New Adobe Cloud pricing for photographers

[trenchfoot]

as an avid user of photoshop and lightroom that is how i see it.
the yearly addition of new features are things i sometimes to seldom use.. i don't need to have every new version of these programs. my workflow works great and photoshop already has so much power and sooooooooooooo many features that I've never even seen or heard of... do i need the newest gizmos? probably not.

i'll stick with what i have now for years
Adobe's desire to have me pay a yearly tax (rental fee) to use software is not going to work.

portfolio sites are all over the net and the inherently insecure virtualized server (cloud) storage offered is worth 90 cents.

This has been pretty much my experience. I'm a part time pro doing small weddings, events and selective portrait shoots and surf photography since the early 1990's. I upgrade every other LR version and every three iterations of PS. The ONLY reason that I upgrade is for features that speed up my workflow without sacrificing quality and sometimes, even improving on PP speeds. My last jump in PS was from CS2 to CS5, which IMO, was well worth the cost.

Along with that, I build my own 'puters and plan ahead on hardware upgrades to match/exceed the requirements of the newest versions of LR and PS to try to make sure there's no weak link in the chain in post processing/printing.

I've been lurking here for quite some time but usually spend most of my online time in ATPN.

As a way of introducing myself, here's my gear short list: Bodies - Canon 1D3s, 1D4, 1D3, G1X backup. Lenses - 85 1.2L, 16-35L, 24-70L, 70-200 2.8L IS, 100-400L IS, 600L IS. Elinchrom lighting systems, Pocket Wizards, Gitzo and Manfrotto t-pods.

 

[tfinch2]

I bought Lightroom 5 on Monday for $70 from Amazon. I'll take that over paying $10/month subscription, thank you very much.

 

[destrekor]

I bought Lightroom 5 on Monday for $70 from Amazon. I'll take that over paying $10/month subscription, thank you very much.

If all you wanted was Lightroom, then yeah, straight is the best route.

I actually hopped on this deal AFTER already paying for lightroom, but it wasn't for lightroom.

My last purchase was CS6, and I wanted to avoid ever getting into the subscription model. But new features are exclusive to Photoshop CC at this point, and getting behance (which that and all similar pro gallery sites cost that $10/month already) makes it a huge deal for someone who can use it.
The ACR Filter feature, and ability to combine that with smart layers both actual raw files or any kind of layer content, is insanity.
And the ability to use all the features of Lightroom 5 within ACR itself is wonderful. For the most part, I'll make RAW adjustments in Lightroom and then continue working in Photoshop, but I'm still very amateur and also still spending more time screwing around and learning as opposed to getting pro results. But being able to have all the same ACR 8 (in PS CC) and LR5 features in both interfaces is perfect. Before, if using LR5 and PS CS6, you could do some advanced healing in LR5 but if you wanted to open it up in ACR you couldn't continue doing those same edits.
Another very handy feature in PS CC is the ability to simply load ACR from within PS - if you wanted the ACR interface instead of LR, you had to open Bridge. And if opened from Bridge, the LR edits aren't carried over. If opened in PS CC from within LR5, and then you load up ACR, while you don't see the same slider values (ACR sees it as the default raw without previous edits if opened that way), it does already have edits so you can continue with non-destructive edits while the file is opened within PS CC itself.

I still haven't really gotten my workflow down yet or really seen how to make the strongest use of those abilities, but I can tell, from my experiments and from constantly reading different photo editing guides and classes, that such features will definitely come in handy.
I'm excited for the behance account itself. I was looking into my own custom gallery, but it would be on my own webhost and require actual configuration of the content management plugins and all of that, and I've never really trusted the major CMS systems like wordpress, joomla, etc... because you have to seriously keep up with patches since they are always riddled with security holes that always attract attention if you have a popular enough website. I can buy and manage my domain, and customize the appearance of the gallery, but ultimately the security and content management will be pretty automatic, and it's not a publicly (free) available utilize to custom install on webservers, so that removes the pool of potential playgrounds for people searching for holes and exploits.


That said, if it rises to $20/month like I fully expect Adobe to do this time next year when these 12-month contracts are up for renewal, I'm jumping ship. For continued access to what is always "the latest version" of Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, and Bridge, $120/year is actually a damn good steal. If you upgrade every other year and use more than Lightroom, you're saving a bundle when you consider you are basically upgrading Photoshop and Lightroom for $240 (with uninterrupted subscription to Behance Pro, to boot), considering that alone is roughly the price of a typical Photoshop CS upgrade license alone.

I had a design suite for CS6, and I'll be happily keeping those CS6 apps, and using the CC apps I do have. Again, if they do raise the price, I'll jump and simply put up with the mild limitations of PS CS6 in comparison. Won't be a world-ending experience, though I'd definitely prefer to keep whatever they keep adding to PS CC.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Both the camp that says this is a terrible deal and those saying this is a deal everyone should pick up miss Adobe's business strategy. They've never, really, been about catering to mass consumers. They make high-end professional tools that offer features that a small group are willing to pay through the nose for. They're not interested in those for whom Photoshop Elements or GIMP are sufficient.

The CC price structure is built to sweep up an in-between group of users. Those who generally don't need the latest features, but need to use some of the things that PS has been offering for a while now. These people don't upgrade every version, and often buy a copy that will last them a decade. Adobe (just like Microsoft with their gradual move towards cloud-based Office) would rather these users no longer exist, and so are effectively forcing upgrades on their user base.

 

[trenchfoot]

Let's not forget all of those plug-ins and other add-ons that really speed up/improve upon what PS has to offer. A lot of those plug-ins are valuable tools and they also need costly updating/upgrading to keep in phase with the improvements and changes that occur with every new generation of PS, especially in the area of portraits. Keeping up with trends in the industry also add cost too.

And then there's the ever newer versions of operating systems that have to sync up with "older" PS versions and the plug-ins that go with it. This along with the compatibility bugs that have to be dealt with every time a new OS version goes gold really gets to me sometimes. I remember how costly it was when coverting over from 32 bit to 64 bit OS.

Keeping everything running smooth when hardware, software and operating systems keep changing is in and of itself a major problem that continuously piles onto the cost of keeping up with the competition let alone keeping the camera gear up to date.