A few days ago Adobe presented the upcoming Adobe Creative Suite 5 including Photoshop CS5. The new Adobe software should be available in shops in mid-May, and here's a list with some of the new things for photographers found in Photoshop CS5:
- Camera Raw 6 with same Raw-engine and tools as found in Lightroom 3, including new demosaicing algorithm for improved detail and resolution.
- Improved sharpening tool (Both Photoshop and Camera Raw)
- Improved noise reduction tool (Both Photoshop and Camera Raw)
- Improved vignette tool (Both Photoshop and Camera Raw)
- Grain tool in Camera Raw
- Automated lens correction for geometric distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting. Based on lens and camera profiles.
I haven't seen this feature mentioned in connection with Camera Raw 6 or Lightroom 3. So it might be "native" Photoshop only, and not in the Raw engine? Update: In a post on Photography Uncapped it sounds like the new automated lens correction also is available in Camera Raw. Update 2: I'm still not 100% sure if it is in Camera Raw 6.0 shipping with CS5, but it should for sure be in the not so far away Camera Raw 6.1 update. Adobe has a nice demonstration of Lens Correction in Camera Raw 6.1.
- Content aware fill.
- Puppet warp
- Improved Refine Edge tool for refining selections
- Better HDR tool
- 64 bit system support now on both PC and Mac (CS4 has 64-bit support on PC already). However for Mac only Intel based computers are now supported.
- Return of File Browser inside Photoshop. Now called Mini Bridge.
...and lots of other things. You can find a collection of demonstration videos to watch on AdobeTV:
The "internal raw engine" in Photoshop CS5's Camera Raw 6 and in Lightroom 3 are basically the same. And Camera Raw 6 makes Photoshop CS5 fully compatible with Raw adjustments made in the upcoming Lightroom 3. So if you plan to use Lightroom version 3 for Raw processing, you are able to continue the work on your photos either in Camera Raw 6 or "native" Photoshop CS5. But you will also be able to keep this workflow with Photoshop CS4 (or Photoshop Elements 8) since Adobe is preparing a Camera Raw 5.7 release for this (currently available as a release candidate). Camera Raw 5.7 will have full "rendering support" for the new raw engine, but will not have GUI controls for the new tools (new sharpening, new noise reduction, etc.). So all Lightroom 3 settings are applied and rendered when importing Raw files from Lightroom 3, but you cannot change settings for the new tools found in Lr3. This also means you will not be able to take advantage of the improved sharpening or noise reduction if you do your Raw editing solely in Camera Raw 5.7 (though you should still be able to get the advantage of the new demosaicing algorithm, promising more details in Raw photos). At least this is my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong...
You might also be interested in the new Photoshop CS5 if you work with video. And of course the full Adobe Creative Suite also include new versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects:
