources at your fingertips without actually having to have 5 images open (or, in the case of retouching, without having to reselect every time you move to a different area of the picture) is a big time saver.

Smart Objects
Filters can now be applied nondestructively -- like adjustments with adjustment layers. You can apply multiple filters and change their stacking order (or change the parameters even after they have been applied to the image) for different effects without touching the underlying image. To set this up, go to Layers -> Smart Objects -> Convert to Smart Object and in the layers palette, you will get what looks like an adjustment layer that you can then apply filters to and then manipulate those filters.

Printing Interface

The print dialogue box has been remodeled and now is a combination of the older print and print preview dialogues. You can select color management, resize the image preview, and view changes when you choose different rendering settings and printer profiles.

Camera Raw 4

I was excited to see the improvements to the Camera Raw processing as I am one who shoots in this format. In the early days of Camera Raw, Photoshop's built in processor was lacking and I along with many colleagues looked to 3rd party applications. But Camera Raw 4 has me hooked and in fact, many people regard this processor as the best raw-image processor available.

This version works with both Photoshop and Bridge, (that is, you don't have to go into Bridge to use it) and you can do batch raw processing (by creating an action to do so).

This version comes with two new tools: a Red-eye tool and Retouch tool lets you perform simple clone and spot healing touch ups. And it contains a lot more tonal, lighting and color correction tools. You will find yourself doing most of your correction work while still in RAW mode.

Eight tabs contain these new tools as well as the ones that existed in previous versions:

Basic: This tab contains those sliders you are familiar with from previous versions, with a couple of additions. One I love is the Recovery slider which brings detail back into the brightest tones in your image without darkening the whole image. Another is Fill Light which acts like the Shadow slider in the Shadow/Highlight adjustment in Photoshop. And the new Vibrance acts as a saturation adjustment that only affects certain tones.

Tone Curve: This tool doesn't add anything new, but using it is a little easier.

Detail: Again, nothing new here, but the basic sharpening and noise reduction controls are stored here.

HSL / Grayscale: You can easily convert to grayscale with the click of a box and then use 8 color sliders (like a channel mixer) to fine tune it.

Split Toning: This tab lets you adjust hue saturation in either highlights or shadow areas.

Lens Corrections: Nothing new here, but the chromatic aberration and vignetting controls are here.

Camera Calibration: No changes here, either.

Presets: You can save versions of an entire Camera Raw setup and recover for later use by naming them in Presets.

Miscellaneous Changes

There are a ton of other smaller things, some you as a photographer will like and some you won't use. Here are a few of them:

• Increased (or not) performance. CS3 is supposedly a bit faster than CS2 (especially on the MAC), but there have been some comments that that is not the case. Your mileage will vary.
• A free gift upon registration. You are offered the choice between a new font, 30 days membership at Lynda.com or discounts off the Classroom in a Book series.
• A bonus tutorial CD is also included.
• Improved 32-bit Support: a 32-bit image can contain layers, layer masks, several types of adjustment layers.
• Photomerge is dramatically improved and there are fewer occurrances of artifacts.
• Vanishing Point (which lets you edit and paste in graphics in perspective) now comes with multiple angles.
• For those doing web design, Zoomifywill create an HTML page and multiple slices of a high res image.

One Last Thing

I was disappointed to see that image preview (in WIndows anyway) isn't fixed. If I select (in Windows) a thumbnail view, some of the files with a .psd extension show up as black, damaged, or with the blue PS icon.