Whats the verdict on Adobe CC?

[paulr]

Ever since I joined the online world I have made it a point to do nothing I am ashamed of and not to look at things I am ashamed of.

Privacy is about more than covering up wrongdoing. It can be about preventing identity theft, other kinds of theft, other kinds of invasions of your personal life, etc. etc..

Also, as many have discovered the hard way, even information that's not shameworthy can be used against you if framed the right way. This comes up for people who become political activists or journalists, who, through the honest execution of their work make enemies in high places. The desire for privacy is not something to be ashamed of.

[Tin Can]

Privacy is about more than covering up wrongdoing. It can be about preventing identity theft, other kinds of theft, other kinds of invasions of your personal life, etc. etc..

Also, as many have discovered the hard way, even information that's not shameworthy can be used against you if framed the right way. This comes up for people who become political activists or journalists, who, through the honest execution of their work make enemies in high places. The desire for privacy is not something to be ashamed of.

True, and I am too dirty for public office. Or is that the other way round.

I learned very early how anything can be twisted into a different message.

Stealing identities, reputations and wealth is often beyond our control.

I remain very cynical about a lot of things.

[Lenny Eiger]

Maybe I'm off point here, but besides banking what do we really need secure.

I hear this from a lot of people. There are 2 issues right off the bat... I don't want to get political here. We must not forget that this country is based on the ability to dissent. From our own dissenting we call the American Revolution to the First Amendment rights we enjoy. When the government knows everything about you it is easy to build a case based upon a twisting of whatever story is discovered. It stifles dissent, and this is documented heavily. It's not a good thing when the people can't speak their minds.

The other issue is shopping. I don't want the endless spam I get, the garbage that gets thru the spam filter. Life is not about shopping. Most of the people here are enjoying photography where they attempt to look closer at something and discover something about real life. The endless ads build a society based on consumerism. We are told what to think, what to buy, etc. It may be over already, but I'm going to block those tracking cookies anyway.

Lenny

[appletree]

Bumping an oldish thread.

I read through a few pages. I am thinking about getting the $9.99 subscription. Rather than upgrading from LR3 to 6, I could get this and have PS. Although overall it means more expenses /month. This plus store plus site. Running about $360 a year total. I need to sell a few prints each year.

PS is probably really complicated though...even for my young-tech-minded-self.

I never use my netflix. Contemplating canceling it and getting this, as it would be a wash.

I spent forever organizing Lightroom. I would hope none of that will be lost when going over to the new version.

From the pages I read, lots of people seem happy with it. And for the price...it seems wise. I spent $ 150 3 years ago on Lightroom. This would be a few bucks more overall, but I now have PS on my machine. Maybe quicker to edit (basic-editing) through it than the Develop tool in Lightroom. Hmmmm, decisions.

[fishbulb]

PS is probably really complicated though...even for my young-tech-minded-self.

It's not as bad as it seems. And if you start scanning your negatives, PS is great for spot removal, especially with the clone stamp and the content-aware healing brush. Lightroom has good tools for that, but for whatever reason tends to slow down a lot when doing spot healing on a large file, say a 80MP or 300MP .tiff. Photoshop handles these large files much better, even though both programs are 64-bit.

I spent forever organizing Lightroom. I would hope none of that will be lost when going over to the new version.

Nah, I'm using a catalog that I've migrated from LR 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 over the years. Still works fine. You can import any earlier catalogs into the latest version of LR, even if you're skipping versions.

From the pages I read, lots of people seem happy with it. And for the price...it seems wise. I spent $ 150 3 years ago on Lightroom. This would be a few bucks more overall, but I now have PS on my machine. Maybe quicker to edit (basic-editing) through it than the Develop tool in Lightroom. Hmmmm, decisions.

$120 a year isn't terrible, and if you shoot a lot (especially with digital) LR is a must-have just for organization. Plus, some of the new features of LR and PS are pretty great - correction of motion blur and the content-aware tools in PS, and all of the improved editing tools in LR. The new LR that was just announced yesterday is a major upgrade, and has quite a few new features. Plus there were features added in 4, 5 and 6.

That said, if all you're doing is basic spot removal, contrast/curves, cropping, that kind of thing, and want to save money, just get The GIMP, which is a free photoshop-like application (although not nearly as advanced). You can continue using LR3 and edit your scans in The GIMP to do clone-stamp work etc. And you don't have to spend $120/year just for a few tricks like content-aware fill.

[Tin Can]

If you are going to be serious about photography, get CC, use it everyday and you soon will be very glad you have it and can use it.

If you don't watch NetFlix, dump it for CC and you will be happy.

I use both for hours everyday. I don't have cable, landline, or a cell phone data plan.

Time is money, even when you are young. Spend it wisely.

[appletree]

I spend it un-wisely. Often too much video games! A lot of time reading too though. And photography.

Thanks for the advice guys. I will probably pull the trigger after saving up for a scanner. Done spent my budget on lenses and a tripod/ballhead.
Seems worth it for the long-haul.

And thanks, I am familiar with Gimp, a little. Have it on my office computer for random one-off things.

Does seem like there are more plug-ins and such for PS nowadays. Good news is I spend less time editting photos since I try and keep a much cleaner and exact workflow in my scanning process. That and weeding out photos. I use to edit every single one, even "bad" images.

My process has definitely grown in efficiency over the years.

[Preston]

PS is probably really complicated though...

Photoshop requires one to negotiate the learning curve, just like everything that's new to your LF toolbox. PS is very powerful, and, as Adam says, it's designed for large complex files. The ability to add non-destructive adjustment layers, create layer masks, etc. is a real boon. Ps will do the simple things, such as spotting, balancing color, adjusting contrast, hue/saturation, etc. with relative ease once you're used to the tools. Also, there are a ton of tutorials and there's the PS Help file, too. It takes practice, but it's certainly not insurmountable.

Having Photoshop, with all it's power and many useful tools, will be there as your skills and demands continue to grow.

--P

[jp]

The other side of the coin regarding the complexity / learning curve is that PS is so widely used and well documented, google/youtube can quickly get you to any howto to do anything you want. Abode's documentation is good too. If you're trying to figure out something new in PS, chances are good there are half a dozen good youtube videos showing how other people have tackled it.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Love CC! At $10 a month it is less than one "bomber" of my favorite Belgian brew which I like to sip on while I am working on digital files (or in the darkroom for that matter). Today I downloaded all updates and the latest version of LR. For me, 85% of what I do is covered by LR but PS is sort of fun to learn, so why not. I will never be an expert in any of these applications but I enjoy learning.