Adobe Photoshop CC Deals (XNUMX) Adobe Photoshop has a challenge. Since it became subscription-only in XNUMX, its users have become pitifully conscious of the money they spend from year to year, with the result that their relentless demands for improvement and performance have become deafening. The big strides made by challenges like Affinity Photo and Luminar, and even Photoshop's own partner Lightroom, don't help. So, with industry touchstone software updated in October XNUMX and then again in February XNUMX, is Adobe Photoshop CC XNUMX up to scratch? The current version has quirks that make headlines. This time, the software's "neural filters," Adobe's way of claiming "machine learning," tops the list. These use the company's Sensei technology to effect certain changes in the cloud, automating changes that would have been laborious before. So, for the first time, Photoshop will let you make a one-click adjustment to a photo of a person that will make them look, depending on which slider you choose, happier, sadder, surprised, angry, or older. Perhaps the worst is the “Be happy! filtered out; drag the slider far enough and it will open up the subject's mouth and add teeth. Creepy is just beginning to cover it.
Some of Photoshop's automatic portrait corrections manage the amazing feat of being realistic and artificial. (Image credit: Adobe) Photoshop's new neural filters for portrait photography are following a bit of a trend: yes, they're amazing at what they can do without user input, but they pretty much always deliver that astonishing feat. order technique. With his face? ”Some of them are described as beta, and for good reason. There are some good ones out there - be careful with the Skin Softening filter and you could save a lot of time compared to crossover, for example. We also like the light adjustment, which lets you make it look like you're moving a light source around your subject. These 2 particularly work well. People photographers will also like a small but important addition to the selection and mask window: the hair straightener appears, allowing you to adjust the hair selection. None of these are going to make beginner catalog photographers on their own, but they all add up to a powerful set of tools that, used carefully, will cut down on valuable editing time.
The new Sky Replacement tool isn't going to be a great friend to your editorial clients, but time-pressed professionals will love it. (Image credit: Adobe) While the selection of neural filters seems a bit beta, one of the other new features in Photoshop 2 actually isn't. Head over to Edit and choose ``Sky Replacement'' and you'll be greeted with some of the most amazing technology we've seen in a photo editor in a while. Pick your preferred sky from a set of options, or pick your own, and Photoshop will spot the horizon in your image, hide it, and drop into the new sky. It will also finely adjust the white count of your original image to make sure everything matches up. We've tested it on a few different images and have been wowed every time. The only fragile image was that of snow-capped mountains against a pale blue sky; Photoshop didn't appreciate the slight difference in contrast between the XNUMX and the foreground sky. To get sharper images, it worked wonderfully. This will give photographic purists steam, of course, but for commercial photography it could be a huge time saver. Expect to see it show up on certain real estate agent listings near you.
The "Discover" tab won't replace your favorite YouTube tutorial, but it's a huge improvement over the help documentation that usually comes with photo editors. (Image credit: Adobe) There are tools elsewhere that haven't gotten the same headlines, but are likely to prove just as useful, if not more, by the day. For example, if you're the type to open Photoshop on one screen and a YouTube tutorial on another (which we're not ashamed to admit we do a lot), the new Discover feature is great. Press CMD + F, enter a keyword, and Photoshop will offer a series of tutorials on this topic. Enter `` masquerading '', for example, and you'll get not only a quick rundown of what masquerading is, but also a set of downloadable tutorial resources you can follow along with. It's a great resource for beginners and intermediates alike, or for getting a quick overview of a tool before you get stuck. Cloud document editing has also received a boost. You can invite other users to edit documents when they are saved in the cloud; Cloud documents now also have version histories, allowing you to save individual save states. This lets you iterate through files, keep track of where they came from, and return.
The new "Invite to Edit" feature: sweet words for collaborative image editors. (Image credit: Adobe) All of that means nothing if Adobe hasn't managed to hold the wheels elsewhere, but fear not: Photoshop is still impressively powerful for business users in every way it's been used. Established since XNUMX. Better color management, layer management, selection tools, both automatic and manual, if you work with images semi-professionally these would clearly be on the short list. If you work with images professionally, this is surely the short list.
A useful new "Refine Hair" button has been added to the selection and mask window. (Image credit: Adobe) Best of all, it's still pretty affordable, if you don't mind paying for a subscription. Go with Adobe's Photography Creative Cloud plan and you'll spend ten times a month, in exchange for what you'll get both Lightroom and Photoshop. Up to the challenge? This version suggests that the crowd of contenders in Photoshop's rear-view mirror has thinned out somewhat.
Should I purchase Adobe Photoshop CC two thousand twenty-one?
Photoshop's new shape tools could save you a trip back to Adobe Illustrator. (Image credit: Adobe)
Buy it if...
You work with images in a professional way
All the tools you need (and some you don't), in one powerful and stable application that everyone you work with will be familiar with. Photoshop remains the gold standard, despite fierce competition. You are a landscape photographer with horrible luck for the weather.
The new sky replacement tool has to be seen to be believed: it's better than related tools from contenders like Luminar AI, and the automatic horizon concealment is extraordinarily accurate. You work with images collaboratively
New tools for inviting other users to work on your images, like improved file iteration, are really helpful.
Don't buy it if...
You don't like the idea of subscription software
Ten a month may not seem like much, but it adds up. If you're a beginner, alternative subscription-free options like Affinity Photo are probably going to be a better option. You don't need the bells and whistles
Photoshop is complicated, and there are many applications that are somewhat less powerful and easier to use. The best ones include Affinity Photo and Luminar AI. Do you want to organize your images?
This is where Photoshop differs from Lightroom. If you have a hard drive full of cluttered files and folders, Photoshop is only going to make your images look better; the mess will continue. Lightroom will help you get organized. You can bundle the 2 programs in Adobe's "Photography Plan" subscription. Cost - Adobe Photoshop CC (XNUMX): ▼