Summary and Screen Shots of New Features in Photoshop CS3

Photoshop CS3 is sporting some user interface changes. The most obvious of these is the single-column toolbar and new palette docking behavior. Palettes can be quickly collapsed to icons, or icons and titles. When palette docks are hidden, they can quickly be revealed just by moving the cursor to the appropriate screen edge. Of course, the palettes can still be arranged into custom docks and floated anywhere on the screen for complete customization ability. A new workspace button holds a prominent position, always available in the options bar for quick workspace changes. There are other small user interface improvements throughout, such as more font preview size options and larger text in menus and dialogs.

With the new Smart Filters feature in Photoshop CS3, you can now use filters non-destructively. That means you can apply, adjust, add, and remove filters without starting over. You can also experiment with the order that multiple filters are applied to a layer and toggle visibility off and on for each filter applied. This feature does require that the filtered layer first be converted to a special "smart filter" layer. Once an ordinary layer is converted to a smart filter layer, you must open it in a new window to edit the actual layer content, much like you do with the smart objects introduced in Photoshop CS2.

New alignment and blending functions in Photoshop CS3 are sure to be a time-saver, especially for groups shots and panoramas. When multiple photos are combined into a layered image (this can be done automatically through the "Load Files into Stack" script) Photoshop can analyze the content of the layers and automatically align them so that common areas overlap perfectly. Then you can easily reveal the best elements of multiple images by painting with a mask. The auto-blending feature will automatically mask and blend the transition areas in all layers. This technology is available as part of the Photomerge feature as well as having dedicated menu commands. Merge to HDR also takes advantage of the new auto-align capabilities.

With the new Quick Selection tool, users need only click and drag across an image to make fast selections. Photoshop analyzes the image as you drag and expands the selection to similar areas. Although it's not perfect in its edge detection, it does a pretty good job and should drastically cut down the time it takes users to refine selection edges. The new Refine Edge dialog also aids with this, giving interactive controls for adjusting the selection's edge characteristics. Users can preview the edge adjustments with a variety of backgrounds while making changes.

Not having a Raw-capable digital camera, I have never dug deeply into Adobe's Camera Raw processor, but that changes now that Camera Raw allows you to process JPEG and TIFF images. All edits you make in Camera Raw are non-destructive, and this opens up a lot of power with tools for tweaking exposure, color, lighting and much more. New tools in Camera Raw include a Retouch tool and Red Eye Removal, both of which are non-destructive. A shadow/highlight clipping preview warns you when your adjustments result in a loss of detail, and there are new adjustments for highlight recovery, fill light, and color vibrancy. Camera Raw is certainly a tool I will be utilizing now that it supports JPEG files.

The new Clone Source palette works along with the Clone Stamp tool, the Healing Brush, and the Spot Healing brush, allowing you to set up to five clone source points and toggle between them. You can also precisely adjust the scale, offset, and rotation for each of the clone sources. The overlay preview option allows you to see exactly what's going to happen so there is much less reliance on the trial and error approach while cloning and healing.

Adobe Bridge is the file browser included with Photoshop. It now offers a three-column layout view with the ability to save custom workspace layouts, search filters, a flat view for browsing images in multiple folders, image stacks, and a loupe tool. With Stacks you can bundle several similar images together so that only one thumbnail is seen in the content browser. The stacks are easily expanded to reveal all images with a single click. The Loupe tool is like an instant magnifying glass allowing you to zoom in and inspect the fine details of an image while keeping the entire photo in view.
Adobe Bridge Introduction

The Black and White commend under the Image > Adjustment menu is designed to give you the best results when converting images to monochrome. When the "Auto" button is used, Photoshop analyzes the image and suggests optimal settings. Several presets are also available such as Maximum Black, Maximum White, High Contrast Red Filter, Infrared, and so on. Sliders allow you to control the brightness of specific colors in the image, or you can do so by clicking and dragging directly in the image. By marking the Tint checkbox you can create sepia tones and tinted effect with sliders for adjusting the hue and saturation of the tint. Black and White conversion presets have also been added to the Channel Mixer.

The Curves dialog box has been enhanced with new color correction presets, a larger display with integrated histogram, and the ability to display multiple color channels. The presets include color negative, cross process, darker, increase contrast, lighter, linear contrast, medium contrast, negative, and strong contrast. Users can also customize the Curve settings and save them as a new preset.

An improved Print window simplifies printing options and eliminates the need for separate "Print" and "Print with Preview" commands. The new Print window integrates color management control, and gives you a larger preview with more print controls in one place.