Photoshop CS4, whats new and good for photographers?

[loboclerk]

I just downloaded the trial for Photoshop CS4 and am figuring it out. Those who have used it, please share what're the greatest new features that are useful for a photographer.

My fav features:

1) Content-Aware Scaling
Allows you to resize images according to the content. It keeps the important subjects as it is and scales the less important parts (such as repeated background).

2) Extended depth of field
Allows composites of multiple photos taken at different points of focus. Great for macro-photography when the DOF is razor thin. (tripod recommended if you're trying this) Its abit like CombineZM.

 

[AlteredVision]

Wow, there goes my salary for this month :sweatsm:

 

[astrise]

3) GPU assisted rendering. This really speeds up things a lot. Your average CPU probably gives you about 20-60 GFLOPS. A modest $240 GPU can give you 1 TFLOP - easily over 15 times faster - and great if you have a lot of files to process. See the KB article: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb405745&sliceId=2

OpenGL/GPU features in Adobe Photoshop CS4 include the following:

• Smooth display at all zoom levels
• Animated Zoom tool
• Animated transitions for One Stop Zoom
• Hand toss image
• Birds-eye View
• Rotate Canvas
• Smooth display of non-square pixel images
• Pixel grid
• Move color matching to the GPU
• Draw Brush tip editing feedback via the GPU
• 3D GPU features include the following:
  
• 3D Acceleration
• 3D Axis
• 3D Lights widget
• Accelerated 3D interaction via Direct To Screen