In our ongoing coverage of the CS3 Beta we now get to the main show, Photoshop. In this part, we examine Cloning, Healing, Performance, Blending Modes and Brightness/Contrast.
Cloning and Healing
The new Clone Source Palette is a great help and extends the functionality of cloning and healing in an efficient way. It puts nice numerical values in view (and for change), which is immensely helpful for certain cloning tasks, allows rotation and scaling, several clone sources to be defined, a visible overlay and more. Plus there is more functionality in the tool options bar.
Performance
Even for a Beta, CS3 is an improvement over CS2. Bridge is much faster generating thumbnails and Photoshop seems generally snappier.
Blending modes
Old and New
Two new blending modes join the mix, Lighter Color and Darker Color, which fairly obviously choose either the lighter or darker color out of the layer choice. I haven’t personally figured out how I will use these in my own work, but more options are always welcome.
Lighter Color
Darker Color
Brightness/Contrast
The old Brightness/Contrast in CS2
The Brightness/Contrast adjustment now stops you from clipping the highlights or shadows, which was all too easy to do in CS2. This is useful for photographic images, where you rarely want to do this. The old way of doing this is just a check box away if you want it.
The new Brightness/Contrast in CS3 Beta