Adobe CC Prices Skyrocket

[smoke665]

What does AI generative do for you? Is it worth it?

For me I think it is. Here's a good example, you have a subject with a beautiful field of flowers in the background, but between the subject and the field of flowers there's a chain link fence. To remove it manually would take lots of time to remove it...even then it might not look right. With Generative Fill you use the lasso tool to select the fence and some surrounding area. Click on generate and AI generates three options in the blink of an eye of what it thinks it would look like without the fence, pick the one you like or generate again to fine tune. You also have the option of throwing in text guidance.

Using text to speech I can generate a complete image. I do this frequently when I need a special background for a composite. Rather than searching for hours to find the right stock image, I can generate exactly what I want with text to image. I may have posted this before, but what's real and what's AI text to image here???

restaruant 4.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

Here's an easier one, what's real and what is Generative Fill in this image?

car show20240929_0343.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

 

[DanOstergren]

What does AI generative do for you? Is it worth it?

I know you didn't ask me specifically, but I can add some insight on what I feel are the practical benefits of AI in Photoshop, to me at least. I use the cropping generative expand tool pretty regularly to expand image edges. For example, if a crop feels slightly off or needs to be tweaked for Instagram’s size restrictions, or expanded for specific print sizes for images that couldn't fit in a certain print size without awkward cropping. But I don’t use it for adding new backgrounds or inventing elements that didn't already exist.

What’s made the biggest difference for me is the AI masking in ACR. It’s completely changed my editing workflow by giving me precise, selective control over exposures, especially with natural light portraits. I used to avoid masking by hand because it was too time-consuming, but now I can accurately target multiple areas of an image in seconds. That alone is worth the subscription price to me for the time it saves. It's barely the cost of two cafe coffee drinks a month, and that’s without even touching on the rest of Photoshop’s tools, which make the value even clearer. AI noise reduction is also quite amazing a a regularly used tool for me as well.

 

[AlanKlein]

I know you didn't ask me specifically, but I can add some insight on what I feel are the practical benefits of AI in Photoshop, to me at least. I use the cropping generative expand tool pretty regularly to expand image edges. For example, if a crop feels slightly off or needs to be tweaked for Instagram’s size restrictions, or expanded for specific print sizes for images that couldn't fit in a certain print size without awkward cropping. But I don’t use it for adding new backgrounds or inventing elements that didn't already exist.

What’s made the biggest difference for me is the AI masking in ACR. It’s completely changed my editing workflow by giving me precise, selective control over exposures, especially with natural light portraits. I used to avoid masking by hand because it was too time-consuming, but now I can accurately target multiple areas of an image in seconds. That alone is worth the subscription price to me for the time it saves. It's barely the cost of two cafe coffee drinks a month, and that’s without even touching on the rest of Photoshop’s tools, which make the value even clearer. AI noise reduction is also quite amazing a a regularly used tool for me as well.

Dan, do you see other pros using AI to compete with you who are not so ethical about using it to create unphotographed content or other photos from scratch that they never even shot?

 

[pez]

But what can you do????? Some of the other competition can Import LR catalogs, but not some of the more sophisticated masking option now available in LR. PS isn't so much a problem as it's a destructive editor so you can save it as a TIFF. Supposedly you can do that in LR also, with the edits saved in a sidecar file, BUT another software may or may not be able to use those edits. Also, as I said, it appears they are all similarly priced now.

I've used it for so long, that I'm just riding it to wherever the end is. Every time I try something else, I miss LR/PS a LOT. Oh well...

 

[smoke665]

I've used it for so long, that I'm just riding it to wherever the end is. Every time I try something else, I miss LR/PS a LOT. Oh well...

Yup, you know I used to worry about all the edits I've done in LR/PS and what would happen when I'm gone, but then I think, how many of the thousands of images I have will my kids really want??? My father was an avid photographer, who shot primarily color slides and few prints. I have boxes and boxes of his stuff that I need to pitch because they've faded to nothing over the years. I have a ton of prints, that I shot in the 70-90s that are already facing the same issues. In 20 years will the stuff I have on my hard drives even be usable? My daughter uses LR/PS so she could likely import the ones she wanted, but I doubt that she'll want most of the thousands of travel photos, landscapes, commissioned work, etc. When you reach my age, you come to the realization that every year, your chances of seeing the next year go down, so like you I'll just ride it out till the end.