Excitement 4 Photoshop CS4

Are you ready for something brilliant? Say hello to Photoshop CS4.

This is not a news flash. Photoshop CS4 has already been seen on thousands of blog posts. My purpose here is more reflective.

So, it’s almost official: all things CS4 will be revealed on the 23rd of September 2008. Notice how I said “revealed” not “released”. This is because the 23rd is when Adobe will actually only be telling us when we will have the privilege of plopping down our hard earned cash on whichever configuration suits our business and creative needs. (By the way, it looks like my predictions from the 16th of July weren’t far off… read here.)

To be honest, I’m a bit apprehensive about this new version, or any new version for that matter. There are parts of Photoshop CS3 Extended that I haven’t even completely explored. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying I won’t be placing my order on the 23rd if I can; I just don’t know exactly what to be excited about. Keep in mind that, as a member of the Adobe Partner Connection, I have already been teased by the wizards at Adobe with a stack of new goodies. What’s more, Deke says there are even more that we haven’t seen. (Note to self: ‘Does he work for Adobe?’)

The question now is: What new tool will I use everyday? What new feature will make it painful to even consider using the old CS3? I just don’t know. So I don’t know what to be excited about. Right now it’s all media hype drummed up by Adobe and I probably won’t know what I’m excited about until I’ve had my hands on a real shipping product for a few weeks.

What I do know is that there will be truly exciting goodies in there. Take Photoshop CS3: the Quick Selection Tool in combination with the Refine Edge palette has completely changed how I make selections. Even then I didn’t realize the power in this tool pallet combination until Dave Cross demonstrated it at Photoshop World Vegas 2007, explaining how the tool really works for you. For example, once I understood that it’s looking for edges when I drag around my image, a light bulb came on.

The point of all this is that I reserve my excitement for the moment, but at the same time I have no doubt that I will find excitement. Most likely buried somewhere I least expect to find it.

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Keywords: Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS3, Creative Suite, Refine Edge, Quick Selection Tool

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