First Look (Photoshop CS6) Part III

Color Range: Skin tones and face detection

When you go to Select>Color Range in CS6, there is a new option to make a selection based on skin tones. In addition, there is a Detect Faces checkbox that recognizes facial arrangements in order to fine tune the selection.

In CS6 a large database of skin tones of various ethnicities is used to identify portions of the image that are likely to be exposed skin. In the dialog box shown here, the white areas indicate the selection made by the Skin Tones option with Detect Faces enabled.

ACR 7

ACR 7 is included with the Photoshop CS6 beta. Its Basic panel controls have seen a significant change from the previous version.

Adobe has always maintained parity between the image processing capabilities of Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). The latest processing engine (known as Process Version 2012) that introduced new control sliders to the Develop module of Lightroom 4, arrive in version 7 of ACR. A more detailed explanation of these changes and how they will affect your workflow, is included in our Lightroom 4 review.

Crop Tool

OK, it's not a brand new feature or even a particularly sexy one, but the crop tool is undoubtedly one of the items you use most often (be honest). In CS6 it's gotten some important updates. The first thing you'll notice is that upon selecting the crop tool (C), a crop is automatically drawn around the entire image; a huge time-saver for those who often perform relatively subtle crops from an image's edges. In behavior that is distinctly Lightroom-esque, dragging with the mouse now moves the image around the crop boundary, rather than moving the crop boundary around the image. You can choose a Classic mode option to revert to the old behavior.

Options for controlling the crop tool's behavior are now primarily located in two pulldown menus. In the menu on the left you can choose from a number of preset crop ratios or create your own.	Two options that have previously been available in but are now easier to find are the straighten and delete/hide pixels options (highlighted in red).

Though few users realize it, you've long had the ability to set the crop tool to hide, rather than delete pixels. Yet this option was not available on image files consisting only of a Background layer. In CS6, choosing the hide option (by unchecking the Delete Cropped Pixels box) will automatically convert the Background layer to an unlocked layer.

Photoshop CS6 JDIs

In this latest release, Adobe has continued its focus on JDI (Just Do It) enhancements. Based on user feedback and requests, these are relatively small, but productivity-enhancing changes that Photoshop's engineer's are allowed to take time out of the normal development cycle to implement. Users of the public beta will come across more than 50 such enhancements, so we've provided a JDI list organized by category.

Category	JDI	Notes
Brushes	Option for HUD brush vertical movement to adjust opacity instead of hardness	Enable this change in Preferences
	Maximum brush size increased to 5000px
	Change color dynamics to per stroke instead of per tip	User can revert to old behavior
	Brightness/contrast slider for textures when painting
	Brush projection for static tips
	Brush cursor reflects brush dynamics for round and captured tips
Eyedropper	Show the sample size popup for the various eyedropper tools
	Option to ignore adjustment layers for the eyedropper tool	New menu item in the Options bar pulldown
	New mode for eyedropper to select layers current and below	New menu item in the Options bar pulldown
File Formats	Read common stereo image pair formats (JPS, PNS)
	Allow for more bit depths in TIFF files
	Read BIGTIFF format
	Give the user choices regarding how they want transparency treated in OpenEXR on file open
Grammar	Standardized grammar throughout app
	Use consistent grammar style in the title of dialog windows	No commands such as 'Choose a color:'
Layers	Added a contextual menu item that deletes a layer effect instead of just disabling it
	Added dither options to Layer Styles for Gradient Overlay and Gradient Stroke
	Keyboard shortcut of 00 to set layer opacity to 0%	Use Shift+00 to set fill opacity to 0%
	Added bicubic sharper & bicubic smoother options when free transforming layers
	Allow changing of blend modes for multiple layers simultaneously
	Allow locking of multiple layers
	Allow Cmd+J to duplicate layers and layer group
	Allow changing of color labels for multiple layers simultaneously
	Layer tooltips to include layer name	Works only if a name is defined
	Opt+click on toggle arrows (groups and effects) in layer panel to close all targets
	Show blend if/Blending Effects badge on layer
	Show correct opacity and blend mode values for hidden layers
	Tab goes to next layer on inline layer rename, Shift+Tab goes to previous
	New command to raster layer effect into layer, merging the selected layers into themselves
	Reorder effects in the layers palette to match the Z-­­order style/blend mode
Liquify	Resize Liquify brush with shortcuts
	Increased maximum Liquify brush size and added option to load last mesh
Presets	Added new document presets for common devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad, etc.)
	Added new Gradient Map presets for toning and split-toning
	Sticky reorganization of tool presets	Changes maintained after re-launch
	Added Contact Sheet II as an Automation option
SDK	Added the ability to return an array of guides in a document from the scripting SDK
	Added the ability to access the tool name associated with the tool preset name via scripting
Selections	Marquee, lasso, and mask panel feather values support decimal places	Matches the feather dialog
	Remember feather radius when showing dialog for selection from a path
Transform	Improved dragging of vector curves
	Don't hide smart object icon when transforming a layer
	Undo or disable auto-­­rotate on open
UI	Removed the app bar and reduced the size of the drag/app bar by more than 30%
	Windows: New/open document options added to context click on a document tab	Previously a Mac-only feature
	Added 'Don't show again' checkbox to Purge warnings
Miscellaneous	Enabled Split Channels for documents with layers
	Select Hex field by default and allow clipboard pastes with '#' in contents	Cannow use #fffffff for example
	Increased GPU stability by prequalifying GPUs on the fly before use
	Auto-­­select the best resample method based on the type of resize
	Enabled Invert and Threshold adjustments for masks in 32 -­­bit
	Holding Shift during startup disables 3rd party plugins
	Added warning message that 16 ­­bit images cannot display their file size in the Save as JPEG dialog

There's clearly a lot to explore in the Photoshop CS6 beta, even if you just look at the photography-related features. This is a beta process, however, so if you find a new tool that makes your jaw drop, wish Adobe had done things differently or have discovered a bug, make your voice heard on the CS6 beta feedback forum.  It's your chance to help shape the final CS6 release.

Noise slider in Color Layer Style

It’s common to add a small amount of noise to add texture to a surface. There are other ways to solve this problem, but an additional noise slider in the Color Layer Style would be handy. Please note that this feature wouldn’t be as crucial if Layer Style reordering was possible, because the Pattern Layer Style could be used for adding noise and texture.

Text Editing in Photoshop

You’ll now have the ability to edit blocks of text, paragraphs and open type, justification and more. It’s now easy to move through the document with Styles. Set up whichever styles you like, naming them thusly, then hitting each block of text as you want it edited. This should make basic text editing of large blocks of text one whole heck of a lot easier in Photoshop.

Video 

 Expanded far beyond what Photoshop was able to do with video, this feature allows you to work just as intuitively as you’ve been working with such apps as iMovie in the past. Photoshop photo effects work on videos as well, so you’ll be able to move into editing videos as easily as possible, you Photoshop guru you.

Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt Shift

These types of blurs have popular recently and people were using a combination of blur filters and layer masks to create it. It’s easier than ever in CS6 with dedicated filters for these blur effects.

The new blur filters

Screenshot of the new blur filters

Smarter layer names when merging

When merging layers, the top layer’s name is used for the result. It would be really nice if the topmost layer with a non-“Layer n” (where n is a number) name was used, keeping the topmost user-entered layer name. As it stands today, merging layers usually requires retyping in the layer name straight afterwards.

System requirements

The minimum system requirements for Photoshop have changed, particularly for Mac users. Photoshop CS6 does not support 32-bit Macs. You must be running a 64-bit Intel processor and OS 10.6 or higher (read this Apple support document to determine whether your Mac has a 64-bit processor). On the Windows side, minimum requirements are Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 2, Windows 7, or Windows 8.
Photoshop CS6 uses its Monaco Engine to leverage the video card's GPU for many more tasks than in previous versions. Therefore the suggested minimum amount of memory for video cards is 512MB of VRAM.

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