Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Too many people are staying away from Adobe products through a misunderstanding of how the system works.

Your images are not stored in the cloud, they are on your computer, whether on your main hard drive or external drive is entirely up to you. You can, if you want, take advantage of Adobe's cloud storage, Behance, which if you take up their current offer will give you 2Gb of free storage. This is not compulsory.

You do not have to be online to use the Adobe products. the Photography offer, currently $10 per calendar month, is a license to use Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge and one or two other peripheral programs, at any time you wish, on or offline.

Payment method is by automatically debiting your credit card once a month on a particular day. That day is the same each month. If for any reason Adobe are unable to collect the money, you are sent a message and have one month to rectify the situation.

At indeterminate times during the month, the Adobe servers will connect with your computer and post information about updates (so far I have received at least one a month for the programs I have). I believe this connection serves two purposes, 1. to keep your programs up to date and 2. to ensure the programs are in use and probably they gather non-personal statistics on module usage. (The latest version of the terms and conditions states that if the programs are not being used the contract can be broken by Adobe. I do not believe they would do this as long as they are getting their money.)

I was one of those reluctant to subscribe, my reasoning was that the price would go beyond affordability after the first year. The new terms and conditions no longer mention price increases at contract renewal time - it is still a wait and see thing, but I am now more optimistic about renewal.

If you use the Photoshop CC and decide not to renew your contract, your images (on your computer) are still safe and intact. Photoshop files can be opened by Elements; jpg, tiff and png files by almost any other vendors program.

Remember that Elements is not part of the Cloud services and probably never will be. (There is not enough money in Elements to make it worth while to Adobe.)

I have written this not to push Adobe products, but to allay fears and misunderstandings on how the Adobe Cloud works.

Psergel Loc: New Mexico

I was always an Adobephobe due to the shockingly high price of PS (much too high for a hobbyist). Then I broke down and bought Lightroom 4......,,what a great product.
I kept looking at CC for Photographers trying to understand what the catch was. It sounded too good to be true.

About a month ago I signed up and.....as far as I can tell there is no catch.
For $10 a month I get the current versions of Lightroom and Photoshop. (I don't know what Bridge does for me and haven't tried it......Searcher???)

Just to stay current on Lightroom and Elements would cost more than CC for Photographers.

Now........what is a good way to get started with Photoshop? I've been able to figure some things out but I don't think the "fumble around until it works" approach is going to be the best way to learn this piece of SW.

Fergus Loc: Westfield,IN

Thanks Seacher. I'm going to give it a try!

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

Still way too expensive. Corel PaintShopPro x6 is a LOT less expensive and will do pretty much anything PS can do.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

There are many posts on Lightroom, Elements and Photoshop on the forum, I wish there were posts on Paint Shop Pro - user reviews, hints, tips, advice on what can be achieved etc. Corel users appear to be quite secretive and guard their undoubted skills.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Bridge? I don't know because I don't use it. My preference is to bounce between Lightroom and Photoshop. There are many Bridge users here, and they love it, so hopefully they will chime in.

Photoshop Where to start? On the Creative Cloud desktop, in the Apps section, under each program icon is a second icon which takes you to the tutorials. These are really well made videos which will get you going in a logical way.

Obviously there will be many questions and a good place to get answers is the Hog's Post processing section.


Click here to come in and look around
Click here for the Tutorials and Tips index page
Click here for the Free software index
Click here to subscribe to the Post-Processing Digital Images section, click on "All Sections" and scroll to the second-to-last item: Post-Processing Digital Images and click to subscribe in the appropriate box.

Shoeless_Photographer Loc: Lexington

Still debating this whole idea. Been wanting to get a copy of Lightroom. Guess I still could? Would it be worth getting the $10 / month Photography deal? What do you think, Searcher?

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Lightroom bought out right is a low cost program which will manage files, do raw conversions and to some extent retouching.

Photoshop CS6 is a high cost program which will manage files (Bridge) do raw conversions and very sophisticated retouhing and image manipulation.

CS6 + Lightroom costs (in UK) about £700 to purchase outright, annual updates (I am guessing) about £250.

The annual cost (at present prices and in future if rumours prove true) of PS + LR is £105.00 and this will include all updates/upgrades.

CS6+LR for 5 years and with all updates/upgrades (if CS6 remains supported) will cost £1700, the cloud method £505.

Lightroom on its own can be purchased here for approx. £80 and annual updates are about £60.

If you want Adobe software, the rental method will save a lot of money.

What I have not mentioned is that technical support is free, I have heard that after a certain period of time on "paid up" applications, Adobe either charges for support or declines support altogether.

I can survive (photographically speaking) without Photoshop, but I would really miss not having LR which has become the core of everything I do with images once they leave the camera.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Good post Searcher. There are so many myths about the Adobe Creative Cloud. I have been using this service since the beginning and I think it is great. Other software companies will be switching to this "rental" system as soon as they can develop a system for it. Corel would do well to adopt it. However, Corel has yet to develop Draw with a Mac OS. Microsoft now has Office 365 which I subscribe to as well.

Psergel Loc: New Mexico

Muchas Gracias

I was looking for the logical place to start. Looks like the Adobe videos might be the way to go.

BullMoose Loc: Southwest Michigan

There's a 30 day free trial on all Adobe products, including LR. Easy to download and try.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Searcher, I haven't decided yet as to whether or not I'll try CC, but I really appreciate your taking the time to provide a comprehensive review of the features. Thank you.

hochspeyer Loc: Chicago

If you are going to use Photoshop, it;s a pretty good deal. If you're only interested in Lightroom, it's ~$100 USD (as a stand alone program).

Shoeless_Photographer Loc: Lexington

I've used the trial, but that's run out. Only place I've found it for around $100 is on eBay. Not sure if I trust those. Amazon has it for no less than $120.

Been using a copy of PhotoDirector 3. Similar to LR, but not quite the same.

Harry Thomas Loc: Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Thank you for this overdue explanation. Should have been provided by Adobe as simply as you provided.