I found this video on some of the new masking and refining mask features in Adobe Photoshop CS5. This alone would be worth the price of the upgrade – imagine the time you save when you have to mask out someone with hair or soft edges. Mid May can’t arrive soon enough.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 available on amazon.com

Adobe has announce the new Photoshop CS5 (for those who are counting this is version 12 of Photoshop). I have been using Photoshop since version 4 back in the mid 1990s. And this is one of the first times I will be buying the software the day it is available.

Typically I like to wait a few months so that the software can be broken in by the general population. Software often times is buggy right out of the box and you want to wait till they have a bug patch. However, Adobe Photoshop and the other software is pretty dang stable – rarely have I had the software crash on me – ever.

And so why do I want to buy it right away? Some features such as HDR Pro, Content Aware fill, better mask selections, and other magical features that will help me work faster and create even better images.

Here is a cool video that goes through some of the top videos.

And I will be purchasing the full Adobe CS5 Design Premium Suite. Because I do use Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, Fireworks, Acrobat, and of course Photoshop. So I need to save about $599 – ugh. Expensive.

Meet the latest addition to my very big camera bag (ok, I have several camera bags to hold this stuff). I bought the Lensbabies Soft Focus Optic. I will be creating some photographs with this optic in the next few days to show off what it does. But if you don’t have a Lensbaby – you really should get one. It is a unique creative tool that will challenge you – because you will be photographing in manual mode and manual focus. But you will also find that you create photographs that are truly unique and creative.

Practice makes perfect.

I have the whole set of Lensbaby optics – and they are the opposite to the quality of a Canon L series lens or to a Nikon high end lens. These are full of imperfections – that is what makes them appealing. It is my way of creating vintage photographs with digital tools. And without spending hours and hours in Photoshop.

The following photograph was taken with my Canon Lensbaby and the double glass optic.

Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic