Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade

Photomerge is much improved with the addition of two more ways to merge your shots. The healing brush tools do some good work but are still rather quirky. Could use a reminder box when saving 16 bit jpg file that you need to change mode to 8 bit. Sometimes the adjustments will not work after using the layer adjustments - Adobe had to be re-booted to work properly. High price for update with not that much improvement. Still, a great program.

I am an amateur photographer who competes in competitions internationally. Years ago, I only used Photoshop to make small tweaks to my photos like shadows and highlights. However, these days, judges expect the photographs to be technically perfect. I have been using both Photoshop CS2 and Lightroom 1 for several years now to perform the manipulation. By using both Adobe applications, I had good success with the images, but still had difficulty in targeting specific areas of the photograph to make changes. I actually preferred to use Lightroom because there was a clear list of the changes that you had made so that you could change the saturation, for example if you didn't like the effect. In Photoshop CS2, if you closed the file, you lost all record of what adjustments you had made unless you wrote them down.

I upgraded to Photoshop CS4 four months ago and really regret that I didn't upgrade a long time ago. The jump from CS2 to CS4 is huge because you now have adjustment layers at your disposal. The adjustment layers combined with masks allow you to make changes to specific areas of your images and the adjustments are changeable. You can close and open the file and all of your adjustment layers are still there and editable. You also have access to smart filters which allow you to apply adjustments such as shadows and highlights that you can later go back and change if you like. The only downside is that when you save the layers in a TIFF or PSD file, the file size can become quite large (I have files with dozens of adjustment layers that are in excess of 1Gb in size).

The only downside to the upgrade is that it is a memory hog. Your combination of graphics card, disk space and RAM will affect the performance of the software. My graphics card was fast a few years ago, but not up to Photoshop CS4 standards. I have 2 Gb or RAM in my laptop and so I am heavily dependant on scratch disk space. I attach a 250 Gb external drive to my computer and tell Photoshop to use it as scratch space. By doing so, I can avoid problems like the lag that others have written about. There may be other fixes as well, but this is what works for me.

Photoshop is the industry standard and the upgrade or new version is not inexpensive. However, in my opinion the layers and the ability to edit them in CS4 were definitely worth the cost of upgrading if you are using Photoshop CS2 or lower. I certainly recommend the upgrade. I also recommend the training offered by Lynda.com, or the Lynda DVD's (Photoshop CS4 for Photographers is one of the titles) to learn about the new features of Photoshop and how to use them. Great training for the beginner or the more advanced user.

CS4 Photoshop definitely lives up to the hype. I was using CS2 and read about all the upgraded features in CS4. I especially liked the ability to import photos, re-name, edit and rank them, and to add information globally (similar to Lightroom). Being able to compare 4 photos at once and have the use of a magnifying box to examine each photo was amazing! Another feature I liked: being able to have all layers .i.e., the changes, inlcuding non-destructive, in one file, and to group them. This was an added bonus. The change to slide bars in tools, e.g., curves, was great too! There are many more upgrades. If you are considering buying CS4 vs Lightroom, may I suggest reading about CS4 before buying either.

I do like many new and better organize areas in this upgrade. I have only used it a little but it seems an easy common sense approach, a little confusing at the start as we need to relocate things in different areas then we are use too, but over all its good for me and I only have a very limited experience in Photo Shop.

I need to return this item. My boss has "filed" the paper work that came with it. The product would not install, it kept telling me that I didn't have a qualifying application, even though I have CS2 installed.

Please send me the information I need to return the product.

Thanks In Advance,