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[rltolar]

Have we had this discussion before? I am currently running CS2, because I am too lazy to upgrade. But, if I wanted to upgrade, what are the benefits of going to CS4 and skipping CS3?

Or should I upgrade to CS3 and forget 4?

Include in your discussion what I would need computer wise to handle either one of those programs.

[Eric Sorensen]

I don't know much about CS4 except what I have read and what I've heard from Mike Smith. I upgraded from CS2 to CS3 for a few reasons. The primary one was that you can use Camera Raw to mass-process JPEG's (as well as RAW), which is similiar to the way you can do it with Lightroom. Plus, camera raw has the "recover", "fill-flash", and "black" sliders that I use on every photo. CS3 has some additional perspective control sliders and can combine images into an HDR file (but it doesn't tone-map as good as other plugins). I sometimes use the "Vanashing point" feature a lot for perspecive clone-stamping in 3D. I also think the Bridge file browser with CS3 is very useful and more advanced. To me, the CS3 Camera Raw and CS3 Bridge program take the place of needing lightroom to organize and mass process images. Others will disagree...

CS4 doesn't have enough new "stuff" for me to upgrade - but if all I had was CS2, I would seriously go for CS4. I can't say whether CS4 will need more computing power than CS2, but I do know that it can take advantage of any extra computing power that you do have. Like if you have a big and fast video card, CS4 will take advantage of it and re-draw faster and better - like if you are zoomed to 47% and your image looks "chunky" on the screen with CS2/CS3, CS4 does a quick "bicubic" on the fly and make your viewed image look smooth at any zoom size. There are several other advantages like the extending borders feature that Mike showed us in the January meeting.

That's about all I know on this subject - probably not what you were looking for, though. I would always get the newest upgrade - but that's just me.
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[Wilfred Smith]

On the positive side. CS4 Bridge is much faster and has some real neat things you can do with it. Like design you own workspace which allow complete customization of the desktop including making it any color you wish. Bridge has many other neat things, like clicking on a preview and you get a full screen image, click again and you are back in Bridge. You can even use Bridge across two monitors like Photoshop. Much more also.
As for Photoshop, It has many new features. The main thing you will notice is that all your images are tabbed. Opening several images in past versions only stacks them. You will hate this for about a week, but then will enjoy it. If you find you don't like after giving it a fair try, you can make photoshop behave like earlier versions with preference change.

One of the best features, is it ability to take advantage of you video card. It has what is called "graphic acceleration" Although the "graphic acceleration" will do several things, the most useful is that of zooming. You can zoom kind of like motorized zooming. Also you can hold the "r" key down and you can spin you image around any degree. When you let go of the "r" key the last tool you used will be active. Spin, draw, spin, draw. This is most helpful if you are making selections, as it allows you to keep you selection tool on top of your work and not get you hand all twisted up trying to draw underneath something.
The accelerated features are a real neat thing, especially if you are a tablet user.
HOWEVER> The accelerated features will not work properly, and will be a real pain trying to use them, if your video card doesn't support, "open gl".
If you plan to use CS4 and especially the accelerated features, make sure your Video card is on Adobe's list of "tested cards".
CS4 has some other neat things also, but CS3 is as good. CS2 to CS3 is a fairly steep curve. CS2 to CS4 will also be a challenge, but CS4 is enough like 3 so as not to add too much more difficulty in the upgrade. Hoiwever CS2 to CS5 might be real tough, so you had better get going.
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Look at thing as though it were your first time to see them and as if it were going to be your last.

[Eric Sorensen]

I just got CS4 with my new computer. I put in one of those new ATI HD 4890 video cards, and I figured with the 12GB of RAM and the newest Intel CPU, the new CS4 could take advantage of all that.

Mike is right - it is really neat how it does a bi-cubic resample on-the-fly when you zoom. The picture looks sharp with no jaggies at 77% as it does at 100%

There area few new things - like a more advanced noise reduction filter, but it's still not as good as Noiseware (but more convenient - you can use it in camera raw).

Bridge has some new stuff, too - like a quick review mode that swings the shots in front of you, and you can quickly cull out the bad ones. Once again, the video card helps here.

I haven't seen all the new stuff it has yet, but so far, for me, it's worth it just for accelerated graphics.

And it has a new tool in camera raw that is cool - some kind of a area curves adjustment. You pull left or right, and it quickly brightens or darkens areas of the photo. I'm not sure exactly what it is doing, but it does it very well! When you are quickly adjusting hundreds of photos like I do, this saves me time.
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