I’ve been spending the week in Photoshop classes struggling to educate my old brain about this marvelous program and how to use it.
So, imagine my surprise when one of my favorite victims emailed me about the Ps “Touch” app for smart phones. Seriously, thanks Jim.
Well, Ps “Touch” (a $9.99 US app) is a great way to enter the world of Photoshop. It’s a limited app, lacking many of the powers of it’s big brother, Adobe CS6.1 Extended. Was it meant to have them? No. A smartphone’s camera isn’t designed for that.
“Adobe® Photoshop® Touch lets you quickly combine images, apply professional effects, and share the results with friends and family through social networking sites like Facebook — all from the convenience of your iPad or Android™ tablet, iPhone or Android phone, and iPod Touch.” – Adobe
The limitations are that the phone exports its data in a jpeg format, not as a RAW file, so a huge amount of data is lost right there. It also lacks so many of Photoshop’s filters, etc. that it isn’t a serious app. Will it apply some interesting filters, yes. Can you combine layers? Yes. Can you select accurately? No. You do get Levels and Curves designed to work with your finger. But it isn’t really meant for detailed, exacting image processing. You can upload to your computer and process the jpeg there or, upload it to Adobe’s Cloud, and process it there provided you’re paying for those apps and that service.
Adobe’s marketing is pretty smart. “Touch” for tablet or smartphone is another possible portal to Adobe’s Cloud. That’s where they’ll make their money. “Touch” is really a much more developed “Instagram” type app which you control to a large degree. How large a degree depends on what you do with that primary image.
I can’t help but wonder if today’s kiddies will someday wonder, “What could they have been thinking?”. What’s trendy today won’t be when they grow up.
Anyway, about “Touch”:
As you can see and you can read more here: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-touch.html?trackingid=KDIVK&#nerolimedia_split_ps-touch-with-Stephen_708x398-1300.mp4
It has some basic Ps stuff. Is it fun? Probably. I absolutely love it’s big brother.
If you have $10 to burn, fine. Is it worth that? Undoubtedly… if only to get you into the world of art, of how to look at the world as your camera does, and to try your hand (be patient, Padawan) at image processing. To get more out of it, you’ll need either Photoshop or Adobe’s Creative Cloud, and that’s part of what they’re doing and they’re honest about it.
Photoshop and the classes I take enable me to look at the world of graphics, hues, tints and shades and print very differently than I did before. So will you. For that I thank my teachers and Adobe.
Source:
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-touch.html?trackingid=KDIVK&#nerolimedia_split_ps-touch-with-Stephen_708x398-1300.mp4