Your Final Votes Are in: Here’s “The Top 10 Things You Want Most In The Next Version of Photoshop”
Over 2,500 of you voted on Friday’s survey. Here are the top 10 results, in order by popularity:
Interesting stuff to note:
- You didn’t ask for wild new features, and stuff Photoshop can’t already do; instead you just asked for improvements to things Photoshop can already do.
- A lot of things you asked for, can already be done in Photoshop, but only through workarounds. For example, you can apply Shadow/Highlight as a Smart Filter (after you convert your layer to a Smart Layer), but obviously that’s not what we want; we want it as a real Adjustment layer.
Same thing for wanting Filters to be applied as Adjustment Layers. Smart Filters offer the same basic functionality as an Adjustment layer (it comes with a layer mask, it’s fully editable after the fact, you can change the blend mode and opacity, you can save your Smart Filter layers in a layered Photoshop document, and you can delete your Smart Filter layers any time—all traits of an Adjustment layer), but obviously; that’s not what we want. We want to apply filters as a simple Adjustment layer without converting it to a Smart Layer first.
Also, you can certainly apply watermarks in Photoshop, and you can even create an action that will do it for you—but that’s not what we want. We want a dedicated Watermarking feature.
- Seeing a quick before/after (like Lightroom lets you do) was one of the top 3 most requested features. Again, you could do this, in most cases, by going to the History palette—but that’s not what we want. We want a simple before/after keyboard shortcut, or button, etc.
- Overall, speed isn’t an issue—even having Photoshop launch faster wound up near the bottom of the list.
- Better noise reduction is the #1 feature request (but of course, this is skewed by my audience, which is skewed toward photographers).
- Just a reminder: Remember my original premise: Adobe could add 50 or even 100 other features as well, but in this “feature dreamland” they’d have to include your top 10 (as shown above) in the next release. Then, after a while another version of Photoshop would come out, and then you’d get to vote again, and they’d have to include your next top 10. I know–the mind reels.
Last night I forwarded your Top 10 to a list of people at Adobe, including Photoshop product managers, engineers, etc. Hey, ya never know. 
My personal thanks to everyone who participated in this survey, and for sharing such great ideas with me, my readers, and Adobe.
Thanks so much for doing this Scott. If Adobe include the top 10 in the update I will be the first one to purchase it.
Damn, I was really hoping that porting photoshop on linux would make it on the list… It would change everything for me.
My dear and unknown teacher:
I’m one of thowsand of your anonymous readers. I’m from Barcelona(excuse my English, please). I simply want say to you: Thank you very much for your books and four your pedagogical work. I learnt a lot with you.
José Fà brega Agea
Thanks for pulling this together, and so quickly too. Do you work thru the night?
One thing I was sure would’ve made the list… More features available to support 16 bit images. Maybe even a complete set of features supporting 16 bit…
Hope this works
Noise reduction was clearly the most requested, for me it’s super important, hope it gets in
Consider skewing again and figure out what the ratio of amateurs vs pros is. I’d suspect that splitting the outcome on this dimension would give you distinctively different top-10’s. For instance I think that noise reduction (#1) is not a real issue anymore for pro’s using the latest technology. But a good crop tool (#7) like lightroom’s tool would still be a time saver. Just wondering…. I don’t think you have the demographic data to look at this in this way.
I mentioned Viveza to an Adobe rep at Photoshop World. He said it was actually considered but not selected. He felt if I needed it, perhaps I should return to Photoshop Elements that I left about five years ago. Perhaps I didn’t belong in the Photoshop “world.” Perhaps.
It turned out to be a pretty good list. Here’s hoping. I would also add that the entire system of “smart” objects should be re-hauled. One of the proposed changes above is that everything becomes “smart” which is good- but I also say let’s just get rid of the term, it’s confusing and complicated to have to convert things or keep track of what is and what isn’t smart.
Scott,
I definitely agree, Adding a Better Noise Reduction Filter would improve Photoshop. I think lowering the price to make it more affordable for the average consumer-photographer should be the number one priority.
Robert
http://www.photographyandthemac.com
Also interesting that many of the requests are available as third-party add-ins (like noise reduction and HDR). Many of the other winners are modernize Photoshop look and feel.
I would also like to thank you for your pedagogical work although it sounds like something priests get in trouble for.
All of this sounds Wonderful, indeed…….Now if someone would just show up and Do all of these things For me, I’d be So Happy!!! LOL…..bet you can’t tell I’m a Photoshop Newbie!!! Thank heavens for the magazine!! Happy day to you!
On the Before & After thing…….yeah, a button or something, but most important (for me, at least) is the side-by-side view that I can scroll around and see how changes affect specific areas of the photo. A simple click-on, click-off like you have with the history pallette is fine sometimes, but often I like being able to compare the two versions directly.
And add my thanks to the growing list of those so appreciative of your work on this.
Thanks Scott for creating the listing and sending it to Adobe. Here’s hoping they listen, especially about adding better HDR support. If they do, they’ll have my upgrade check.
hoya Scott. Sorry I missed the vote but I am currency in France on holiday but had to take a peek at your blog to see what I have been missing!
anyways a great list. Do you think they could manager to have this all implemented by the time I get home in a couple of weeks?? No harm in wishing! Au revoir. Dermot. Normally in Northern Ireland but the weather is never like this!!
That’s a great list! Hopefully Adobe engineers will implement these features.
Photoshop is really lagging behind Lightroom in terms of user experience.
I don’t agree with the order but I do agree that these ten features should be in Photoshop CS4 - if they are and I can do full HDR in Photoshop without going into Photomatix I will definately be buying CS4 - hoping it comes out in the next 12 months.
Hello Scott
We have been using Photoshop Elements 4 and bought your book Photoshop Elements 4 Collection, and have recommended it and using it as a Bible ever since (it’s falling apart already) and people all over wants to know how we get the effects of our digital images… Just needed to compliment you there.
Anyway, the reason why I’m writing… and I sure hope I’m doing this at the right place… I’m currently using Elements 6 at the moment and have been since the beginning of the year, however I have found that in the “create” tab, I don’t have a “create calendar” feature… I have googled it, and as far as I can tell, it looks as if it should be there, but mine is just missing..??? I have also tried to contact Adobe’s customer service, but it seems very diffiucult to just get a email address from there site… Could you perhaps give me feedback in this regard?
Thanx
Corli