TWiP 312 – The Creative Cloud Arrives
Hosts: Frederick Van Johnson, Craig Colvin and Don Komarechka
Episode Overview
This week on TWiP, we're diving into a few of the best stories of the week including:
- Adobe's Creative Cloud arrives
- The business of photography contests
- Instant photography business – Just add dollars!
- An interview with photographer Laura Tillinghast
- Plus Listener Q&A and our Picks of the Week
Craig Colvin & Don Komarechka join Frederick to discuss these topics and lots more on this week's episode of TWiP.
Interview with Laura Tillinghast
This week Frederick chats with California commercial photographer Laura Tillinghast about her professional and personal work. Laura's portfolio is stunning, and her real-world practical advice is enlightening. Be sure to to check out her photography at lauratillinghast.com.
1. Adobe's Creative Cloud arrives (7:00)
2. The business of photography contests (29:55)
3. Instant photography business! (39:20)
Craig: Take a workshop. Two I have done this past year are The California Photo Festival and Lenswork Roadshow 2012
Don: Infrared modifications to your camera, via Lifepixel
Frederick: Phlearn – Over 450 free tutorials on Photoshop and photography
1. Craig Colvin's upcoming workshops with TWiP Meet-ups: Alviso Photowalk
3. Kai's Power Tools – old school Photoshop actions
4. Corel Suite and raw image processor
5. TWiP Meet-ups are up and running strong
6. Snapseed – Don goes back to his old desktop version of this app from time to time.
7. ViewBug complete Terms of Service
Please Support our Sponsors:
This episode is brought to you by: Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create a professional website, blog, portfolio, and now… an online store! Check out their NEW commerce solution so you can start selling stuff immediately. For a free trial and 10% off your first purchase on new accounts, go to SquareSpace.com/TWiP, and use offer code TWIP6.
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Connect with Our Hosts & Guests:
Craig Colvin: Website, Twitter, Google+
Don Komarechka: Website, Twitter, Google+
Frederick Van Johnson: www.mediabytes.com or www.twitter.com/frederickvan or Google+
Credits:
Pre-production by: Patrick Reed
Post production by: Suzanne Llewellyn & Vince Bauer
Bandwidth provided by: Cachefly
Intro Music by: Scott Cannizzaro
Just checked Adobe web store. If I just want photoshop The best case scenario is if i have already cs3, which it happens I don’t, so it cost me 295€ A YEAR, 24.59€ a month paid yearly. Paid monthly it costs 36€ a month. A quick note: 1€ =1.3$, and let’s not ask an aussie about this.
So in the best case scenario we are tied to 300€ a year. If some years from now I would like to make a quick edit, I would have to start paying again. People using photoshop are hostages because there are no real alternatives. That’s why there wont be a big exodus. Check the audio, you couldn’t even name one. “Corel stuff” and “open source tools” is all you could mention.
Elements? It’s like mentioning a compact camera for someone complaining about a reflex update. Its just a different tier. My mother is happy with a coolpix, and its an excellent camera, but no-one would recommend it as an alternative for a D7100.
Real professional photographers, people which day job is photograpy, may complaing a bit, but it will be good for them and in the long run they will be happy. My company pays way more in subscription for my sw developer tools, and we are all happy about it. Everybody talking in the show is a professional photographer.
But those like me for which photography is a hobby, a expensive one as it is, I doubt many will ever subscribe to it, while some already paid a photoshop retail price in the past.
There are viable alternatives to all Adobe products.
Good. Could you share some names so we can compare?
Google is your friend.
I looked and no viable alternates.
Have you tried Elements lately? It’s not comparing a DSLR to a compact camera. It’s more like comparing it to a micro 4/3s camera.
Hi! I love your show. This time although, I get a little confused. First you complain about “everyone being a photographer” and goes on and on about that you aren’t a photographer just because you have the tools. And a couple of minutes later you have an ad where you are saying that everyone is a web developer, just because now you have the tools in Foursquare.
I truly understand that you have to put food on your tables, but either you look down on other professions, or you have a double standard regarding your view on professionalism. Since I stand with one leg in photography and one leg in webdevelopment I just though I’d point this out. Perhaps you could now understand that other people look at your profession just like you look at the profession web developer. Would love to hear your thoughts about this on the show.
They didn’t say everyone could be a web developer. They said everyone could have a website. The web development was done by squarespace. You use their template (generated by squarespace’s web developers) and add your own content. You don’t need to be a web developer to add text to a page or a picture to a photo gallery.
Same same but different. It’s like saying that you to can have great photos if you buy a good camera. Most of the cameras today take good pictures on automode. Getting a website of the company with the ad is like taking photos on automode, and I’d like to hear that diskussion on the show.
Wrong. It’s like saying you too can have good photos if you hire a professional photographer to take them for you. Completely different.
I can’t believe this is a complaint.
You are wrong Josh. And its not a complaint, its an observation.
To be blunt the only thing Creative about Creative Cloud is the name. The real name is Cloud Licensing, but I guess you could call it creative mess too. There is a whole list of issues from security and system compatibility that was not mentioned. BTW they have already been hacked.
I am not a big fan of the way it was implemented. Another issue the price is cheap now but these are special deals will disappear. At a couple of newspapers I worked at I help set up their electronic prepress. They can not auto update because it will cause issues with their rip systems, also because some of the classified machines that do the classified ad layouts indesign are not connected to the internet for security reasons. So in a month their license expires and the programing becomes dead.
Another issue that comes to mind I (professional photographer) was able to skip two generations of purchasing site licensing on the creative suite for our small company computers because of little benefit will now have to pay monthly fees so cost to do business goes up.
Unfortunately Adobe is consider industry standard, yes we can switch to Indesign to quark but photoshop is another story. There is not an adequate replacement for that. The one good thing is we use Final Cut Pro instead of premiere.
Creative Cloud reminds me of the old Chinese cure, “May you live in interesting times”.
I am a perpetual licensee of the latest versions of Photoshop, Lightroom, and InDesign.
Just for fun and starting yesterday, I have begun to purchase and learn alternative applications, and to gradually wean myself off of Adobe products.
To kick things off, yesterday I purchased just about the entire OnOne offering for just $149 total, perpetual license. Yes, there is a layers capability. No, I don’t have to be online to use their applications.
Perhaps these alternatives lack some of Adobe’s features, but I am willing to live with that to avoid getting fleeced, or at least feeling as if I am.
It doesn’t feel smart to be an Adobe customer anymore. Google, OnOne, and others have you in their crosshairs, Adobe. You put yourself there.
Photoshop CC is already pirated. Adobe prefers a pirate user, locked to the ecosystem, than one learning an alternative and exiting it.
Of course it’s been hacked. I never heard Adobe say they were doing this to stop the hackers. They are doing this because they want month to month subscriptions. It’s a lot easier to sell something that is $20 a month then to sell something for $700.
I’ve mentioned this before in other places. The cc is not about piracy so much as it is about pushing the price. Adobe know they are the market leaders in several regards and, incredibly, think they can get away with this. I have used photoshop since cs2 and lightroom since version 2. I have purchased and loved every upgrade. Now I am at cs6 and LR5. But that will be my last purchases from Adobe, simply because the price to keep up has doubled now. And I am not even considering the way the pricing works for me as a non-US customer.
I predict that you will see a negative evolution in Adobe stock prices, lay-offs, and competitors that pick up the slack.
I find it totally incredible that Adobe are still convinced that they will be able to keep their market so cornered that they can get away with this.
The simple fact is, that now they are about to loose a truckload of customers, the market opened up for new and existing competitors/investors/developers to start creating and selling their rival products that WILL outperform Adobe products within the next ten years. Photoshop is the Wordperfect of this era.
I look forward to new and exiting software, elsewhere.
So what you are saying is a company is never allowed to increase their prices. Heck health insurance alone has gone up at least 30% the last couple years.
Frederick, if I understand correctly, the special pricing for CC is only an introductory for a year then the price goes up, way up. For a single application like Photoshop, the price will be $19.99 and the full suite will be $49.99.
Currently LR5 is available as a stand alone but for how long? Once it gets merged in with the full suite, users will be forced to pay $49.99 a month if they want Photoshop and LR. What they need to do is come out with a CC plan that’s $19.99/month for PS and LR.
There was some misinformation in the podcast regarding CC.
From what I can tell, a new user CANNOT simply purchase software for a month. The only pricing models I see on Adobe’s website are for annual subscriptions. The cheapest entry-level offering is a single product license for one year at a total cost of $239.88 ($19.99/month). So…this is NOT an affordable options for someone who just needs to use the software for a few weeks–Adobe has not allowed for that scenario.
There are several other issues with their pricing model, not the least of which is the fact that the cost of maintenance is now TWICE what those who perpetually updated used to pay. For a full breakdown, including the numbers, see my open letter to Adobe. My first attempt to comment didn’t pass moderation, presumably because I included a link to the open letter, but if you google my name and Adobe, it should be the first result.
I understand the need for perpetual income, but this is a blatant cash grab. Shame on Adobe.
Great show. I really enjoyed the interview with Laura Tillinghast. It was nice to hear from a commercial photographer instead of the typical wedding/portrait, and landscape crowd that seems to frequent TWIP.
I enjoyed the discussion regarding the “Business in a Box” and my ears perked up when Don Komarechka expressed his belief that the glut of mediocre photography out there means that anything exceptional will automatically rise to the top. I think about this often and I wonder if the opposite is in fact happening. Photography, like many of the arts, requires some degree of training to really appreciate the craft behind it. For a long while, this curation happened automatically since it took someone with a fair amount of expertise to create and publish an image. Now, as it is relatively easy for anyone to produce an image, is it not possible that for the untrained eye at least the bar is being lowered? Issues like underexposure, incorrect white balance, and unflattering lighting seem to go largely unnoticed. Setting style and subject aside for a moment, would an average viewer/consumer today be able to recognize a technically proficient photographer by their image alone?
Can’t believe all the complaining about CC. The monthly cost is minimal as a business expense. Small overhead to pay for the power it gives you (my business could not run without it). It is comparable to what I pay for monthly banking fees… which is more essential to my business!?! I believe the guys nailed it on the head when they suggested adobe elements as a viable alternative for hobby photographers that can’t absorb the monthly cost into a realistic business cost. Any professional that can’t afford these kind of tools for the same cost as a cup of coffee a day, should reevaluate their chosen profession.
I have to say Adobe has made some outstanding products. I have been using Adobe since the first version of photoshop. I want to thank Adobe for the answers that you have supplied with CC. I appreciate Adobes need to generate profit, for me the benefit does not costs of Cloud Licensing, while Adobe is industry standard, I am forced to look at divesting from adobe products. I have to lookout for my clients best needs so in short term I will still use the adobe products that I have invested in but long term will have to look at other solutions.
I do understand Adobes need for profit and this system being in its best interests but, I have to think about my clients needs and their interests as well as my own. So I will still use the CS products that I have bought but will start looking to move back to Quark, and to Aperture and Coral products.
I’m a old school Photoshop user (I’m a designer first, photographer second) and TWIP’s positive comments about CC is largely coming from the photographers view point. (which I understand, it’s a photo podcast) But Photoshop is a DESIGN TOOL first and Adobe has been asleep at the wheel for years.
They need to clean up Photoshop, remove outdated filters that no one uses and add a much stronger tools for type and layout. Sure Adobe has introduced some new features with every upgrade, but overall, it’s not enough and the program is bloated.
Abode used to have a smaller suite of software and it made sense, now they have a million programs, that new photographers and designers think they need.
The same people that think they will be better photographer with more lenses and gadgets are the same people Adobe now is targeting. People, who think they’ll use “all these new great programs”. The programs are nice to have, but they will not make you better at photography or design.
I don’t have CC yet, but my first thoughts about it is that I’ll pay for stuff, I don’t need.
awesome podcast….thanks everyone
I just wish everyone would stop saying CC is $9.99 a month. That is only an introductory price for one year and for only one product. This is not a bad price and I would love if that was the true cost.
After that it is $19.99 a month. That is almost $240 a year and again people are saying that’s not bad for a $800 piece of software.
But again lets be honest… Photoshop is not a $800 investment every year. What was the upgrade price for CS5 to CS6? Was it less than $240? Does the $240 a year still look like a deal? No, not really. Especially for those who upgrade with each release.
That cost is about what CS Extended upgrade would be. But upgrades came about every 18-24 months.
Now that the fee is required every 12 months, this is a significant cost increase.
I run a very small business. $240 over twelve months has significant impact compared to $240 over 18 or 24 months. That is s a 60%-100% cost increase… but since I did not need extended, it is even higher that that!!!
I am just wishing people would compare apples to apples with regard to
the product and user base that is making use of the product(s) and
realize that Adobe is figuratively raping those end users.
As I was signing up for the MS-150 Best Dam Bike Ride here in Wisconsin, I noticed this gem in the pile of legalese.. Note *all rights*:
Photography Release
I hereby grant full permission to NMSS to use, reuse, reproduce, publish, or republish any photographs, motion pictures, recordings, or any other record of my participation in this event, in any medium now known or hereafter developed, alone or in conjunction with other material, without restriction as to changes or alterations, as well as to use my name, voice, likeness, and/or other indicia of identity, for editorial, educational, promotional, advertising, and commercial purposes, including without limitation in connection with the solicitation of contributions and the furtherance of the corporate objectives of NMSS. Further, I relinquish all rights, title, and interest in any and all photographs, motion pictures, recordings, or other records of Bike MS I may take or capture to NMSS.
Just heard the interview with Laura Tillinghast. She may be the most got-it-together person ever interviewed on TWIP (been a fan since the beginning). Please get her to be an occasional panelist even if you have to beg!
We are Adobe. Surrender your independence. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our cloud. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
GREAT interview with Laura!