First Look (Photoshop CS6) Part II

Properties panel

A new Properties panel now houses both adjustment layer (shown below) and mask properties. This new panel can be resized by dragging its bottom right edge.

Clicking on a New Adjustment Layer icon in the Adjustments panel (left) automatically populates the Properties panel (right) with the relevant adjustment layer.

Video support

In CS6, the image adjustment tools used for still images are all available for use with video files.

With CS6, Photoshop's support for video files has been considerably expanded. You can add and mute audio tracks, create transitions and fades, use the Text tool and perform all of the standard Photoshop edits on a video file. File format support for both importing and exporting video is handled by Adobe Media Encoder, the same engine behind Adobe Premiere, the company's flagship video editing program. And unlike in CS5, where video support is limited to Photoshop Extended, all of this capability will be available in both versions of Photoshop CS6.

Oil Paint filter

A new Oil Paint filter allows you to quickly apply a painterly effect to a photographic image. The filter opens in a separate full size window. Brush and Lighting parameters can be adjusted with a real-time preview of their effects. You can access the tool by going to Filter>Oil Paint filter.

Here you can see before and after results using the new Oil Paint filter at relatively conservative settings.

Auto color correction settings

The algorithms behind the Auto settings of image adjustment tools have been updated in CS6. In Curves and Levels a new (and now default) option, 'Enhance Brightness and Contrast' has been added. With this option selected, Photoshop will analyze the scene and make image-dependent adjustments.

A new default option (highlighted in red) makes image dependent composite RGB adjustments.	With the Curves tool, the Auto option places points on the curve where adjustments have been made.

In addition, selecting this option for Curves actually places points on the curve so that users can quickly start fine-tuning the automated adjustment. An image-dependent Auto option has been added to the Brightness/Contrast tool as well.

Adaptive Wide Angle correction

Photoshop gets a new tool to cope with lens distortion in the form of an Adaptive Wide Angle filter. The tool's primary uses are for minimizing the effect of fisheye lenses and correcting distortion in panoramas.

This image was shot with a fisheye lens.

The Adaptive Wide Angle filter recognizes the lens used (1), based on image EXIF, and automatically sets its correction mode to the Fisheye option (2).

While the image still contains curved lines, the filter has reduced the distortion in the subject at the center of the image.

Type styles

In CS6 Adobe has given Photoshop users full featured paragraph and character style sheets that offer the typesetting capabilities of InDesign, the company's professional page layout software. You access the panels for both paragraph and character styles by going to Window>Paragraph Styles. After creating a new style you can double-click it to open the options window shown below.

One of the greatest benefits of using type styles comes when you need to change an attribute like font size or color, for example. No matter how many text layers your document contains, if they all share the same style, you can simply modify the style and the changes will automatically be applied to every text layer.

You can create and edit text attributes using individual styles that can be applied to any text layer with a single click. You can also modify attributes via the text layer itself and use those changes to 'redefine' or update the style sheet associated with the text.

Character styles allow you to specify parameters for individual characters instead of an entire paragraph. Any settings not explicitly defined in a character style follow those defined by the paragraph style.

Printing UI

Photoshop's printing interface has undergone a redesign in CS6. The functionality is the same as the previous version but some of the options have been shifted around a bit. Controls are now displayed along the right side of the dialog window and organized into separate panels. You can expand a panel by clicking anywhere on its name, not just on the triangle icon next to it. The text is significantly larger and page margins are simulated in the print preview.

The new print settings window can be sized by dragging on the bottom right edge. You can also click the green expand icon in the upper left (on a Mac) to make the window expand to the full dimensions of the screen. Here the window is expanded to show all of the available panels.

To be continued : Part III
Enjoy. Artzz Luv