Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Photoshop CS [OLD VERSION]

I have been using Photoshop since version 4.0, and to be honest, I still use 4.0 for some of my task. But, I have always made a leap to newer versions of Photoshop because of the new enhanced tools they offer to the user experience. Photoshop CS version 8 to me, is more of a Workgroup application, because basically thats where you will see and take advantage of the new features it has to offer. For users who might have made the sacrifice and bought a copy of Photoshop; 5, 6 or 7 for the first time, because they just wanted a strong, true professional image editing application, upgrading to this version will see no benefits.

However people who work in a commercial environment and depend on other applications such as Illustrator, Indesign and GoLive will benefit more because of the tight integration they share with each other. When these tools work together, features such as version cue which is only a part of the Creative Suite sold separately users will be able to manage different versions of content created by different users over a network.

Photoshop CS also has some new relief features for editing text easier than ever before and also for typing text on a path. The File Browser is even more productive, you can use the Photo-Merge to create panoramas,the file browser also allows you to create Web Photo Gallerys and Picture Packages. But Photoshop continues to be a tool that offers expert image editing with tools such as the Healing Brush introduced in Photoshop 7. Photoshop CS also introduces the Camera Raw Plugin as a built in part of the application (Photoshop 7 users can acquire this plugin for an extra $100), the plug-in offers support for working with images at 16-bit resolution. You can also turn images into PDF Presentations and Photoshop CS gives users a History of actions done on any work in the application.

I continue to stress that for a first time user, Photoshop is not a application to get a hang of easy, it is recommended you buy a book that teaches you from the ground up, where you can get the basic understanding of how Photoshop works. Its also best to go to a lesson class in Graphic Art and Digital Imaging where you can learn in a more interactive environment and get a much deeper knowledge and gain more experience in using the application more effectively and efficiently.

For users who want some of the power of Photoshop CS but much cheaper, Photoshop Elements is an excellent choice that offers great value for its features and ease of use in comparison to Photoshop CS. So, for persons such as Digital Photographers, Graphic Artist, Design Shops, Ad Agencies with designers within a workgroup environment, Photoshop CS is a worthy upgrade. But,if you are serious about digital imaging and editing and need a robust tool that can take your images to new heights both old and new then this is the one. But if you are fixing a wrinkle, brightness or two in a photo, stick with your present copy of Photoshop or purchase Photoshop Elements, to put it simple enough, Photoshop CS depends on your work ethics, which means meeting deadlines, in a workgroup, working with other Creative Suite applications such as Illustrator CS, Indesign CS and GoLive CS.

Photoshop CS (forget the numbers from this point on, think "CS") comes back with an improved File Browser, with very nice features such as the ability for users to add keywords to the files, PhotoMerge (which will allow you to seamlessly put together two or more pictures that were shot "side by side" as in a landscape picture of a city, for instance), and a number of great features that will make the application friendlier to photographers.

Among the photographers' goodies comes embedded support for the Camera Raw file format (previously only available through a paid plug-in) and MatchColor to allow you to apply the color of one image to another. Those that scan multiple prints at once are up for a great surprise: the Cop and Straighten feature which does just that... as unbelievable as it sounds, it crops all the scanned pictures and rotate them so as to make them perfectly straight, eliminating the guesswork and the rework from this tedious process.

Once again, for image processing there just is no better option (considering it comes bundled with Image Ready as usual, Macromedia Fireworks' direct competition). Photoshop has something in it for all, designers and photographers.

The review average for Photoshop CS is at 3 stars, don't let that fool you, it is a beautiful product. I downloaded the generous demo two days ago, and it enhanced my workflow so much that I immediately brought it. I live at an FPO-AP address hopefully my new CS will get here before my demo runs out.

I am a Graphic Design student/photo hobbyist. As far as my design workflow I haven't made use of any of the new features YET. I am sure that the layer comps and typeing on a path will be useful when I start doing that.

As far as photgraphy PCS has been a boon. The new Photoshop enables me to load RAW images directly from my Canon 10D into Photoshop. I can correct exposure and white balance discrepenices ( of which there are many )much faster then the imaging processor that came with the camera. Once that is done I can further correct my photos in 16 bits rather then 8 bits. The new Photoshop allows the use of layers and various other image alterations in this mode. This is hell on my processor and hard drive because every file size is doubled, but when I print a 16 bit photo out, it is so worth it.

Thats what sold me on the new PS. I am also very attracted to the intergration with the other Adobe products.

In conclusion I think that Adobe Photoshop CS is a must grade.

I am lucky enough to use this software at no cost because I am taking a Multimedia class in school, the follow-up to my Digital Imaging Class I took last year. This is my first year using CS, last year we used Version 5.5. I enjoy working with this program because there is endless possibilities to create anything you so desire, of course you'd have to be familiar with the program and fairly advanced. I've tried many other Digital imaging programs and so far I'm sticking to my Adobe Photoshop CS

This is an amazing program if you know how to use its power. For an amature just looking to touch up his photos, this may seem like a confusing and expensive program. But if you take some time to learn how it works, try some things and ask around for advice from experenced people, in no time you can have enough skill to really make this worth the money. Any negative things you hear about Photoshop are from people who probably never used it before, this is not comparable to any other image software i've ever used it's just way ahead of them. If you're looking for something that will give you amazing results and tons of customization this is a worthwile buy. You get lots of features unique to photoshop, new and old, some of which are really obvious, some you have to be experenced with the old photoshop to be able to admire. Definetly upgrade if you already own Photoshop, and you should definetly look at it if you're interested in a top notch profesional product. If your a casual digital photographer and all you want to do is crop and touch up, I would suggest something else. Personally, I'm satisfied compleatly.