CS3 Arrived Today

[Django]

After seeing some of the great PP work around here from Stuart and many others on this forum I realized it was time to get my head into PP. I just installed C3 a few hours ago and grabbed a older favorite pic of my daughter to practice on. Thanks Woody for your tutorials. Any suggestion are greatly appreciated! Thanks.....Ted B

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[RonS]

I really like it myself.

My only comment is "save early and often". I crash way more than I should. Both Bridge and CS3 have issues.

I never had this sort of a problem with CS2.

I am confident that Adobe will fix the problems.

 

[Ottrott's Human]

Wow.....you spent money in part because of me.....cool!:wink:

I haven't had any crash issues with CS3.....in fact I absolutely love it and find aspects of it to be greatly improved over CS2; especially in light of the fact that I run Intel based Macs.

Of course keep in mind that for what I use it for I barely scratch the surface of its abilities so I'm no expert.

This is a cool photo.....I remember seeing it before. I would suggest less blur on your daughter's skin though. It looks a little strong here. I adhere to the rule (learned from Woody) that if the pre-blur skin work (heal and clone) is done properly....and there should be very little needed for kids.....then a blur layer opacity of no more than 20% should be just about right.

What a gorgeous guitar. Love that bear claw spruce top. Is that Adirondack or Sitka?:smile:

Your daughter is lucky to have an heirloom piece like that in the family and you're lucky to have such a pretty daughter!:wink:

 

[j_b_l]

Ted, don't start spending money because of Stuart...

I'll second Stu's recommendation about going lighter on the skin smoothing...your daughter is beautiful, but the effect is a little much for me. The one thing that Woody does recommend is cloning to begin with...I would clone that small mark on her forehead...it drew my eye immediately.

Beautiful guitar...if you can get a compliment from Stu on guitars, you know you've got something!

 

[Django]

I really like it myself.

My only comment is "save early and often". I crash way more than I should. Both Bridge and CS3 have issues.

I never had this sort of a problem with CS2.

I am confident that Adobe will fix the problems.

Thanks Ron,
So far so good. It has been running very well on my machine.

This is a cool photo.....I remember seeing it before. I would suggest less blur on your daughter's skin though. It looks a little strong here. I adhere to the rule (learned from Woody) that if the pre-blur skin work (heal and clone) is done properly....and there should be very little needed for kids.....then a blur layer opacity of no more than 20% should be just about right.

What a gorgeous guitar. Love that bear claw spruce top. Is that Adirondack or Sitka?:smile:

Thanks Stuart,
That would be old growth european bearclaw spruce on the Walker.

Ted, don't start spending money because of Stuart...

I'll second Stu's recommendation about going lighter on the skin smoothing...your daughter is beautiful, but the effect is a little much for me. The one thing that Woody does recommend is cloning to begin with...I would clone that small mark on her forehead...it drew my eye immediately.

Beautiful guitar...if you can get a compliment from Stu on guitars, you know you've got something!

Thanks,
This will be a big learning curve for me.

CS3 is great, I love it.
Great shot & PP work!

Thanks!

Here is another one I have been playing with.

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[Seneca]

Have you ever used CS3? Man it's great, if you understand it...I on the other hand, am having a little trouble with it.

 

[Django]

Have you ever used CS3? Man it's great, if you understand it...I on the other hand, am having a little trouble with it.

Seneca,
No this is my first evening with CS3. I was using Paint Shop Pro XI which does have a similar layout. Ted B

 

[Steve S]

Nice work, cute child and gorgeous guitar! I have tried CS3 yet, still using CS2, but my son has taught me to make good use of the History palette. (Having dual monitors is a huge bonus too). At any time, you can go back to a previous state by just clicking on it. Very handy when doing multiple steps. Also, you will want to go into Edit/Prefs/General tab, and change the default history states of 20 to 99. (it only seems to take 2 digits).
Now, my opinion on the 2nd pic. It seems to have a slight orange color cast, nothing bad, but still noticable. That's usually caused from underexposure, (but can sometimes be a WB issue too). Would suggest either a slight bump in Exp Comp, or a touch more fill flash. Bringing up the right side slider in Levels did seem to help it's appearance.

 

[Ottrott's Human]

.....Also, you will want to go into Edit/Prefs/General tab, and change the default history states of 20 to 99. (it only seems to take 2 digits).

Whoa.......huge tip on increasing the history state from default of 20 to 99. I didn't know you could do that. That would have saved my bacon many, many times in the past. Thanks Steve!

 

[Django]

Nice work, cute child and gorgeous guitar! I have tried CS3 yet, still using CS2, but my son has taught me to make good use of the History palette. (Having dual monitors is a huge bonus too). At any time, you can go back to a previous state by just clicking on it. Very handy when doing multiple steps. Also, you will want to go into Edit/Prefs/General tab, and change the default history states of 20 to 99. (it only seems to take 2 digits).
Now, my opinion on the 2nd pic. It seems to have a slight orange color cast, nothing bad, but still noticable. That's usually caused from underexposure, (but can sometimes be a WB issue too). Would suggest either a slight bump in Exp Comp, or a touch more fill flash. Bringing up the right side slider in Levels did seem to help it's appearance.

Thanks for the tips Steve!
Another stab at a older photo I found on my hard drive.

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[Haibane]

maybe its just me, but all your images look way too red and I just adjusted my computer 2 days ago

 

[Kiwi Geoff]

maybe its just me, but all your images look way too red and I just adjusted my computer 2 days ago

Agree with the above and I would lighten up on the softening too, looks a bit "fake" - or maybe it's because we are upside down down here and I have to stand on my head to see it the right way up!!!:biggrin:

 

[Django]

maybe its just me, but all your images look way too red and I just adjusted my computer 2 days ago

Thanks for looking and commenting,
Yes I agree. These were shot several months ago. I remember struggling with WB back then :frown: I have been using the expo disc lately having much better results.

Agree with the above and I would lighten up on the softening too, looks a bit "fake" - or maybe it's because we are upside down down here and I have to stand on my head to see it the right way up!!!:biggrin:

Thanks
I can see I need a lot of trial and error to perfect this.....Ted B

 

[j_b_l]

Ted, I like this perspective...kind of different...lighting is great...very even and flattering.

But ditto on the reds...a little too saturated...maybe dial down saturation a bit and see if it helps..

 

[Django]

Ted, I like this perspective...kind of different...lighting is great...very even and flattering.

But ditto on the reds...a little too saturated...maybe dial down saturation a bit and see if it helps..

Thanks John,
I pulled the saturation down-15 and a -4 on the red channel.

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[nuccifamily]

Very nice photos and the adjustment above is a much-improved version. A lot less red.... looks nice.

 

[srwatters]

All I can say is CS3 is rock solid on my Mac Pro and a welcomed relief from running CS2 in Rosetta emulation mode. Camera Raw 4.0 is simply to die for. I'll be running the Fors scripts tonight with both the D200 and S5 files to set up my calibrations. Not that I expect a difference between CS2 and CS3, but I think you'll find skin tones are far more accurate after calibration.

Well worth the $159 I paid for the upgrade (pre-sale at the Apple Store Online).