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Ease of Use

As with any version of Photoshop, this is a professional tool. True, you can use it to paste party hats on pictures of your grandparents, but lets face it, this is a top of the line program that is designed for people who know what they are doing. While most novices can pick up enough know-how to bang around with it, many of Photoshop's most valuable options are buried beneath different menus and palettes. Without perusing the accompanying user guide, many users could use CS2 for years without realizing the full potential of this program

Depth of Options

"Sure I'll do it; Photoshop can do anything!" is my mantra at work. Lets face it, as the industry standard, there is little that this gem from Adobe can't do, all it takes is enough patience. Filters and effects are nice and they do a good job of saving time and cutting corners, and you can pretty much find a way to do what you want with a minimal amount of surfing the web for info.

Performance

Not to sound like a broken record, but it's really not fair to compare Photoshop CS2 to the competition. I work with a lot of Corel products and I know several people who swear by PaintShop Pro, yet I can tell you right off the bat that there is no comparison. Other packages may be more affordable or possess a gentler learning curve, but Photoshop remains the hands-down leader in terms of power, flexibility, stability and freedom. Given the extensive range of support on Adobe.com, and the positively gi-normous community of Photoshop developers out there, there is little in the graphics world that this tool can't pull off!

Value

This is a pretty pricey package for the average home user at $649, though you will most certainly get what you pay for. Look at it this way, as a graphic designer, filmmaker, photographer, or web artist, you will be hard pressed to do the job as well with a cheaper program. This is a good investment for somebody that is serious about graphics and film work. (If you want an even better way to obtain this program for film work, check out our killer review of Adobe Production Suite Premium that includes it and everything you need to do post-production on your next film.) Now, if you are just looking for something to fool around with and make cutesy pictures for your friends then you would probably be better served using the less technical and less expensive Photoshop Elements.

Final Comments

For a stand alone graphics package that will run on your run-of-the-mill computer setup, you will be hard pressed to find a program that can hold it's own against Photoshop. If you look at sheer functionality and the extent of it's web-based community for support and ideas, there are few reasons not to purchase this package.

 

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Article reprinted from MicroFilmmaker Magazine

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