I had the chance to spend a few days in PEI last weekend and took the opportunity to take a few photos. I was traveling light so I only brought my Canon PowerShot S90 point and shoot camera.

Canon PowerShot S90

A few words on the PowerShot S90; I really like this little camera. While many photographers rave about the Canon Gxx series of cameras, I find that they are compact but not truly pocket cameras as the S90 is.

Here are some of the nice features of the Canon PowerShot S90:

Being a small compact camera it is expectedly not fast enough to shoot action, flash is not powerful, etc.

The only feature that I am disappointed with is the macro focusing abilities which keeps hunting for focus.

Overall I would highly recommend this camera for someone wanting a true pocket camera with advanced features. It won’t give you the photo quality of a DSLR, but because you can carry it in your pocket at all times, it will allow you to get some shots you would otherwise miss! This is the ideal bring everywhere pocket camera for times you are not bringing along your camera bag with DSLR and lenses with you.

Here are a few sample pictures taken with the PowerShot S90 and some Photoshop/ACR processing descriptions. Unless indicated otherwise all photos captured at ISO 80:
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Join the National Association of Photoshop Professionals

NAPP is the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Become a member and you get access to Video Tutorials, Tips & Tricks to expand your Photoshop knowledge. You also get a yearly subscription to Photoshop User Magazine, published 8 times a year, which is packed with essential information related to Photoshop. Your membership also allows you to get discounts on a wide selection of Books, DVDs, Hardware, Software, Training and more.
These are just a few of the advantages of joining NAPP, to join or learn more visit www.photoshopuser.com Register now and get a 15% discount on Adobe products!  Just in time to save on a Photoshop CS5 upgrade.

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

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