New CS5

[john michael white]

Been checking out the new CS5 and it looks pretty tempting, espcially coming from using a combination of DPP, Elements 2.0, and Picture Cooler NR Software.

As far as I can tell, the main advantages of this move for me would be in having the ability to create/use actions, use photoshop plugins that speed up creative effects etc, and the ACR noise reduction software, HDR capability, and content aware function all look pretty sweet.  I just did an outdoor portrait shoot for a friend, and I think CS5 could really have come in handy in cutting down processing time as well as being able to do more creative things to the final images.

Can you create actions in Lightroom?  I think you can run photoshop pulgins in Lightroom? I know Lightroom is supposed to be more of a *workflow* program, and not sure I need that since my system is working o.k. in that regard.

I guess Im trying to decide what to jump to and if CS5 is really as big of a deal as it looks. I don’t think I can take advantage of the 64 bit because my OS is Windows XP and my computer only has 4G of RAM, so what does that mean to me if I were to get CS5?

[kurt budliger]

Lightroom’s version of an action is called a preset.

[dusty montgomery]

I don’t think I can take advantage of the 64 bit because my OS is Windows XP and my computer only has 4G of RAM, so what does that mean to me if I were to get CS5?

JMW,
Above is your problem, and here is the cure:

[john michael white]

Kurt – Thanks for your input and experience.  I guess I am leaning towards something that will give me more creative options, via plugins or actions.  But if I can use these in Lightroom, maybe I don’t need the full fledged photoshop CS5.

BUT, with that said, I am sitting here wishing I had content aware right now.  On the last shoot I did, the family was wearing white shirts, and it was a short walk down a trail in to the field of bluebonnets where we were going to do the shoot.  Right before they got to where I was set up, the four year old fell down and got the front of his white shirt dirty.  It’s time to shoot, golden hour, what can you do?  The front of the shirt will be showing in almost every image.  

To try and clone this out in order for him to have a clean shirt will take about 20 – 30 minutes per image in order for it to look good.  I have a feeling that the content aware feature would fix that dirty shirt in about 15 seconds per image.  That could be golden.  I guess I am just trying to weigh if it is worth it to have this and other features of CS5…

Dusty – That MAC looks sweet.  My excuse? It’s called living within my means ;D 😀  Unfortunately, there are lots of things I would like, but I have to operate on a what gets me the most bang for my buck budget.

[Brian Moffitt]

John,

I’m with Kurt when it comes to Lightroom.  I started using it seriously a few months ago and I now use it probably 75% of the time for all the edits I need to do to any image.  As Kurt noted in lightroom an action is called a Preset and you can even export presets for use by other users.  I currently have probably 20-30 presets created by Matt Klowskoski (lightroomkillertips.com) that I use all the time.

I mostly only use Photoshop now when I’m doing selective color images, or have an issue where I need to do extensive retouching of an image and Lightroom just can’t get me there.  Be sure to check out the Lightroom 3 Beta 2 if you get a chance.  Once you get used to how Lightroom works you’ll be a believer.

I should add that the content aware fill seems to be the single coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time.

[Author]

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