Photoshop CS5 initial impresions with release code

Installed and running today here are some initial thoughts on CS5

1. content aware fill works great on low res images but needs more effort to work on high res images

2. Speed of opening images / moving around images seems improved, this is not what usually happens with a new Photoshop release so very pleasantly surprised.

3. Resizing and brush softness controls with Wacom tablets has been subtly altered so that the same shortcut key changes size when the pen is moved left/right and softness changes with up/down pen movement. An improvement in some regards but will take getting used too as arching the pen away from these axis stops the change.

4. Zooming using keyboard shortcuts and either the mouse or Wacom tablet has changed dramatically. Instead of a bounding box to define the area to be enlarged the image zooms in dynamically by mouse or pen movement. It has the potential to be quicker/more flexible than the older method but it will take some getting used too! Update: This new way of zooming is called “scrubby zoom” If you dont want to use it then you can go back to the older method by pressing Z for zoom and unchecking the Scrubby Zoom box.

Not had too much time to play with Bridge yet but sad to report that Adobe still don’t allow the appending of text to existing unique descriptions when applying metadata to images. This is a little sad as Adobe have done the code for Lightroom which has the capability…

Overall though I’m intrigued by the new release.

I suspect many more subtle changes will surface with further play / real work, will update any facts relevant to the Photoshop retouching methods I promote for Photographic use.