Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

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The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
Given time, the market eventually corrects itself and the dominance of Photoshop will
be seen as an anomaly. Further challenges are coming from the developers of processing
tools such as Nikon Capture—included here rather than among RAW converters
because of its increasingly powerful editing functions. Then there are all those developers
of plug-ins who now cover so many bases they have only to bring all the separate
plug-ins together on a new platform to have a fully fledged rival to Photoshop itself.
Even now it is possible to run dozens of third-party plug-ins within Photoshop Elements
(Adobe’s low-cost editor) and have a photographic tool that is arguably more powerful
than CS3.
Adobe Photoshop
Vendor: Adobe Systems
Purpose: The industry standard editor for photographers, graphic designers, and Web designers
Description
Adobe Photoshop is the editor favored by most graphic arts professionals, with true
non-destructive filtering, advanced compositing using multiple layers, 32-bit high
dynamic range support, quick-selection tools, full RAW support, to-and-fro clickability
with Adobe Lightroom, color management, and integration with selected printers
from HP, Epson, and Canon. This is the full edition of Photoshop for photographers
who will probably not need the Extended Edition with its 3D support and measuring
capabilities for scientific imaging. (Both have the same system requirements.)
Photoshop’s toolset is famously extensive, with tools to retouch images using cloning
and healing techniques, single brush-stroke selection to isolate objects, edge-refinement,
and accurate compositing. CS3 and, imminent at the time of writing, CS4 run noticeably
faster than previous versions, taking advantage of native performance on Intel- and
PowerPC-based Macs and PCs running Windows XP or Vista.
Where Photoshop differs radically from most other photographic editors is in its powerful
set of customizable paint settings, brushes, and drawing tools that enable artists to create
an original, realistic-looking image without any photographic capture whatsoever. With
so many tools, there are naturally many palettes to take up valuable screen space. Many
users take advantage of its dual monitor support to keep palettes conveniently open.
Besides RAW conversion, much photographic enhancement can now be done in Adobe
Camera RAW (ACR), even adjustment of JPEGs and TIFFs if you are using Bridge.
Although strictly a plug-in, ACR comes with Photoshop and offers slider controls for
color temperature and tint, exposure, highlight recovery, and vibrancy/saturation. It has
support for over 125 camera types and (obviously) the vendor’s Digital Negative (DNG)
format. ACR 4.0 was introduced with CS3.