Adobe Photoshop CS3: An Overview

This is a review that I wrote for Craft Critique.  It appeared on that blog last month.

I
first stuck my toe in the digital waters about two years ago. I was
largely resistant to digital scrapbooking at that time, because I love
the touch and feel of paper pages way too much to ever give them up!
But, Photoshop Elements had been touted to me as the greatest tool a
digital photographer can have. I had become frustrated with iphoto’s
range of choices and was looking for a more advanced way to edit my
photos.

So, I started fooling around with a free 30-day trial of Photoshop Elements
(PSE). (You can download a full, working version of any of Adobe’s
products for a free 30-day trial.) Despite the fact that PSE is not
exactly intuitive (there is definitely a steep learning curve), I
mucked around and managed to figure some stuff out. So, I bought the
full version ($89.99) and happily edited my photos for about a year.

But once I became comfortable, I wanted more.

So, I started trying to do some digital pages. Just for fun, you understand. Just to see if I could figure it out.

While
I managed to accidentally stumble into some good ideas, I knew I needed
a book to really harness the power of this program. So, I bought Better
Homes and Gardens’ The Ultimate Guide to Digital Scrapbooking because
of a recommendation. I wrote a somewhat angry review of that book here.
That book frustrated me to no end because many of the really “cool”
digital tricks were things that could only be done in the full version
of Photoshop ($649). (I have since learned that you can use PSE for
most things, you just have to be a bit clever about it.)

So, I waited and waited and then a major coupon came my way! I jumped on the opportunity to buy Photoshop CS3 (PS CS3) at a deeply discounted price. And I have been happy as a clam ever since.

I
wanted to share my journey with the program, so that you would know
where I'm coming from. I'm not going to do a "review" of PS CS3, so
much as provide you with an overview of what the program can do for us
crafters. Here are just a few of the ways you can use Photoshop CS3
(and Photoshop Elements)…

BASIC FLASH ANIMATION

This
is something that you can do in both PSE and PS CS3, but it’s not
something that most people realize. If you’re planning on doing a lot
of animation, you should buy a program like Flash. But for the
occasional fun item, like the blinkie below, Photoshop does a great job!

PHOTO EDITING

Again,
you can edit your photos in many, many programs. And both PSE and PS
CS3 can do amazing things to photos. I edit all my photos in Photoshop
before printing them. Check out this amazing before and after…

I actually did that in PSE before I bought Photoshop CS3, but it's a dramatic change, so I wanted to share it!

DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING

Photoshop makes it quick and easy to create beautiful digital scrapbook pages. Here’s a recent page of mine:

HYBRID SCRAPBOOKING

And
if you’re not sure you want to go all digi, you can always use
Photoshop to help you with your hybrid (mixture of paper and digi)
scrapbook pages. Check out my layout below:

I altered the photos and printed them onto transparencies.

CREATE YOUR OWN DIGITAL KITS

I
have just recently started creating my own digital kits. Check out the
kit preview below. I created the papers, embellishments, and even the
preview itself in Photoshop CS3!

Everything
that I've shown you so far can be accomplished in both PSE and PS CS3.
So, here are two of the features that I love about PS CS3:

PATHS

The
ability to create paths is one of the major reasons I decided to
upgrade. (You cannot create paths in PSE.) Without getting too
technical on you, a path is a vector line. And for crafters, one of the
things we love about vector lines is that text will follow the line. In
the example below, you can see that I’ve drawn a swirl shape, created a
path, and now the text automatically follows that line!

Paths
can also create a closed space which text will automatically fill. You
can see in the example below that I drew a wonky tree shape and then
typed my text. I didn’t hit “return” a single time. The path forces the
text into the correct shape!

Here’s
a digital layout where you can see that I used a path to get my
journaling to fit on my page exactly. I traced the edge of the flowers
and the edges of the page, created a path, and then just typed in my
journaling! So easy!

ACTIONS

Actions
are one of the coolest things around. Actions allow you to press a
single button to complete a very complex task – anything from resizing
a photo to inking the edge of an element. There are many sites out
there that sell actions (many of which work in PSE, not just PS CS3).
But, the only way to create your own actions is through PS CS3. For
example, I love to take photos with my iphone, but I often find that
the photos are somewhat dark and lifeless. So, I created an “iphone
action” which makes several adjustments to the photo and all I do is
touch a button.

This feature saves me lots and lots of time!

This
is just the tip of the iceberg. Photoshop CS3 is a professional level
program. In all honesty, I probably use a tenth of its power. If you’ve
never used Photoshop before, I highly suggesting downloading the free
30 day trial of Photoshop Elements. You should also buy a book or take
a class because the learning curve can be very steep. If you find
yourself using it a lot, then I highly recommend Photoshop CS3. I
rarely digi scrap without using both paths and actions, two things
found only in the professional level program.

A
note about Mac vs. PC. Adobe develops for PC first, so the Mac version
(particularly of Photoshop Elements) is a bit behind the PC version.
Also, for some reason Adobe has created different interfaces for Mac
and PC, so the screenshots and commands don’t always look the same.
Even more frustrating, some of the Mac versions of PSE are missing
things that are in the PC version. So when you buy a book or take a
class, be sure that the author or instructor acknowledges these
differences.