Adobe Suite CS4 announced; reasons to upgrade?

[TRSmith]

Re: Adobe Suite CS4 announced

I just received and loaded the CS4 upgrade. Since I'm in the middle of several client projects using the apps in CS3, I decided to just load Photoshop for now. With only a few minutes in, it feels like a nice upgrade. I very much like the new adjustment layers arrangement. It seems a lot cleaner and it's a welcome change to not have those dialog boxes pop up directly over your image every time you add an adjustment.

So, it's here and now the fun/work begins to learn all its new capabilities. Coupled with the new C1 software, I am once again starting the learning curve towards the bottom. Yeehaw!

 

[simonclivehughes]

Re: Adobe Suite CS4 announced

I suspect with Adobe holding us over the barrel with no further updates to ACR version 4 engine (4.6 is the last) that many of us will eventually have to update to get new camera support in ACR (version 5.1 and up). This is a really poor move on their part for anyone content with what CS3 offers IMHO.

Having just bought a new LX3, I guess I'm going to be forced to move to CS4 to get RAW support. Arrgh!

(Lightroom 2 users already have the ACR version 5 engine.)

Cheers,

 

[TRSmith]

Re: Adobe Suite CS4 announced

I agree that CS3 was pretty darn fine and can understand anyone who wouldn't want to have to shell out the bucks for the CS4 upgrade.

My own philosophy (and I consider myself lucky to be able to follow it) is to always stay current with the latest software versions. Sometimes the changes are incremental and sometimes they're monumental. The investment in time and money has been worth it for me since I have always learned something new and improved my product in the process of upgrading.

Or maybe it's an indication of how boring I've become that I get excited by a software release.

 

[Jack]

Re: Adobe Suite CS4 announced

I dunno... Playing around with it and while nothing earth-shattering new outside of the content aware scaling, the package does contain a lot of nice refinements, especially for adjustment layers and masking... The improvements to photomerge are also impressive, so if you use adjustment layers and masks, and create the occasional stitch, then IMO this is well worth the upgrade.

My .02,

 

[Jack]

Re: Adobe Suite CS4 announced

Okay, finding more reasons to upgrade LOLOLOLOL!!!

* We now have focus blending directly in CS4 -- find it under Edit > Auto-Blend Layers :thumbs:

* Dodge and Burn HUGELY improved! It now protects tones (finally!). No more need to do selective D&B on a layer via masks. You can now for example do a quick dodge of bags under eyes or burn a hot forehead directly.

* Intelligent tool keys: Say you are using the brush tool and make an error. Before you went back in history and eliminated that step or swapped to the eraser, corrected the error and swapped back to the brush --- usually all for some minor error. Now all you have to do is press and hold the E key and the eraser pops up, make your correction let go of the E key and you are back to the brush. Sweet

* Graphics is greatly improved. I had heard that CS4 utilized the GPU more efficiently, but wasn't sure what the real benefit would be on an already fast system. Well, it's pretty big! Screen performance is notably improved on both my laptop and desktop machines; zooms are faster and so smooth as to be seamless, and re-draws are almost instant.

More as I find it!

 

[Jack]

Re: Adobe Suite CS4 announced

I posted these shots in another thread to demonstrate the new "Content Aware Scaling." Not sure how much I'll use this, but for sure it will be beneficial to all of you who shoot to a specific layout.

Basically, CAS figures out what elements are important and should not be scaled if you alter the aspect ratio of an image. So you can now squeeze a rectangular capture to square, and not distort the key elements as they are automatically recognized and protected. Here is a simple example with a recent landscape shot, original, then squeezed. Note that this took like 3 seconds, whereas before it would have been at least 15 or 20 minutes of masking, transforming and blending to get a result probably not anywhere near as good. (Advanced note: This tool used an automatically-generated mask for the protected areas, but you can edit the protective mask or create your own to control exactly what you want protected! :thumbs I used only the auto mask for this example:

 

[Jonathon Delacour]

I'm about to upgrade from Photoshop CS3 to CS4 and am not sure which version I should choose: the standard Photoshop CS4 (AU$299) or CS4 Extended (AU$525)?

I've looked at the feature comparison chart and can't see anything compelling (the Extended version seems to be of most use for animation or 3D rendering). But I'm wondering if there's something (worth $226) that I'm missing.

Is anyone using a CS4 Extended feature that they regard as absolutely essential? (I already have Nik's Viveza, Dfine, and Sharpener Pro.)

 

[Jack]

The main thing extended gives you is enhanced scientific and 3-D functionality. For most 2-D imaging work, the standard version should be fine. IIRC, you can also upgrade your std version to extended at a later date.

 

[LJL]

I have the Extended version in CS3 (as part of a larger suite). Honestly, I have not really noticed if there is that much difference, unless, as Jack points out, you are into animation graphics, 3D stuff and medical rendering type things associated with that. The Adobe descriptions and comparisons between products is a bit lacking. Unless you have used the Extended features in your work with CS3, it may not be worth the extra costs on the CS4 upgrade. I was not sure if the things like the CAS Jack demoed here were in the regular or Extended version at first.

LJ

P.S. There may be more filters and effects available, as that does seem to be a thing in CS3, but I thought Adobe was going to address that part. On some of the CS3 stuff, it is also 16-bit in the Extended version, where as it was either not accessible or was an 8-bit filter in the regular version. Would be nice if there was a bit more detail available to compare.

 

[Jonathon Delacour]

The main thing extended gives you is enhanced scientific and 3-D functionality. For most 2-D imaging work, the standard version should be fine. IIRC, you can also upgrade your std version to extended at a later date.

The Adobe descriptions and comparisons between products is a bit lacking. Unless you have used the Extended features in your work with CS3, it may not be worth the extra costs on the CS4 upgrade. I was not sure if the things like the CAS Jack demoed here were in the regular or Extended version at first.

Thanks guys. I realize now that I was looking at the wrong feature comparison chart (which compared Extended CS4 with Extended CS3). There's a much more useful chart that compares Standard CS4 and Extended CS4 here.

All the really useful stuff for 2D imaging (including content-aware scaling, enhanced auto-blending of images, and extended depth of field) is available in the standard version so I'll get that.

Thanks also for the content-aware scaling demo, Jack. That's extremely impressive.

 

[Cecil]

Hey all, I just joined the site so forgive me for being kind of clutzy early on. This has probably been asked, and I have not scanned all the posts yet...so first Mia Culpa...I am currently using PS CS3 and wanted to know if CS3 will allow me to upgrade to CS4 Extended and take advantage of an upgrade price? Thanks in advance. I am really glad that I found this site. I am a freelance photographer and concentrate mostly on PhotoArt using PS. If I have posted this inappropriately (place and process), please direct me on the game rules...I take direction well...
Cecil

 

[Jack]

Hi Cecil and welcome!

As I understand it, you have one upgrade path from CS3 std to CS4 std, then a second upgrade path from CS4 std to CS4 extended. So bottom line is you can buy CS4 extended via upgrade paths from CS3 for less than what the full new retail cost of CS4 extended would be.

 

[Cecil]

Thanks Jack, at least it will be some savings.

 

[Jonathon Delacour]

As I understand it, you have one upgrade path from CS3 std to CS4 std, then a second upgrade path from CS4 std to CS4 extended. So bottom line is you can buy CS4 extended via upgrade paths from CS3 for less than what the full new retail cost of CS4 extended would be.

Jack, perhaps the Adobe store in Australia does it differently, though I can't imagine why that would be so. But when you click to purchase Photoshop CS4 Extended, then choose Upgrade rather than Full, a Version menu shows three options:
* UPG from Photoshop Elements
* UPG from Photoshop CS, CS2, CS3
* UPG from Photoshop Extended CS3.

So (down here, at least) it's a straight upgrade to CS4 Extended, no matter which version you're upgrading from.

 

[Cecil]

Thanks all, I called Adobe and spoke with a very helpful person...he confirmed that as a CS3 user, I could upgrade to CS4 Extended...at $349.00 US. With my NAPP 15% discount, it was easier for me to say yes. In the afternoon I had another question, so decided to call Adobe Help back. Got a different person, so just to confirm I posed the same CS3 to CS4 Extended upgrade question and got the exact same answer...so it is on its way to my house as I type.

 

[Jan Brittenson]

I just ordered my upgrade... I had CS3 extended but got CS4 standard this time. I don't think I ever used any extended feature.

 

[Jan Brittenson]

BTW, I also discovered Adobe won't let you upgrade from CS3 Extended to CS4 Standard. Fortunately I could upgrade from CS2. The upgrade installer won't find CS3 Extended and won't accept the serial number. (Took me a while to figure out why it kept telling me it's not valid for the product chosen.) Yes, it's utterly retarded.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Just a FYI. When I was in Carmel i ran into a major Adobe issue with a Raw download it must of got interrupted and all that and spilled over from my laptop to my desktop somehow and been fighting some battles ever since. This is what I assume at this point anyway . I went into my desktop after buying the upgrade and completely stripped my system of ANYTHING Adobe and i mean anything related to adobe even Acrobat 7 which has been a cluster ...... since I bought it. Anyway after ridding the system I installed CS4 and the nice thing is all I needed was the serial number from Cs3 to do the upgrade. CS4 loaded very clean and got rid of stuff that I do not use like LR and a few other programs. So basically I cleaned up my system very nicely. Than i got a external drive used Super duper to to clone the desktop than proceeded to replace the whole laptop system with a nice clean copy that I did on the desktop. Not sure folks know you can do this. The only nit is mobile me and need to reregister the laptop and go through the sync process. It automatically changes the name of the computer and also if you use Quark you have to reactivate it on the laptop. CS4 i did not have to do that which was nice, in the past I had to deactivate a copy than reactivate. So moral of the story is you can do a completely clean install of Cs4 without previous PS versions. Just make sure you copy your actions and plugins first in a separate folder or another drive so you can load them back in CS4. Obviously this is on a Mac and beware Adobe puts files everywhere on your system ala PC style. So you have to go in a lot of places and find there stuff. Applications, application support, Users , cache, preferences and several other places. Even there uninstaller does not get this much out of the system so you have to take the time and go everywhere on a witch hunt to get it all.

 

[TRSmith]

I agree that the installation of the suite was much cleaner and more straightforward than the last time with CS3. I only had to enter the serial number printed on the case once and everything fell into place. The transition was by far the smoothest (in terms of installation) to date. And one small thing which seems like a stress reliever, the new suite installs as separate files and does not overwrite the previous suite versions. You can even run copies of the same software side by side if you like!

Overall a very smooth transition and I'm enjoying the new software. Granted, there are some changes that take awhile to discover and some of them seem to go against habit, but overall very nice. Also, InDesign is da bomb! I use Quark and bought the upgrade to version 8 but since the new CS4 suite, I'm not going to return to it, InDesign is just too good and way more stable.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I know i really need to move on to InDesign. HATE quark