Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

[DPNow]

Here is a summary or excerpt from an article that has just been published on DPNow:

DPNow.com has started a BLOG to document experiences and feedback from photographers who have invested in Adobe Creative Suite 4. Contribute your tips and anecdotes too, or learn from others, the choice is yours. This article will be updated over time.

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[Ian]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

Here is a summary or excerpt from an article that has just been published on DPNow:

DPNow.com has started a BLOG to document experiences and feedback from photographers who have invested in Adobe Creative Suite 4. Contribute your tips and anecdotes too, or learn from others, the choice is yours. This article will be updated over time.

More...

Don't forget, if you have something to contribute to the blog, you can do it here

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

Don't forget, if you have something to contribute to the blog, you can do it here

Ian

Well after you guys were praising CS4 I bent the plastic and upgraded.
Reaction, admitted after only an hour, I have wasted my cash.

CS3 runs faster and smoother, I am not keen on the pre-sets which are given preference over the user control.

I cannot get any upgrade for my graphics card there aren't any, my laptop can't even get an image just a black screen, images do show on the layers panel but that is all.
There are probably some fixes to be found, I shall have to investigate.

All in all, not a happy bunny, perhaps after a little more time and the issued mentioned are sorted I may grow to like it.
Patrick

[Pol]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

.... perhaps after a little more time and the issued mentioned are sorted I may grow to like it.

Patrick

CS4 is beginning to get on my nerves too. I'm certainly in no hurry to deactivate and uninstall CS3, which I think I prefer.

I'm not gonna get technical - but I'm not gonna urge peeps to upgrade from CS3 either. Granted CS2 is reputed to be giving some folks problems with installation in Vista but I'm beginning to think they'd be wiser to go for a CS3 upgrade rather than CS4.

CS4 is a pain in the backside and I'm not exactly bowled over with the adjustment panel or those ruddy presets. I could manage just as well, nay easier, with the CS3 layering methods.

There. I've said it.


Pol

[Stephen]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

CS4 is beginning to get on my nerves too. I'm certainly in no hurry to deactivate and uninstall CS3, which I think I prefer.

I'm not gonna get technical - but I'm not gonna urge peeps to upgrade from CS3 either. Granted CS2 is reputed to be giving some folks problems with installation in Vista but I'm beginning to think they'd be wiser to go for a CS3 upgrade rather than CS4.

CS4 is a pain in the backside and I'm not exactly bowled over with the adjustment panel or those ruddy presets. I could manage just as well, nay easier, with the CS3 layering methods.

There. I've said it.


Pol

You guys shudduv bought a Mac

I really have had no such issues. Surely its just a case of getting used to a few extra tools. If you don't like the presets don't use em. Don't have a problem with em personally. For me they can just make like a little easier. As for the adjustment layers, my only moan is that you have to flatten the layers in order to use other tools, but then I suppose you always did, but I never used adjustment layers before

[Patrick]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

CS4 is beginning to get on my nerves too. I'm certainly in no hurry to deactivate and uninstall CS3, which I think I prefer.

I'm not gonna get technical - but I'm not gonna urge peeps to upgrade from CS3 either. Granted CS2 is reputed to be giving some folks problems with installation in Vista but I'm beginning to think they'd be wiser to go for a CS3 upgrade rather than CS4.

CS4 is a pain in the backside and I'm not exactly bowled over with the adjustment panel or those ruddy presets. I could manage just as well, nay easier, with the CS3 layering methods.

There. I've said it.


Pol

Hi Pol

I have managed to get CS4 to show images instead of a black sceen now on the Laptop, but it is still rather slow running.
My PC & Laptop although not cutting edge are none the less reasonably powerful machines both around 18 months old, both dual processor, the PC with 4 gig of RAM the Laptop with 2 gig of RAM.
I haven't spent that much time with CS4 it yet, however I did use the slide show facility in Bridge Tuesday night doing a talk, and it was a little creaky half way through.

Patrick

[Pol]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

Hi Pol

I have managed to get CS4 to show images instead of a black sceen now on the Laptop, but it is still rather slow running.
My PC & Laptop although not cutting edge are none the less reasonably powerful machines both around 18 months old, both dual processor, the PC with 4 gig of RAM the Laptop with 2 gig of RAM.
I haven't spent that much time with CS4 it yet, however I did use the slide show facility in Bridge Tuesday night doing a talk, and it was a little creaky half way through.

Patrick

My PC, which is very new, also very powerful (quad core, NVIDEA geforce 9800GT. 3Gb Ram - all singing and dancing as my eldest son helped me choose it). So there's no problem whatsoever running and using CS4 on there. It just that I don't find CS4 so straightforward to use as CS3.

I'm struggling with the adjustment panel and find myself simply choosing to duplicate a background layer and tweaking adjustments directly onto that - then merging those layers. I know I need to spend more time going through the tutorial videos but I'm getting to the stage where I'm asking myself why the blazes am I bothering when could simply use CS3 and use adjustment layers the simple way. I mean - I wanna be able to click alt/reset if and when I wanna start over with an adjustment.

It's those little things that are beginning to irritate the hell outa me. I suppose I'll just have keep at it and kep cursing until it all falls into place for me (as happened when I upgraded from CS2 to CS3). Maybe I'm just turning into an impatient, grumpy old hag?

I won't be installing CS4 on my laptop, which already has CS3 installed. I usually prefer to keep my spare activation free and available.


Pol

[Pol]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

You guys shudduv bought a Mac

I really have had no such issues. Surely its just a case of getting used to a few extra tools. If you don't like the presets don't use em. Don't have a problem with em personally. For me they can just make like a little easier. As for the adjustment layers, my only moan is that you have to flatten the layers in order to use other tools, but then I suppose you always did, but I never used adjustment layers before

Why would I want a Mac? It's not raining here.

You don't have to flatten all the layers in order to use other tools. You can simply hold down the alt key ( or it's equivalent on a Mac) then click on the tiny arrow/triangle on the layers panel and choose 'merge layers (still holding down the alt key).

That creates a new layer above all the previous layers - the new layer including all the pervious layers yet still leaving them available for you to go back to.

I'm not gonna be beaten by CS4 (yet) though I still find it easier to use the adjustment layers in CS3.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

You don't have to flatten all the layers in order to use other tools. You can simply hold down the alt key ( or it's equivalent on a Mac) then click on the tiny arrow/triangle on the layers panel and choose 'merge layers (still holding down the alt key).

That creates a new layer above all the previous layers - the new layer including all the pervious layers yet still leaving them available for you to go back to.


Pol

Stephen - here's a copy of a link that includes an example of the method for merging yet retaining previous layers as a new layer is created above. The overall 'topic' of the video isn't important - just watch how the new layer gets created above the retained previous layers.

You may have to log in at lynda to watch it - (even on a Mac )

Pol

[Stephen]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

Thanks for that Pol, I hadn't realised thats the way to do it I had infact worked out that I could create a new background layer which allowed me to use the clone tool etc.

Oh btw the Alt key is there on a Mac too, but there is also a Command key as well

[Pol]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

Thanks for that Pol, I hadn't realised thats the way to do it I had infact worked out that I could create a new background layer which allowed me to use the clone tool etc.

Oh btw the Alt key is there on a Mac too, but there is also a Command key as well

A new background layer is ok too but the point about merging previous layers, with a top copy, is that the adjustments of those previous layers get included in the new top copy - whereas the backgroud layer is just a copy of the original.

You can do likewise in CS3.

Pol

[Stephen]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

Why would I want a Mac? It's not raining here.

You don't have to flatten all the layers in order to use other tools. You can simply hold down the alt key ( or it's equivalent on a Mac) then click on the tiny arrow/triangle on the layers panel and choose 'merge layers (still holding down the alt key).

That creates a new layer above all the previous layers - the new layer including all the pervious layers yet still leaving them available for you to go back to.

I'm not gonna be beaten by CS4 (yet) though I still find it easier to use the adjustment layers in CS3.

Pol

Alt + Merge Visible did the trick, thanks Pol

[Patrick]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

It would appear unless I'm doing something wrong that its no longer possible to load more than one image from Bridge in one go.
With CS3 I often selected 10 or even 20 images and they would load one after the other, it dousn't seem to work in CS4. So far I seem to be coming across what were easy options that are now more involved for no good reason.
Far from being more intuitive CS4 seems to me to be fare and away less so.
If I find more of this sort of thing I think I might de-register and ask for my money back.
I don't think I have ever felt so aggrieved about an Adobe product or any software for that matter.

Patrick

[Pol]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

It would appear unless I'm doing something wrong that its no longer possible to load more than one image from Bridge in one go.
With CS3 I often selected 10 or even 20 images and they would load one after the other, it dousn't seem to work in CS4. So far I seem to be coming across what were easy options that are now more involved for no good reason.
Far from being more intuitive CS4 seems to me to be fare and away less so.
If I find more of this sort of thing I think I might de-register and ask for my money back.
I don't think I have ever felt so aggrieved about an Adobe product or any software for that matter.

Patrick

I agree wholeheartedly that CS4 isn't anywhere near as intuitive as CS3. No doubt about that!

I've had no problems opening several files at once using the usual method, by holding down ctrl+ shift, as I selected the images I wanted to open.

The tabs of the files are automatically placed in a line along the top of PS4, which is an arrangement I don't especially like. So I go to the 'arrange documents icon (top toolbar of PS) and usually select another arrangent (my preference is often for 'floating windows' - to get the normal view of images piled one on top of the other.

You can also simply drag the file tab from the line along the top then it into the main body of the PS interface. That turns it into a floating window

It took me a day or two to suss those things - another annoyance I finally sussed it.

Hope that helps.

Pol

[Ian]

Re: Adobe CS4 discovery BLOG

It would appear unless I'm doing something wrong that its no longer possible to load more than one image from Bridge in one go.
With CS3 I often selected 10 or even 20 images and they would load one after the other, it dousn't seem to work in CS4. So far I seem to be coming across what were easy options that are now more involved for no good reason.
Far from being more intuitive CS4 seems to me to be fare and away less so.
If I find more of this sort of thing I think I might de-register and ask for my money back.
I don't think I have ever felt so aggrieved about an Adobe product or any software for that matter.

Patrick

Do you mean RAW or JPEGs? I can certainly open multiple selected JPEG file from Bridge into PS CS4 Just done it.

Ian