Photoshop CS2 Anyone?

[mcampos]

Hello,

Is anyone using CS2 already? If so what's your feeling about the upgrade, are the new features enough to make it worthwhile?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[Chris101]

I just (in the last half hour) installed it. The first thing I noticed that I don't like is that 'Bridge' the file browser application, does not flag files with a simple flag. Now it does 'label' files, and I can make labels work like I did Flags, but my work flow used the Flag capability with every shoot I processed.

On the other (things I liked) hand, the curves inside the new ACR is wonderful. Well, at least on first try. I processed three files I had previously converted with the old ACR (2.4) and the resultant files from CS2's ACR (... 3.0?) are finished after conversion. I can go directly to Print, or resize, sharpen and Save for Web without any interveening PS steps.

So now I'm gonna go and work some more images, and try to build back my Raw workflow. By the way, lots of stuff is moved around, and it doesn't automatically get all the old actions and scripts from PSCS.

 

[gho]

I've been using it for 4 days now. I like it. Bridge works like I expected. My only gripe is it's a bit pokey.

 

[JeffKohn]

I like the Bridge, to me it seems faster than the CS file browser plus it doesn't take as long to load as Photoshop does. Lots of new enhancements in Camera Raw, after getting used to it I think it will definitely make for a more efficient workflow. My only complaint is the "Auto" feature keeps enabling itself for the Adjust sliders, and the results it produces are pretty poor so I have to hit Ctrl+U and then dial in my own settings.

Photoshop CS2 itself doesn't offer too much over the previous version IMHO; in fact it probably wouldn't be worth the upgrade to me if I wasn't a heavy Camera Raw user. The Spot-Healing brush saves you the trouble of an Alt+Click, big deal. The new red-eye removal tool failed miserably on the few images I tried it on, I much prefer the control offered by the Color Replacement Tool. Things like smart objects or the warp and vanishing point tools might be of interest to some, but I can't for the life of me imagine ever wanting to use them. 16-bit editing support has been expanded a bit more (particularly the blur filters), and the merge to HDR functionality might be interesting, but outside of Camera Raw and the Bridge, I think the improvements are incremental and fairly modest compared to CS.

 

[Chris101]

... I have to hit Ctrl+U and then dial in my own settings ...

If you just move a slider, the 'auto box' unchecks itself.

 

[Beezle]

My upgrade copy arrived today.

I doubt I will open it until the D2X RAW ACR thing is worked out.

:evil:

 

[JeffKohn]

If you just move a slider, the 'auto box' unchecks itself.

Hadn't noticed that. But I think Ctrl+U will work better for me because, adjusting the Exposure slider when the Brightness slider has an Auto setting that's way high it's more difficult to judge the results. I'd rather start with everything at my chosen camera defaults before adjusting. I just find it annoying that there doesn't seem to be a way to disable this permanently because it can make it difficult to judge the initial exposure, etc of a shot since the auto settings can be pretty drastic in some cases.