[Software] Adobe Photoshop CC (2021)

[Dark-ImmoRtal^]

 

Adobe Photoshop has a challenge. Since it became subscription-only in 2013, its users have become painfully aware of the money they’re shelling out every year, with the consequence that their demands for constant improvement and performance have become deafening. 

 

 

Not helping are the enormous strides made by challengers such as Affinity Photo and Luminar, and even by Photoshop’s own stablemate, Lightroom. So with the industry’s touchstone software updated in October 2020, then again in February 2021, is Adobe Photoshop CC 2021 up to the task?

 

 

The current version has some headline-worthy, show-stopping features. Top of the bill this time round are the software’s 'neural filters', Adobe’s way of saying 'machine learning'. These use the company’s Sensei technology to perform certain edits in the cloud, automating edits that would previously have been laborious.

So, for the first time, Photoshop will allow you to make a one-click adjustment to a photograph of a person that will make them look, depending on the slider you opt for, happier, sadder, surprised, angry or older. Perhaps the worst is the 'Be Happy!' filter; give the slider enough of a drag and it will open your subject’s mouth and add teeth. Terrifying barely begins to cover it.

 

 

 

Photoshop’s new neural filters for portrait photography follow a bit of a trend: yes, they’re impressive in how much they’re able to do with no user intervention, but they almost always deliver this impressive technical feat with a side-order of “what’s wrong with his face?”. A number of them are described as beta, and with good reason.

 

 

There are some good ones – tread lightly with the Skin Smoothing filter and you could save yourself a lot of time versus frequency separation, for instance. We also like the light adjuster, which allows you to make it look like you’re moving a light-source around your subject. 

 

 

These two in particular work well. Photographers of people will also like a small but important addition to the select and mask window – Refine Hair makes an appearance, allowing you to fine-tune how hair is selected. None of these on their own will make catalogue photographers out of newbies, but they all add up to a powerful set of tools that, used with care, will shave precious time from an edit.