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The Beta release of this upcoming Photoshop program is stunning. A new interface and Bridge totally redesigned with new camera RAW. I will be giving this a real workout over the holiday but I can say already that I am impressed.

Where did you get the beta from?

From the Adobe website - you need a valid serial number from CS2 to activate the Beta CS3

I disagree in that it's stunning.

There's some cool new features, but a couple of incredibly irritating ones too.

It is good... but not stunning.

What is one persons nectar is anothers shit

Hi guys,
I'm using CS2 on both a G4 and G5 platform at the moment and I am reluctant to download the Beta CS3 until I know the effect it is going to have on my machines. What are the advantages you are noting at the moment.
Cheers, Ants

Here's a look at some of the new features:

http://www.photoshopuser.com/cs3/sk_features.html

Cheers

The killer feature for me is the new Smart Filters that can be reordered, edited, rearranged, blended and masked and are saved with the PSD so you can reopen and edit and reapply (even turn off) the filters at ANY time (there is a nice video of Scott Kelby demoing this HERE)

Downside is all the third party filters that already exist (and I've tried a number) DON'T work as Smart Filters

Im expecting the use of smart filters will eat up massive amount of RAM, and you may force to get a 4GB Mac afterall

I just had a play with the beta on Macka's C2D Macbook 2Ghz with 2GB RAM.

Streaks ahead of CS2 in terms of responsiveness and speed (to be expected going from Rosetta to Universal Binaries). Interface changes are excellent, I absolutely LOVE being able to have both Channels and Layers visible at the same time. Haven't played with the new selection tools yet so can't comment there.

Camera RAW is much better too - a lot more controls available, and some of those new sliders are wonderful instant fixes. Also seems more responsive, but again that's probably more a PPC/Intel issue than anything.

Bridge now looks much like Lightroom. The loupe feature seems broken on this build, it just shows a box of coloured lines. The interface is definitely sleeker.

Can't wait to waste most of my day tomorrow 'testing' this on my work's G5 iMac - we're currently using CS (not CS2) so I need to convince my boss to upgrade to CS3. Might need to grab in Intel iMac to compare to the G5 .

sirhc55 wrote:What is one persons nectar is anothers shit

Funny you should say that, cos I couldn't care less about Smart Filters - I don't really use any filters other than Sharpening and occasional noise reduction.

The killer feature for me might turn out to be the ability to edit JPEGs in Camera RAW. For me, the main advantage of RAW over JPEGs has always been the white balance slider - I know there are all sorts of other technical reasons why RAW files are better, but now that I can edit JPEGs from the camera with the same ease as RAW files I might convert to the dark side

Nnnnsic wrote:I disagree in that it's stunning.

There's some cool new features, but a couple of incredibly irritating ones too.

It is good... but not stunning.

Irritating features are like crap TV programs - all you have to do is avoid them

Ho Hum. Who needs it? The more experienced I get the less I need to fiddle my images. A touch of curves...a touch of sharpening, hide a spot or 2 and finished.

Matt. K wrote:Ho Hum. Who needs it? The more experienced I get the less I need to fiddle my images. A touch of curves...a touch of sharpening, hide a spot or 2 and finished.

I will send you a stone block and chisel Matt and you can go right back to basics

Italian marble, if you please.

Well, for what it's worth, I'm impressed, and I'm Italian!
cheers
marco

Hi All,
I know this is going to sound like and odd question but will CS3 perform the same on a G4 or G5 Mac or do I really need an Intel to make things happen?
Looking forward to the answers! Ants

In my limited testing so far, PS CS3 is faster than CS2 on my PB 12" (1.33Ghz G4).
I haven't timed things: this is just gut feel. BTW I have the CS2 suite installed (I use Photoshop and Indesign) as well as the CS3 beta, so I've switched between the Photoshop versions a bit.
So just try it for yourself!

Darn work computers not having XP SP2 installed.

I actually agree Dave. It does feel faster. The initial load-up and time between when the splash goes away and the interface becomes usable seems a lot faster.

It might be from a lack of plugins, but it feels more like it'll be a core improvement, to me.

One thing I'm not impressed with, even though it is a beta, is the change to the export to web page functionality and how currently I can't seem to test it, or how it requires Bridge.

I had a quick look on Adobe's site but couldn't see anything about an expected release date.

Does anyone have any idea when it is expected to be released?

Spring US so somewhere between February and April.

My guess is mid to late March.

The Beta will popup a message once a starting in May saying that the Beta has expired. You can use it indefinitely.

My guess they plan to have it released before then.

It does seem quite a bit faster.

All that Adobe have said (for months now) is Q2 2007.

General scuttlebutt has been translating that to April/May. The expiry date on the beta does give an indication (as long as we don't expect a second beta).

Can anyone comment on the B&W conversion tool and the photo merge tools in CS3? I read somewhere that they're good.

The B&W conversion seems to be the funky tool from Lightroom. It's better than the plain Channel Mixer in that it allows you to play with the controls without having to manually tweak everything back to 100%. It's quite intuitive.

CS3 is timed for me perfectly - just got a MacPro that runs CS2 non-natively.

rooboy wrote: I absolutely LOVE being able to have both Channels and Layers visible at the same time.

You can do that in CS2. Just drag a palette anywhere you like so that it's free floating.

gleff wrote:

rooboy wrote: I absolutely LOVE being able to have both Channels and Layers visible at the same time.

You can do that in CS2. Just drag a palette anywhere you like so that it's free floating.

CS3 separates the palettes into individual items so it is very different to CS2

If you haven't already seen them, you can watch some videos of CS3 in action from Scott Kelby and others

http://www.photoshopuser.com/?page=cs3/ ... awpart1_sk


Edit: Oops... just saw the link on the first page.

question from a RAW virgin...

If shooting in RAW, do I need to "pre-process" them before I open in CS2? But not in CS3?

Or can I shoot in RAW, and adjust WB basics immediately in CS2?

After my RAM upgrade of course

thanks, and please be gentle.

Oz

Shoot raw, open in either CS2 or CS3 - this in turn invokes Adobe Camera Raw (commonly referred to by the TLA ACR) and adjust there

A bug perhaps?
Try printing a 6x4" print, there's no print with preview (in any page size) and when you try to print 6x4" it will not lock, and default to A4 (for me anyway). Anyone else confirm this?