By now you’ve probably heard the bad news from Adobe: beginning with Photoshop CS6, you won’t be able to get the “upgrade” price unless you already own CS5. If not, then you’ll have to pay the full $699 price.
You can’t follow a strategy of upgrading every 2nd or 3rd release, you’ve got to buy the new release every year if you want to stay current. So in other words, Adobe is moving towards a subscription model of pricing.
Am I mad at Adobe? Absolutely not. It’s their business – they can price their products any way they’d like to generate profits. And maximizing profits for shareholders is the best economic system that’s ever been invented by mankind. Without profit maximization there would be no iPhone. No iPad. No Canon 5D. No Photoshop. No Fender guitars. No Converse All-Stars. And no Laurence Kim Photography. Enough on that.
So what should you do? It all comes down to how important Photoshop is to your business.
I barely use any Photoshop. I use it for sharpening, some minor facial retouching, saving-for-the-web and that’s pretty much it. Other than sharpening, 98% of my images get no Photoshop work whatsoever. So for me, it’s a no-brainer: I’m sticking with CS3 and I’ll probably never upgrade.
What’s right for my business, however, might not be right for yours. If you’re a heavy Photoshop user, then it may make sense to keep upgrading every year.
Lightroom, however, is another story altogether. For one thing, it’s a much less mature product than Photoshop, so each new revision has had some pretty dramatic improvements. For another, I use it to do 98% of my post-processing. I can see myself continuing to upgrade Lightroom with every release, at least for the next few years.
It’s your business, do what you want. But if you’re an American Dreamer, I’d think long and hard about if you really needed those new whiz-bang features in every new release to do standard wedding/portrait photography.
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You are contradicting yourself: > they can price their products any way they’d like to generate profits. And maximizing profits for shareholders is the best economic system that’s ever been invented by mankind. Without profit maximization there would be no... Then you go onto saying: > So for me, it’s a no-brainer: I’m sticking with CS3 and I’ll probably never upgrade 1. Photoshop is the most pirated software. Search on Google for Photoshop piracy, numbers range from 40% to as high as 75% piracy. 2. If the price was cheaper, they would sell many more, including you. Would you pay $75 or $100 every year for an upgrade? It's not about maximizing revenue, it's about controlling the users, just like the music/film industry. (December 13, 2011 | 12:14pm)
@Syv: Adobe is changing their pricing because they want to maximize profits. Will it work? If it were so obviously the wrong strategy, then that would mean that Adobe is run by a bunch of idiots. Are they idiots? I wouldn't make that bet. Sure, they are losing my once-every-three-years upgrade revenue. But they will also pick up new revenue from users who choose to upgrade every year? Probably so. In any event, their strategy will either work or it won't. Just like when photographers raise their prices - it either works or it doesn't. If the strategy ends up failing and revenue tanks, then I'm sure they'll reconsider it. (December 13, 2011 | 12:32pm)
I am like you, I upgrade only so often, so being at CS3 I was looking forward to jumping to CS6 not because I have to, but because the amount of new features makes it worth it after three versions. I think the part that is really frustrating is how they went about it. It would have been better if they could have said CS6 would be the last version to accept old upgrades. I would guess they would see a huge influx of upgrade sales from guys like me who want to keep the upgrade price in the future. Now, I will just stick with Lightroom, enjoy the more dramatic upgrades it receives and probably buy some third party add on tools to replace the small amount of work I did in Photoshop. (December 13, 2011 | 04:36pm)
Piracy of photoshop is very likely the reason why it's so widely used. Some will use it as simply a means to an end but for many others, it's part of their career and eventually they will have to buy it, or their employer will. So basically, you become very skilled at only adobe products and not the competitors. Guess what? you'll stick with adobe products! They aren't aiming sales at kids who pirate photoshop, just the older versions of them. (December 14, 2011 | 09:57am)
I tend to use Lightroom for 95% of my photography, but that final critical 5%, wow, if I had to go and use another product - is there any others out there anymore? - it'd take some serious re-educating! I think Adobe put so much development into this product, they're entitled to choose whatever business model suits them...can you even begin to imagine the amount of mathematics and coding needed for Content Aware Fill? It hurts my head just thinking about it... (December 16, 2011 | 06:28am)
If it were only a matter of getting the new "sparkling" features of every new version I'd probably still be using CS3, but since I upgraded to the 5D MII, I could not longer open its files with my CS3, so I had to upgrade, and I benefit the upgrading options of Adobe. And that's one of the reasons that will make me reluctantly upgrade again anfa again, and again. And you bet this really pisses me off :( And think about it, one day you'll have to upgrade that old 5D of yours... ;)) (December 17, 2011 | 04:48am)
@Esther: You can still avoid upgrading. All you need to do is download the free Adobe DNG converter. Adobe always keeps the converter current so it will work with all cameras. Use the converter to convert your raw files to DNG, then you can use CS3. No upgrade needed. (December 17, 2011 | 12:51pm)
I've been getting by just fine with Aperture 3 + Nik plugins, with Photoshop Elements for resizing and sharpening when necessary. (December 18, 2011 | 08:22am)
Yes, but... will I be able to benefit from ACR, which I love the way it processes RAW files? :( (December 20, 2011 | 02:46pm)
@Esther: yes! just convert to DNG first using the free DNG converter. There are legitimate reasons to upgrade, but being able to use new cameras is NOT one of them as long as Adobe keeps publishing the free DNG converter. (December 20, 2011 | 03:51pm)
I'm a pretty heavy Photoshop user (and co-author of the PSCS4 Bible), and I 100% agree with you that if all you're using PS for is basic retouching/color-correction, then stick with the version you have. I think it's kind of funny, though, that you said "maximizing profits for shareholders is the best economic system that’s ever been invented by mankind", when I *just* was reading this article on Forbes.com: http://onforb.es/wWqBss. I wonder if, rather than maximizing profits for shareholders, Adobe should be focused on making the best products possible for their customers - for an example of a product that could sure use some love, see the whole Flash debacle (I'm also a Flash developer). (January 07, 2012 | 07:34am)
@Simon: In my view, maximizing profits for shareholders and making the best possible products/services for your clients go hand in hand. Apple makes the best possible products. Apple's stock market value is #1 or #2 on the planet on any given day. Coincidence? I think not. (January 07, 2012 | 08:28am)