Adobe Photoshop CS6 [Download]

One of a rarely mentioned improvement are the lasso tools. They are now pointers rather than droppers- much more easy to make fine selections. The improved speed and loading speed are time savers. Bridge is much more essential; I did not use prior versions but work with this version of bridge as it is much more versatile and useful. This is the version we have been waiting decades for. Photoshop finally got there! I upgraded from CS5 extended to CS6 (not extended) and it was well worth the money.

I am newish to digital photography. I have used Lightroom 3 for the past 6 months. LR is a great product for image management and ‘regular’ edits such as contrast, exposure , noise reduction etc.

However, there are times when more advanced adjustments are useful, such as contrast masking, that are much easier in Photoshop. There are also much more advanced processes in masking, that I am still to learn.

However, even for the short while that I have used PS6, it has been very useful and fun to use. I see some complaining about bugs etc in the software, but for me there have been no issues.

I use Windows 7 on a computer with AMD Athlon chip, 4 gig RAM and with a 1 Gig Nvidia series 430 Video Card (PS6 uses GPU graphic processing to speed processing.).

PS 6 also works seamlessly with LR3.

Photoshop is a MUST have program for my work. I create websites, help my husband with his photography by making edits/enhancements, create print materials for education, create & work on illustrations/logos/graphics and more. Photoshop is a workhorse that I can’t live without. (Ok that’s an exaggeration, but insert the word WORK in the place of live and that’s pretty much on target.) Although Lightroom does a lot of great things for photographs and Elements is good for basic graphics creation or something like digital scrapbooking, if you want to really delve into graphics work or go the next step with your photography, Photoshop can’t be beat. It has a steep learning curve for newbies, but is worth the investment. I’m amazed at what I can do & create.

I downloaded the trial for CS6 (and used it heavily over the entire trial period) to see if the improvements over CS5 (which I have) are worth the upgrade. They certainly are and if it wasn’t for the price, which I can’t currently afford, I’d be using CS6. It’s hard to go backwards after getting used to the awesome new things (and look) afforded by CS6.

I’ve been working with Photoshop for 14 years and CS6 is by far the most beautiful upgrade. Now with a sleek, dark gray / black interface, it’s easy on the eyes and finally left that boring light gray behind (although it’s still an option for those of you who like it). The interface changes aren’t just cosmetic. My workflow was greatly improved by all the little changes.

Of course there are plenty of other improvements that make it worth the upgrade. Some of the things in CS6 I like are:

The ability to search layers by all sorts of attributes including name. Sometimes I create graphics that have tons and tons of layers. It could sometimes be a challenge to find the one I wanted to work on. CS6 makes this a lot easier.

Strokes on paths – something I used to have to jump into Illustrator for can now be done in Photoshop.

Improved content aware fill – this is one of my very fave things. I’ve needed something like this so many times and while it was introduced in CS5, it’s 50x better in CS6. Want to erase a power pole that is messing up your otherwise perfect picture? Now you can and in seconds. It’s truly amazing. The improvements CS6 makes to this tool almost make it worth the upgrade alone (for things I find myself frequently working on).

The new crop tool – I love it.

Dummy Latin text – no more having to hop online to grab some text for the website layouts I develop. This is a small and appreciated time saver.

Auto- recovery – It hasn’t happened often, but when it does it’s a disaster. I’ve been working for hours and forgot to save and then the power goes out or my compute freezes or whatever…with auto recovery I have the opportunity to set Photoshop to automatically save my work every so many minutes. Phew! I really like having this extra “safety” feature.

Auto-correction is improved. I used it on some photos and it made a big (and successful) difference without me having to go in and tweak things by hand.

Improved speed – CS6 loads quickly and doesn’t lag as much as CS5 (on my system at least).

Better blur tools with more control – I like the new things you can accomplish with the blur tool – things I wished I could do before but couldn’t without a lot of time invested.

The only negative thing about CS6 (besides the price *cough cough*)is the direction Adobe seems to be trying to go in with the Adobe Creative Cloud nonsense. There are exclusive upgrades to the program that I believe are only available to Creative Cloud members like CSS support (something I’d find very useful when designing websites with Dreamweaver), etc. Perhaps I’m too old fashioned, but I don’t want to subscribe to Photoshop, nor do I want my work on the cloud. Fortunately the buy it and own it option still exists. I can see how the Creative Cloud option would appeal to some who can’t afford a huge initial outlay for Adobe software, those who want the lastest and greatest right away or who work in a lot of different environments and need to access or share created materials more easily. It just doesn’t appeal to me and I hope it doesn’t become the only option in the future.

All in all, I can say that CS6 is a treat to work with and going back to CS5 after the trial ran out was a huge bummer. I was already getting used to using (and LOVING) all the improvements in my workflow and my work. If you can afford it, I highly recommend it.

I’ve been a fan of Adobe “Photoshop” for a long while and CS6 is a great product. It is the standard and there isn’t anything else available, free or not, that can compare. CS6 is, of course, much like it’s predecessor CS5, and as another reviewer noted much of CS6 are tweaks of what was available in CS5. However, there is much that is new too, such as the “Content Aware Move Tool”, and, of course, the interface. And I don’t use it alone, it comes with “Bridge” which I find indispensable. But I also use “Lightroom”, and “NIK” software, as I do “HDRsoft”, they’re complementary. Do yourself a favor and see everything this software offers, at the Adobe website. But, what about the “But!” in the title of this review? Ok, the product is great, but, the price is out of sight, but, what truly does annoy me is the break given by this, and other companies, to “educators and students”. Give me a break, please. Although the upgrade from an earlier version did make this purchase a bit easier to afford.

I had the trial version and became addicted to its ability to manipulate all of the file types I need to use as an amateur photogrpher. This version is so feature laden that it was worth it to quit upgrading the lower cost Photoshop Elements which always was just short of what I needed or wanted and bite the bullet and lay out the big bucks for this overpriced but excellent software. CS6 is the best no doubt so I guess they can get by with the outrageous price. Still getting used to the convoluted help that Adobe provides is another challlenge. Anything that is not understood in the program always involves an hour or two navigating this help, weeding outh the extraneous suggested help etc.

I do like the features hate the learning curve that jumping in to this requires.