Top of the new features list and a previewed sneak peek that got a lot of Photographers and retouchers salivating in advance is the new Content-Aware Fill. No longer is it necessary to dab away at pesky unwanted objects. This new and improved feature of the Spot Healing brush automatically removes image elements with details that match the lighting, tone and noise of the surrounding area. And we’re not talking skin flaws, dinky dust bunnies or even the odd bit of litter here and there, we mean pretty huge objects and areas. Sure, zoom in and interrogate Photoshop’s doings and it’s never going to be absolutely perfect, but it’s a pretty impressive addition and a great time-saver, even if for just giving you a head start.
Improved Edge Selection
This may not be a biggy to those who’ve already invested in a reliable plug-in such as Fluid Mask or Mask Pro (thinking about it… what are those guys going to do now their market has been snatched away from them?) but CS5 sees big improvements to the Refine Edge feature and, in particular, its Edge Detection capabilities. There’s nothing particularly radical here other than it’s a native feature, it’s reliable and it does the job.
Speaking of old, trusty plug-ins, the same goes for the new HDR Pro feature. Rather than auto stack and combine multiple exposures, however, Photoshop CS5 now offers users more control over the HDR merging process. HDR can either be fairly subtle or highly surreal and as well as greater control over the image output HDR Pro also gives users the chance to save style presets for quick fixes once you’ve found an effect that suits you.
Mixer Brush and Bristle Tips
There’s always been a gap in the Creative Suite for decent painting tools, and with Corel pinching part of the digital artist market with its successful Painter program it really was missing a trick for a long time. Now though, with the new Mixer Brush and a Bristle Tips feature it’s possible to blend colors, much like Painter. As well as allowing painters the ability to control the wetness of canvas colors, load and mixing rates it’s also possible to determine whether the brush is refilled or cleaned after each painting stroke.
Another feature previewed before the main launch, Puppet Warp gives users the opportunity to push and pull elements within an image. More impressive is the fact you can define a stacking order of different pin markers. Adobe Evangelist, Russell Brown’s Sneak Peak is definitely worth taking a look at to see how this feature could be used constructively.
Booster features
Of course, there are plenty more features introduced to Photoshop CS5 that should provide improved workflow tools to photographers and designers alike., including:
The introduction of Adobe Raw 6 plug-in
Automated lens correction (custom profiles for correcting lens distortion)
3D extrusions with Adobe Repoussé (Photoshop CS5 Extended only)
Improved 3D realism and rich materials (Photoshop CS5 Extended only)
Better black-and-white photo conversion
Mini Adobe Bridge for use in-program
A special mention should also go to the fact both Photoshop CS5 and CS5 Extended now offer cross-platform 64-bit native support.
Size: 1.67 GB
