Yet Another Photoshop CS2 Rant

Warning: Geekspeak ahead.

A good example of bad software design is when a way of accomplishing the same task changes depending on the mode. Photoshop CS2 RAW interface has introduced a host of non-conforming modes.

Here is an example that is driving me nuts. In Bridge, you can choose to do one RAW conversion at a time, or select a bunch of files that then open in the RAW convertor. If you open up one (or more) images in the convertor, then go back to Bridge, you can choose "Previous Conversion", and that’s the settings that will be applied to whatever files you have highlighted.

You’d think the same protocol would apply within the RAW convertor dialog. Alas, no. As in Bridge, you have a strip of images to the side. You can choose to make an adjustment to one image, or to many images at a time. If you adjust one image, then choose "Previous Conversion", the settings that are applied are NOT those that you just made to the first image. They are those left over from the last time you opened up the RAW Convertor, for an entirely different set of images with different adjustment requirements. There is no easy way to make an adjustment to one, then apply it to the remainder. It’s all at once, or one at a time.

A truly big deficiency is the loss of "First Selected Image" as a conversion choice. In CS1 you can fix one image, keep it highlighted, choose a stack of subsequent images, and convert them all to look like the first one in the queue. No more.

Another thing that is driving me nuts is the on-and-off availability of arrow keys to navigate. In the RAW convertor, the arrow keys work great to navigate through a stack of images. Until you make an adjustment. Then the arrow keys don’t work. You have to mouse-click to the next image in the queue. This is NOT true in Bridge, another bad mode change.

OK, one nice thing to say about CS2. In CS1, the File Browser was something of a narcissistic prima donna. It processed the images at its slow, stately pace, while you waited. If you took your attention away to another window, like to check your email, the processing would halt. It would not work if you weren’t watching. CS2 at least will process in the background. It still cycles through a lot of thumbnail building and sidecar file loading, but it has matured to the point that it can play unattended.

Comments

[Kim Zumwalt]

Hey Doug, its been fun reading your blog and seeing so many overlapping incidents. E.g. we now have "mirror mittens" on our cars, to stop the juncos from expending so much of their energy fighting off their own reflections. Also, I have some photos placed with Iconica, and was planning to send them a lot more, so I was interested to hear (heard it here first!) about the Getty purchase of Photonica and Iconica. I am wondering what it is going to mean for the photographers. I'm prompted to write now because of your continuing lamentations over the loss of the "First Selected Image" as an easy way to convert in CS1. I got Scott Kelby's CS2 book, and he spells out the new, simple way to do the same thing (page 70, chpt. 3). I actually find it better than the CS1 way, because it lets you select which settings to apply, or to apply all the settings. You may already have figured this out and decided you don't like it, but here it is just in case: after you make your adjustments on the first image, under Apply Camera Raw Settings (Edit menu), choose Copy Camera Raw Settings. Then select all the other images you want those settings (or a subset of those settings) applied to. Go to Paste Camera Raw Settings under Apply Camera Raw Settings, choose which settings you want applied (or let it stand as "everything") in the box that opens, and you're done. To me, it doesn't really seem much more complicated than the old way, and it gives more flexibility. Blah blah geek speak, but its fun, huh?