Adobe CC Prices Skyrocket

[DanOstergren23 8]

Phones these days are the worst in this respect. For example, when the phone recognizes the Moon in a photo, it might insert a stock Moon image instead of the original content in the frame.

I've never heard of this happening. Which phones do this? I know my phones have never done anything like that before.

 

[smoke665]

@pez Like Dan above I haven't heard of this. Are you maybe talking about AI powered photo editing on the phone? AI is trained using data sets that includes stock images, such that it may influence the style or aesthetics of the modified image. I've read and seen this happening, but nothing about AI taking creative control on the front end.

 

[TJMcG111 18]

I wouldn't laugh to much, according to their website they're $69.99 for Photo 2 only, that's 59% of the price of Adobe's one year plan. The Adobe plan includes Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge, AI generated fill, and AI image, plus regular updates and 20GB online storage. Affinity is a one time perpetual license for Photo2 only, with upgrades extra. Without the upgrades "perpetual licenses" eventually become obsolete due to hardware and operating system improvements.

Everyone has their own priorities.

I started using Photoshop more than 30 years ago, when it cost over $850 for a perpetual license, and when upgrades, which came out maybe every 18 mos. or so were $250 or more. It's been more than 20 years since I used Photoshop professionally, but I'm still a hobby photographer, and I still want the best editor. When the subscription plan started, I subscribed to Photoshop only at $10 a month, and Adobe said that was an introductory price and would last maybe a year. 13 years later, it was still $10 a month, but they had added several mobile and desktop versions, as well as Lightroom and Lightroom Classic and many other perks like 20GB cloud storage. The instant updates and upgrades at no extra cost are worth the extra, maybe $20 a year over other popular editors.

Then, earlier this year, when Adobe announced price increases for the first time in 13 years, they said that those of us who were currently on the 20GB Photography Plan could switch to yearly plans and keep the $120 a year price. That was when I found out that my Photoshop-only plan for the past 13 years had actually been the same as the Photography plan, but with 1TB of storage. I switched to the 20GB Photo plan at that time (I never use the cloud storage), and now, 14 years later, I still pay $120 a year and get instant updates, several versions of Photoshop, and access to Adobe fonts, free support, 20GB free cloud storage (I still don't use it) and access to stuff like Behance and other creative and collaborative programs. I don't use much of that, but it's there, and it's included.

I don't like Lightroom, and so I use Bridge, which is free and always has been, along with Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop for 100% non-destructive raw editing. You can't get that with Affinity Photo (I have that installed also, and I know how it works), and other touted Lightroom equivalents all lack something that the integrated Adobe system offers. I installed On1, for instance, and use it as a plugin to Photoshop. It would never occur to me to use that as my only photo editor. Photoshop's smart objects, superior selection and masking capabilities, and generative AI for removing unwanted objects and filling in removed areas just work better than whatever else is out there.

 

[smoke665]

@TJMcG Another thing I've noticed is that Adobe seems to be more in connection with hardware suppliers and OS companies. Every time there's an update, the same day NvVidia comes out with driver updates and every time there's an OS update, out comes Adobe with an update.

 

[TJMcG111 18]

@TJMcG Another thing I've noticed is that Adobe seems to be more in connection with hardware suppliers and OS companies. Every time there's an update, the same day NvVidia comes out with driver updates and every time there's an OS update, out comes Adobe with an update.

All I know is that I have never had a driver issue. I always try to keep everything up to date to the best of my ability. I have NVidia and Windows set to notify me automatically about updates, and Creative Cloud also. Everything keeps chugging along, and when the machine gets too old, I'll replace it. Unless, of course, I get too old first...