I received the news early yesterday morning from fellow HDR buddy, Nick Marzinski, of Trapping Light.  Adobe is releasing Photoshop CS7, or what would be CS 7, on the Creative Cloud only.  It was only a matter of time,  RIP CS 🙁

CS RIP 

“So what does that mean for me?”  You may be wondering.

The Adobe Creative Cloud allows you to pay a monthly fee for access to every Creative Suite application.  The fee is $49.99 per month, which really is not bad at all for access to the entire Suite.  That would be a yearly rate of ~$600.00.  Much less than upgrading the entire suite every year or so!

That would be great if I were a Creative Suite user, however I am just a Photoshop guy.  I do not need Illustrator, or InDesign to do what I do, just Photoshop.

 

So what does this mean for Photoshop users?

If you do not need the entire Creative Suite, just the power of Adobe Photoshop, you can sign up for the Photoshop Creative Cloud (CC).  The fee is $19.99 monthly @ a yearly rate of ~$240.00.  At first glance you may be saying… “Ouch”…

However, the cost to upgrade Photoshop last year was $299.99!  Adobe has been putting out new updates almost yearly making that a $299.99 annual hit to the wallet.  Not to mention the initial cost of the software at anywhere from $700-$1000.

In Conclusion…

I know the masses are flooding to the scene in furious droves.  However, I think this will be good.   With the Creative Cloud, Adobe will release updates as soon as they are ready.  No more waiting 18-24 months for the next innovation in the clone stamp or paint bucket tool (paint bucket tool, does anyone use that?).

PROS:

  • This is great news for anyone interested in Photoshop who did not want to put up that initial $700-$1000.  Access to Photoshop for $20 per month… I want my initial 50 months in back-pay 🙂
  • I kind of like the idea of putting my payment on auto pilot and only having to spend $20 a month as opposed to the huge chunk of $300 every year to 18 months.
  • I like that I can synchronize my settings across multiple machines.  That will be nice, especially for teaching purposes.
  • I believe this will be easier to write off on taxes as a business expense under “Subscription Services” without having to bother with software depreciation.  However, I am no tax professional and that really only applies to those that are running a business.

CONS:

  • I don’t like being tied to “Cloud Crap”.  Call me old fashioned, but I like the idea of a stand alone, away from the internet type that doesn’t auto link my life to my phone, email, computer, tablet, and any other device I may be leaving out.
  • Not sure how this will effect Topaz and other software plug-ins, that will be interesting to see.

Also check out Trapping Light, Nick has some great insight too.

What are your thoughts?  

 

 

 

Blake Rudis
f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.

For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Blake Rudis on EmailBlake Rudis on FacebookBlake Rudis on InstagramBlake Rudis on PinterestBlake Rudis on TwitterBlake Rudis on Youtube