Adobe’s CS5 Offers Content-Aware Fill, Easy HDR (We Think)

Adobe fans will get to sink their teeth into some powerful new features when the company’s next Creative Suite bundle finally comes out later this year (though the official launch date is still TBD). Until then, Adobe is working hard to generate excitement. This Monday, April 12, users will get a quick introduction to CS5 during an global, online launch event featuring software experts experts Terry White, Greg Rewis, Jason Levine and Julieanne Kost.

These “Adobe evangelists” will show off some cool new tools for art, design, development, photography and video that will be sure to get users very interested in what CS5 will have to offer.

In the meantime, Adobe is actively teasing devoted followers with “hints” of features to come, particularly with Photoshop. Here are some of my favorites:

High Dynamic Range

Speculation: It looks like Adobe Photoshop is going to offer some easy-to-use methods for simulating high dynamic range (HDR). HDR photography allows photographers access to a greater range of light levels between the darkest and lightest areas of an image. If you’ve ever taken a picture of a sunset over the mountains and bodies of water, you might notice that the area where the sun appears is very bright and washed-out, while the mountains and streams are very dark. HDR techniques can fix this and make the rock and water much more visible, while toning down the sun.

I suspect that Photoshop CS5 might have an “Auto HDR” feature that takes images–or even just a single image–like the one above-right and uses algorithms to emulate HDR photography (above-left). My hope, however, is that if such a feature exists, it will offer users the ability to adjust just how bright or dim specific parts of the final image will be.

Content-Aware Fill

The above video tells all. With CS5, Photoshop users will be able to synthesize textures in photographs with just a few mouse clicks. I guess I won’t have to use the clone and smudge tools quite so much anymore! Excuse me while I retrieve my jaw from the floor.

Puppet Warp

Puppet Warp: It’s as cool as it sounds. This new technology will allow users to distort and warp images with astounding accuracy as seen in the video above. Imagine using this in combination with Content-Aware Fill!

There goes my jaw again.