Exploring CS5

Holy toledo! I just discovered vignetting (lens correction). Wow!

Content aware fill is pretty cool too!

Is lens correction different from the one in CS4? I use it quite often (still have CS4) and wondered if it could be a lot more handy to use...What other major enhancements you regard as indispensable now?

I'm finally learning the ins and outs of layers, thanks to The Missing Manual.

ouch I touth you were talking about Photoshop (the book is about Flash) sorry!

if you were talking about the Photoshop book, can you tell me if they talk about displacement map?
If yes I think I'll order it.
(note to Doug, it's not a joke anymore, I am GENUINELY interested by this tool)

Sandrine Bascouert said:

if you were talking about the Photoshop book, can you tell me if they talk about displacement map?
If yes I think I'll order it.
(note to Doug, it's not a joke anymore, I am GENUINELY interested by this tool)

Click to expand...

Hi Sandrine,

What is it that you think/hope to achieve with it? All it does is displace pixels in a horizontal or vertical direction based on a recipe in a grayscale map. It could be used e.g. for deforming an image of a tatoo for blending on a bare arm, or for things that can be mathematically defined e.g. lens or projection distortion.

Maybe newer tools, like "liquify" and "puppet warp" are better suited for your purpose?

Cheers,
Bart

Bart_van_der_Wolf said:

Hi Sandrine,

What is it that you think/hope to achieve with it? All it does is displace pixels in a horizontal or vertical direction based on a recipe in a grayscale map. It could be used e.g. for deforming an image of a tatoo for blending on a bare arm, or for things that can be mathematically defined e.g. lens or projection distortion.

Maybe newer tools, like "liquify" and "puppet warp" are better suited?

Cheers,
Bart

Click to expand...

As I don't know about puppet warp, I cannot tell...
I might be interested about the way the tool reacts with non grayscale images (with the red/green channels)
I mainly use the filter to make realistic shadows in compositing.
I always had problems with it and I hate playing the dummy that follow the tuts, not achieving the results, not understanding anything.
But I admit I'm not a tech nerd like you (or Doug) are. ;-)

Oops! The link should have gone to a book called Photshop CS5: The Missing Manual.

Hi, Sandrine,

Sandrine Bascouert said:

(note to Doug, it's not a joke anymore . . .

Click to expand...

Oh, well, it was a great joke, though.

I actually didn't know there was such a thing.

But as I poke around, it seems quite fabulous.

Here's one very interesting example of its use:

http://www.heathrowe.com/displace.aspx

Now, what about the Invert Nose tool?

Best regards,

Doug

OK, everyone, hold on to your hats: I have a HUGE announcement to make.

Are you ready?


I HAVE LAYERS! I GOT IT! Wooohooooooo! I understand how to use layers and masks now.

Hi, Rachel,

Rachel Foster said:

OK, everyone, hold on to your hats: I have a HUGE announcement to make.

Are you ready?

I HAVE LAYERS! I GOT IT! Wooohooooooo! I understand how to use layers and masks now.

Click to expand...

Fabulous!

Onward and upward!

Best regards,

Doug

It may seem silly, but I've struggled with this for years (my photoshop learning has been books and OPF) and it seemed there was always some little step I was missing but I couldn't figure out what it was. Now I got it!

Hi, Rachel,

Rachel Foster said:

It may seem silly, but I've struggled with this for years (my photoshop learning has been books and OPF) and it seemed there was always some little step I was missing but I couldn't figure out what it was. Now I got it!

Click to expand...

It so often works out that way. Sadly, often authors and lecturers never recognize what the missing piece will be and illuminate it. After all, they know how the thing works.

Often, it is the basic concept - what I often call, when I discuss this matter in my own lectures, as a change of pace, "The missing chapter 0: 'What's Going on Here?' "

Some years ago, a colleague in DC encouraged me to learn to use Ventura Publisher to prepare my course notes books. One Friday, while I was in the district over a weekend, I was invited to his home to share seder. Afterwards he said, "Want to learn how to Use Ventura Publisher?" I said sure. We went up to his home office.

Now Ventura Publisher uses a wholly different approach to a document than a word processor, and many books and "lectures" on Ventura forget to really illuminate that. They just start out with how to do this and that, but unless you know that this is cricket and not baseball, it often doesn't come together. But my colleague illuminated that first.

After that, the rest came so easily. When I got back to Dallas, I was able to sit down and construct my first document in Ventura quite easily.

Best regards,

Doug

I've long felt that if I could just see someone do it, I'd get it. The problem is that everyone is so busy, when I get together with people who know how to used photoshop, other things are more important.

HI! this was the same with me...Long ago I had Photoshop 1.5 on a friend's computer* (16 diskettes, can you see that?) no layers. But I could see no point in retouching photographs at that time. Alongside he had Illustrator (can't remember the version...) Great piece of software. After 1 week of self teaching, I managed to make some logos for local bands, a bit of leaflets and so on. Then I went in another place for work, lost my friend and forgot all about this. Once We had a weird Fuji machine that allowed every customer to make its own enlargements by scanning a photo and make simple croppings, color changing and so on. On the computer attached there was the ancestor of Elements**, plenty of layers...Couldn't understand the point of this, but now I wanted to retouch those photos...What the hell is that!!! And for some reasons, another friend of mine explained it to me with some sheets of acetate with transparent one/translucent one/rubilith covered one...Hallelujah! It then took me one more week to start doing basic things in PS, and 15 more years to say to myself "oh great, you're doing something valuable with Photoshop". Made the same test with Illustrator CS4 and still waiting for my man (tudududu....) and to say hallelujah again....waiting. This software has became a piece of entertainment for masochists. I can still make some logos, but struggle with the layers behaviour and some very simple tasks. I wish it could have stayed the same as in 1995. To make long story short. I would be happy to be the one that takes the time as now, I think I know that simple explanations are required to explain complicated notions. But unfortunately, miles are against us .



* Around 1995.
** can't remember the name now, might be in 1999.


PS: Don't consider yourself free...You got the pen tool now, waiting for you.

As for the color reference images in the displacement map filter:
Found that
http://photoshopcontest.com/tutorials/26/displacement-water.html

With aquite good example of what I think it could be done with the DM but not with a liquify. Maybe worth another thread now, don't know...