Photoshop CS2 review

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  • Expert Rating: We rate this 9 out of 10We rate this 9 out of 10We rate this 9 out of 10We rate this 9 out of 10We rate this 9 out of 10 Best Buy We rate this 9 out of 10

  • Price When Reviewed: 445 . 119 . 705 . 895

  • Pros: Enhanced image-fixing and special effect tools, Vanishing Point, Smart Sharpen and other new filters, enhanced integration, HDR and Camera RAW support

  • Cons: More complex workflow in some new filters.

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The new version of Photoshop is the best reason to buy Adobe Creative Suite 2, as it has the pick of the best features among the updated packages. If you’re a photographer, you’re in for a treat, but other digital creatives will find something new here too.

There is much greater integration with the rest of the new suite, which you can pick up for twice the price of the standalone product. Links with Illustrator are especially tight this time around. Between the two you can create Smart Objects, which are rich vector objects from Illustrator that remain live and scalable in Photoshop. Edits applied in Illustrator are updated automatically in Photoshop and, like Symbols, you can edit a series of linked copies of Smart Objects by working on only one.

Vanishing point

border=0 />Vanishing Point is the hot new filter in Photoshop. It’s a way of manipulating an image on accurate planes – so if you have the side of a building, anything that you clone onto it will fit in with the perspective of the background. A healing facility will ensure that the new item fits in with the background lighting and surrounding pixels. </p> <p> You can click-&-drag cloned or selected items along the planes, holding down shift to make new copies wherever you want. Doing this the first dozen times is fun, but when you start to experiment a bit you’ll find it’s not as magical as you first thought. For example, before cloning and pasting you need to place the perspective grids, which can be tricky if your subject isn’t cubic or flat. You need to build up grids, moving from the initial one onwards. While it’s not too difficult, it may throw some users. This is not to say that Vanishing Point is a poorly developed feature; on the contrary it’s a great <BR> time saver, but it will take practice. </p> <p> <img src=Share

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