Photoshop CS3 Beta Observations

Caught wind of this on some eBay auction no less, so I went and got it. Definitely different looking. One thing that bugs me about having multiple versions of a certain application on your computer is that the OS always thinks the newest one is the one you want to use. So now if I double click an image the thing opens in the Beta rather than full-on CS2. Doh! Anyway, looks like it's got multiple clone sources which looks kinda cool. Eyedropper averaging took a massive jump up to "101" pixels which is indicative of the increasing resolution of digital imagery I suppose. Instead of the bone stock Point sample\3x3\5x5 you've now got 11, 31, 51, 101.

There's a new "Black and White" adjustment which quite frankly I find a bit pussified. I mean, I learned how to alter tonal values when converting from color to grayscale at my first job thanks to Ken, a convicted murderer and a helluva swell guy. You just use Hue\Saturation fer cripes sakes. Crank down the main saturation and futz the brightness on the separate color ranges. Well no biggie, Photoshop has always had tools which do the same thing in different ways. There are presets in the Black and White tool, so I suppose that's kinda nice.

Once at a job interview I was asked how I approach color correction. I said , "...and then I might go in and fine tune with Selective Color" and the dude didn't get that "Selective Color" was an actual Photoshop tool but that I was "being" selective about what I adjusted...hell I have no idea what was going through that guy's head. A non-hacker in my beloved corps it would seem.

After many many years of anticipating it, you've now got non-destructive filter effects on layers. Nice. Of course, going filter-crazy is something that one seems to grow out of. Not that it isn't very useful of course.

Oddly enough, they've updated the crude, dust-collecting Brightness\Contrast control which now acts more subtley but with a "legacy" checkbox to make it work the old way which is why you never used the thing in the first place! Heh! Curves has also been updated with some more display features. I noticed it wasn't live-updating but maybe it's just me.

One thing I really could do without is this odd screen view mode which they added. It's called "Maximized Screen Mode" and it seems to keep the main canvas and the palettes separate or something. It seems to serve those unfortunates without dual monitors I suppose (again, one of the benefits of dual monitors in this case is that they are treated as separate devices by the application) but my gripe is that it can't be removed from the toggle stack. I mean, that's double the amount of "F" I gotta tap in a day, folks. I could get a blister or something!

The palettes have got some sort of docking behavior going on, I'm still trying to figure that out. Although maybe it could be a good thing for some. I know many folks who are constantly moving palettes this way and that because apparently the TAB key's function has alluded them. Watching this game of Whack-A-Mole physically pains me, but it's not my business how they work I guess. The Maximized Screen Mode in combination with these docked palettes would seem to serve the function of always keeping "stuff" out of view of your work. I can see how it would be great for a single screen. Old habits die hard, though. There's also some sort of icon collapse thing. Again, these things are merely stop gaps for the True Future of 300ppi Monitors The Size of Drafting Tables. Mote It Be!

The clone tool has got a wicked cool overlay mode now where you can see a ghosted image of your clone source. Could certainly come in mighty handy. This new-fangled selection tool thingy is mighty cool too. The "refine edge" thing is sweet. But so far there isn't anything so mind-blowing so as to demand upgrading, though. I've always felt I could safely go back to version 4.0 and be relatively happy. Okay, that's probably not entirely true. Smart Objects are rather handy. I was most stoked by Adjustment Layers (was that v4? Can't remember...) and layer masks. After that everything's gravy.