As you’re probably aware, there are two editions of Adobe Photoshop CS3, regular and Extended. What’s so great about Extended? Why would you want to shell out more cash for Extended? The upgrade for Photoshop CS3 Extended is $150 more than the upgrade for Photoshop CS3, while the full package price differentials are $350.

Over at John Nack’s excellent blog, he’s posted on what the “Extended” in Photoshop CS3 Extended buys you. The basic gist is that it’s targeted to film, video, scientific, and engineering disciplines and anything else that isn’t photography or basic graphics folks.

The official Adobe line is that “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended delivers everything in Photoshop CS3 and more. Render and incorporate 3D images into your 2D composites. Stop time with easy editing of motion graphics on video layers. And probe your images with measurement, analysis, and visualization tools.” The go on to list the target markets:

• Film, video, and multimedia professionals
• Graphic and web designers using 3D and motion
• Manufacturing professionals
• Medical professionals
• Architects and engineers (AEC professionals)
• Scientific researchers

But back to Nack’s article. He lists some further details, including opening/placing video and 3D files, painting on 3D textures, enhanced 32 bit / HDR support, MATLAB integration, extended measurement and counting tools, medical imaging file support, and image stack analysis filters.

An earlier Nack post on the Photoshop CS3 announcement has some additional info.

Image Stacking

Martin Evening of PhotoshopNews.com has an intriguing tutorial covering the new image stack filters. They show a sequence of misaligned shots of a fountain containing a variety of tourists walking by. PS CS3 Extended aligns then stacks the images, removing aberrations such as the tourists and leveling the exposures. Then they go on create a crisp low-noise image from five nearly identical shots.

Not for Photographers?

Adobe claims the differentiating line between the Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended feature sets is, essentially, where photographers lose interest. At least with the image stacking capability of the Extended version, that’s a tough sell. The Extended upgrade is $150 more — while the full package is $350 more — than the standard Photoshop CS3 edition.