New Features Within Photoshop CS3 And CS4 (Extended)
Suitable for Adobe Photoshop CS3 CS4 CS5 Extended
Skill Level - Beginners - Excerpted From Adobe’s Help Files
New Photoshop CS5 (Extended) Additions Here

What’s New In Photoshop CS3 and CS4 (Extended)
The new features inside CS3/CS4 are a mixed bag - not all users will use all of the new features because there are very specific needs in the Medical, Architectural, Engineering and Video fields.

The new and changed features in the Photoshop CS3 editing space include:

Auto-Align Layers and Auto-Blend Layers (NEW)
The improved Photomerge feature utilises the combined features of the new Auto-Align Layers and Auto-Blend Layers that can now be activated independently from the Edit menu. Photomerge before wasn't really up to the task of creating seamless stitches. The new Auto-Blend layers can create seamless stitches (using Layer Masks) with component images where exposure and minor colour differences exist (the result of using auto white balance).

Brightness/Contrast (NEW AND IMPROVED)
The destructive nature of this command has now (with Photoshop CS3) been turned off by default. The Brightness Contrast sliders now operate in the same way as the sliders in the Camera RAW dialogue box.  When the brightness slider is increased, the gamma or midtone values in the image are made brighter, without clipping the highlight tones, and without rendering the darkest shadows tones too light. When the Contrast is increased in this dialogue box it is now similar to creating an S curve in the Curves dialogue box, without moving the white and black points within the image.

Curves (NEW AND MUCH IMPROVED) - Adjustment Curves Tutorial
The Curves dialogue box offers a significant improvement. The user can now see the histogram and check tonal clipping within this dialogue box. This allows you to bypass the Levels dialogue box and set the black point and white point within the Curves dialogue box before proceeding to manipulate the tonality and colour by adjusting the curves. The changes to each of the component channels can now be viewed in the master RGB view, and the changes can be saved as a Custom Preset that can be accessed from within the dialogue box, rather than being saved and loaded to and from a remote location.

Device Central (NEW)
This allows you to prepare visual information for a mobile devices.

Black & White (NEW)
This new adjustment feature (also available as an adjustment layer) is the easiest and most versatile way to convert images to Black & White. No more juggling sliders in Channel Mixer to prevent clipping and no clever techniques to implement this process. You can use the colour sliders if you like or simply click on a colour within the image window and drag to the right to make lighter or to the left to make darker.

Smart Filters (NEW)
You can apply a filter to a layer and then change the filter values further down the track, without having to revert  to the original file or create another background copy layer. After converting a layer to a smart object and the layer needs to be updated, it will simply be a matter of double clicking the filter component of the layer to reopen the filter dialogue box, and change the settings to more appropriate values. RAW images could be opened as Smart Objects in CS2 but now that we can filter these layers with Smart Filters the era of a totally non-destructive editing workflow.

Quick Selection and Refine Edge (NEW) - My On-line Tutorial Is Here!
This is an intelligent wand that adapts its tolerance as it moves around your image. For the casual Photoshop  user this may represent a significant new tool in your workflow. Refine Edge tool is a quantum leap forward from the Modify commands in the Select menu. The Refine Edge dialogue box offers visual feedback when you refine the quality of the edge selection so that your retouching or montage work is undetectable.

Clone Source and Ignore adjustment layers option (NEW) - Tutorial Here
This new palette may help many students who use either the Clone Stamp Tool or the Healing Brush Tool in their daily workflow. After Option clicking (Mac) or Alt clicking (PC) to set the source of the pixels, we can now see an overlay of these pixels at a reduced opacity as we move over the part of the image that we want to adjust or modify. However, for many users the myriad of options to set multiple clone points, scale and rotate the cloned pixels, set blend modes for the overlay at reduced opacity, (together with the visual confusion of seeing two versions of your image at different opacities), may well limit the number of Photoshop users who are prepared to use this palette.

Vanishing Point (IMPROVED) Tutorial Here
The Vanishing Point’s primary strength is for overlaying two-dimensional images or graphics over images that contain regular and very accurate planes of perspective; for example, placing labels onto DVD cases. 

The new and changed features in the Photoshop CS4 editing space include:

Adjustments panel
Quickly access the controls you need to non-destructively adjust image colour and tone in the Adjustments panel. Includes on-image controls and presets in one location.

Masks panel
Quickly create precise masks in the Masks panel. The Masks panel offers tools and options for creating editable pixel and vector-based masks, adjusting mask density and feathering, and selecting non-contiguous objects.

Advanced compositing
Create more accurate composites using the enhanced Auto-Align Layers command, and use the spherical alignment to create 360-degree panoramas. The enhanced Auto-Blend Layers command smoothly blends colour and shading, and extends your depth of field by correcting vignettes and lens distortion.

Canvas rotation Tutorial Read My (Weblog) Tutorial Here
Click to smoothly turn your canvas for non-destructive viewing at any desired angle.

Smoother panning and zooming
Gracefully navigate to any area of an image with smoother panning and zooming. Maintain clarity as you zoom to individual pixels, and easily edit at the highest magnification with the new Pixel Grid.

Better raw processing in Camera Raw
Apply corrections to specific areas of an image using the Camera Raw 5.0
Plugin, enjoy superior conversion quality, and apply post crop vignettes to images.

Improved Lightroom workflow

Enhanced integration between Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop ® Lightroom ® 2 allows you to open photos from Lightroom in Photoshop and seamlessly roundtrip back to Lightroom. Automatically merge photos from Lightroom into panoramas, open as HDR images, or open as multilayer Photoshop file.

Efficient file management with Adobe ® Bridge  CS4

Enjoy efficient visual asset management with Adobe Bridge CS4, which features faster start-up, workspaces that suit the task at hand, and the ability to create web galleries and Adobe PDF contact sheets.

Powerful printing options
The Photoshop CS4 print engine provides tight integration with all the most popular printers, the capability to preview out-of-gamut image areas, and support for 16-bit printing on Mac OS.

3D acceleration Enable Open GL Drawing to accelerate 3D operations. Comprehensive 3D tools

Paint directly on 3D models, wrap 2D images around 3D shapes, convert gradient shapes to 3 objects, add depth to layers and text, and enjoy exporting to common 3D formats.

Higher performance on very large images (Windows only)

Work faster with very large images by taking advantage of additional RAM. (Requires a 64-bit computer with a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows
Vista®).

This content came from Adobe’s help files.

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