Photoshop CS5

Photoshop CS5 has officially been released today – April 12, 2010. It wasn’t a big secret, bits and pieces of the new features were available all over the web since the pre-announcement during the Orlando PhotoshopWorld in March.

According to many, this is one of the most significant Photoshop releases in terms of new and enhanced features in years.

Here is a list of new/enhanced features of interest to photographers compared Photoshop CS4.   All listed features are based on Photoshop CS5 (does not include Photoshop CS5 Extended features)

New in Photoshop CS5

• Additive grain in Adobe Camera Raw (Who knew we needed to add grain to our photos!  Give your photos the film look)
• Automatic lens correction (Will automatically make corrections based on some pre-defined Camera/Lens combinations that is extracted from your photo’s MetaData.)
• Straighten Image tool
• Truer Edge selection technology (You won’t have to pull your hair anymore when making selection that includes hair, fur or other fine details)
• Color decontamination for selections (Part of new selection tool, will de-fringe colors that can show up at the edges of objects once removed from their background)
• Selection and mask refinement tools
• Content-Aware Fill/Healing (Deleted foreground elements in a photo automatically filled based on background.  With the right type of photo can be a huge time saver.  Healing brush also has content-aware options which looks like a great improvement for healing around well defined edges)
• Puppet Warp (Allows movement of parts of a photo without having to worry about the background. Kind of allows a precise warp without distortions.)
• New Adobe Camera Raw processing engine.  (Get better results when converting your old Raw files.  Icon indicates when image can be re-processed with new 2010 engine)

Enhanced in Photoshop CS5

• Noise removal in Adobe Camera Raw (Looks like a major improvement in noise reduction.  Scott Kelby calls this enhancement, one of the biggest stars in CS5! )
• HDR imaging (No need for Photomatix Pro anymore!  Can I get my money back?  Also included is a single image HDR Toning feature.  No need for Topaz Adjust either!)
• B&W conversion
• Post-crop vignetting (Added options to protect Highlights or Color, and better overall control)

References:
As always, to get great information on Photoshop, head over to the NAPP website. They have 17 videos at their free CS5 Learning Center
www.photoshopuser.com/cs5

Get a list of What’s new in Photoshop CS5 for photographers at Adobe.com

Feature comparison chart between Photoshop CS3, CS4 and CS5 at Adobe.com

Videos from AdobeTV on Photoshop CS5

Terry White’s Top 5 Photoshop CS5 Features (9:13 min)

Photoshop CS5 Content Aware Fill (1:36 min)

Protect Detail in Photoshop CS5 (0:37 sec)

Automated Lens Correction in Photoshop CS5 (1:39 min)

Next Generation 32-bit HDR Imaging in Photoshop CS5 (3:24 min)

Complex Selections Made Easy in Photoshop CS5 (2:17 min)

Note: funny that all demos originating from Adobe no mater who does them, they all use the same photos to demonstrate the features.  I hope the feature work as well on other photos!!