The skeptic in me thinks the real reason Elements and Lightroom remain as non-subscription products is because there are good alternatives to those products. Lightroom is not the only RAW converter in town and basic image editing programs like Elements are a dime a dozen. But alternatives to Photoshop and Illustrator? InDesign has Quark Xpress but does anyone still use it?
I freaking HATE LR!!! I use it to shoot tethered and nothing else. Will not pay money for the cloud either so guess will stick with CS6 for now and eventually find something else to edit with
the real problem with Lightroom, which I use, is that the benefit of never making any changes to the original files is also the curse: you're forever locked into working with your images in Lightroom or else you lose all your edits. (unless you save all new files). so when LR goes subscription only - which is only a matter of time - you'll be forced to pay monthly or lose access to all your work once you no longer have a functional, up to date stand alone product.
goosemang wrote:
the real problem with Lightroom, which I use, is that the benefit of never making any changes to the original files is also the curse: you're forever locked into working with your images in Lightroom or else you lose all your edits. (unless you save all new files). so when LR goes subscription only - which is only a matter of time - you'll be forced to pay monthly or lose access to all your work once you no longer have a functional, up to date stand alone product.
Uh, it's very easy to select everything and export it out to DNG or TIFF as one big batch process. I have to disagree about this being any "curse".
DtEW wrote:
Uh, it's very easy to select everything and export it out to DNG or TIFF as one big batch process. I have to disagree about this being any "curse".
yes, you are right, you have to save tif duplicates of everything.
my real point is that adobe's goal here is to get you in a position where you need to have their latest software to access all the functionality of your past work, and it will no longer be stand alone software but rather another subscription to pile on to the endless number of monthly subscriptions we're all amassing.
this change to most people's update habits ends up costing more, ie now you pay $50/mo for something that previously cost you half that because you didn't constantly upgrade.
If Capture One has there act together they will get alot of users who switched to Adobe to come back to C.O.My copy is from 2010 and a bit long in the tooth. Adobe Sucks!
I suspect this would mark the end of Adobe empire. They can not invent product interesting enough to keep their revenue, so they tax their loyal users. Apple started with FCX, Autodesk is moving that direction too. Extremely annoyed. We are being punished to be good users. I hope this entire scheme flops and software companies learn the lesson.
unfortunately i'd imagine that most working professionals will suck it up and pay. they may shed a few enthusiasts but until someone else can provide a viable professional alternative i suspect the additional revenue generated by the cloud will trump whatever they lose.
plus when the dust settles there will be a lot of, "well, $20/month for photoshop isn't that bad....", because there's no big layout upfront
Agree, akul. It has been a while coming, if you ever visit their site forums, they come across as a condescending lot, full of disdain for the user community. I hate their edit regime anyway, so just exercise care in ACR on the way into a psd file.
I think this is incredibly smart if they offered it as an either/or. Either you purchase the software or you can rent it for $/mo. If I'm a carpenter building a house I don't want to rely on renting a hammer. If I just need to hang a picture I don't want to purchase a tool kit. My desktop doesn't connect to the internet (unless I run a cord to it) and I don't want it to.
I don't like it, but the 'cloud subscription' thing is only going to become more pervasive with every kind of digital commodity. At the high end Convergent is making a 4K outboard video recorder/monitor with rental video codecs, at the low end I think its only a matter of time before people can only 'subscribe' to music rather than 'own' it (although some courts in the U.S. have ruled that people don't really own the music they buy). Everyone knows why this is happening, it should come as no surprise. I have real concerns with portable functionality when working off the grid but I am professionally married to CS and still see it as a great value for the things that are essential to my work.
Cloud could mean runs from the server, or needs to connect to the server. With bloated software like Adobe makes, I presume the latter.
Well, I have intensely disliked Adobe for as long as I can remember. There was a brief hiatus after they released Lightroom and before they added Photoshop to its name. I guess from now on it is the D800 and LR/CS6 for me. I don't see any reason for new cameras or software anyway.
We should rally around and release a load of tutorials and plugins for CS6 and make it such a strong product that Adobe can no longer compete with new releases
What's really interesting is that in all the posts here in this thread, in the thread in the FM Post Processing Forum, and the extended thread over at Luminous Landscape, it seems there are only two people enthusiastically in favor of this scheme - and scheme is a good description, and one of those persons in favor is a known Photoshop Alpha tester. Almost to a person, everyone is against this and the way the dominant giant in the industry seemingly only cares about one thing - and it ain't the consumer.
miguel, you may be 'married' to these marketing imbeciles (a parlous situation I would think) but the argument of 'they are all doing it' won't cut the mustard in this case. Good to see you try it on, though, you never know your audience. You know full well the established contractual arrangements involved in sales contracts. Anything else you think buyers 'don't really own'? You now have eight posts here...members notice when you have so little skin in the forum game, so you will understand any suspicion coming your way.
The video music rental cash grab scam has been in the background for a long while now, I recall that a limited number of plays were mooted at one stage - it is languishing in the sin bin for a good reason - consumer revolt.
Maybe they simply want to shrink their market to graphics pros and the like, the folks who use the other end of the creative suite package, who would know? Or care.
If they intended to maximise user hostility they are going the exact right way about it, and I imagine they have just lost 5-10% of market share overnight, with plenty more to join in as word spreads. I hope they trumpet it from the rooftops and enjoy mutual backslaps and high fives, for sticking it to the customer.
It is an excellent result and a deserved outcome, a fine example of market capitalism in action. I've been using their s/w since v5.5 BTW. Make that 'had been using', many of us will be looking at Adobe in the rear view mirror from now on, at least in terms of new purchases and upgrades.
philip_pj wrote:
miguel, you may be 'married' to these marketing imbeciles (a parlous situation I would think) but the argument of 'they are all doing it' won't cut the mustard in this case. Good to see you try it on, though, you never know your audience. You know full well the established contractual arrangements involved in sales contracts. Anything else you think buyers 'don't really own'? You now have eight posts here...members notice when you have so little skin in the forum game, so you will understand any suspicion coming your way.
This is quite suspicious. If I understand you correctly because you have more than 8 posts you have a bigger 'for-um skin' than I do?
Peter Figen wrote:
What's really interesting is that in all the posts here in this thread, in the thread in the FM Post Processing Forum, and the extended thread over at Luminous Landscape, it seems there are only two people enthusiastically in favor of this scheme - and scheme is a good description, and one of those persons in favor is a known Photoshop Alpha tester. Almost to a person, everyone is against this and the way the dominant giant in the industry seemingly only cares about one thing - and it ain't the consumer.
$20 a month doesn't bother me in the least, I have other things much more important to concern myself with...
