Photoshop CS6 Beta features top six in plain English

It's fantastic to see that Photoshop is expanding with Adobe delivering this week a Beta of the newest wave: CS6. This version of the Adobe suite will bring new elements to each of the Adobe graphic-intensive programs to the forefront, but today we're having a look at six exciting new features in Photoshop as presented by Adobe's Julieanne Kost, translated here into terms so basic that anyone could appreciate them. It's not that Kost doesn't speak English, it's just that the vast majority of Photoshop users don't use 90% of the features they're afforded – let's expand!1. Camera Raw – with this format you're editing the most basic elements of the photo you've taken. This feature isn't new in itself, but the interface has been updated to include an intuitive spectrum of modifications for you to create the image you'd intended to snap – or an image you want to make happen after the fact. Tone Curve works in each channel now so you can work in shadows and highlights to your delight. This update will bring color and balance control to a new level for you Raw shooters out there.

2. Text Editing in Photoshop – You'll now have the ability to edit blocks of text, paragraphs and open type, justification and more. It's now easy to move through the document with Styles. Set up whichever styles you like, naming them thusly, then hitting each block of text as you want it edited. This should make basic text editing of large blocks of text one whole heck of a lot easier in Photoshop.

3. Vector Shape Layers – With this layer you're able to set a vectorized shape which will grow or shrink to whatever size you like, all of its angles and sides calculated with math rather than pixels – this is also not a brand new feature, but your ability to quickly and efficiently change the colors within the shape is. Strokes around the shape are now able to be edited as heavily as the fills, and layers with vector shapes are now able to be merged without rasterization.

4. Blurring – Tilt-shift blurs can be added now with ease, the blurring tool now more than just a single spot edit. There's also Field Blur and Iris Blur for wider or sharper blurs. Multiple blurs can be set at once so that you've got control over the amount of blur across the entire image.

5. Cropping – You're able to move your image within the crop area now, change aspect ratio after you're already in the crop, many different elements like your Rule of Thirds can be pre-set, and everything works much less destructively.

6. Video – Expanded far beyond what Photoshop was able to do with video, this feature allows you to work just as intuitively as you've been working with such apps as iMovie in the past. Photoshop photo effects work on videos as well, so you'll be able to move into editing videos as easily as possible, you Photoshop guru you.

You can head to Adobe's update guide to see how you can update your version of Photoshop to CS6 Beta asap to get a taste of what this update is all about. Then be sure to check our back archive of photoshop and Adobe related news to stay fully up to date with the goings on of high-class editing on your home computer!