Anyone re-thinking their usage of Lightroom?

[maflynn]

I've made a number of LR threads regarding an attempt to leave the ecosystem, but for all of Adobe's faults, LR is a good product.

Anyways we had a rash of news regarding Adobe, is anyone either re-thinking their investment? Do you think the price hike was a trial balloon and we may see some changes come 2020?

I guess with the lawsuit news, people are not longer able to download and user older vintage versions of CS, as they can only d/l 2 versions back now. I never knew you had access to older version but there you go?

Adobe Tests Doubling the Price of Photography Plan With Photoshop and Lightroom
Adobe Warns Customers of Potential Legal Action for Using Older Versions of Creative Cloud Apps

 

[mollyc]

Assuming they don't actually double the price I will stay with them. I've been using LR since LR1. I can't imagine trying to switch programs now. I don't even like ACR, which is the same processing engine.

I also don't think they will really double the price of the photographer's plan. They reverted back to the original pricing alternatives too quickly.

 

[Bojack Horseman]

I bought Raw Power yesterday. I didn't do too much research, so I'm sure there's at least a dozen apps out there that are better, but it seems to be a good alternative to Lightroom for me. It's created by the same guy that was the lead designer for Aperture IIRC. Nothing will beat the Quality of Life of Lightroom, (implementing the use of the Touch Bar would be amazing for the fine adjustments of any settings) but the overall experience and UI is similar. The only major shortcoming I've come across is that the straightening and cropping is bad. real bad. It's broken.

 

[cSalmon]

I left Adobe, and have been using a combination of Affinity, C1, Digikam and some others. First I really like the idea of open software for archival purposes. I left Adobe because of principal and price - while their "temp" price for the photography plan sounds ok add Premier and holy cow the price is unreasonable. Plus last time I used CC the bug situation was horrendous. Get to work early get prompted to update - sure why not I can go get a coffee, boom! - no computer for half a day trying to uninstall.

I did a contract at a drug manufacture - a lot of the cars in the parking lot were expensive yet I still remember the graphic designers having to jockey for computer positions that had the full Adobe package, art departments have never been respected. While IT departments may have a huge budget most art departments are working at a shoestring level. I don't think Adobe will have their hold on the commercial world if fresh artists out of school are using Gimp - and I am seeing this.

For me programs like Lightroom are all about dealing with files over many years I can't imagine ever trusting a software company again with my work in their proprietary system. I have so many files saved as layered PDFs great for at the time, but now if I need those I'm basically better off starting the processing over with the Raw capture.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I've made a number of LR threads regarding an attempt to leave the ecosystem, but for all of Adobe's faults, LR is a good product.

Anyways we had a rash of news regarding Adobe, is anyone either re-thinking their investment? Do you think the price hike was a trial balloon and we may see some changes come 2020?

I guess with the lawsuit news, people are not longer able to download and user older vintage versions of CS, as they can only d/l 2 versions back now. I never knew you had access to older version but there you go?

Adobe Tests Doubling the Price of Photography Plan With Photoshop and Lightroom
Adobe Warns Customers of Potential Legal Action for Using Older Versions of Creative Cloud Apps

I upgraded to the subscription model from the standalone LR package about 12 months ago.
I wish I didn’t have to. But I’m a lazy photographer and I really don’t have the time to learn new software. LR does what I need it to. PS occasionally. Would I pay double? Yes. But after that I’d really have to think about Phase One as I can get a very good deal through work.

 

[rotlex]

If pricing stays the same for the near future, I can't see myself ditching Lightroom. Regardless of my feelings toward Adobe, I really enjoy the product, and have yet to find a better DAM to manage my images. Honestly, it's still costing me less than buying a new copy of LR and PS every year.

The other issue is that I moved to Lightroom back when Apple announced Aperture was going away. While I'm not a pro, I do manage 150K plus images and would really hate to lose the edits and all the other time and effort I have put into it.

 

[MacNut]

I think it's worth is since you get Photoshop included. I would never pay full price for PS.

 

[maflynn]

But I’m a lazy photographer and I really don’t have the time to learn new software.

I'm just a humble hobbyist who has meager needs. Tbh, I value LR more for its cataloging/DAM capabilities then editing. I'm probably one of those folks who can use any app and it will be overkill. Maybe it is better to buy something like On1 Raw for 99 bucks and live with that instead of leasing LR/PS for 120 dollars a year. For me the pain point is 9.99 a month, anything more is not worth it. I think Adobe was taken aback by the amount of vitriol and push back on the 19.99 price, so much so, 2020 we may not see a price increase.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I'm just a humble hobbyist who has meager needs. Tbh, I value LR more for its cataloging/DAM capabilities then editing. I'm probably one of those folks who can use any app and it will be overkill. Maybe it is better to buy something like On1 Raw for 99 bucks and live with that instead of leasing LR/PS for 120 dollars a year. For me the pain point is 9.99 a month, anything more is not worth it. I think Adobe was taken aback by the amount of vitriol and push back on the 19.99 price, so much so, 2020 we may not see a price increase.

I’m sure it was a marketing exercise to see what the reaction was.

My problem with subscription software, is once you are hooked on £10 a month. A move to £15 or £20 isn’t that different. What about £25? When’s would it become too much?

 

[cSalmon]

I’m a lazy photographer and I really don’t have the time to learn new software.

Yeh me too (lazy) ironically learning the new software has been the fun part. It takes patience, but I had been in the Adobe world since the 90's so learning new software is allowing me to rethink my workflow - it's kinda fun (but I enjoy images - it would suck if it was a spreadsheet software)

 

[maflynn]

nce you are hooked on £10 a month. A move to £15 or £20 isn’t that different.

I think Adobe was hoping that the acceptance of the higher end amount was going to fit that scenario but it didn't play out that way.

 

[cSalmon]

Tbh, I value LR more for its cataloging/DAM capabilities then editing.

Have a look at Digikam or Darktable: I feel Digikam could really be the future (of DAM) if large groups see it for it's long term archival benefits being an open source software. for editing: affinity

it is definitely rough around the edges

 

[Apple fanboy]

I think Adobe was hoping that the acceptance of the higher end amount was going to fit that scenario but it didn't play out that way.

Pro’s aren’t interested in the storage element. Most of us have more than that to store!
We like to do our own backups etc. Not leave our images on a server farm somewhere controlled by someone else.
[doublepost=1558383539][/doublepost]

Yeh me too (lazy) ironically learning the new software has been the fun part. It takes patience, but I had been in the Adobe world since the 90's so learning new software is allowing me to rethink my workflow - it's kinda fun (but I enjoy images - it would suck if it was a spreadsheet software)

Lazy and not very clever I should have added!

 

[whiteonline]

I'm just a humble hobbyist who has meager needs. Tbh, I value LR more for its cataloging/DAM capabilities then editing. I'm probably one of those folks who can use any app and it will be overkill. Maybe it is better to buy something like On1 Raw for 99 bucks and live with that instead of leasing LR/PS for 120 dollars a year. For me the pain point is 9.99 a month, anything more is not worth it. I think Adobe was taken aback by the amount of vitriol and push back on the 19.99 price, so much so, 2020 we may not see a price increase.

As a hobbyist as well, I have found my happy-ish place is using Photos to manage my daily/off the cuff mobile and real-camera shots using extensions.
For more "serious" work, I import into C1 and process there. Finished photos are exported and put into Photos.

I just like the speed and simplicity of Photos (the face recognition works really well, and doesn't feed Google or Adobe's machine learning)

 

[steveash]

I think Adobe got themselves into a mess with Lightroom because it had been adopted by so many enthusiast users. Their market has previously been almost entirely professional/business. As someone who has used their software for two decades, I welcomed the subscription system as it saved me money and spread out the once large payments.

They didn’t seem to have realised how many people were buying their products for pleasure rather than work and it didn’t really fall into their plans. Hence the quickly cobbled together photography plan and now concerns over how they are ever going to make a profit out of all these shouty customers. It’s six years now with no price increases after all.

Their answer to the problem seems to be the new cloud based software so they can then bill people on the amount they store in the cloud rather than a fixed price for everyone but it doesn’t seem to be catching on very quickly.

I expect their final aim is to have all the storage and processing done in the cloud and then they will be able to charge by usage. This would be fairer as people like me spending most of the day in Photoshop would pay a lot more than the casual user. However, I can’t think it would appeal to anyone very much unless they can come up with some pretty unique selling points.

 

[mollyc]

I have zero desire to have my photos live in a cloud. I have a NAS, so I have my own cloud if I really need to access something on the road (which as a hobbyist I rarely do). I hate the entire notion of cloud computing.

 

[kenoh]

I’m sure it was a marketing exercise to see what the reaction was.

My problem with subscription software, is once you are hooked on £10 a month. A move to £15 or £20 isn’t that different. What about £25? When’s would it become too much?

I heard it was a test, dipping the toe in the water and they found the water to be lava and got burned.

I think they are rethinking the exercise as we speak.

I am just getting into using Photoshop more (says the one who the latest update crashes for) and I would not have paid the price for Photoshop previously as a hobbyist so for me, the subscription while less than £20 a month makes sense for that it enables for me.

I like the look of C1, I like the images out of it but I cannot be bothered to learn a new workflow when right now I want to make good images - as close to capture as possible.

Waffle sorry.... basically, I can do what I need in LR and it is at a price I am prepared to pay currently.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I heard it was a test, dipping the toe in the water and they found the water to be lava and got burned.

I think they are rethinking the exercise as we speak.

I am just getting into using Photoshop more (says the one who the latest update crashes for) and I would not have paid the price for Photoshop previously as a hobbyist so for me, the subscription while less than £20 a month makes sense for that it enables for me.

I like the look of C1, I like the images out of it but I cannot be bothered to learn a new workflow when right now I want to make good images - as close to capture as possible.

Waffle sorry.... basically, I can do what I need in LR and it is at a price I am prepared to pay currently.

Agreed. I’d rather do more shooting than learn new software!

 

[maflynn]

It’s six years now with no price increases after all.

No question that they've not increased the price and its due. I think what Adobe learned is that the subscription mode - at least the photography one has very little price elasticity. Many customers were not willing to accept such a big jump, of course, they shot for the moon and failed but they may introduce a smaller more measured increase, such as 2.5 or 5 dollars. Either way, I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe and it seems I personally look for excuses to dump them. I tried so hard a while back, but came to the conclusion there just wasn't many other competitors that offered what LR offered. A lot has changed since then, so maybe another look at what's out there is due.

I like the look of C1, I like the images out of it but I cannot be bothered to learn a new workflow when right now I want to make good images - as close to capture as possible.

Yeah, I've always been impressed with C1 but for my needs, its a bit pricey. I ran the numbers, If I upgrade every third version, I'd still come out ahead with Adobe's subscription model. PhaseOne offers C1 as a subscription, and I only say this to convey the point that they're unlikely to cut to perpetual license cost because of that. They used to cut the price quite heavily once in a while but I don't recall seeing that anymore. I reached out to customer support and they basically said because of the subscription model they'll not not offer many promotions.

 

[Apple fanboy]

No question that they've not increased the price and its due. I think what Adobe learned is that the subscription mode - at least the photography one has very little price elasticity. Many customers were not willing to accept such a big jump, of course, they shot for the moon and failed but they may introduce a smaller more measured increase, such as 2.5 or 5 dollars. Either way, I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe and it seems I personally look for excuses to dump them. I tried so hard a while back, but came to the conclusion there just wasn't many other competitors that offered what LR offered. A lot has changed since then, so maybe another look at what's out there is due.


Yeah, I've always been impressed with C1 but for my needs, its a bit pricey. I ran the numbers, If I upgrade every third version, I'd still come out ahead with Adobe's subscription model. PhaseOne offers C1 as a subscription, and I only say this to convey the point that they're unlikely to cut to perpetual license cost because of that. They used to cut the price quite heavily once in a while but I don't recall seeing that anymore. I reached out to customer support and they basically said because of the subscription model they'll not not offer many promotions.

There was a 50% off promotion last week in the UK. Are you on their mailing list?

 

[steveash]

Pro’s aren’t interested in the storage element. Most of us have more than that to store!
We like to do our own backups etc. Not leave our images on a server farm somewhere controlled by someone else.

That actually raises an interesting point. How long before there is a service to backup your cloud files??

 

[maflynn]

There was a 50% off promotion last week in the UK. Are you on their mailing list?

Maybe it was a UK thing, I didn't get any emails.

 

[kenoh]

That actually raises an interesting point. How long before there is a service to backup your cloud files??

If you go to a cloud storage provider, they provide you with the option to pay for backups too - I know we used to

 

[CE3]

After the news of the price of the photography plan potentially doubling, I was rethinking my Bridge > Camera Raw > Photoshop workflow and took another look at alternatives like DxO, Affinity, and Capture One. But after downloading Capture One for a second time, it didn't take long for me to be reminded of the superiority of Camera Raw (which is Lightroom's raw engine too) and Photoshop. It's great software and does a better job developing my images.

If the price doubles I might look elsewhere, but for now I'm still happy and it's more than worth $10 a month to me.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Maybe it was a UK thing, I didn't get any emails.

Sorry. I’m meeting them on Thursday. I’ll ask if they have any plans for the US!
[doublepost=1558465779][/doublepost]

That actually raises an interesting point. How long before there is a service to backup your cloud files??

Don’t know. But I’m not interested anyway. I know where the three copies of my images are. In my control.