Photoshop CS3 Extended: a first look

Lori Grunin CNET

Published: 27 Mar 2007

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Like a well-fed amoeba, Adobe's Photoshop has split in two for 2007, producing its own child, Photoshop CS3 Extended. Think of the £755 (ex. VAT) Extended version as Photoshop Heavy (as opposed to Photoshop Light); it's basically the same application with some extra capabilities and bundled scripts targeted at video post-production tasks, 3D texture-map editing and scientific image analysis. At about £200 (ex. VAT) more than Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended is a significant upgrade decision — one which we're not sure will entirely satisfy the relevant users.

Just as Adobe slowly ramped up the 16-bit colour support in previous versions, CS3 now supports a few more 32-bit HDR operations than before, including some brushes, Levels, Hue and Saturation. Notably missing are support for the Magic Wand (although, oddly, Quick Select works), Curves and the new Black and White adjustments (you can still use the Channel Mixer, however). Adobe also introduces support for DICOM image stacks. Its new measurement tools, which let you drop counters on an image as well as measure and record the distance and angle between two points, are faster to use than previous manual methods, but they feel a bit undercooked — as if Adobe is waiting to hear from users before putting it back in the oven. In addition to the enhanced Vanishing Point capabilities in its sibling — the ability to create linked planes at odd angles — Extended allows you to measure the planes and angles as well as export the meshes to DXF or VPE (After Effects).

Extended also contains some refugees from the now-defunct ImageReady, including its frame-based animation tools. Adobe has expanded the animation to include a timeline for basic keyframing of video effects and individual frame edits; it's certainly no replacement forAfter Effects CS3 Professional , but will serve in a pinch. Finally, you can import a few popular formats of 3D models and edit any embedded texture maps; there are some basic rotation controls, coarse rendering options and some odd lighting presets (it will load lights from the file, however). You can also apply filters to 3D objects via Smart Filters, which we have to admit is very cool for producing an 'artist's rendering' version of a model.

Check back later this spring for a full review of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended.

 

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