9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended is certainly a serious digital image program
Date of Review: Mar 21, 2008
The Bottom Line: This is THE software for all your digital imaging needs.
Photoshop CS3 Extended for PC is certainly a serious digital image program and is not intended for those who have no desire to do anything more to digital images than lighten image a bit or adjust the color. Photoshop CS3 is designed to allow complete creative control and unleash image possibilities unavailable with simpler programs.
Photoshop allows detailed image manipulation (lighten and darken)on parts of the image! This is great for lightening a background without changing the foreground settings(which would become washed out if you simply lightened the entire image).
Photoshop excels at detail work. It offers advance image layering editing. This allows you to take multiple similar images and keep the best parts of each...resulting in a super clean final product. You see this type work on many photographs of cityscapes where you wonder, "How did they find a time of day with no cars and traffic?" The answer..They didn't. Multiple images were taken and the cars and people were eliminated through layering!
Color correcting is precise, which is very important to photographers(pro and amateur)who work in available light settings. The color hues created by incandescent, halogen, daylight, stained glass ...etc... affect the photographed image. Photoshop alters the colors to the correct tones!
Create animated images through the program to visually illustrate a concept. Create composite images from different subjects. Snorkeling next to a 20 foot Great White shark? The "safe" way is with photoshop! The possibilities are literally endless.
The price of the program is a bit of a shocker...right at $1000.00 (gulp). However, there are ways to reduce the cost dramatically. Registered students can purchase the product through student bookstores at a a huge discount to where the program can be purchased for $300. It's called the "academic version" which is the exact same thing as the regular commercial store shelf version. Further, many communities are very proactive in continuing education courses...and approve the same "student" rate for adults taking a local continuing-ed course. So, get full instruction of the intricate software, and get the program at a tremendous discount.
The alternative is buying it off the rack at $1000 and then buying an instruction book for another $50, hoping you can figure it all out on your own.
Take a course(usually about $150 at most continuing ed facilities). It's well worth it financially, as well as educationally. Online courses let you choose the schedule while classroom settings allow a more traditional atmosphere.
Powerful software that puts you at the same level as the pros....as this is the software the professionals use!
