Adobe Announces Photoshop CS4 and NAPP Launches “The Photoshop CS4 Online Learning Center”
You knew it was coming, and sure enough—it’s here. Photoshop CS4 is right around the corner (read Adobe’s Press Release here), and to give you the first look at the new features, we’ve launched two new online Learning Centers:
(1) NAPP’s Free Photoshop CS4 Learning Center
This public learning center, hosted by “The Photoshop Guys” (Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, and yours truly, along with RC and Corey from NAPP HQ), gives you a first-look at the new features of Photoshop CS4 with videos from the three of us, including an overview video, an exclusive video interview with Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack, a “Top-10″ New CS4 Features article from RC “New Daddy” Concepcion, and a look at the new interface from Corey Barker. Here’s the link to this brand new learning center.
(2) NAPP’s “Members Only” In-Depth Learning Center
NAPP members can dive deeper into the new CS4 features with special in-depth videos on the NAPP members Website, from (you guessed it), “The Photoshop Guys.” Here we go more into actual training, and help to get your head around all the new features. So, if you’re a NAPP member, check out the public learning center (above) first, then head over to the NAPP member home page to go more in-depth.
You guys know how impressed I’ve been with how Adobe has been listening to its customers lately, and once you get to work with CS4, and see how many things they’ve fixed, streamlined, and just made better, you’ll know they are really moving in the right direction in a big way. My hat’s off to Adobe for taking things up a big notch once again.
Hello Scott,
Love the intro to CS4, nice “stuff”. I can’t wait to try the 360 pano Photoshop has added.
Kind regards
Ken
I have a technical question: Some time ago I read that Adobe would integrate support for the GPU into CS4 to speed things up image editing wise. Did this technical feature make it into CS4? Or is this something for a future release? Can’t really find anything on the Adobe website on this.
Also, it is a bit dissapointing that Adobe won’t be releasing a Educational version of Photoshop CS4. I do not have any use for the extras that the extended version offers and could really use a lower pice.
Was that you on ESPN Sports Center this morning from that amazing interception in the end zone at the Bucs Game??!!
Very disappointing that they are not releasing for educational uses. All of my high school students will be very disappointed.
Can’t wait for CS4.
There will be educational versions, but not for Adobe Photoshop CS4 standard. Only the extended version will be released as a educational version, together will several suites.
As I only use it for photography, the extended version is overkill for my use.
Hey Scott,
I just watched PUTV #151 and was shocked tom see Matt picking on you like that.
I thought that was my job
Regards from your ‘Angry’ Scottish Friend.
I’m just loving CS4. I just watched some of the new features in Indesign & Photoshop CS4 and it’s crazy. It’s going to cut me down alot of my time.I just can’t wait to get my hands on CS4.
WOW! The price I mean. Is Adobe going to partner with a bank to help folks finance this monster. I think I will be happy with CS3 for a long time at these rates.
Help !
I am so confused. Just watched the NAPP CS4 videos (great job as usual) and now I’m wondering why do I need Lightroom ???
I agree. The RAW adjustment brush almost makes Lightroom 2 obsolete (if you have Photoshop). I guess we should have knw they were going to incorporate that into RAW 5. Too bad I can’t get credit for buying Lightroom2 and PS CS3 in order to upgrade to CS4.
Agreed,
I am wondering why I am trying to learn lightroom2, if CS4 will do what lightroom2 does. This brings me to two more questions. 1) Will you be doing another seven points book with CS4 and the new raw converter and 2) Will you be mainly using CS4 or Lightroom2 for your workflow now?
Tq
Wow! The first thing I thought of when watching the new PS CS4 items was, “hmmm… I wonder what I need Lightroom for anymore?”
I come here and see that other people are thinking the same thing.
I think that with an update to bridge and the new camera raw, a lot of Lightroom’s appeal has been negated.
That Adjustment panel looks killer though!. Smooth panning and zooming? bring it on! I hope we can integrate that with the mouse wheel for lightning fast panning and zooming.
It’s a funny thing: back when Scott posted about our wish list items for the next version of Photoshop, better panning and zooming was one of the things I listed. Thank you adobe for implementing this!
The thing I like the most about Lightroom is the ease of getting images off of my camera in an organized fashion (files into correct folders with dates) without me having to think about it. If the new camera raw is as good as it sounds, I might go back to doing everything in PS.
We’ll just have to see if the Raw sliders are on 5 different tabs like they are in the current version. Another nice thing about Lightroom is having all of the adjustment sliders in one place (although you have to scroll up and down to see them all.)
The world of digital imaging is getting better and better!
-Mark
Lightroom 2 users should get a discount coupon for CS4. I’ve already paid for the engine that is in ACR 5.0 when I shelled out for LR2. (something along the lines of $50 would be fair) so why are LR2 users being asked to pay for the same code twice. By not giving a discount to LR users while incorporating all the features into ACR it appears that Adobe is losing credibility with regard to its pricing of Lightroom.
One must now question the release date of LR2. Had it been released at the same time or after CS4 how many people would have skipped LR2? By not offering a discount on CS4 to LR2 users Adobe is making a mistake because when LR3 is released those of us who were burned this time around will just sit back and wait on CS5 knowing that we will get all (or almost all) of the improvements when we are hit up to pay for CS5.
All of this is very disconcerting because all the folks I trust at NAPP were unable (probably due to NDAs) to give us a heads-up about the feature’s duplicity in LR2 and CS4. I know the same thing happened with ACR4 and LR1 but this time it is worse because most of the new bang in LR2 is found within the ACR engine. Scott as I watched your introductory video on ACR5 I thought I was watching the LR2 training video all over again.
Scott, I have high respect for you and you have a reputation as an independent thinker who is willing to call call out Adobe when they drop the ball. What do you think about this and why do you refrain from stating in your video that if you know how to work LR2 then you know how to run ACR5? Please on behalf of all of us little guys out here call attention to this and see if you can pressure Adobe into giving LR2 users a discount on CS4.
Thank You again for all of your hard work and this forum to express my concerns.
PS CS4 being a LR2 killer? I pretty much see it the other way round. I do own CS3 extended plus LR2. I use Lightroom for about 90% of my workflow and benefit mostly from the features now introduced to Photoshop/Bridge CS4/ ACR 5. However, I still very much prefer Lightroom’s interface and its integrated design. So once I’m done in LR there is not much left to do in PS especially anything I couldn’t do in CS3. Why would I want to upgrade? That being said, Adobe’s pricing-policy remains absolutely out of question here in Europe.
Photoshop is still my favorite piece of software (thanks to you, Scott) and I consider it a good thing that the folks at Adobe try to make things better all the time. But to be honest, I would have rather enjoyed a performance and stability upgrade for CS3. It’s still far from perfect on my iMac running Leopard. Hopes are now low that they will fix the remaining issues with CS3 in the future.
Just my thoughts
Greeting from Germany (I know, we are such a pessimistic, glass-half-empty-minded bunch of people =)
Bjorn
I agree with Bjorn. As a LR 2.0 user, why do I need CS4? Truth is I don`t.
I am sure that the new RAW processing tools first seen in LR 2.0 (Brush/Grad etc. are as useless as they are in LR 2.0!!
Frankly I see this as a massive rip off, particularly here in England where the cost for an identical product is many times more than the States.
This really is a cynical marketing ploy by Adobe!
I do not condone pirating any software, but with Adobe involved in this sort of cynical marketing, I expect to see many more illegal copies of CS4 around.
Thank you guys for the excellent videos, I continue to enjoy all the training and Blogs put out by NAPP etc. and particularly enjoy Kelby Training, that is seriously good value!
I wish I could say the same for Adobe!!
Nick
This is a fine example pushing the product price back up-scale. This upgrade is TWICE the price of the CS2 > CS3 upgrade. I think many will skip this version and wait for the full 64 bit in CS5 (?). No thanks Adobe.
As a LR2.1 and PS CS3 Standard user, I see PS CS4 Standard as redundant to what I already have. Yes, there are some features in CS4 that could make the work flow go faster, but the upgrade cost (including all the GUYS’ new books I would buy to keep current) is prohibitive even with the NAPP 15% discount. Bottom line: you have taught me a work flow that works for me, and I know by habit. I still have years of learning to do on LR2.1 and Standard and until that WOW really grabs me to upgrade I can still do what you will teach and what I really need to do with what I have. Maybe I won’t be able to answer Photoshop TV’s question of the week, but then I’ve only won once anyway. ps. I wouldn’t give up brush/grad in LR2.1 despite what Nick wrote as it took me a while to figure it out w/o Scott’s LR2 book (ordered from Kelby Training in June (still waiting), but Amazon will deliver to my door in 2 more days).
Good job Adobe.
I saw the introduction today, very impressing – but I decided not to upgrade!
Just bought plugins to my PS CS3, they perform some of the new features in PS CS4 but not all, I also upgraded to LR2 which is similar to the new Bridge CS4, a couple of fixes still needed in LR2 though.
Improvements and software fixes still have to come to CS4 before everybody is happy.
Example, the other day I installed my second copy of Adobe Production Suite Premium CS3, after the installation I recieved about 540 MB of improvements and updates over Internet. Adobe really take responsibility for their products!
It will take a while before CS4 have reached the same update level.
The price for CS4 new or upgrade have to come down, in many foreign markets the prices ar much higher than in the US. It also seems like version upgrades come more frequently now which must be a great business opportunity for both Adobe and 3rd party suppliers etc.
Hey everybody, Yay for CS4, I’ll probably end up buying it, as long as it saves me time, it’s worth it.
Quick question to anybody listening:
I’m going to be teaching portraiture with my students coming up and I’m trying to think of a neat exercise that they can practice with their classmates. I’m having them go to a park, so there should be some good opportunites. But does anybody know of any fun activities? like team shooting or having them approach somebody at the park and take a portrait?
Any help is helpful,
Thanks,
Dan
Ah… I just bought your book “7 point system” , and still waiting to get PS installed on my mac… But I guess they won`t have changed stuff so much that I won`t find things like you write about in your book ( seeing as your book is based on CS3)…
Or?
-G-
Well what a pain i just purchased the upgrade to CS3.3 for the mac 3 weeks ago and they don’t say anything to you on the phone about waiting a few more weeks for CS4 as they are taking your card details.
Like above why would i upgrade again to CS4 when Lightroom 2 does 95% of the things i need as a photographer.
Thanks Adobe for ripping me off
Mike
Wow…some really great features and more in depth than what we saw at PhotoshopWorld 2008, but like the others have said before, the price tag is jaw-dropping! Where is the Starving Artists $500 package? I didn’t see that one in the lineup. Not all of us get a corporate budget to keep our software up to date.
That being said, I am very excited for the direction the toolset is moving. The efficiency improvements alone ‘may’ be worth the price of admission if it means I can move more work through my little business.
Tom
Hey folks,
FYI for Mike Gray (2 comments above) and anyone else this pertains to. Give Adobe a call. I’ve heard from many Adobe employees that they’ll give an automatic upgrade to anyone who purchases a product within 30 days of the release of a new version. I’d call right away though but you should be able to get this resolved.
Take care,
Matt Kloskowski
yipeeee! the only thing that sucks is that i got cs3 only 2 months ago and now i have to spend more $$$ for an upgrade! daaaarrrrnnn!! can’t wait to try it! just please, no cs5 until i get my moneys worth
take care
Any discount on the upgrade to CS4 for NAPP members?
NAPP members do get a 15% discount from Adobe! The promotional code is: whoops… I can’t tell you that you have to be a member. Depending on which suite you get, this discount will more than pay for your NAPP membership! Plus you will get all the other benefits of being a member. I know people who originally got a NAPP membership just for the free shipping from B& H. NAPP membership is well worth the investment!
Gary Chisolm
>I agree. The RAW adjustment brush almost makes Lightroom 2 obsolete (if you have Photoshop). I guess we should have knw they were going to incorporate that into RAW 5. Too bad I can’t get credit for buying Lightroom2 and PS CS3 in order to upgrade to CS4.
You’re missing the other modules and the DAM (catalog) functionality of LR!
I can almost guarantee that LR and ACR will always have the same processing pipeline (Develop and ACR will share nearly identical parity). If all you want in either product is what you find in Develop, then yes, you should be sticking with Photoshop and ACR. But there’s a heck of a lot more about LR than that single module. Or maybe you’re just not using them, in which case, LR isn’t a good fit for you.
Try printing out 30 images in Photoshop at differing sizes compared to doing the same task in LR. BIG difference in how long it will take. Work on an image in even ACR and quit. Where’s you editing history? Gone.
Different tools.
Scott, this has nothing to do with your blog entry, but I thought you might want to share it with your readers. I was looking for a replacement lens hood for an old lens and found this site. It has patterns for cutting out lens hoods out of cardboard (or I was thinking black craft foam) for hundreds of lenses. Joe
http://www.lenshoods.co.uk/hoods/
I´m a NAPP member since almost a year now and it has proved to be a really good investment, knowledgewise.
Financially not as good as for members in the US, I´m thinking of the member benefits from ex. Adobe and some other vendors. When I upgraded my LR2 I first tried to purchase a download copy from the US Adobe Store on the web, my intention was to make use of my NAPP discount.. Software specialists as the are at Adobe I was directed to the European Adobe Store – No NAPP discount permitted!
Dear Scott, with all your insights and connections at Adobe HQ, – maybe you can influence them to make the NAPP discount available also in other countries, or at least as a start for NAPP members within EU to see what effect that might have both for NAPP and Adobe.
I do hope that NAPP does not leave the people who are just starting to catch on with Photoshop CS3 in the dust. There are some (I am sure) like me that can not upgrade for awhile due to the costs of the program, books, etc. Trying to learn a new Photoshop in midstream could confuse the learning process.
JJS
Does NAPP discount apply to full version purchase, upgrade purchase or both?
Well, the hard part for me is deciding between the Photoshop CS4 Standard and the Extended edition, specifically whether as a amateur photographer there’s anything I’ll be “missing out on”. In CS3 Standard, which I didn’t upgrade to, it couldn’t handle 32-bit files when doing HDR merges, but the current marketing blurbs on CS4 don’t say whether only the Extended version will handle 32-bit files or not – otherwise there’s no “compelling”
I agree that the challenge now is whether I want LR2 as well as CS4, because I can see both sides of that argument – I use another tool to manage my library, and now the ACR function is updated in CS4 the previously killer features of lightroom are probably less important…. but once again I can see the value in doing so much more “all in one tool”….
I used to have Photoshop 7 and when it wouldn’t work on the Leopard OS, I switched to Elements 3, which was bundled with another software and was free. It had many of the same features I have used the lion’s share of the time, so I figured it was fine for me. I realize the UI has changed since the latest version 7. I am looking to further refine my Photoshop skills at the Photoshop World conference in Boston. Question is, should I upgrade to CS4? Or do you think I could get away with most things as is? Just don’t want to miss out with all the conference sessions by having the wrong version, but at the same time, if I can get buy without upgrading in this recession and be able to do most of the same things that would be great.
Would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks!
-Wildman
For me has special PSCS4 – until I bought mac 10.6 (Snow Leopard) – been the best photoshop program untill now. Now PS CS4 has become a joke. All Mac-users with the same problems as mine, know what I am talking about, and if somebody know a solution, I would be delighted to hear about it.
But back to the question. If you use Windows or Mac older than 10,6 – 10,5 will be enough, Photoshop CS4 is to my opinion the best pro-photoshop program untill know. But I have heared. that Photoshop Elements 8 should be very good (and much cheeper than the pro-edition).
Please Scott, can you help all of us Snow Leopard people, so we again can use Photoshop 4 or extended, as I have invested a fortune in. – And thanks for your great books.