speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

No, you're not buying it for a year, although you do have that option, but you can lease on a monthly basis!

salmander

Thank you for the link. It's interesting to see features that would never be relevant to my amateur experience, desires, and expectations.

j45 Loc: North Central CT

good to know, thanks!

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Yeah, you can fill a book listing all of them!

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

No one really uses all of the features of Photoshop just like no one uses all the features of an iPhone. There are some features for amateurs and some for experts. To me it is like a huge box of tools some of which are used all the time some never. They are all there just like names in a phone book. You only use the ones you want or need. Many do most of the develop work in Lightroom and use Photoshop for things like spot removal etc. (Far better at this than Lightroom). For 10 bucks you can't beat it..

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I've used every version of Photoshop from Photoshop 2.5 to Photoshop CS6. I would say that CS2 was one of my least favorites. CS 3 was much better. CS4 was another downer. CS5 was better but CS6 was the best till Photoshop CC.

I've been researching the improvements from CS6 to CC recently.
Here are the main ones:
Content aware Patch
Content aware Extend with scaling and rotation
Perspective Warp
Adobe Camera Raw Filter
Shake Reduction Filter
Better/faster masking and selection tools
Real time healing brush
Auto Content aware fill for pano stitches
Linked Smart Objects
Focus Mask
Better smart sharpen

I must say that these improvements seem worthwhile upgrading. But if you are advanced enough in CS6, I maintain you can find workarounds to achieve almost these same things without upgrading from CS6 to CC.

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

Your cheapest route while going through the classes would probably be the $10/month Photoshop CC from Adobe. When the classes are finished you can either continue paying the $10/month to stay with Photoshop CC, or if you decide you don't want to continue paying monthly payments to use it, you can cancel the Photoshop CC and purchase a standalone program where you buy it and it is yours with no monthly fees. Perfectly good alternatives do exist, and work quite well. I generally suggest "Photoshop Elements" along with a $12 program called "Elements+" that adds additional Photoshop capabilities to "Photoshop Elements", or "Affinity Photo (Serif)" and there is also "Corel Paint Shop Pro". Any of the 3 alternatives would probably give you everything you would be likely to need in processing your photos. There are others to that are completely free that are also available. ON1 sells "ON1 Photo RAW" that is another good program but it doesn't have to looks or feel of Photoshop as much as the other 3 i mentioned. They are bery much like Photoshop in there processing.

As for the 30 free trials, they are a good way to go in order to what you like best. At the end of the free trials on most programs, they simply stop working after the 30 days unless you decide to buy or subscribe in the case of Photoshop CC.

Kissel vonKeister Loc: Georgia

Oh really. Texas has to put their few leftists somewhere!

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

AFAIK, you pay $ 10 a month only for as long as you want. The prepaid plans are usually for a year. You can start with a prepaid plan, but you can't get into one once you've started to pay monthly. (I tried that once and it didn't work out, luckily B&H gave me a refund once I explained my situation to them.) Best of luck.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Jerry, what you say there has its point and yes, the subscription issue is tricky. But the main reason Photoshop CC is offered as a class at most schools that offer it (Adult Ed., Community College, College, and possibly University) is that one can have a career as a graphic artist or graphic designer using Full Photoshop (CS5, CS6, CC). The funding is not really for hobbyist photographers who like myself use only a tiny fraction of Ps's capabilities. It was created originally as a pixel editor for graphic design, but photographers found it useful as well. No one is going to pay you to use Lightroom. Do you see a future as a professional "photo cataloger"? The editing and retouching tools of Lr are very basic and limited compared to Ps. True Lr is probably easier for what it does do. Yes, Coral has had a competing program or two for Adobe's Photoshop.

The the public funding for strictly pleasure classes in California is very limited. Usually the school has to show a career goal for their classes and programs. The adult education "photography school" I attended a few years back offered a full program of photography and software classes towards a Certificate. I took the classes for just fun and to better my photo skills, I already have a BA Degree and Teaching Credential so I was little interested in the Certificate other than perhaps an ego booster. Other students, some with Masters Degrees in other fields also took classes, and others still wanted the Certificate for possible employment. And quite a few have become professional photographers. But the State of California expects there to at least be the possibility of employment via the courses it funds. And that is the catch. At any given full semester we were offered say six various Photoshop Classes, but one Lightroom Basics Class. In fact the school recently got shut down after close to 40 years by the School District because there were not enough career seeking students and many other problems.

A good reason to find software programs and classes given by Private Educational Institutions, the software designers and Corporations themselves, and retailers like B&H or Sammy's. In the "hard copy" Ps CS6 DVD-ROM days taking classes got you an educational discount from Adobe. That is how I came to own a copy of Ps CS6, at a well reduced student price.

And to OP

Yes, you can buy or get free a "used" copy of CS6 on a used physical DVD-ROM, but you must be sure the previous owner un-registered or deactivated it from their computer first. Since you can have Adobe products running on up to 4 devises with a single license you must do the same as you add a fifth device or get a new computer. Contact Adobe if not clear on how to transfer licenses from person to person and computer to computer. There may be UHH members willing to part with their CS5 or CS6 ROM if they've moved to Ps CC.

Jacksonville Loc: Australia

We will be paying about AU$15 a month for the subscription. The government will start charging 10% GST from July 1st. Not the end of the world, but I am playing around with Luminar. Looks pretty good with a lot of advance features. No LR type database, but I don"t really need that. My Adobe sub runs out in December, so we'll see.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Interesting that you created a list. Good information there. I own and use Ps CS6, yes the Content Aware tools sound vastly improved. They are iffy at best in CS5, and tricky or hit & miss in CS6. It would be nice to fill in around my panoramas with Content Aware filled edges to avoid so much cropping and loss of image. Try that with Lightroom! Getting close to it being worth while to make the jump to Ps CC.