Don't beat yourself up if you didn't know that some modest video editing abilities are tucked into the premium version of Photoshop CS5.
But expect a lot more starting today, when Adobe Systems releases an open beta version of Photoshop CS6 code-named Superstition.
The new version brings video from the higher-priced Extended version of Photoshop to the standard version, and it adds editing features such as the ability to apply Photoshop tone and color adjustments. And instead of relying on Apple's QuickTime, the new tool draws from Adobe technology elsewhere in the Creative Suite, such as the Adobe Media Encoder to handle a broad range of video formats for the full-fledged video tool, Premiere Pro.
For a detailed look at how well it works, look at CNET's hands-on look at Photoshop CS6 from my colleague Lori Grunin. And the software--a beta version of Photoshop CS6 Extended, is downloadable from Adobe Labs or Download.com.
The Photoshop video move reflects the spread of video technology to customers who might not have shot video before.
Point-and-shoot digital cameras have been able to shoot video for years, but it's still a relative novelty among SLRs, the camera of choice for photo enthusiasts and pros. And mobile phones are doing better, with 1080p shooting now a common high-end feature.
Despite the trend, though, many people were just letting their videos languish, Adobe concluded after conducting some research, said Zorana Gee, a Photoshop product manager.
"It's become much more important in the last couple years, especially with new cameras and with all the photographers now starting to shoot video. Many devices now originally focused on taking still images now take videos, and often very good quality video," Gee said. However, she said, "Research showed people aren't doing anything with their videos. They just can't find the time, they might not want to learn a new app, they might not be a Premiere customer, or they don't consider themselves [Premiere] Elements user."
Thus, Adobe decided to put video in front of customers, mirroring what it's done with Lightroom 4.
Lightroom 4 has only basic editing abilities, though: customers can trim videos and apply editing presets. In contrast, Photoshop can be used to composite multiple videos, adding basic transition effects like a gradual crossfade from one clip to another or a fade to black at the end.
And it integrates with other Photoshop features.
"We have all of Photoshop capabilities available. Want black and white? Create a black-and-white adjustment layer. Lens correction? Pop into the lens correction [module]. If I want to add a type layer, I can," Gee said.
The new Photoshop includes a wide range of other new features, many of them previewed on YouTube. Among them:
More sophisticated tools to fill in patches left when imagery is moved or erased.
Blur effects to restrict focus only to a spot or spots, or to apply a tilt-shift lens effects.
Better automatic photo corrections that compares a shot to a database of thousands of images to try to predict the intended outcome.
A new dark user interface by default.
Better vector editing abilities such as dashed lines.
Raw-image editing controls also used in Lightroom 4 to better handle the full range contrasting light and dark tones.
A big boost from the graphics chip for many tasks using technology called the Mercury Graphics Engine that's closely related to the GPU-based Mercury Playback Engine that debuted in Premiere Pro CS5.
"We're wrapping our whole GPU [graphics processing unit] pipeline over the Mercury Playback Engine," Gee said. For graphics chores, Adobe uses the OpenGL standard as the interface for hardware acceleration.
For some computing tasks that run on the GPU, the CS5 graphics engine uses Nvidia's CUDA technology. That technology choice limited the engine to Nvidia cards--and indeed to high-end cards unless you hacked around a little. But Photoshop CS6 uses OpenCL, a related technology that works with AMD and Intel graphics, too. Windows driver support isn't the best, but Adobe believes GPU acceleration in general is much better.
"We're much more flexible and broad in terms of the cards we support," Gee said. At least 256MB of video RAM is needed, and some features don't work on Windows XP.
Technologies that use GPU acceleration include the blur technology, puppet warp, transformations, and a refurbished cropping tool.
When the final version is released (it's due the first half of this year), it'll cost $699 for the standard version and $999 for extended. Upgrades cost $199 and $399, respectively. Adobe hasn't released subscription pricing yet beyond saying Photoshop Extended is included in the $600-per-year Creative Cloud subscription, which also includes the rest of the Creative Suite, the tablet-oriented Touch apps, some other product like Lightroom and Edge, and various online services.
Here's Adobe's Russell Brown (breathlessly) showing off a half-dozen features in Photoshop CS6:
Here's Adobe's full list of new features; check below for the list of niggling "just-do-it" (JDI) items, many suggested by customers.
General
Dark UI
UI Consistency
Properties Panel (Adjustments/Masks/3D)
Lighting Effects Gallery
Presets (Migrate Presets and Import/Export)
Crop (all new and redesigned)
Patch Tool w/Content-Aware Option
Content-Aware Move Tool (formerly the Remix Tool)
Scripted Patterns (Fill/Pattern)
Contact Sheet II plug-in back in app
PDF Presentation back in the app
File Import Image from Device now includes ImageKit scanning and camera acquisition support
Minibridge UI tweaks--Filmstrip Mode
MENA Support (Middle-East and North African text support)
Rich Cursor information throughout the app (i.e. Crop, Transform, Move, Vectors,
etc.)
GPU/Performance
GPU Warp Transform
GPU Puppet Warp Preview
GPU Liquify--Button for last Liquify used and Cmd + F works
GPU Oil Paint (Pixel Bender) Artistic Filter
Adaptive Wide Angle
Lighting Effects and Blur Galleries
Background Save, Auto-Save and Auto Recover
Photographers
ACR 7--Local controls for White Balance and Noise Reduction, new black/white
and highlight/shadow controls
Blur Gallery (Tilt-Shift, Iris and Field Blur)
Video (No longer limited to Extended)--Video Group Layers
Adaptive Wide Angle--Includes support for panoramas!
Face-Aware Mask Generation--Change to Color Range
Intelligent Auto-Correction
Designers
Type Styles
Type Menu (Insert Lorem Ipsum JDI)
New Dictionaries
Improved Font Rendering--Gamma setting in Color Settings
Pixel Accuracy/Snap to Pixels
New Vector Layers
Styles on Groups
Stack of top JDI's specifically for designers
Layer Search
Painting
Erodible Tips
Airbrush Tips
Brush Rotation for Static Tips
Oil Paint Filter (Pixel Bender)
New presets
JDI's specifically for painters
Painting Performance, CPU and GPU
Default Tablet Pose Parameters for Mouse Film Industry
10-bit Monitor Support
3D LUTs, color adjustments
Printing
Completely Redesigned Print Dialog
Print Selected Area is back and the selection can be adjusted in the Print Dialog
"Edit" button added for the description field in the Print Dialog
When using Photoshop Manages Colors, the list of profiles is now filtered to hide profiles that are inappropriate for your currently selected printer
Users can change the "preview well" background color in the Print Dialog to better suit their needs
Here's a video from Adobe's Julieanne Kost highlighting some top features:
And here's the JDI list. Adobe lets its programmers tackle these if they can bang out the change in a day or three, Gee said.
Brushes
HUD brush resize and hardness can now change opacity
Increase brush size to 5000px
Change color dynamics to per stroke instead of per tip (user option for old behavior)
Brightness/contrast slider for textures when painting
Brush projection for static tips
Brush cursor reflects brush dynamics for round and captured tips
Eyedropper
Show the sample size popup for the various eyedropper tools (black point, white point, etc.)
Add ignore adjustment layers options bar item for the eyedropper
New mode for eyedropper to select layers current and below
File formats
Read common stereo image pair formats (JPS, PNS) Allow for more bit depths in TIFF files
Read BIGTIFF format
Give the user choices regarding how they want transparency treated in OpenEXR on file open
Grammar
Policed throughout app
Use consistent grammar style in the title of dialog windows (no commands such as "Choose a color:")
Layers
Add a contextual menu item that deletes a layer effect not just disables it
Add dither options to Layer Styles for Gradient Overlay and Gradient Stroke
Allow 00 or Shift 00 to work when setting layer/fill opacity (previously no way to get 0%)
Add bicubic sharper & bicubic smoother options when free transforming layers
Allow changing of blend modes for multiple layers at once
Allow locking of multiple layers
CMD+J to duplicate layers and layer group
Allow changing color labels to multiple layers at once
Layer tooltips to include layer name (if defined)
Opt+click on toggle arrows (groups and effects) in layer panel should close all targets
Show blend if/Blending Effects badge on layer
Show correct opacity and blend mode values for hidden layers
Tab goes to next layer on inline layer rename, SHIFT + TAB goes to previous
New command to raster layer effect into layer, merging the selected layers into themselves
Reorder effects in the layers palette to match the Z-order style/blend mode (bottom most effects in terms of blending order, drop shadow is below the other effects
Liquify
Resize Liquify brush with shortcuts
Increase maximum Liquify brush size Add option to load last mesh
Presets
Add new document presets for common devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad, etc.)
Add new Gradient Map presets for toning and split toning
Sticky reorganization of tool presets (changes persist after re-launch)
Add Contact Sheet II as an Automation option
SDK
Add the ability to return an array of guides in a document from the scripting SDK
Add ability to access tool name associated with the tool preset name via scripting
Selections
Make the marquee, lasso, and mask panel feather values support decimal places like the feather dialog
Remember feather radius when showing dialog for selection from a path
Transform
Improve dragging of vector curves
Don't hide smart object icon when transforming a layer
Rotate 90 with even x odd pixel dimension to be smooth (bjango.com)
Undo or disable auto-rotate on open
UI
Remove the app bar and reduce the drag/app bar over 30%
[Windows] New/open document to context click on a document tab (has always been on Mac, now on Windows too)
Add "Don't show again" checkbox to Purge warnings
Miscellaneous
Enable Split Channels for documents with layers
Select Hex field by default and allow clipboard pastes with # in contents (i.e. #fffffff)
Increased GPU stability by prequalifying GPUs on the fly before use
Auto-select the best resample method based on the type of resize
Enable Invert and Threshold adjustments for masks in 32-bit
Hold SHIFT during startup to disable 3rd party plugins
Add warning message that 16-bit images cannot display their file size in the Save as JPEG dialog o Add command to insert "lorem ipsum" for type
Updated 2:28 a.m. PT with feature lists from Adobe. Updated 5:14 a.m. PT with pricing information.
