To convert or not to convert that is the question! What are your favourite things about photoshop? What do you use all the time? I would be really interested to hear about the features that people actually use and what makes photoshop special(keep you explanations simple for this dummy!).. For example, I heard that the new CS has the ability to match the tones of two pictures ie. you have your bkg picture - Image 1 and you want to integrate image 2, PS will match the tones for you so you don't have to do this manually - I like the sound of this!!!!

There are too many features I use regularly to name just one or a few. I use as many as I know about. So I guess my favorite thing about Photoshop is that it is SO powerful and feature-packed that I'm constantly finding new ways of doing things and new shortcuts. I'm still on 6.0, so I can only imagine what fun I'd have with CS.

Same here.... I had Corel many years ago, and it was good... then I got Photoshop.... I have used ever since. Of course, there there ARE things I wish it could/would do. LOL I keep Illustrator on the sys as well, because there ARE things that IT can do that you can do in PS, only with difficulty. I think , if I didn't have PS, I would probably have a whole set of programs that I'd have to switch back and forth to, to do some of the things I do. Use most... man that's a hard one... I'm constantly having to resize images in specific ways, as well as making several different colour and toning adjustments, both global and local, in the marquee, or using "lasso". I think, likely, my favourite thing is that I have nearly total control over what, and how things get done. This probably doesn't help much, but there are SO MANY things you can do. By the bye, and I'd address this to everyone, I have CS2, but I keep my copy of 6 on the sys as well... once in a while it REALLY comes in handy. I'd tell everyone, if you upgrade to CS2, keep your old one on the sys, as well. Lou.

I'm with aprilgem on this one. But one of the new features in SC2 I really like and use allot is the Warp Function which, combined with the other edit>transform features allows you to change the perspective of an object you paste in, warp it to the correct proportions, then seamlessly blend the article so that no one can tell you've inserted something that was not there.

The number one reason for Photoshop though is portability.

Back when I used PSP, I sent off an image I did for t-shirt transfers. The shops that I sent the file off to kept asking for it in Photoshop format. I finally found one who could convert the PSP file, but now that I use Photoshop, I never have to worry about such things.

Printers like to use layers by color when silk screening (if you've ever done it by hand you'd really understand this better).

Photoshop is the industry standard, if you plan to do any serious work for commercial purposes, its Photoshop.Say for instance you want to make a texture map for Poser: Poser will allow allot of different image files to be used in textures, including Photoshop, which, makes better renders because the process is lossless, it makes for better renders.

I have Photoshop 7, Painter, PSP and Corel Graphics Suite. I can't name one feature as a favorite, but I always end up using Photoshop simply because it does everything I want to do. It also has the interface I'm most familiar with and comfortable with. I hate the color picking set up in PSP and Corel products. I love the color picker in Photoshop. It's so easy. It's not that I don't use the other programs I have. I do. It's just that Photoshop is so damn good, I always end up making the finished product there. It's a matter of both comfort and control.

What fascinates me about the colour picker is that there are SO many ways.... Lou.

This is very interesting and I think I'll do as you say ... rather than choose, use both PSP and CS2. Someone else mentined the warp feature of CS2 and was very impressed by it so I'd be keen to see this.... Thanks for the feedback guys/gals! Much appreciated

Hey Kath....where's your avatar????

My principle is to use every piece of software you can get your hands on.

My favorite thing about Photoshop: when you do something, you can always go immediately to the Edit menu and choose Fade... which gives you thousands of ways to adjust the action you just made, by adjusting the Amount slider or the Blend mode drop down menu. I use this all the time. I don't use any other programs like PSP or Painter, so I don't know if they have this feature as well.

For just about anything you want to do in Photoshop there are several ways to do it. What one person thinks is the "right" way to do something isn't necessarily the only way. In some cases one way is fast and easy while another way may have more fine-tuning control and settings. LAYERS and MASKING and Adjustment Layers are all very Powerful, editable features that a lot of people never get into but should. Also ACTIONS. WOW! Talk about doing some neat stuff or saving repetitious steps...that is what Actions will do for you. Customizable workspaces (what pallets and windows are visible just by selecting a saved setting) are great. There's LOTS more features! Like you, the feature of matching tones between two images really appeals to me. However, in practice I haven't been able to get that to work to my satisfaction (I'm probably not doing it right).

I like the ability to change a photograph by taking multiple photos and combining them into one....weeeee I'm surprised I havent heard any thing about the clone stamp or healing brush, both being a very handy tool and another tool I use alot since becoming a member of RR is (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + S ) Save for Web is my best friend for sizing my files....=]

Adjustment layers seem to be a feature that separates this program from the others. And then there are more things that can be done with the brushes. Other than those things the plugins, effects, etc. seem to be identical or really close in other 2D image manipulation applications.

No way to pick just one:
Adjustment Layers - they save my butt over and over if I want to further correct something without actually altering the layers below (or attached to it).
Masking - couldn't do without it for compositing!
Healing Brush/Spot Healig Brush (new to CS2) I use the most for dust and artifacts.
Highlight/Shadow Adjustment (Image>Adjustments>Highlight/Shadow), copy to a new layer with Soft Light mode - lower Saturation, and adjust Levels to taste.
Actions - saves truckloads of time - especially for repeated mundane tasks.
Layer Modes - unlimited control, especially used with correcting adjustments.
Levels and Curves - quick and broad color and density correction, then fine-tuned color adjustment (respectively).
Pen Tool for clean selections and illustration.

Sadly, haven't gotten the Match Color thing to work right so I just balance everything by eye as close as I can.Hope that helps-
-Lew ;-)

The greatest thing about PS is that hes totaly non-linear app. For any kind of action you want to perform there is allways several ways to do it (that you know of......). At first its like a labyrinth and then you gradualy start to find secret doors, and then the fun starts :)

Tihomir

First, i'd like to say Hello to everyone. Just registered today ( or yesterday..I'm in Asia ) and i think i'll be here for a long time. I've been using Photoshop6/7 for three  years now and what fascinate me the most is that Photoshop is a source of unexpected discovery. I take lots of photo and Photoshop allows me to play with the pics. It's a fabulous toy and an exceptional tool.
Thanks to let me join you all!

Is there a place on this site, and kind of F.A.Q where i can learn how to make an avatar in order to avoid disturbing you with "simple minded questions"?

Hiya - and welcome to Renderosity!

Sadly, I haven't an Avatar yet myself.
-Lew ;-)

Wellcome :)
At the top of the page is [my options]. In there you can set youre avatar :)

Tihomir

"... how to make an avatar..."

Most avatars are just small images, usually 100 X 100 pixels and between 5 and 7k

My favourite features in photoshopcs2 is the colourize, hue shifting, and layers..... oh how i would be doomed if i couldn't work with layers!!! My lifesaver!!! LAYERS!!!!

sorry got excited lol

Anna

It does everything! I kept PSP around just for Tubes. Then I realized that I had the Pattern Stamp. Duh...........

Another thing...just switched to CS. The update has given it some needed energy! Just noticed that you can now select all in the Preset Manager by hitting the first block and then Shift-hitting the last.

Yippee!!!! I'm making Pat files of all my fabric textures and hitting each block to select was getting a tad tedious.

And something that I've not seen before. Was playing with making gems with custom shapes and selected my shape, applied a Gausian blur and got blur and a bevel. Is this new? Kind of a happy thing because it saved me a step.