Thoughts on Adobe's "creative cloud"

[Richard Healy]

In case you don't know...

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/faq.html


I currently use Photoshop Elements as my PP workhorse, and look with naked envy upon the users of CS6, LightRoom and After Effects and so on.

The upfront cost of this software is just prohibitive for me.

However I'm looking at this new venture by Adobe quite favourably - for a month-by-month subscription I can get access to the FULL creative suite of Adobe programmes always updated - and I can stop and start as often as I like.

For someone like me who does these fairly intense but ad-hoc projects, that sounds ideal! I can get the software when I need it for as long as I need it.

I'm interested in people's thoughts about this. Since I've not yet departed from any cash. What do you think? Does this sound like a good idea? Is it something you would use? Would you have used it if you hadn't forked out the cash already to purchase the software (at whichever release version) and have you resisted paying for the upgrades to the latest version?

[ggt]

I think it sounds like a great idea! I too have PSE. As I don't make money from photography and have no way of even supporting my habit, I can't justify a more expensive program. I will definitely have to look into this. Thanks for posting.

. . .
Wow, $49.99 a month. I still can't justify that for a hobby. Maybe for a month or two to learn about the other programs. Or if I had a specific project I wanted to use them with.

[Simon Garrett]

For me, the cloud cost is about a factor 10 more than I'd consider.

Yes, I'm happy to pay well over $1,000 on a camera every 4 or 5 years, and on lenses too. But $600 a year for Adobe software? No thanks!

I have Photoshop CS5 - I managed to get an earlier version at a low price as it was for charity work, and I used to upgrade every 3 versions. Now Adobe make you upgrade every version (presumably to make the cloud seem better value) I doubt I'll upgrade again, and will probably get PSE if CS5 becomes too old.

And I use Lightroom. It's much cheaper than any CS product, and for me it's good value as I use it for every photo. Photoshop I use on maybe 1 in 10 photos.

I'm not a professional, so it's not about return on investment; it's about perceived value. And for me, I just don't feel comfortably paying for CS products - bought outright or in the cloud.

[dje]

Richard the "full creative suite" is quite a large range of programmes and I suggest you look careully at what you really need or want to do with the software. If it's just photo editing, then you could consider just getting Lightroom which is reasonably priced and has the same RAW processing "front end" as CS6 Photoshop.That combined with PS Elements should cover all your needs. Alternatively you could consider the possibility of an education version of CS6 Photoshop for around $200 if you are in a situation where you can qualify for the educational discount. Even the normal retail version would be less than one year's subscription to the cloud based on Gretchen's price figure.

Dave

[victor]

With software it is not uncommon for professionals to update at every release... they have their reasons. I have an EOS 50D and 7D and use LR4 and CS5. They work well for my cameras and current pc, which I will keep for years. Its a 17 ins Apple MAC Book Pro.

There has to a stopping point and that to me is cost can I afford it YES. Do I wish to update every year NO. Possibly in another 3 years ....

Who knows by then it will all be CLOUD based.... access by internet only .... Restrictive in my mind ..

Regards

David

[Kris V]

I only use PhotoShop and LR (I did upgrade to CS6) but have no use for the complete suite, the Cloud does not seem such a great idea for me.

[Manfred M]

I did have a look at it when Adobe started pushing it and think it makes more sense for pros trying to manage their cash-flow. An ongoing business expense matched to cash flow is really what that path is all about. As a hobbiest, I have different needs from the pros.

I do use a host of Adobe products other than just Photoshop, (Acrobat, Bridge, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Encore and to a very limited extent InDesign), so I have a different perspective than many other users. The math is simple; reasonably regular upgrades is far more cost effective than the Cloud for me.

[Andrew1]

I have to agree with the previous posters that the full suite is far more than an average photographer needs however you don't say why you need it or what you plan to do with it. Hard to help with the info given.

I am not a prolific daily shooter nor do I take photos of things or events that require large numbers of similar shots like weddings. Just a busy hobbyist. Elements is the non-professional photographers package. I too use Elements in conjunctions with ViewNX (raw)(free) and Elements+ (curves add-on) and find there is very little I can't do. In fact, 90% of my adjustments are in ViewNX. Typically it's crop, sharpen and add a touch of contrast. That's it. As you are aware the ACR portion of Elements is limited to global adjustments so I am on the hunt for an economical LR3 disc (XP can't use LR4) only for the more dynamic ACR (brushes, gradients). From what I read I believe most of the people using LR actually utilize its ACR for most of their work as well.

Consumers don't drive technology, manufacturers do. It's a $$$$ thing. Adobe needs to make money and subscription will bring in far more future money than outright sales. Do the math. As you grow in knowledge you may become more reliant on CS than you think so plan on very long-term licensing fees which won't go down unless competition drives it. (unlikely) Providers of business level software and hardware learned those money-making lessons decades ago.

[Jeff S]

I looked at the cloud and decided it was another way to drain money on a monthly basis for the rest of my life (like cable, phones, etc.), which is not appealing to me. I used CS3 until April of this year when I decided to upgrade to CS5. I got lucky because CS6 came out within 30 days of my purchase and Adobe gives you a download upgrade if you purchase within 30 days of a new release. I am not a professional photographer, although I do some internal PR work for my employer as part of my job description.

I winced at the original purchase price, but paid it. The upgrades every few years are within my budget. I don't use the extended version, so there are more Adobe programs that I have never examined and, for my purposes, probably have no need. It has been a long time since I used Elements, so I don't have a clue as to how much is in that program. CS6, though, is fantastic. ...and the upgrades are worth the price, especially since I tend to skip some of them...without the monthly bill that comes with the cloud.

[John Morton]

The very first thing I want to say here, and I can't stress it enough, is that I will never, ever, ever run my photo editing computer is such a way that it is connected to the Internet. ABSOLUTELY not!

I have a cheap, "expendable" Internet computer that has earlier versions of Adobe's Creative Suite loaded onto it. This computer shares a monitor, mouse, and keyboard with my photo editing computer; I can have both running at the same time, and toggle back and forth using a KVM switch.

If I want to move photos onto the Internet, I save them as JPEGs onto the desktop of my photo editing computer after editing them and I move them onto my Internet computer by way of a USB stick/jump drive that I then FORMAT using my Internet computer after transferring the photos.

All of the drives that hold my digital photos connect to my photo editing computer, and only that computer. Connect my photo editing to the Internet and expose it to viruses, malware, trojans, and whatever else has yet to be invented by malicious programmers? I don't think so. Not for Adobe's "Cloud"; not for anything. Not a chance of that happening!

I'm happy using Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended; I'm still learning all the different parts of that program, even after owning and using it for all these years!

I use InDesign a lot and I really, really like it; but I am using the CS2 version, because after upgrading to that one I had problems with my +3,000 font collection and my color laser printer that required me to convert all of my fonts to Open Type format. I had no intention of switching to a different printer so I left well enough alone and stayed with InDesign CS2.

Technically speaking, I would not use any Adobe Creative Cloud software more than I use what I have now: I would use it just as much, although I would be able to do slightly different things with it MAYBE (meaning, if I actually got around to doing those different things rather than what I try to get around to doing now).

So, the short answer from me: no, I will never subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud. Ever.

[xpatUSA]

So, the short answer from me: no, I will never subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud. Ever.

+1 to that! Apart the security consideration, the thought of trying to edit a huge file "in the clouds" over my slow satellite link is quite scary. Today's thunderstorms stopped play about 4 times today for example. And I'm lucky to see 50Kb/s up and 200 Kb/s down on a good day!

PhotoShop Elements 6 ($20, from eBay) is more than adequate for what I do :-)

[GrahamH]

..... Elements is the non-professional photographers package....

Really??? I wasn't aware of that .
I know several wedding photographers who don't do any editing, use any software, burn straight to disc and goodbye, all within 4 hours.
They were amazed at what Elements can do, and that was only in a quick 5 minutes coffee/chat with them. I'm going to work with them and give them an intro to basic post processing.
As a semi-pro, turning fully pro, Elements is certainly fulfills all my own requirements (I use LR2 mainly for it's organisation and fuller RAW processing functionality).

On the note about cloud processing, if I am dealing with a 500Mb file, I am dubious about the effectiveness of the cloud to date. Like others, I prefer to use a standalone machine (not feasible right now due to other changes in my life, but intend to return to that positioning) as well as two external back-ups etc. etc. Far too much risk for any perceivable benefits.
Graham

[rpcrowe]

As a non-professional (retired) I have no interest in the Adobe Cloud for six hundred U.S. Dollars a year...

Years ago, my wife and I originally purchased Adobe CS3 Creative Suite Educational Version for which my wife (as a professor at a local college) was eligible. The reason we chose the entire CS3 Creative Suite was that her college sold that program in their bookstore. When I wanted to upgrade to Photoshop CS5, I found that the upgrade was too expensive since I would need to upgrade the entire Suite. I couldn't just upgrade to Photoshop CS5 alone. I really didn't need the other portions of the Creative Suite.

I decided to bite the bullet and work with the less expensive Photoshop Elements 10 which is a very nice program but, I really preferred the Photoshop program itself for quite a few reasons. Don't get me wrong, Photoshop Elements 10 is a powerful editng program which can do most anything a photographer needs. There are, however, some bells and whisles on the CS6 that PSE10 cannot emulate. My wife preferred to continue working with CS3 rather than with PSE10.

She is a retired Professor Emeritus from her college and the Adobe web site states that due to that status, she is eligible to purchase educational versions of Adobe programs. However, I could never get a confirmation from Adobe customer service despite several calls to India and various emails to Adobe. IMO, Adobe cusomer service quality is right between terrible and rediculous. Unfortunately, Photoshop is the best program available. IMO, most other editing programs offered are pretty well equal to Elements in capability.

Recently I spotted a one day sale from Hunt's Photo in Massachusetts which offered Photoshop CS6 for USD $250 with the stipulation that the purchaser would be eligible only if that person was a registered user of Photoshop Elements or Lightroom. There were several other purchase stipulations but, to make a long story short, I was eligible to buy a full featured version of Photoshop CS6.

I ordered the program and have just received an email from Hunt's with the tracking date. It should be arriving next week and I am chomping at the bit to start working with Photoshop again. I purchased the Scott Kelby book, "Photoshop CS6 for Photographers" and have been reading it with interest. It has spurred my interest to start working with CS6.

[emjiel]

First post, so Hello to all,

Thoughts on Creative Cloud? Adobe realise they are on weak ground as their annual 'upgrades' do nothing other than produce 'churnover' for Adobe. What benefits exactly has PS/CS6 provided that CS5 didn't have? A few tweaks and little else. Sure, they make a big thing about the new 'features' each year, but little changes that is of any real use. Adobe's move to subscription-based use indicates they know people can sit with CS6 for several years. Just how much will CS7/CS8 do to an image that CS6 cannot adequately do today? Lightroom is leaner, if only you could strip out the Web/Books/ sections etc. but without layers, still isn't the perfect tool. Until/unless Elements works with 16bit images, it's a write-off IMHO. Adobe (and others) know exactly what photographers want, it's just that they will not produce it, as it would kill the market for buyers who pay for Lightroom AND PS/CS.

Incidentally, without reading all the technical details, I was under the impression that a user's image does not get uploaded to 'the Cloud' for working with - the programs sit on your own drive and Creative Cloud just 'taps in' every month to check your subscriptions are up to date to continue use of the program.

Creative Cloud has convinced me to look to avoid Adobe altogether and am currently investigating CaptureOnePro. Now we just need to convince PhaseOne to produce a RIP module for it so we don't have to spend £1,000 plus on StudioPrint!

[darknight]

yep Matthew you're right, you download the applications you want and work on your images on your computer, the cloud onlt takes over if you WANT to upload them, you don't have to ever if you don't want.
you must i think have a net connection when you start work so it can verify you as a user.
will i use it? i doubt it, i use cs4, lighttroom 4, i would love cs6 for its raw capabilities etc but for a grand no. i just turn them into dng from LR.
and 600 quid a year? if it were half that price i would think about it