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Can't afford Photoshop- eh? Maybe try this...

Yeah, I fell into the unsupported/unable to activate "school on my CS3 suite just last week. I had to rebuild my machine, and when I went to activate said suite:
Dead. No more. Toss the disks away (which was really hard to do), and use the booklets for table leveling devices.
I may have to hunt down a copy of CS 5 o rCS 6? (which I think they still those activation servers still running........for now.....
Foo Foo heads.....
 
Luckily, I use Photoshop for my day job and work gets to pay the ransom.
When I was a FULL TIME professional photographer, using Photoshop every single day the cost was largely irrelevant. I had continued to upgrade to v CS3. But the truth is that there isn't anything I couldn't do in CS3. Why upgrade? So I didn't. I became mostly retired. And two years ago I got a new desktop... but Adobe would not permit me to activate CS3 on my new computer even though I deactivated it from my outgoing one and know CS3 would work. I called them and they gave me some song and dance that it couldn't be done. Then I talked to someone else there and told me that they could find a back door, but if I wanted the current version I couldn't have both. I don't use Photoshop every day. Sometimes not for weeks, especially when traveling. But I still gotta pay.

So when I started editing video, you think I even considered Premier? Davinci Resolve was perfect... and I was even happy to pay the $300 to upgrade to the Studio version. Hopefully others will find they can find alternatives to Adobe products and perhaps things will change....but I'm not betting on it. Just choosing to participate elsewhere when possible.
 
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I hear you. I take it off as an expense at the end of the year.... Adobe has done more to blend lightroom and photoshop so they work much better together. Lots of plugins available, like Topaz and others.... IO am a photographer moving into the drone world
I wish I had purchased their stock. Now at $600+ a share.....
 
"Adobe gross profit for the quarter ending May 31, 2021 was $3.391B, a 24.99% increase year-over-year."
With that kind of profit PS & Lightroom will always be costly. I have grown to like Capture One as a Lightroom replacement. I haven't had time to climb the learning curve for Affinity Photo yet.
I guess I am the only respondent to support Adobe. Of course I feel like I've been held up at the point of a gun, but having used and learned over many, many years a lot of Photoshop , and then Lightroom, I am happy that I am able to pay the ransom. I have tried others (Topaz, Luminar, Affinity,DxO,NIK software ) but my passion of timelapse requires the software LRTimelapse, and I am more than pleased with the frequent useful updates of Photoshop. I am particularly happy with the latest Photoshop sky replacements, and other additions in the last update.

Adobe has granted my a nice discount just for the asking. Lastly, I am retired and thankfully able to afford it, but certainly understand those who cannot. Finally, after a long three years learning curve, I feel comfortable with Premiere Pro. I might add that Adobe does supply free support on all of their products, and talking to a human being is not really possible with most of the cheaper softwares. I have called them many times and once they confirm my membership I can ask them to screen share with me and they have gotten me out of trouble or answered my question every single time.

So. I will not be putting myself through yet another learning curve, but welcome you all to go for it.

Dale
Miami
 
I guess I am the only respondent to support Adobe. Of course I feel like I've been held up at the point of a gun, but having used and learned over many, many years a lot of Photoshop , and then Lightroom, I am happy that I am able to pay the ransom. I have tried others (Topaz, Luminar, Affinity,DxO,NIK software ) but my passion of timelapse requires the software LRTimelapse, and I am more than pleased with the frequent useful updates of Photoshop. I am particularly happy with the latest Photoshop sky replacements, and other additions in the last update.

Adobe has granted my a nice discount just for the asking. Lastly, I am retired and thankfully able to afford it, but certainly understand those who cannot. Finally, after a long three years learning curve, I feel comfortable with Premiere Pro. I might add that Adobe does supply free support on all of their products, and talking to a human being is not really possible with most of the cheaper softwares. I have called them many times and once they confirm my membership I can ask them to screen share with me and they have gotten me out of trouble or answered my question every single time.

So. I will not be putting myself through yet another learning curve, but welcome you all to go for it.

Dale
Miami
You find value in Adobe's software rental scheme and that's entirely a personal decision. What pushed me over the edge was that they refuse to allow me to activate v CS3 when their latest behemoth sized software chokes my older computers. So if I want to do a simple task on my 2013 machine that has not yet has CS3 installed its a no go. I PURCHASED A NON-EXPIRING LICENSE FOR CS3 but Adobe arbitrarily decided to end activation; an online activation system that was already in place! There was no need to dismantle it- except for greed. And with Photoshop, because I am a professional, and it's only $10/mo I bite the bullet and have the subscription (and never took the time to learn Lightroom because I own better professional level alternatives).

And so I just thought, for giggles I'd like to see if there was something that could do pretty much what Photoshop does for less money... And yes.. there is. $50 for an unlimited license. If I were an amateur knowing that there is no way I'd cuff around with Adobe's greedy nonsense. And while I appreciate your sentiments about having learned Premier, I would encourage you, if only in protest, to learn Davinci Resolve and ditch Adobe. I guarantee, in 14 days you'll be as functional in Resolve as you are in Premier. It's just a matter of learning where the tools are and the slight differences in approach to some things. JMO
 
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I guess I am the only respondent to support Adobe. Of course I feel like I've been held up at the point of a gun, but having used and learned over many, many years a lot of Photoshop , and then Lightroom, I am happy that I am able to pay the ransom. I have tried others (Topaz, Luminar, Affinity,DxO,NIK software ) but my passion of timelapse requires the software LRTimelapse, and I am more than pleased with the frequent useful updates of Photoshop. I am particularly happy with the latest Photoshop sky replacements, and other additions in the last update.

Adobe has granted my a nice discount just for the asking. Lastly, I am retired and thankfully able to afford it, but certainly understand those who cannot. Finally, after a long three years learning curve, I feel comfortable with Premiere Pro. I might add that Adobe does supply free support on all of their products, and talking to a human being is not really possible with most of the cheaper softwares. I have called them many times and once they confirm my membership I can ask them to screen share with me and they have gotten me out of trouble or answered my question every single time.

So. I will not be putting myself through yet another learning curve, but welcome you all to go for it.

Dale
Miami
No, you’re not the only one. I won’t say I’m super happy with Adobe’s model but at the end of the day they have the best products for what they do. And $120/year isn’t awful if you just do the photography package. This isn’t the cheapest hobby to begin with anyway. There are alternatives as others have mentioned. I like Luminar 4 and Topaz Studio is good too, though I haven’t spent a lot of time with it. It works a little differently with layers but I could see getting into it if I didn’t have Lightroom.
 
No, you’re not the only one. I won’t say I’m super happy with Adobe’s model but at the end of the day they have the best products for what they do. And $120/year isn’t awful if you just do the photography package. This isn’t the cheapest hobby to begin with anyway. There are alternatives as others have mentioned. I like Luminar 4 and Topaz Studio is good too, though I haven’t spent a lot of time with it. It works a little differently with layers but I could see getting into it if I didn’t have Lightroom.
I noted it somewhere in the thread, $120 is just the tip of the iceberg, next year, $120 makes it $240, then $360, for an application that before the subscription model was about $150..

If you can continue to justify that cost, just because its over years, thats fine.. But I see no significant advantages to keep paying for an app that perhaps its original functionality was all you needed at the one time cost of the app.

Adobe should offer a stand alone app for a one time cost, in most cases, you can probably make it last for years with no extra cost. It should include at least a couple updates as well. Nothing from them as far as I can tell has ever been perfect out the gate..
 
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When I was a FULL TIME professional photographer, using Photoshop every single day the cost was largely irrelevant. I had continued to upgrade to v CS3. But the truth is that there isn't anything I couldn't do in CS3. Why upgrade? So I didn't. I became mostly retired. And two years ago I got a new desktop... but Adobe would not permit me to activate CS3 on my new computer even though I deactivated it from my outgoing one and know CS3 would work. I called them and they gave me some song and dance that it couldn't be done. Then I talked to someone else there and told me that they could find a back door, but if I wanted the current version I couldn't have both. I don't use Photoshop every day. Sometimes not for weeks, especially when traveling. But I still gotta pay.

So when I started editing video, you think I even considered Premier? Davinci Resolve was perfect... and I was even happy to pay the $300 to upgrade to the Studio version. Hopefully others will find they can find alternatives to Adobe products and perhaps things will change....but I'm not betting on it. Just choosing to participate elsewhere when possible.
As I recall, didn't you get the bundle with the controller for DaVinci Resolve at the same time? I wish they would do that again. For throwing together a quick timeline, I like Premiere because I'm used to it and the shortcuts, etc. But I'm in the whole process of learning Resolve because it runs better on my machine.
 
I noted it somewhere in the thread, $120 is just the tip of the iceberg, next year, $120 makes it $240, then $360, for an application that before the subscription model was about $150..

If you can continue to justify that cost, just because its over years, thats fine.. But I see no significant advantages to keep paying for an app that perhaps its original functionality was all you needed at the one time cost of the app.

Adobe should offer a stand alone app for a one time cost, in most cases, you can probably make it last for years with no extra cost. It should include at least a couple updates as well. Nothing from them as far as I can tell has ever been perfect out the gate..
My point exactly. I think initially I paid something like $500 for Photoshop (hard to remember back 20 years... $300?). I paid for several upgrades along the way. While the current 2021 version has some fancy automated features, there is absolutely nothing I can do in the PS2021 that I can't do in CS3.

This all brought back some memories. Almost 20 years ago, with Photoshop V2 (or was it V3?) I was already doing composites. Here's one I did, recalling that Photoshop only had ONE "undo". I either shot it with a Nikon D1 or my first digital camera, an Olympus (forget the model) with 1.5 megapixels (give or take).... And now we have FREE applications that run circles around what could be done back in the day. I checked and this composite was done 20 years ago. Digital imaging has come a long, long way.


1628174525806.png
 
My point exactly. I think initially I paid something like $500 for Photoshop (hard to remember back 20 years... $300?). I paid for several upgrades along the way. While the current 2021 version has some fancy automated features, there is absolutely nothing I can do in the PS2021 that I can't do in CS3.

This all brought back some memories. Almost 20 years ago, with Photoshop V2 (or was it V3?) I was already doing composites. Here's one I did, recalling that Photoshop only had ONE "undo". I either shot it with a Nikon D1 or my first digital camera, an Olympus (forget the model) with 1.5 megapixels (give or take).... And now we have FREE applications that run circles around what could be done back in the day. I checked and this composite was done 20 years ago. Digital imaging has come a long, long way.


View attachment 132830
I've been using Photoshop since version 2.5 before there were layers (it was floating selections back then) For the heavy lifting we used a proprietary multi million dollar Scitex system. Those were the good old days. Everything you did on Scitex, it had to write to an optical drive so we adopted the "Scitex pose" which looked a lot like sleeping in your chair...LOL
 
As I recall, didn't you get the bundle with the controller for DaVinci Resolve at the same time? I wish they would do that again. For throwing together a quick timeline, I like Premiere because I'm used to it and the shortcuts, etc. But I'm in the whole process of learning Resolve because it runs better on my machine.
Yeah... I got the controller. It was a deal I couldn't refuse. I so appreciated the ability to do so much with a FREE, unrestricted version that I knew I would upgrade, if nothing more than to support BMD's effort. The offer of a free speed editor pushed me off the fence. And I'm tellin' ya... it ain't no toy. It's beefiest piece of gear I've seen in a long time. I have no idea why they did that or if it will come around again.

I would be more than interested to know what you find different between the two programs when you've got Davinci under your belt. I have to believe that they can pretty much do the same things, but just approach things differently.

I recall back in the DTP days I was was using Pagemaker but a client required me to use Quark Xpress. Once I learned Quark it was no big deal... Though digital video editing is a whole lot more involved. But I suspect the switch-over learning process is much the same. Same thing with photo retouching. I learned to retouch on film and paper. But once Photoshop came along, I already knew what I wanted on the image. I just had to figure out which tools could get me the result I wanted.
 
Yeah... I got the controller. It was a deal I couldn't refuse. I so appreciated the ability to do so much with a FREE, unrestricted version that I knew I would upgrade, if nothing more than to support BMD's effort. The offer of a free speed editor pushed me off the fence. And I'm tellin' ya... it ain't no toy. It's beefiest piece of gear I've seen in a long time. I have no idea why they did that or if it will come around again.

I would be more than interested to know what you find different between the two programs when you've got Davinci under your belt. I have to believe that they can pretty much do the same things, but just approach things differently.

I recall back in the DTP days I was was using Pagemaker but a client required me to use Quark Xpress. Once I learned Quark it was no big deal... Though digital video editing is a whole lot more involved. But I suspect the switch-over learning process is much the same. Same thing with photo retouching. I learned to retouch on film and paper. But once Photoshop came along, I already knew what I wanted on the image. I just had to figure out which tools could get me the result I wanted.
Eww...Quark Xpress. I remember those days. So far the difference between Premiere and Resolve are that playback seems smoother on Resolve. I have the M1 version on both but I am still trying to figure out some stuff on Resolve. The difference between the Cut and Edit page is a bit mystifying except the source monitor that you can run all the footage in a bin back to back. I still end up on the Edit page for the append and insert stuff because of that little side menu that you can drop your clips on. But like I said, I'm still learning that one once the 60 hour weeks from my regular job ease up a bit.
 
Affinity appears to have announced an upgrade today that they've optimized performance on their apps significantly. If the reviews bear that out, or users here that are using Affinity notice solid performance increases, might be worth a close look
 
Eww...Quark Xpress. I remember those days. So far the difference between Premiere and Resolve are that playback seems smoother on Resolve. I have the M1 version on both but I am still trying to figure out some stuff on Resolve. The difference between the Cut and Edit page is a bit mystifying except the source monitor that you can run all the footage in a bin back to back. I still end up on the Edit page for the append and insert stuff because of that little side menu that you can drop your clips on. But like I said, I'm still learning that one once the 60 hour weeks from my regular job ease up a bit.
I know we've taken a left turn from Photoshop, but the theme is really application costs. Sorryy.

Perhaps something that will help is a backlighted, color coded keyboard. I got this one (windows... Mac versionavailable): Keyboard for Davinci Resolve

The difference between the Cut and Edit pages are similar except what you can do in the cut page is much more limited. It's designed to do run n gun trimming and appending. The Edit page you can do pretty much anything, except in the Edit page you have to place a clip in the timeline before you can do anything with the clips. That isn't required in the Cut Page. Learning what all the symbols mean and where they reside- and the drop downs from them is really the only daunting thing about Davinci (except Fusion). But here is a quick tip...

On the keyboard "L" makes stuff play forward. Hitting multiple times increases the speed. K stops playback. J does the same thing in reverse. < and > keys move play head one frame at a time. You can edit clips with keyboard too. "I" is in and "O" is out. F12 appends the trimmed clip to the end of the timeline. If you hit "I" a second time without hitting "O" the start point of the clip gets amended to where you hit it the second time.

In the Cut page, the easiest thing to do is get to the multi clip view so you can scroll through all the clips and mark them in and out as you go. I find the easiest thing to do after trimming is just appending them to the end of the timeline (F12) and then reordering them later in the Edit page.

Something that is really helpful is that you can create and have multiple timelines running at the same time. This could be helpful in changing the order of clips, or building variations of a project. You can also have multiple projects open simultaneously if needed. Studio also has a collaboration feature. Can't get than in Premier for a $300 one time charge, can ya?

I hope that throws a little light on DR operations and helps getting you converted over.

1628195200620.png
 
Like the looks/concept/price of the keyboard, the trouble is I've remapped a dozen or so keys in creating my custom keyboard. :confused:
 
I noted it somewhere in the thread, $120 is just the tip of the iceberg, next year, $120 makes it $240, then $360, for an application that before the subscription model was about $150..

If you can continue to justify that cost, just because its over years, thats fine.. But I see no significant advantages to keep paying for an app that perhaps its original functionality was all you needed at the one time cost of the app.

Adobe should offer a stand alone app for a one time cost, in most cases, you can probably make it last for years with no extra cost. It should include at least a couple updates as well. Nothing from them as far as I can tell has ever been perfect out the gate..

That was their business model until they went to The Cloud....

sigh....
 
When they introduced, no make that FORCED everyone to go the ransom route, there was talk about Adobe losing customer. I saw some stats from their customer base. about 20% was big corporate companies and 80% was the mom and pop studio and private hobbyists like us.

That seemed like a bad thing until the other data was looked at, which showed about 85% of their revenue came from the 20% of big business and the rest from the small people. They knew that some little customers would be lost but also knew all the big companies would have to stick with them, so they moved to ransom knowing they would all have to pay what ever they asked.
I'm in the same boat. I had access from work years ago, then had a small business in photography, but now I am virtually retiring from that. Just gonna do personal stuff, and I hate paying ransom every month. Thanks for the info.
 
I'll put in a pitch for Lumiar AI. It is an incredibly powerful and useful photo editor that is both easy to use and chock full of features you would normally find on much more expensive editors (I have absolutely no affiliation with the company that makes it - Skylum). Right now it sells for a one-time fee of $99 (for a two-computer license) and the updates are free, but there are plenty of discounts available by viewing some of the reviews of the product by YouTubers. I was using GIMP before Luminar AI, but once I tried the free trial a while back, I was instantly sold. It's really very good. The sky replacement feature in Luminar AI is alone worth the purchase price!
 
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