Review of Adobe's Photoshop CS2
Adobe Photoshop CS2 has been considered the premier image editing program for many years now. Now it works closer than ever with Illustrator CS2 to blur the lines between raster and vector images.
The system requirements are:
Windows
- Because Photoshop CS2 uses only one correction parameter, compared to three in Panorama Tools, it is less accurate.
- Jan 10, 2013 Responding to requests from film, broadcast and video professionals, Photoshop CS2 now allows non-destructive editing and the creation and editing of 32-Bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, ideal.
- Intel® Xeon™, Xeon Dual, Intel Centrino™, or Pentium® III or 4 processor
- Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, or Windows XP with Service Pack 1 or 2
- 320MB of RAM (384MB recommended)
- 650MB of available hard-disk space
- 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card
- CD-ROM drive
- Internet or phone connection required for product activation
Macintosh
- PowerPC® G3, G4, or G5 processor
- Mac OS X v.10.2.8 through v.10.4 (10.3.4 through 10.4 recommended)
- 320MB of RAM (384MB recommended)
- 750MB of available hard-disk space
- 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card
- CD-ROM drive
- Internet or phone connection required for product activation
Warp is a new command found under Edit>Transform>Warp. Bloodcaster mac os. Warping can be accomplished manually or through a series of options.
Smart Sharpen is a new sharpening feature. Rather than just an Unsharp mask, Smart Sharpen works on different types of blurs such as lens, motion, as well as the standard Gaussian. One also can manipulate the tonal quality of shadows and highlights and also control the fading in those areas. It also works on minimizing haloing. I tried a few different types of pictures - one with possible lens blur and one with motion blur. I did not find this Smart Sharpen filter to do much better that the Unsharp mask when used normally. These examples below were tested using the Gaussian blur setting. The controls were kept at: amount =100, radius=1 and, in Unsharp Mask, threshold=0. The image is blown up to 221%
However, when I needed to sharpen just the white lettering on a dark background, it worked very well. When I chose to sharpen the highlights only, I could adjust the dials so that I removed the halos around the letters. I could not do this with the Unsharp Mask.
Two new tools accessed from the left tool bar are the spot healing brush and the red eye correction tool.
The new Optical Lens Correction filter can be found under Filters>Distort and it is basically the reverse of some of the filters in that category. It reverses barreling and pincushioning. It also gives the added options of correcting vignetting, chromatic aberrations, and much more. This filter can also be used to create some nice effects even if there are no problems with the image. I created distortion as well as vignetting in the image below.
Photoshop CS 2 introduces the ability to create and edit 32-bit High Dynamic Range images by combining shots of the same image where either the shadows or highlights have been clipped. I tried, but the pictures I thought would work did not have enough dynamic range.
In each new version of Photoshop, Adobe has added new enhancements to the digital camera area. The cameras supported are always listed in the Adobe forum, and this list is always expanding. Some of the new features for digital camera in CS2 are: