Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended from Adobe Systems Incorporated and My Guitar from eMedia Music Corporation
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended from Adobe Systems Incorporated
By Howard Berenbon
A Little History
Adobe Photoshop is by far the most famous and most widely used professional photo manipulation program available for the personal computer, PC and Macintosh. It was developed in 1987 as a project of Thomas Knoll, a PhD student in computer science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1988 Adobe Systems licensed the software from Knoll and it was introduced as the first Adobe Photoshop for the Macintosh. It wasn’t until November of 1992 that the Windows version was released. With about a dozen revisions under its belt, the most recent, Photoshop CS3, is now a multi function, multimedia graphics program that anyone can use, from the beginner graphics enthusiast, to film, video and multimedia professionals.
What Can Photoshop Do
Basically, Photoshop, in all its versions, allows you to take a photo and modify the way it looks, and then when it’s what you want, you place it back into the appropriate page in your desktop publishing program, or Website design editor, and publish away. If it’s blurry, you can sharpen it, if it’s too dark, you can lighten. You can crop it, cut parts out, merge other photos into it, add text, change the shape of all or part of it, change color and contrast and even make your photo into a work of art. Filters included, or plugins you add, let you work wonders with even mediocre looking photos or art. Ordinary pictures and graphics can become extraordinary if you know what you’re doing with the tools provided. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can learn.
Photoshop has evolved into Photoshop Creative Suite 3 and Creative Suite 3 Extended. CS3 is more for professional photographers, amateur photographers, graphic designers and Website designers. Creative Suite 3 Extended is more for commercial graphics applications for film and video professionals, designers using 3D and animation, manufacturers and medical professionals, architects, engineers and scientific researchers. Both versions include Video Workshop on a separate DVD with about 250 video tutorials offering help for any level of experience, from beginner to advanced, for print, Web and video professionals.
Installation
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended installs from a single CD in about 15 minutes (this varies depending on the speed of your computer and if you’re upgrading from an older version). Once installed, you’ll have access to the main menu with all the available features, which includes an excellent Help menu with several How To sub menus leading to a few dozen detailed tutorials including How to Create Web Images, How to Fix and Enhance Photos, How to Work with Color, How to Work with Layers and Selections and How to Work with Type, all the Photoshop basics you’ll need to know. And, there’s a link to more help online.
Features and Improvements
Photoshop CS3 has a new, streamlined interface with self-adjusting docks and workspace presets.
As mentioned above, Video Workshop offers many useful video tutorials. They include instruction on using and aligning layers, making selections, applying smart filters and printing photos. And the videos are also available online at http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_videotutorials, with new ones added periodically.
Adobe Bridge CS3 is an important inclusion to Photoshop because it allows you to browse and manage your images, vector graphics, layouts, animations, video clips and text files.
Now offers improved print control and color management, with better print preview features.
Can create artwork to display on cell phones and mobile devices, and then preview how your work would appear on those devices.
Camera Raw allows you to process raw data from more than 150 digital cameras and apply raw processing to JPEG and TIFF files.
Fluid and fast image editing with live filters, more precise color correction, easier black-and-white conversion, and more powerful cloning and healing tools
Improved composite technology with automatic layer alignment and blending capabilities, and easier selections
Refine edge feature
Photomerge with advanced alignment blending
Smart Filters preserve image data as you enhance images with flexible, nondestructive smart filters.
3D and motion support with the ability to edit 3D content and add it into 2D compositions, and paint and clone over multiple video frames
Vanishing point with 3D support
Motion graphics and video layers enhancements for Photoshop Extended
Movie paint frame editing enhancements
Comprehensive image analysis with new image measurement and counting tools
Access to Adobe Stock Photos with over a million royalty free photos from 23 top stock photo collections, and it’s searchable
Resources
Adobe Design Center offers online articles and instruction from industry experts, top designers and Adobe publishing partners.
Adobe Development Center offers samples, tutorials, articles and resources for developers who build Internet Web sites. Also includes resources for developers who create plugins.
Plugins are small software programs that extend or add features to Photoshop. Some are installed with Photoshop and others may be added later.
Presets include useful tools, preferences, effects and images installed as a part of Photoshop.
Templates are included to help start your various products, and can be opened and viewed with Adobe Bridge.
The installation or content DVD includes The Goodies folder with templates, images, presets, actions and effects, plus subfolders for fonts and stock photos.
Adobe exchange at http://www.adobe.com/go/exchange offers free content from users who develop and share software developed for Adobe products.
Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite® 3 Extended version sells for $952.49 and is available for the IBM PC or compatible, Pentium 4 or higher, running Microsoft Windows XP with 512MB RAM, 64 MB Video RAM, 1 GB Hard Disk space, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7 for multimedia features. It’s also available for the Apple Macintosh Power PC G4 or higher processor, OS Xv.10.4.8, 512 MB RAM, 64MB video RAM, 2GB hard disk space, 1024x768 monitor resolution, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7. The Mac version sells for $1,072.39. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.
If you’re a multimedia professional, and need a powerful integrated program for manipulating graphics for your business or profession, then you’ll benefit from Photoshop CS3 Extended.
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Ave
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
URL http://www.adobe.com
800-833-6687
My Guitar from eMedia Music Corporation
By Becky Berenbon
After receiving My Guitar by eMedia in the mail, I decided to try it out and take a hand at the guitar.
Following a quick and easy installation, I was greeted by a cheerful talking guitar named Gary. It taught me the basics, like the parts of the guitar, how to tune it, and how to hold it. Soon enough I began my first lesson, and started to learn a few simple chords. In no time, I was strumming Frere Jacques.
Helpful tools like the tuner, metronome, recorder, and "chord dictionary" are nicely take advantage of the virtual setting. Plus, clear videos of instructors playing the chords show you the fingering in an alternate way. You can choose to play along with the pre-recorded song before trying it out alone, or follow the animated finger charts. Also, during "game time," you are shown a note name and must quickly select the appropriate fingering that goes along with it. It was actually very helpful for me to memorize the notes.
I was slightly disappointed with the length of the course- I would have enjoyed learning more chords and such. However, this might be because it is targeted to lower ages, specifically 6 and up, and is perfect for an introduction to guitar. I enjoyed this quick primer, and definitely recommend the program.
My Guitar from eMedia is available for $29.95 for the PC or Mac. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.
eMedia Music Corporation
664 NE Northlake Way
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206-329-5657
URL: http://www.emediamusic.com
Program Requirements
Pentium II PC
Windows 98/2000/NT/Me/XP/Vista
64 MB of free RAM, CD-ROM
CD-ROM drive, sound card, 256+ color display
speakers or headphones
Power PC G3 or better (Intel OK)
Mac OS X 10.1+
64 MB of free RAM, CD-ROM
