thomas fitzgerald.net

Scott Kelby’s latest in book in his long running series of “Down and Dirty Tricks” is now available, and now for Photoshop CS4. If you’re into Photoshop at all I suggest getting a copy of this book if any of the previous versions are anything to go by. I’ve just ordered my copy anyway !

In my previous articles on this subject, I did my best to give you a reasonably objective opinion on the relative merits of each programme, however, I will admit that as I am an Aperture user, and I have preferred Aperture for a long time, I think that I was a little biased in that direction. However, recently I have started to give Lightroom another look for my full workflow, and I have to say, I’m beginning to see that maybe it might be the better choice for me after all.

I’ve been trying out the trial versions of the various Cs4 Apps for a while trying to determine if it’s worth getting the upgrade and as I approach the end of my trial period I hate to say it, but I really can’t recommend it to anyone, especially Photoshop. In fact, until Adobe addresses some of the major bugs I would go so far as to strongly advise against it. There are some seriously annoying things which have driven me to distraction. My two favorite though have to do with the windowing system.

I’ve been playing around with the trial version of CS4 for the last few days, and I have to say, it’s pretty terrible. Sorry Adobe, but I can’t sugar coat it. It’s a terrible upgrade. They moved a bunch of stuff around for no particular reason. They got rid of some things, like twain support. Why? For the love of god why? And then there’s the inertia thing when you’re panning around an image. What the hell is that about? If you’re panning an image and let go of the mouse without bringing your cursor to a complete stop first it will keep going and slowly stop. It’s a complete and utter pain and serves no purpose what so ever other than to show off. And what’s with the drop shadow on the image area? And why do adjustment layers seem to turn on and off when I zoom in or pan around. The list goes on and on. I love Photoshop but CS4 is just crap. It’s no wonder no one is upgrading.

Ever since Adobe Lightroom shipped there has been a long running debate as to which was the better piece of software for managing your photos, Adobe’s Lightroom or Apple’s Aperture. Apple actually started the “Photography Workflow Tool” race with Aperture. While many billed it as a professional version of iPhoto, it was a whole new class of application. Just as Aperture introduced the world to this concept, Adobe jumped into the fray with their own tool, Photoshop Lightroom. Since then the two have been battling it out as the workflow tool of choice for the professional and advanced amateur. Deciding between the two however has not been easy. Both offer distinct advantages and both approach the concept differently. Adobe has the largest market share (more on that later), but Apple has the more mature application. Choosing between these two applications is a struggle that I have raged over back and forth for much time, and I still have difficulty reaching a firm conclusion. What follows then, is not a direct feature for feature comparison of both programs but rather a discussion of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each application.

Here’s a couple of thing’s I’ve been pondering all day.

Why have Microsoft been hyping the crap out of their xbox 360 sales numbers over the last couple of weeks. It seems like every other day they’re putting out a press release saying how great they are. Could it be that they know that the price drop on an aging system will only work so long and they want to make the most of it while they can?

Adobe screws users in Europe for no reason once again. Lightroom, Electronic Download US $299. In Europe it costs €301 which is $468 roughly. Same product, no shipping, just a serial number. So in Adobe’s world living on one side of the atlantic makes electrons more expensive? And they wonder why there’s rampant piracy?

Why Adobe, Why?

Adobe’s John Nack shows off some welcome changes to the UI in the next version of Photoshop and tries to offset some potential criticism from diehard apple fans. I don’t think they’ve anything to worry about, most of the changes seem logical and if anything long overdue. It’s good to see Adobe moving away from the “paletosis” that previous versions in the past have suffered from.