Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 ar- rived in mid-June with the usual—or perhaps a little less
than usual—fanfare. At least its arrival showed that Adobe’s latest plan
is to release minor updates to Photoshop
CC during the calendar year, and a full release each year designated by the year of the
release. It also conveyed to users why Adobe
is sticking to the subscription model—there
is little in Photoshop CC 2014 to warrant a
user paying for it as an upgrade.
Along with the Photoshop CC 2014 release,
which includes Camera Raw 8. 5, Adobe
announced the release of Lightroom 5. 5, the
Adobe Photoshop Mix iOS app, and a new
Creative Cloud plan for photographers (go
to page 102 for more). The photo programs
are part of the Adobe release of 14 new 2014
Creative Cloud desktop programs, along
with a host of new mobile apps and Creative
Cloud services.
The Photoshop CC 2014 release also includes enhancements not specifically aimed
at photographers, such as improved layer
comps and smart guides, along with Adobe
Typekit integration. While I have overcome
my initial skepticism about the Creative
Cloud subscription paradigm, it is difficult
to get excited about this release. There is really only one addition to excite professional
photographers: the ability to make a selection based on an area that is in focus.
You can access the Focus Area dialogue
box from the Select drop-down menu.
Photoshop makes a default selection that
you broaden or narrow by moving the In-
Focus Range parameter slider. There are
also brushes to add or subtract from the
selection, as well as the ability to open
the Refine Edges dialogue for further
refinements of the outline. When done,
you save the selected area to a selection,
a layer mask, a new layer, a new layer
with a layer mask, a new document, or
a new document with a layer mask.
Any new tool that makes creating
a selection easier is welcome. Focus
Area works well with subjects captured
against an out-of-focus background. The
greater the sharpness of the subject and
the greater the degree of softness of the
background, the easier it is to refine the
result.
On the other hand, there is one aspect of
Adobe’s Creative Cloud update approach to
Photoshop that I find very annoying. In the
original Photoshop CC, it bugged me that
I could no longer point to the CS6 Plug-ins
folder to access my many plug-ins. But it
turned out to be no big deal to copy the CS6
folder contents and paste it into the corresponding Photoshop CC folder. I don’t recall
any problems after doing this. With the new
release, Adobe warns that users should NOT
attempt this; the company recommends
that each plug-in be reinstalled. Well, I took
my chances and found that some copied
over fine and others did not. But I certainly
don’t look forward to doing this every year,
and reinstalling plug-ins that don’t work
properly in the new update.
Not only are the actual plug-ins a
Adobe is well aware of the plug-ins and
Photoshop CC 2014