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The big news this year is the new version of Photoshop, CS2, of course,
but Adobe isn’t the only one at work to make our digital darkroom work
better, more efficient and easier. Corel has put its own touches to the
venerable Paint Shop Pro, offering a fresh version that keeps all the
old features, but puts them in a photographer-friendly interface, while
Microsoft has made significant upgrades to its Digital Image program.
The busy folks at nik Multimedia continue to put out superb plug-in
programs for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, introducing a great new
version for its sharpening software. Digital Film Tools upgraded its
55mm plug-in with more useful features, and Kodak’s Austin Development
Center (ADC) has made upgrades to all of its plug-ins. I’ve used them
all, so here’s an overview of each program.
Adobe Photoshop CS2
Adobe Photoshop CS2 is part of a well-integrated suite of programs that
includes Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2 and more. This integration shows
up immediately in the program’s new browser, Adobe Bridge, a
stand-alone program that allows you to view, organize, rename, edit and
sort images and files from any of the CS programs. Plus, you can view
images full-screen in a special slideshow that allows you to tag files
as you go for sorting and editing.
Camera Raw has been upgraded in this version of Photoshop and now
offers a Tone Curve (which is the same as Curves in Photoshop), a much
better control of contrast and midtones than what the original Camera
Raw offered. You also can crop within Camera Raw (non-destructively),
process multiple files at once and even synchronize specific
adjustments over several files.
There are a few terrific manipulation tools added to CS2: Vanishing
Point and Warp. In the Vanishing Point filter, you can create a
perspective grid that influences how cloning is applied or elements are
added to a photo; for example, if you clone a window from the front of
a building to its back, the window will automatically change to fit the
perspective change from the front to the back of the building. Warp
allows a great deal of flexibility in warping an image to fit a coffee
cup, for example (I used it to give the “print” shape in “The Better
Print,” PCPhoto, October 2005).
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