Adobe Photoshop CS3 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]

It was not clear to me from the ads that Adobe will not allow individual parts of their suites to be upgraded like Microsoft office does. CS2 would not allow me to upgrade just the Photoshop portion of CS2 Design Premium so I had to purchase the entire suite package and sell off what I bought for Photoshop alone.

It is an Upgrade, and to keep current would be the only reason to purchase it. Now that CS4 is out, why bother?

What a joy to use and what an expansive artistic reach this permits. I may never learn all the tricks and details, but I am sure going to try.

Elements is awesome, but Photoshop is worth the extra dollars if you're a serious photog. The lens correction filter is amazing--and I'm still learning the newer additions. Very powerful, too--it will automate adjustments on so many images at one time without a slowdown. Gotta have it--

As an amateur photographer I don't have to keep up with the latest cutting edge version of Photoshop. The main reason I had to upgrade to CS3 was to be able to review and edit Canon Raw images from a Canon 1D Mk III DSLR. This is my only big gripe with Adobe is that the Raw file format does not appear to have changed, but because the camera model number in the metadata was different Photoshop/Bridge CS2 refused to show thumbnails or open the Mk III's .CR2 files.

So, I had to upgrade to CS3 which cost about $200, which is much better than having spend $600+. At first, I didn't see much of a difference. Sure, there is a different color scheme for the PS and Bridge applications, some stuff has been moved around a little on the screen, but nothing big.

Then I find the feature that made me happy that I had upgraded. Adobe Camera Raw ("ACR") now lets you manipulate JPEG images to almost the same degree as Raw images. You can do limited white balance correction, straightening, cropping, and sharpening of JPEG images--non-permanent changes just like with Raw images. White balance correction is limited to "As Shot", "Auto", and "Custom", though this limitation is understandable as JPEG images don't normally contain color temperature information. However, using the "Custom" option with a test-shot of a white-card now makes correcting the white balance for JPEGs a breeze. Plus, the ability to straighten and crop JPEG images so quickly in ACR is a feature I wish I had had a year ago.

All these changes to a JPEG image are non-permanent meaning the original image is still there (you can verify this by viewing the image with another application, e.g. Windows Explorer with Thumbnail View). The changes you make using ACR appear to be stored in the JPEG file itself as a new metadata section. Caveat: Only applications that can see and use this metadata will render your changes on the screen so right now that is only going to be Adobe applications.