Photoshop CS6 Beta is Out

Coming this spring or summer, Adobe will be updating its industry-standard image and video editing suite Photoshop. It’s been two years since CS5 came out and so many are anxiously awaiting CS6. The beta for Adobe Photoshop CS6 was released yesterday so you can download it for free right now.

Rather than repeat what a thousand blogs have covered on “what’s new”, I’ll direct you to The Verge which has done a nice round up of the features (the photo above is from their review).

In-Depth Overview

If you want a totally free in-depth video walkthrough of each new feature, head on over to Lynda.com’s free course on Photoshop CS6 Beta taught by Deke McClelland. Lynda.com rarely offers free content so take advantage of this. I recommend Lynda.com generally.

The course includes 27 video segments, each 4 to 10 minutes in duration. Total duration is about 2.5 hours so you better start watching right now.

1. The secrets of the dark interface
2. Saving with Background Save and Auto Save
3. Cropping with the altogether revamped Crop tool
4. Using the consolidated Properties panel
5. Exploring the searchable Layers panel
6. Modifying multiple layers at a time
7. Exploring the wide world of layer enhancements
8. Using Content-Aware Move and Extend
9. Using Content-Aware Patch
10. Making powerful automatic color adjustments
11. Exploring the brave new world of Camera Raw 7
12. Using the new three-part Blur Gallery
13. Working with the Adaptive Wide Angle filter
14. Correcting wide-angle panoramas
15. Exploring text and style enhancements
16. Filling and stroking shape layers
17. Aligning and stacking vector-based shapes
18. Working with the Scripted Patterns feature
19. Using erodible brush tips and airbrushes
20. Working with the enhanced Liquify filter
21. Exploring the new Oil Paint filter
22. Selecting skin tones and faces
23. Using the new Lighting Effects filter
24. Editing videos in the Timeline panel
25. Making editable 3D type
26. Exploring 3D shadows and reflections
27. Aligning and distributing meshes in 3D

Of Interest to Me

For me, I think the following new features are of greatest interest:

• Overall improved look and feel (dark theme like Photoshop Elements)
• Full Lightroom 4 compatibility due to full support for Adobe Camera Raw 7
• More “Content-Aware” magical powers
• Basic video editing
• Background and auto-saving
• Tilt-shift and blur effects

Let me know what you think. The standard version will retail for US$699 and you can upgrade from CS5 for US$199.

Tweet