CS3 v. CS5 - Any reason to upgrade?

**rdenney** · 1-Dec-2010, 08:19

Okay, stupid question time (since the thread has wandered around anyway): What does Lightroom do that Photoshop does not do?

Rick "whose computer is so old that Bridge takes days to catalog large folders of large files" Denney

**Kirk Gittings** · 1-Dec-2010, 13:27

The LR vs. PS question is a large issue Rick. Maybe in a new thread?

As per why CAF is so effective? One example. In architectural photography we are always having to clean up a plethora of human detritus like chewing gum smudges on sidewalks in front of what otherwise may be a pristine facade on a building. When the blob is on or near a seam in the sidewalk, 9 times out of 10 you can simply straddle the seam with the brush and CAF will erase the smudge AND fill in the seam too. Previous tools like the clone stamp involved aligning the source along with seam and then cloning it-works great but is slower. OR if you used the old CS4 Spot Healing Brush it would remove the smudge AND that portion of the seam. I.E. CAF saves time and does a good job.

**Ben Syverson** · 1-Dec-2010, 13:55

Adobe is still the only game in town... There are cute little image editors for the Mac, but try opening a 1 gig film scan.

CS5 is actually a very significant upgrade on the Mac, although most of the changes are invisible. This is the very first version of Photoshop to be implemented in Cocoa, which is the native API for the Mac, rather than Carbon, which was basically a backward-compatibility API for OS9 applications. The implications are mostly good, and definitely far-reaching.

With that said, any upgrade should be weighed against your immediate needs.

**sanking** · 1-Dec-2010, 15:46

Originally Posted by Ben Syverson

CS5 is actually a very significant upgrade on the Mac, although most of the changes are invisible. This is the very first version of Photoshop to be implemented in Cocoa, which is the native API for the Mac, rather than Carbon, which was basically a backward-compatibility API for OS9 applications. The implications are mostly good, and definitely far-reaching.

I did not own CS4 but CS5, in 64 bit with Snow Leopard, is way, way faster than CS3. This makes huge difference in working with very large files.

Sandy

**Ben Syverson** · 1-Dec-2010, 17:11

Originally Posted by sanking

I did not own CS4 but CS5, in 64 bit with Snow Leopard, is way, way faster than CS3. This makes huge difference in working with very large files.

Indeed. You can actually fit a whole scan into RAM, which is a big deal.

**jonathan_lipkin** · 4-Dec-2010, 19:06

Two things:
1. The improved noise reduction and sharpening tools are worth the price of an upgrade for me.
2. Rick, in short, LR is an image cataloging program combined with the image processing from Adobe Camera Raw. It's targeted primarily at DSLR shooters who need extensive keywording and searching capabilities. I've used it for years and it is a highly sophisticated and well-designed program, though it may not be the right tool for a LF shooter. You can download a demo and play around with it. Be sure to render 1:1 previews. It takes some time, but will speed up the program once that's done.

**Ed Richards** · 4-Dec-2010, 20:17

Kirk hit what I was looking for - personal work with scanned B&W. Lightroom is great for organizing my images and simple processing for digital files. I use DXO for serious processing for the digital. I can also drop into PS if I really need to. But for scanned black and white I am not going for those really clean images that Kirk needs, and I can use healing brush and clone stamp for the dust and fibers I have to clean up after scanning. I am pretty good with sharpening, being an acolyte of Bruce Frasier tempered with Qimage, so new sharpening tools are less interesting to me.