If you are at all interested in upgrading to the newest version of
Photoshop (Photoshop for PC <http://aps8.com/pscs4.html> , Photoshop for
Mac <http://aps8.com/pscs4_mac.html> ), you've probably read any
number of articles on "What's New in Photoshop CS4." What
you've gotten is a list and theoretical notions of what these
features could, potentially, do for you, probably driven a bit by the
seeding of the excellent Adobe marketing team. What you probably
haven't heard is a listing of what you will really use every day in
CS4 if you are someone interested in correcting and adjusting
photographic images. The reason you don't is no one has time to
digest the features before they rush out their articles to be first to
press. Honestly, it takes about a year for me to fluidly incorporate new
features in my workflow. Including a period of exposure to the CS4 beta,
I'm just about getting to the saturation point as to what I really
use and feel is a benefit in CS4. In some versions of Photoshop
releases, my workflow honestly hardly changed at all. For Photoshop CS4,
two features have become part of what I do every day and changed the way
I work with images. These new features are the Adjustments Palette, and
the Masks palette. Neither are, thus far, available in Elements.

I talk about each of these in context in my new book (The Adobe
Photoshop Layers Book for CS4 <http://aps8.com/taplbcs4.html> due out
in March of 2009). This blog is all about why I think these features are
bound to change your process of image editing if you choose to use CS4.
The Adjustments Palette

[Photoshop Adjustments palette]
<http://www.hiddenelements.com/blog/uploaded_images/blog-adjustments-719\
850.png>


A bitter-sweet addition to CS4 is the Adjustments palette. The sweet
part about the addition is that this palette takes the place of the many
dialogs that appear for adjustment layers. The benefit is that the
dialogs no longer have to be closed. You can create an adjustment layer
or click on any existing adjustment layer in the layers palette, and the
adjustment settings appear in the Adjustments palette – immediately.
As you make any change, the changes are applied to the image and
committed. Previously you had to accept the changes on the dialog by
clicking [ok]. If you wanted to make additional changes, you would then
have to double-click on the Adjustment layer thumbnail to open the
palette back up to adjust the changes. Not any more. Every time the
adjustment layer is active, the palette shows the settings you have
stored and that are currently applied to the image. The Adjustments
palette is ultimately convenient for accessing and making changes to
adjustments, and it is a feature that can save many clicks in opening
and addressing what used to be dialogs. The adjustments it offers are no
different than in the dialogs. It is something that works very well, but
for one small factor, the bitter part of the addition.

The bitter part of the Adjustment palette is that you need to have it in
view all the time if you use adjustment layers to make any adjustments
to your images. You don't really have the opportunity to store the
palette away and call it back, and if you did that would defeat the
purpose of the palette's advantage. The palette needs to be visible
— not just in the palette bin, but in a prominent spot on screen, or
you'll have to go hunting for it when you need to make a change. And
every time you make a new Adjustment layer, you need to use it, as what
is an adjustment layer without adjustment?

Regretfully when an adjustment layer is not active, the palette only
displays yet another, redundant means of creating adjustment layers. In
fact none of the palette itself can boast `new' features and
utility. So it is ultimately useful for defining adjustment layer
changes, and not so useful otherwise. If you are a user like myself that
already needs Layers and History and Actions and Channels and Info, and
maybe Paths and Brushes and Character and Paragraph…the
`need' to have the new Adjustments palette in view compounds the
issues you may already be having with on screen landscape. Depending on
your monitor size and the way you practice editing, this landscape may
be more or less precious. While I find it is a bit inconvenient to make
more space on my 17" laptop <http://aps8.com/macbook.html> , when I
work on my desktop and 30" Apple Cinema Display
<http://aps8.com/cinemadisplay.html> I do not miss the landscape and
appreciate the simplicity. If Adobe offered an option to use the classic
dialogs, it would probably have been best for the majority of users.

As it stands, there are advantages and convenience to the presence of
the Adjustments palette, though it may be in contention with other
features. But as you can't get away from it, it will necessarily, to
some extent, alter the way you work. It will certainly take some getting
used to.
Masks Palette

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<http://www.hiddenelements.com/blog/uploaded_images/blog-masks-759748.pn\
g>


The Masks palette in Photoshop CS4 is not the obligation that the
Adjustments palette is. Masks is, instead, a distinct difference in
function from the way users could previously work with layer masks.
Although you can still work with masks the way you did prior to CS4, the
Masks palette extends layer mask functionality by offering options such
as virtual adjustment. That is, you can make slider-based adjustment to
masks for such things as Density, Feathering/Blur, Refine (which opens a
separate dialog) and Inversion. The palette itself will indeed take up
more landscape on the screen, like the Adjustments palette, but it is
not quite as intrusive as Adjustments as it is a palette that can be
brought into view when needed, and stored in a grouping with other
palettes.

The benefit to the Masks palette is that it actually adds to the
functionality offered in Photoshop. Where changes to masks directly in
previous versions of the program were permanent, changes using the
slider in the Masks palette are more like adjustments themselves: the
positions of the sliders can be changed at any time and the result on
the mask itself changed or even removed. In this way the changes are
virtual, and ultimately flexible, as you are not committed to a change
as you make it. The ability to adjust masks as you go can come in handy
for compositing, and I have found it very useful in working with manual
HDR and Depth-of-Field compositing.

If you find yourself blurring and feathering masks, and otherwise
refining mask edges, you'll find a place for the Masks palette on
your screen. Once the palette is there on screen and you adopt going to
the Masks palette for mask adjustment (instead of seeking out permanent
alterations like Gaussian Blur), you will find the feature is a new one
that you need, and don't want to be without.
To Sum Up

The two features do bring something new to the table for Photoshop CS4,
and they will certainly alter the way you work somewhat by enforcement
and somewhat by choice — of that you can be assured. For me the
Masks palette is a giant step forward in handling mask content, and it
is a much welcome addition. However, whether it is one so important as
to `require' an upgrade will depend on the way you work in the
program, and your need for masks or the space you have for more
palettes.

Richard's newest book, The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book for CS4, will
be available in stores this month! The book adds some 80 pages of new
material including a section on manually producing HDR images. Get your
copy as soon as it hits the shelves by pre-ordering on Amazon: Preorder
your copy now <http://aps8.com/taplbcs4.html>



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