Hands On with Photoshop CS3 Extended

Campus Technology

Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology

Home > Hands On with Photoshop CS3 Extended

Software Preview

Hands On with Photoshop CS3 Extended

A preliminary report on new features, performance, and workflow enhancements

3/27/2007

By David Nagel

Test 1: A 4,000 x 4,000-pixel document was created, and on this document I applied 47 commands, including 28 individual filters and 19 image adjustments, layer and canvas transformations, and various other actions.
Test 2: A 2,000 x 1,500-pixel document was created, with a variety of commands applied, including several canvas- and layer-based transformations in succession.
Test 3: An 800 x 600-pixel document was created, and to that document every filter that ships with Photoshop (CS2) was applied, with the exception of Reduce Noise and Displace. The test also included transformations, selections, fills, and the manipulation of text.

Here are the results.

As you can see, even in beta form--and even with the additional overhead the new version is carrying--Photoshop CS3 Extended is drastically outperforming Photoshop CS2 on the same hardware--especially against CS2 running in emulation mode under Mac OS X. (I have not tested Photoshop CS3 Extended running on Windows.)

And so, of course, you're going to have the Mac users on your campus clamoring for this latest release.

Photoshop CS3 Extended, like Photoshop CS3 Standard, also gains compatibility with Windows Vista (in addition to Windows XP.)

'Extended' creative features
But the fun doesn't end with performance improvements. It also adds some new features that will be critical to users across creative departments, including those working in video and motion graphics and those working in 3D or incorporate 3D into their 2D design projects.

Video features
First up: the video features. Anybody upgrading to Adobe After Effects CS3 or Premiere Professional CS3 (now also available for Intel-based Macs, but not PowerPC-based Macs) is also going to need/want/crave Photoshop CS3 Extended. The reason for this is that the Extended version gains a number of enhancements that turn Photoshop into a rotoscoping, animation, and video enhancement demon.

Unlike previous versions of Photoshop, it can open QuickTime and Windows Media files straight from the File menu, without any manual import or individual frames required. (This was a big drag in Photoshop CS2.) Now a user can just open a video file as if it were a still image file and begin working on it immediately.

And, once you have the video opened, working with it is very similar to working with video in After Effects or Premiere Pro (or any other NLE or motion graphics package, for that matter). The newly revised Animation palette is similar in feel and functionality to the timeline in After Effects or Premiere. And it adds in several new functions as well.