I have finally upgraded to Photoshop CS3 after hearing so many good things and having another photographer friend telling me over and over again that it is sooo much better than CS2 which is what I have been using.
And it is so much better! With CS3 I found that I really didn’t have to think too much when it came to editing my photos as it pretty much did all the calculations for me. For example, when applying the channel mixer adjustment layer, photoshop already had done the calculations for me! Granted I must admit that the default was a little on the flat side, but all it took was a small tweak and it was all good!
What really amazed me, was how much better camera raw has become! As you can see in the example, I took a pretty average shot at the following settings:
Shutter speed: 1 sec
F-Stop: 5.6
ISO:200
Focal Length: 4.5
White balance: Auto
I opened the image in camera raw and began to play with it. As in the previous version, I was able to tweak the temperature, tint, exposure, brightness and contrast, but now I could also adjust the fill light, recovery, the blacks, clarity and vibrancy of the image. So my so so image of the wonderful Miss Eva, became a gorgeous image of her.
It did make me think that really, you don’t need to know how to take a good photo any more. Bad exposure? Doesn’t matter – photoshop can fix it!
It does make me a little sad as the art of good photography is just going down the toilet. Why do you need to know about exposure, f stops and white balance when photoshop can do it all for you?
My parting words to all the budding photographers out there will be: Still learn the basics as there is only so much photoshop can do for you.
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Sasha has been a photoshop nerd and photographer for over 10 years now. She loves to share information and make the world a more colourful place, perhaps a little photoshop enhanced.