Adobe is going to only sell subscription based Photoshop

[Corran]

I've been discussing this with some photographer friends and also educators.
The consensus is that none of us will be upgrading past what we have (I use CS5, a friend uses 3!). Frankly, it does all I need. Since I'm on a smokin' custom-build PC with a SSD it's also fast.

Anyway, this won't stop pirating and it's not designed to. How hard do you think it will be to disable the dll or whatever that calls back to Adobe to check your subscription is still valid? Or redirect it. Probably easier to pirate than now. No, what this does is lock in huge schools and corporations into a perpetual monthly fee, which I imagine will be a huge profit increase for Adobe.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I've been discussing this with some photographer friends and also educators.

When I was in higher Ed we had a site license which allowed 'n' active sessions of Adobe whatever at a time. Gotta check how that might change.

How hard do you think it will be to disable the dll or whatever that calls back to Adobe to check your subscription is still valid?

Pretty hard because they use in-line code to check network time/date. No dll. Messing with the PC's date won't help. The license code is in the downloaded executable. Adobe is smart enough.

[Ben Syverson]

Anyway, this won't stop pirating and it's not designed to. How hard do you think it will be to disable the dll or whatever that calls back to Adobe to check your subscription is still valid? Or redirect it. Probably easier to pirate than now. No, what this does is lock in huge schools and corporations into a perpetual monthly fee, which I imagine will be a huge profit increase for Adobe.

Adobe already had some kind of mechanism to check for activation every 30 days, because that's how the demo versions worked. So my guess is that the new crack will be pretty similar to the old crack. Activation has been network-based for a couple CS versions at least, so I doubt this will give the pirates much of a challenge.

[Corran]

Jac - yes that's how we are doing it here at the university I work at. Now the school will be paying $50 * however many total open sessions allowed per month - I think at least 300 here possibly, or $15,000/month. Wow! Might as well make it free for small businesses really.

I have to agree with Ben - it'll be cracked within weeks, maybe days.

[Ed Kelsey]

I just bought a little program called Pixelmator on the Apple store for $15. I haven't really tried to use it yet but it does have a much prettier face than PS. Supposedly does layers and stuff. I'd never buy into the Creative Clown. I have PS6 and will use it until it doesn't work anymore.

[Greg Miller]

If you're not dealing with large scans, Lightroom is all you need. The local adjustments have improved dramatically, and you can now do virtually any kind of photo cleanup or prep within the app. It's fantastic.

They have improved. But IMHO they still feel very rough and clumsy compared to the tools in Photoshop.

I also don't do much in Lightroom or ACR in terms of contrast or saturation changes, because if, for example, you change contrast you also affect hue and saturation. So I prefer to wait to change contrast and saturation (almost always decreasing saturation) until the image is in Photoshop where I can affect only contrast or only saturation individually by using blending modes.

[Ben Syverson]

They have improved. But IMHO they still feel very rough and clumsy compared to the tools in Photoshop.

I wish I had LR's tools within Photoshop. The way you can use the brush to "paint in" exposure and then adjust it with a slider is like dodging and burning on steroids. It's what they were trying to do with layer masks in Photoshop, but it's much quicker and easier to adjust in LR.

I also don't do much in Lightroom or ACR in terms of contrast or saturation changes, because if, for example, you change contrast you also affect hue and saturation. So I prefer to wait to change contrast and saturation (almost always decreasing saturation) until the image is in Photoshop where I can affect only contrast or only saturation individually by using blending modes.

Interesting point—I don't often use those color-based blending modes in Photoshop (such as Saturation, Color, Luminosity), but it's true that LR doesn't have that capability. You can always adjust the saturation up or down manually... Even when a color appears to go "out of range" in LR, it can be brought back using saturation or some other tool. Internally it's linear ProPhoto RGB with no cap on the range.

[Greg Miller]

I wish I had LR's tools within Photoshop. The way you can use the brush to "paint in" exposure and then adjust it with a slider is like dodging and burning on steroids. It's what they were trying to do with layer masks in Photoshop, but it's much quicker and easier to adjust in LR.

I can think of a variety of ways to do this in Photoshop with adjustment layers, a paint brush (with much more control over brush shape, size, and opacity), and opacity slider. And using Luminosity blending mode you won;t affect hue or saturation in the process.

[Brian Ellis]

Is Photoshop relavent to real photographers?
Pete.

God, that's clever Pete - "real photographers" (as opposed to unreal photographers I suppose) Did you think of that all by yourself?

Try "relevant" next time.

[Brian Ellis]

Pretty enjoyable to view this thread.. I don't care about any Adobe stuff, I make prints.. Sorry for the snotty response..

Does it make you feel better to insult the many people here who make their prints using Photoshop?