On May 6th 2013 Adobe announced Photoshop CC, the replacement for Photoshop CS6. Adobe also announced that Photoshop CC would be a subscription-only application provided as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud online ecosystem. This means CS6 is the last version of Photoshop to be offered with a ‘perpetual licence’, and from now on you’ll have to rent your copy of Photoshop instead of buying it.
You can click on the image above to visit Adobe’s Photoshop CC web page, or click here to see the official press release.
The move has already created a storm of protest amongst photographers and the implications are far-reaching. I’ll be looking at these more closely in future posts, but that’s not only what this new website is about.
Life after Photoshop started out as a simple idea, a website for photographers who don’t want to use Photoshop any more, perhaps prompted by Adobe’s new business model, and who don’t know where to turn to find equivalent tools from other publishers.
So I’m going to be taking a look at all the possible Photoshop alternatives on the market and, at the same time, showing how many of them offer a wider range of tools, greater innovation, smarter ideas or just better ways of working than that great old grandaddy of image-editing that we’ve taken for granted for so long.
That’s it for now. My magazine deadlines are calling me. But I’ll be posting again as soon as I get some free time. There is definitely life after Photoshop, and I reckon you’ll find it much more varied and more exciting than you ever expected.
Rod Lawton, freelance photography journalist
First, congratulations for your excellent and very relevant web site. Adobe’s recent move towards pay-per-month business model has resulted in a truckload of protest from photographers, both hobbyists and professionals. So, I suspect lots of them are going to look seriously at different ways to work on their photos. Photoshop is not the only tool. Adobe’s move creates a gap to be filled, and I am sure that other companies are going to jump on the occasion. Some are already almost there.
I have been using Adobe software since the nineties. I owned Photoshop 4, then 6, and Illustrator 9. I used PS6 for maybe 10 years, before upgrading to CS6. Now, my workflow has changed dramatically. I use Lightroom 5, and Google-Nik plugins 99% of the time. As I am not into graphism or heavy image manipulation, I find myself using Photoshop less and less. I think I am now to the point where I can live without. So I won’t cry.
There is no way I will ever pay monthly fees, in order to use software. It is not an option. Period.
I am retired, so I have no money to waste. Besides, during summer, I am out, taking pictures. I “develop” those photos during winter. It means that there is 7 months a year where I don’t use Photoshop at all. I can’t imagine having to pay, just for the sake of keeping my rights to use it, the rest of the year. Besides, I am not upgrading my software every time there’s a new version. I do it only when hardware, and operating system evolution force me to do so. Photoshop is expensive, but if I use a release for, say, 5 to 10 years, it’s not that bad.
If (when) Lightroom goes “pay-per-month” only, I will be ready to switch to Capture one pro, or Dxo. Or switch from Microsoft to Apple, and use Aperture.
In the meanwhile, over the years, I have gathered a hefty collection of PSD files, some of them over 1GO in size. These will be converted to flattened TIFF, and stored on external hard disks. I use La Cie 2Big Quadra USB3 disks. Now, I have two of them set in RAID 0. That means 2 x 4TB of storage, synchronized every day. Once a week, these are further synchronized with 2 other 2TB external hard disks, to be stored somewhere else. So, when PS CS6 will come to the end of it’s useful life, that will be Good Bye Adobe (regretfully, I must admit), and I will be ready to invest my cash in another company.
Lots of photographers are worried that they won’t be able to use their Google-Nik software anymore, if they don’t use Adobe products or Aperture. Actually, these so-called plugins do work perfectly as standalone apps. They are installed in Program Files\Google\Nik Collection\. Make shortcuts to the exe files on your desktop. Then, when you’re ready to process a photo with, say Color Efex, just drag it over to the shortcut. The plugin will open, and you’re ready to work on your photo. It is not an elegant solution, but at least, it works. Let’s hope Capture One Pro supports those plugins, in the future.
If you don’t have Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture on your computer, and would like to use Google-Nik plugins, don’t despair. Just download a trial copy of Lightroom, or PS Elements. Then, install your plugins. Play with Lightroom for 30 days, and then, just stop using it. The plug-ins will still work, as stated above.
Well said, Michel. Thanks for your comments.