Cs3?

[Scott Brady]

Ok , give us the scoop

How does it run on the Mac, native? Issues?

We are nearly finished with the design of the Premier issue of Overland Journal (wraps next Wed. for pre-flight), so it is time to upgrade to CS3 for work on issue two.

[jeffryscott]

no personal experience as of yet, but initial responses I've seen/heard are it flies on the Mac ... well worth the upgrade in my opinion. In my experience, Adobe is usually good about getting things relatively bug-free on intro.

[Robthebrit]

I am downloading the PC version at the moment, I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Rob

[Howard70]

Hello Scott:

The following favorable review of CS3 was just distributed by Digital Pro Shooter (http://www.nikondigital.org/dps/dps.htm)


Review by David Cardinal:

I've been using Photoshop CS3 since the beta and was quite pleased with some of the new features, but was pleasantly surprised by the final version. In particular not only has the Camera Raw functionality been beefed up to have the really nice features previously found only in Lightroom but Raw files can now easily be opened as Smart Objects. That means that at any time you can go back and change the raw processing options on the image without starting over. Those two new capabilities alone are worth the $196 to Upgrade your Windows Version or Upgrade your Mac Version for anyone serious about shooting Raw files.

Many of Adobe's filters can also be Smart Objects, so that they can be modified after the fact, which is another nice advantage of CS3. Unfortunately it doesn't appear that any of the third party plug-ins I use have this capability yet. I've been waiting for a long time for a Smart Object or Adjustment layer version of Curvemeister, for example.

The new scripting capabilities are also quite interesting. Previously Photoshop scripting was somewhat chaotic, with some parts of the product carefully crafted to be scripted and others like Camera Raw quite painful. Now Adobe has provided a more consistent object model and a set of script development tools so we should see some very interesting add-ons to help automate Photoshop or even multiple CS3 application workflows.

I'm still not a huge fan of the new palette system. I think they could have left well enough alone with the CS2 palette UI, but I'm sure it is well enough thought through that it will grow on me. The good news is that all of my old actions and plug-ins work like a charm, although many of them will not operate on a Smart Object layer until it is rasterized into a regular layer.


The sophisticated tools in Camera Raw 4.0 from Photoshop CS3 helped me restore the color to this image even though it was shot at mid-day under a bright tropical sun.

Sometimes it's amazing how much work it is on the computer "just" to put back something our eyes saw easily and naturally while we were there.

It looks like David liked it even though it could mean getting used to some interface changes.

I'll be upgrading as soon as our site license at UNM covers it.

Howard L. Snell

[haven]

Don't forget Adobe InDesign CS3. InDesign replaced Pagemaker in Adobe's lineup some years ago. In addition to working well with Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3 will make production of a web version of Overland Journal a snap (should you decide to make one available).

Chip Haven

[TeleScooby]

Everything I've read said 'go for it' that the upgrade was well worth it for the native intel capabilities alone...not to mention the other version updates and upgrades...if only money wasn't such an object...sigh

[dan chain]

im currentley using cs2 on my intel mac and will be upgrading soon so we can use lightroom again. i loved lightroom which is included in cs3 so it is worth it to us since my wife is a photographer.

[bigreen505]

Worth it, but here is the dirty little secret. While CS3 is Universal, OS X 10.4 really isn't. When 10.5 comes out in October (supposed to be May) your mac, and photoshop along with it, will find a new top gear because 10.4 doesn't really support 64-bit processing so we are all kind of running in "limp mode".

Honestly Scott, I don't know what specifically you use Photoshop for since you use Aperture for raw processing. To me the major advances of CS3, beyond the obvious of being intel native, is the new/improved Camera Raw 4.x and Bridge CS3, and the video capabilities. If those aren't big deals to you, I suggest downloading the 30-day free trial from Adobe and seeing if the upgrade is worth it for you.

[dan chain]

forgot about the 64bit emulation. probably wont even be able to tell the diff when leapord comes out. my take on cs3 v aperture is that i find cs3 easier, but i have used it for some time though.

[Digital Nomad]

im currentley using cs2 on my intel mac and will be upgrading soon so we can use lightroom again. i loved lightroom which is included in cs3 so it is worth it to us since my wife is a photographer.

Ligthroom does not come bundled with Photoshop... they are two separate products.

Worth it, but here is the dirty little secret. While CS3 is Universal, OS X 10.4 really isn't. When 10.5 comes out in October (supposed to be May) your mac, and photoshop along with it, will find a new top gear because 10.4 doesn't really support 64-bit processing so we are all kind of running in "limp mode".

Photoshop is not a 64-bit application, so I'm sure getting the OS to be true 64-bit will be helpful overall, but I don't see how it will change Photoshop all that much.

Photoshop CS3 has many features that make the upgrade worth it for most people... my favorites include:
1) Awesome panorama stitching that blows away the old stuff
2) It's now much easier to make selection with the Quick Selection tool
3) Smart Filters can be nice so you can sharpen an image without having to flatten it
4) A new much more intuitive way to convert from color to B&W
5) Much better retouching features with the new Clone Source palette
6) Runs much faster than CS2 if you own an Intel Mac

BUT, the new palette interface take a while to get used to and they really need to work on the integration between Photoshop and Lightroom. AND, watch out if you have old 3rd party filters on an Intel Mac since they won't fun unless you run Photoshop through Rosetta, which will slow the whole thing down... you have to update those plug-ins to get intel native ones to have them all work at full speed.

I use the combination of Lightroom and Photoshop for all my images and if you ever need to do any localized adjustments or complex retouching, then Photoshop is essential... having said that... if all you need to do is very basic adjustments, then Lightroom might be enough.

-Ben
The Digital Nomad at www.WhereIsBen.com

Photoshop Hall of Famer
Author:
Photoshop CS3: Up to Speed
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How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography