Ps Cs4

[Pol]

I'm starting a new thread in here, regarding the CS4 update, rather than continue cluttering up Ian's 'Waiting for the Storm' thread.

Just to say I found the actions palette, thank goodness. I was looking for it in the 'view' options instead of the 'windows' options. No excuses, I'm senile.

For Stephen or anyone else who might be on the CS4 learning curve ... If you go online then open the programme help files you can access some very good tutorial videos directly from the Adobe website.

I'm definitely starting to love this upgrade! Stuff my old actions - the ACR adjustment tools and methods are mind blowing (well they are when the likes of Scott Kelby is doing the demo anyway).

How are you getting on with yours, Stephen? Is it very different to LR or are the CS4 ACR tools and functions more or less the same as LR?


Pol

[Ian]

Re: Ps Cs4

First comment - thank goodness resized views of one's image are properly anti-aliased, so there are no nasty jaggies any more. It's also great to have hardware accelerated manipulation of the images, so you get smooth zooming in and out, plus smooth real time rotations. With the Extended version you also get 3D mapping, which is neat, but I guess of limited value to a typical photographer.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Ps Cs4

Pol you beat me to it with this thread, infact I've asked Ian about starting a dedicated board for CS4 related stuff. I've not had as much chance to play with it as you today, and have just got back in from a shopping jaunt so that a couple of hours gone

Anyway the first thing that really struck me about the new interface was the Adjustment Layers palette. I have to confess that with previous versions I had always been lazy and not used layers, but now it seems they have made it much easier. I however struggled to use the clone and heal tool whilst using adjustment layers and ended up flattening the layers in order to use them, not sure if this is right.

I managed to run my first image through CS4 which is below and I used 4 adjustment layers for various tasks......so much easier than before. Anyway much more to discover and play with later, and I'll be reporting back in due course

[Ian]

Re: Ps Cs4

Pol you beat me to it with this thread, infact I've asked Ian about starting a dedicated board for CS4 related stuff. I've not had as much chance to play with it as you today, and have just got back in from a shopping jaunt so that a couple of hours gone

Anyway the first thing that really struck me about the new interface was the Adjustment Layers palette. I have to confess that with previous versions I had always been layers and not used layers, but now it seems they have made it much easier. I however struggle to use the clone and heal tool whilst using adjustment layers and ended up flattening the layers in order to use them, not sure if this is right.

I managed to run my first image through CS4 which is below and I used 4 adjustment layers for various tasks......so much easier than before. Anyway much more to discover and play with later, and I'll be reporting back in due course

I've moved this thread to the Photoshop Permutations board which was set up some time ago. I wonder if we really need a separate CS4 board; but if I'm in the minority we can easily create one.

Your pic, Stephen, it's very rich (nice!) - though I'm tempted to ask if a polariser was used as I know you tend to avoid the use of polarisers these days.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Ps Cs4

I've moved this thread to the Photoshop Permutations board which was set up some time ago. I wonder if we really need a separate CS4 board; but if I'm in the minority we can easily create one.

Your pic, Stephen, it's very rich (nice!) - though I'm tempted to ask if a polariser was used as I know you tend to avoid the use of polarisers these days.

Ian

No polariser fell out with them for skies and landscapes, though they have a place for reducing reflection etc. The richness you refer to is intentional and I've been experimenting with a few of the controls in ACR this is more than just increasing saturation. If you haven't used LR2 for raw conversion much, you are gonna love the new controls in CS4

[Ian]

Re: Ps Cs4

No polariser fell out with them for skies and landscapes, though they have a place for reducing reflection etc. The richness you refer to is intentional and I've been experimenting with a few of the controls in ACR this is more than just increasing saturation. If you haven't used LR2 for raw conversion much, you are gonna love the new controls in CS4

I only mentioned it because there is a steadily increasing gradient of darkness into the top left corner of the frame

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Ps Cs4

I only mentioned it because there is a steadily increasing gradient of darkness into the top left corner of the frame

Ian

Ah, this is also due to using a vignette to darken the corners. In this instance it does tend to create the effect of a porariser

[Autumn]

Re: Ps Cs4

No polariser fell out with them for skies and landscapes, though they have a place for reducing reflection etc. The richness you refer to is intentional and I've been experimenting with a few of the controls in ACR this is more than just increasing saturation. If you haven't used LR2 for raw conversion much, you are gonna love the new controls in CS4

I also see that you have used a softer frame and I think it looks good.

It's funny how we all crop. I would have been tempted to letter box this picture and dismissed the left hand top cloud.

I can't really get the measure of it by just scrolling down as without the frame on the top it does not work. It may not work anyway, but it is just how I would have tried it.

[Pol]

Re: Ps Cs4

I only mentioned it because there is a steadily increasing gradient of darkness into the top left corner of the frame

Ian

If you think Stephen sky has an increasing gradient in one corner - the capabilities and possibilities of the gradient tool in CS4 ACR's gonna blow yer mind.

I'd just typed out a long posting, went to check for a couple of links I wanted to include then I accidentally closed the browser window and lost the entire friggin post. I'll set about doing it again later - assuming I haven't gone cross-eyed.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Ps Cs4

Pol you beat me to it with this thread, infact I've asked Ian about starting a dedicated board for CS4 related stuff. I've not had as much chance to play with it as you today, and have just got back in from a shopping jaunt so that a couple of hours gone

Anyway the first thing that really struck me about the new interface was the Adjustment Layers palette. I have to confess that with previous versions I had always been lazy and not used layers, but now it seems they have made it much easier. I however struggled to use the clone and heal tool whilst using adjustment layers and ended up flattening the layers in order to use them, not sure if this is right.

I managed to run my first image through CS4 which is below and I used 4 adjustment layers for various tasks......so much easier than before. Anyway much more to discover and play with later, and I'll be reporting back in due course

I've always enjoyed the old methods of working with layers so I was slightly confused by and wary of the new adjusments palette. I'm pleased to report that you can still do it the old way, though the new adjustment tools are amazing so I'm practising with those atm.

I'm still playing with the adjustment and layer mask tools and trying to build up more confidence with the layer masks as I was never much use with those.

There's a very nice Adobe/lynda tutorial video about adjustments on the Adobe website and you can see it if you click HERE I must've looked at this one at least half a dozen time - clever or what, eh!

The Adobe website CS4 "Learn Photoshop CS4" link is HERE and that'll take you to loads of other videos.

Stephen - perhaps you need to reduce the feathering of the clone and heal tool if you're using them in ACR? You can also turn the clone and heal previews on and off as you go so that you can see what's happening. I think you might find the ACR adjustment tool has the default feathering set at 100% so you'd need to reduce that feathering. I can't remember the exact details as I only just discovered the way that works about an hour ago.

Check out the Adobe videos - they're excellent. I'm discovering all sorts of useful little icons and what they're for, thanks to those videos.

Pol

[rogleale]

Re: Ps Cs4

I have to chip in here because nobody has mentioned the bonus gifts available when you register your copy of CS4. Undoubtedly the best is the 30 days of CS4 training from Lynda.com. It is a total of around 8 hours instruction split up into short videos, and having 30 days to use it means that it is very easy to return to any one video as revision.
Jan Kabili is an excellent instructor, clear and concise. This course is probably worth the update cost on its own for some of us!

Roger

[Stephen]

Re: Ps Cs4

I have to chip in here because nobody has mentioned the bonus gifts available when you register your copy of CS4. Undoubtedly the best is the 30 days of CS4 training from Lynda.com. It is a total of around 8 hours instruction split up into short videos, and having 30 days to use it means that it is very easy to return to any one video as revision.
Jan Kabili is an excellent instructor, clear and concise. This course is probably worth the update cost on its own for some of us!

Roger

Well I have registered my copy twice now and have not received the link to access the freebies, let alone Lynda.com

[Pol]

Re: Ps Cs4

I have to chip in here because nobody has mentioned the bonus gifts available when you register your copy of CS4. Undoubtedly the best is the 30 days of CS4 training from Lynda.com. It is a total of around 8 hours instruction split up into short videos, and having 30 days to use it means that it is very easy to return to any one video as revision.
Jan Kabili is an excellent instructor, clear and concise. This course is probably worth the update cost on its own for some of us!

Roger

Thanks for that. I'd wondered why there didn't seem to be any freebies to choose from on the installation disc. I haven't registered my upgrade yet but I'll be a very happy bunny if I can get the lynda.com video access when I do!

I've already dug out my old username and password so I'll probably subscribe to lynda.com for a month or two anyway if the 30 day offer doesn't show up. I agree wholeheartedly that the lynda training videos are second to none. There are all sort of tips and trick, small icons and shortcuts that would take forever to discover without those superb videos.

My plan for today is to look through the training disc that came with the upgrade.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Ps Cs4

Well I have registered my copy twice now and have not received the link to access the freebies, let alone Lynda.com

I'll let you know what happens when I get around to registering my own copy.

Those 'Learning CS4' videos on the Adobe website are ideal and many of them are hosted by lynda.com anyway so I imagine the more basic and essential ones will eventually be available to non-subscribers who visit Lynda. There are always a few free one for visitors.

Subscribers have access to loads more, including some very detailed techniques that you'd probably never be able to suss for yourself. If all else fails you can sign up there and take out a short subscription - it's approx $25 per month and you can always reactivate your subscription later if you just sign up for a couple of months or whatever.

Here's the link for the current CS4 video lists on there atm.

The ones in bold print are freely available to non-subscribers and they're about the same as the ones on the Adobe training site.

Pol

[Pol]

Registration benefits

An update just to let you know that I've now registered my copy of CS4 (via the registration window within the proggie). I've also got the free 30 days at lynda.com, which I'll activate later today or tomorrow.

Stephen - when you register your product you should receive an email shortly afterwards. That email should contain a list from which you can choose one of the offers. The lynda.com offer is about half way down the list.

Be very careful to check your spam filters! Even though I already allow and receive Adobe emails, the email with the offers found its way into my spam filter! I always check my various spam filters before I delete anything from them so I got mine ok.

I hope yours is sitting safely somewhere too, Stephen.

Regarding the training video that comes in the PS CS4 box. I looked at that this morning and it only has the same video I linked to yesterday - the adjustment video where the fella's tie colour is changed. There's also a link to the Adobe online 'Learning CS4' videos - ie the other link I posted yesterday.

So it seems the Adobe site and lynda.com are the places to go at the moment. I think I might also treat myself to another month or two after my 30 days have expired.

BTW - 'The Russell Brown Show' is usually a very good site for tutorials, especially after you have a good grasp of the software. Sorry I don't have the bookmark available atm but you should find it ok by Googling. I find him to be a tad too 'wordy' for my own tastes (and slowish connections) but his videos are nevertheless top-notch.

Pol