TimeLine Media Blog

Continuing the post from last week’s Tech Thursday, I want to post about the reason against switching to the Creative Cloud subscription-based software model from Adobe. There has not been more negative posts on a photography project in a long time! Change can be difficult for businesses especially if drastic change affects the software that is at the core of so many studios.

Adobe Review

Will you still be able to access your *.PSD and *.AI files that you created in Photoshop and Illustrator even though you no longer pay monthly for Creative Suite? What happens if you get out of the business – will you have a way to access these proprietary files? Adobe has stated that they will update the last “boxed” version of the suite, CS6, with updates for new cameras and file types, but will not add new features. I question, though, how long that will last. Even Microsoft cannot Windows operating systems forever no matter how popular, or how many computers still run versions that are 3 or 4 generations old.

Another view is that the subscription model means that you are just renting software. For the time that you are paying, you will be getting all the updates, and features that you expect from licensing software. After the subscription is ended, no matter how long you have been paying, you will have nothing to show for it. With boxed versions of software, studios would have flexibility on when they will invest in their core software. Plus, Adobe would give you incentives to upgrade when you are ready, with discounted pricing for returning customers, and different pricing models to suit studios. For example, Web Designers could get a suite with different products for them, while photographers would buy a package more suited for them. The new model gives only 2 options – $20 a month for 1 application, or $50 a month for all applications.

Software Subscription

After the initial reveal of the Creative Cloud, and the uproar from the Internet forums, it looks like there is still discussion at Adobe whether this is the final setup of the Creative Cloud. There are discussions of having photographer specific versions of the cloud, and I’m sure there are others also being explored. So for now, I will be sticking with my CS5 suite, and waiting to see how this will fall out. This is definitely the wave of the future – subscriptions models make sense for software companies, so it is only a matter of time where all software will be done this way. This is just part of the growing pains of change.

In any case, I will not be worrying about this until I can’t open a file or edit a photo, so not to worry! I’ll still be shooting and putting out the best images I can no matter what software will be on my workstation. Stay tuned to the blog to see more-

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

The last few weeks, the photography community has been active with discussion over the software suite, the Adobe Creative Cloud. If you do not know, Adobe is the latest company to switch to a subscription model. Going forward, if you want to have the latest version of Photoshop, you need to pay a monthly fee of $20 to activate the software for use. Microsoft has also done this with their new version of the productivity suite named Office 365, but they also have a version (Office 2013) that you can purchase as before.

Adobe Subscription Model

Some of the good points for the users that I see is that the cost for entry in getting to Adobe Photoshop is lowered. Instead of purchasing the program for $600 or more up front, it is now only $20 to start, and your investment will be the equivalent of 30 months of use for the software. I last purchased the Adobe CS5 suite in 2010, so this is the same amount I would have spent if I bought a new version in 2013. In addition, if you use ANY of the other Adobe products in their catalog, it is only $50 a month to have access to the ENTIRE catalog!

For me, I use InDesign to create posters, large prints, and other pieces where layouts are important. Working with photos through all their products is seamless if you need to use them for prints, videos, or the web. You edit photos in Lightroom, retouch them in Photoshop, then export them to use in InDesign, Premiere, or whatever software you need to make the final product. The $50 over 30 months would come to $1500 which is less than the $2000+ price tag up front for the package when I last checked!

Creative Cloud Software

The name is a bit misleading to me. Just because it is called the Creative Cloud does not mean that you have to be connected to the internet to edit your files. This would take too long, and would eat up your bandwidth. The software will only check periodically to ensure proper activation by the user. This also allows Adobe to push out new features and updates to users faster. If there is something that is added to the program, you no longer have to wait months for a new release or large patch to start using the new features. Also you no longer have to specify whether you are using Windows or Mac OSX when purchasing the suite. This used to be a separate expense if you had both systems in your studio.

This sounds like I am “all-in” for the new subscription model from Adobe. There are some cons to going with this. There is more outcry online on this side of the argument, and it actually keeps me from jumping in yet. In the next Tech Thursday post, I’ll review these cons, and let you know my final conclusion after examining both sides. Everything is changing so quickly these days, I’m just trying to keep up, and to make sure it makes sense for what I am doing. Let me know what you think about it!

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

With the internet, it is quite easy to be exposed to many good photographers. For me, post processing of photos can really separate competent photographers from outstanding ones. As with every other aspect of photography, concentrating on only one part of the craft can eventually hurt the quality of your work. You can concentrate on things like – buying gear, social media, marketing your business, making new photos, or post processing. If you only concern yourself with one of these aspects of photography, the others will suffer.

Dance Photography

In being a ballroom dance event photographer, I get the opportunity to make thousands of photos at an event. Post processing takes a lot of my time after events. Looking back at some of my first photos, I can see that I really went overboard using effects and sliders in Lightroom. The effects were good at attracting attention to my images on social networks, and I really had a lot of fun making them.

These “cross processing” presets in Lightroom used color shifts to emulate purposely incorrect film processing in the darkroom to create the effects. Some also used heavy darkening of corners to highlights subjects. This was a cutting-edge way to create photos. Since then, the explosion of Instagram, and other photo editing apps on iPhones and Android has made these looks more prevalent online. (For the record, I have recently joined Instagram, and actually enjoy it!)

So with the change in styles that I am seeing, I have gone back to doing less to photos, and leaving them as close to in-camera capture as I can. This is just another phase until the next thing comes out. For photographers, the message is making your images as best you can in camera, then post process them as you like it at the time. It will make you happy with the creative process and will mark eras in your photography life. We are digital photographers now. We don’t have different film stocks, or film chemistry that will change with the times. The best part is we have RAW files that make the transition with us, metadata, and all. So, you can always revisit photos as they were and update them, or not!

Here is where I am today, and I hope you come back to see what comes next –

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208