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CS4?? Photoshop?
Up until this point I have used Coral and even though it is the weakest of weak, it has got me along to this point. I just got CS4 Photoshop, and want to hear any of you have to say and have used of it. Any positive/negative tips you have, and any suggestions would be appreciated. Kevin May 20 09 09:14 pm Link CS4 has some glitches but overall its a GREAT program i love it, i have spent hours and hours practicing on it with everything i can get my hands on...check out youtube tutorials and any other tutorials you can find... and have fun its a great tool May 20 09 09:16 pm Link Ive been looking into getting the upgrade, im still using cs3. From what I have read they are pretty similar. For you coming in from coral it will obviously take some getting used to. There is lots of resources out there to help teach yourself, but at least from my experience it takes lots of practice just like anything else  Although at the end of the day once you got a grasp on it, it will provide endless possibility's and you will be better off using it. May 20 09 09:18 pm Link I knew practice would be the best key, but as far as computer what will it need? I have the lame ass of lame ass computers now and I know I need more. What at a minimum do I need with everything from hard drive, to Ram, to everything? May 20 09 09:50 pm Link I like CS4 extended for the capability with working with 3D model files CS4 and CS3 are both great. Try either one, both offer promising results if you use it correctly.  May 20 09 09:54 pm Link That will all depend on mainly the image size your working with I have a duel core AMD and 3 gigs of ram with vista and Im looking to upgrade. If im working with say 1meg or lower size images I never have an issue at all, but with like 2meg+ massive images I will get a little slow down with some tools I use. Its not a deal breaker, but annoys me. May 20 09 09:57 pm Link Yeah, I am looking to upgrade my computer right now as well as the body of my camera. I am getting the 50D which has HUGE pics and with how much space the CS4 takes up...I think my computer now would blow up. You think 7gigs of ram and 500gigs of hard drive is enough? May 21 09 08:54 am Link i shoot raw and try to do as much as possible in lightroom and only when there's some facial retouching beyond simple blemish removal do i hand the photo off to my partner who finishes up in photoshop for things like eye/teeth whitening and wrinkle softening (she has the patience to use the brush tool). sometimes we'll replace the background (like if the sky is blown) but that sort of thing can be time-consuming. you can get actions for photoshop like those from kubota http://www.kubotaimagetools.com/ i'm liking smart objects. you can make a frame in illustrator and then bring that into photoshop as a smart object so it can more easily be re-sized and re-edited. for our typical shoots (senior portraits, family reunions) we can't justify spending an hour on each photo so we try to keep the retouching to about 15 minutes and we only retouch selects, not every photo from a shoot. i imagine that over time you will be able to do more and more right inside lightroom. May 21 09 09:11 am Link The Misfit wrote: well keep in mind that with vista home premium the most it will make use of or at least the most that will show up is 3gigs, i think you can put up to 4. You need vista 64 to get up to 8gigs of ram, and yes that would probably be more than enough, or you can get a mac if you got the cash May 21 09 09:17 am Link i use an iMac 24" for my photo work. it's a great setup the only thing is you have to be careful because the mac runs brighter than windows (at least with the default gamma setting) so you can wind up with somewhat dark web site images if you're not careful. Lunarimaging wrote: May 21 09 11:30 am Link I have vista 64 running CS4 and get alot more crashes than I ever have under CS3. There's also a learning curve to get used to the new CS4. Overall, I wouldnt recommend upgrading. May 21 09 11:58 am Link CS4 is fantastic. Since you're adjusting from another program, I recommend that you pick up a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop by Schewe & Evening. I reviewed the book for the publisher and of five or six titles I've reviewed on the subject, that one the one that actually stayed on my reference shelf afterward. Buy it here May 22 09 05:40 pm Link I recommend that you don't buy a new computer until Windows 7 is released. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ The beta version is getting really good reviews...7 is kind of a stripped down version of Vista, not nearly as much of a resource hog. I run CS2 on the Vista platform with 4gig ram...smooth and fast...no problems. May 22 09 05:53 pm Link Bruce Hart wrote: I just got a 24" iMac...love it May 22 09 06:50 pm Link Lunarimaging wrote: AMD sucks and so is Vista. Switch to Intel and stick with XP Pro. May 24 09 08:13 pm Link trust me you will not be disappointed Jun 07 09 09:16 pm Link I wanted to---but working with large files regularly, I couldn't wait for Windows 7 and opted for a new machine running Vista Ultimate 64, which works great on a PC workstation platform. CS4 hums along smoothly running eight cores and 32 Gigs of RAM. CS3 and the old machine running 4Gigs of RAM couldn't handle the large files----CS4 running 64 bit is wonderful. Some plug-ins (such as Nik Software) won't work with 64 bit, which is a minor inconvenience, but not difficult to run 32 bit CS4 since it is included in the CS4 installation. Jun 07 09 09:23 pm Link RetouchMiami wrote: I hope its not much of a learning curve I am in the middle of downloading it now. Jun 07 09 09:38 pm Link i recently got a quadcore with 4 gb ram, blazing fast, i am so happy, never buy a duocore, you will be disappointed. Jun 08 09 05:22 am Link pros and cons are a relative matter, photoshop is better than no photoshop so i will compare the cs3 to cs4 pro cs4 vs cs3: cool 'adjustment layer' shortcut menu a larger brush in the liquify filter (a big plus especially when dealing with 21 MP files) cons: in the shortcut menue you can only add layers that will be underneath any layers that are already open- so you constantly have to adjust the location of the new layer cs4 is much slower than cs3 it wont keep the image at the center when zooming in or out, so you constantly have to adjust the location of the image on the screen i really dont like the organization of open files in cs4 therefore i use cs3, better, faster, stronger Jun 08 09 08:36 am Link To me adobe photoshop beats any and every photo editing software. keep in mind that's my personal opinion. I havent played with CS4 yet but from the pro's and con's its a def upgrade. Jun 08 09 08:45 am Link I have CS4 and honestly it seems SLOWER than CS3, even though it says it takes advantage of your graphics card GPU (I have TWO GTX 8800's in SLI) and was choppy. It seems to open every file maximized into tabs, very annoying and I couldn't find a way to turn this off. The only cool thing I liked was the ability to rotate the whole canvas on the fly..NICE..but not enough to make me switch yet. You can handle 3d files just fine in CS3 but I guess thats for people who don't have another 3d software, which would be much easier to manipulate and render..Maya 8.5 Jun 08 09 12:37 pm Link The Misfit wrote: Lunarimaging wrote: I just got a new 24" iMac for $1300. Jun 08 09 12:58 pm Link Trouble is you can't run any photoshop older than CS3 on the new computers because they are all 64 bit now  I'm happy with my CS1 but when i upgrade my comp i'm gonna have to shell out mad cash! Jun 08 09 10:51 pm Link MacLeod Designs wrote: LOL OMG!! CS4 HAS NO GLITCHES!! NONE WHATSOEVER! Jun 08 09 10:55 pm Link RetouchMiami wrote: Get an i7 proc and more ram and a better GPU and it will not crash! If you ay you have these specs already, you are lying, it will NOT crash. i7 procs are incredible, spend the extra money for better workflow. Jun 08 09 10:58 pm Link i have adobe photoshop cs4 - i love it - its 100x better than cs3 imho - the only thing i dont like is the fonts menu - how it screws up scrolling through them (on mac at least) - but mac's have font issues anyways as a computer/operating system. get it - well worth. student discount from a school/campus is best if you decide to buy it Jun 08 09 10:58 pm Link CS2 here, just recently moved from 7. Jun 08 09 11:02 pm Link ok we use all adobe CS4 products for our edits..... Intel i-7 2.6ghrtz Proc ( Vista Ultimate 64bit ) 12gigs of DDR3 RAM ATI 4870 GPU 320 gig Raptor drive (10,000 RPM ) This machine cost us around $1,200.00 USD to put together. So far NO glitches, NO crashes after 6months. Very fast and extremely smooth. I recommend that if anyone who wants and needs CS4 to work as it should, you need to spend money on a better PC as CS4 requires it to function properly. Jun 08 09 11:07 pm Link Spark-Star Retouching wrote: Agreed, without a shadow of a doubt. Photoshop beats any other software for retouching. Jun 08 09 11:54 pm Link If you are new to Adobe software in general then be prepared for a bit of a learning curve. Corel is a decent program but I switched to Adobe PS7 because of the performance over corel when Apple launched OS9 and I haven't looked back since. I honestly think that the current Adobe suites have surpassed the competition in terms of creative power and utility but a thorough understanding and a creative mind are essential. There really isn't anything you can't do with the Adobe creative suites. I'm currently using CS4 and I can honestly vouch for its smoother interface (most notably in Bridge) and a good speed bump on common chores such as batch image sizing and actions. However, for those of you who haven't upgraded to CS4, my advice is to WAIT as CS5 is within months of release. If you absolutely cannot wait, then I might suggest tracking down a college student as the academic version of the Master collection of CS4 can be had for ~$500 US. Keep in mind that this is the academic version so upgrades are out of the question but Adobe has been pretty good about the quality and usability of academic versions. Jun 09 09 12:14 am Link I actually liked CS2 better than CS3 due to stability issues, but CS4 went a ong way in fixing those issues. (espcially with Win 64bit...) CS4 is much easier to suggest than CS3, IMHO. M Jun 09 09 12:18 am Link 49th ST Photography wrote: hey kevin Jun 09 09 10:22 am Link I have my old trusty Photoshop 7 it does it all except have my babies. Jun 09 09 10:25 am Link Firelick Photography wrote: Correct me if I am wrong but I think Vista has a 32 bit compatibility mode that will allow older versions of CS to run. Jun 09 09 10:27 am Link |
