Edit (5/8/19): Adobe appears to have succumbed to the pressure. They’ve currently withdrawn their price hike, for the moment.
On May 2nd, Petapixel posted a story about Adobe increasing the price of it’s Photography Plan from $9.99/mo to $19.99/mo. Doubling it’s price!
As you all know, I’m an Adobe person. I love the Adobe ecosystem, it’s offerings, and it’s power. Photoshop was my first “Adobe baby”, when I started using it at Version 2.5 (before layers were invented, let alone, editable text!). I am an Adobe Certified Instructor for Photoshop and an Adobe Community Professional.
However, I don’t know if this price increase is a great idea for Adobe, unless they’re comfortable losing their Photography customers. YES, paying into the subscription plan will keep you up to date on ALL the new features of Photoshop and Lightroom as they come up. YES, Photoshop is still the most powerful image editor out there, especially for people who want to create composites and compositions, include the ability to create video (and work with video clips), and work in 3D in their image editor. It has many graphic features not employed by it’s competitors in the image editing space. However, for those who are strictly focused on their photography, who want power and don’t care about Photoshop’s powerful design capabilities, their 3D, and their video options (and more), there are some AMAZINGLY POWERFUL Alternatives:
ON1 Photo Raw is about to release their 2019.5 version of their incredibly powerful image editing software. This software has functions that replace much of Lightroom, and Photoshop allowing Presets, Filters, Color Look-Up Tables, POWERFUL AI lead masking, retouching, layers, HDR, Panorama,World Class image resizing and more. On1 Photo Raw allows for:
- Image organization and Editing
- Working with any file type you throw at it: RAW, jpg, psd, png, and more
- Installation on up to 5 computers, Mac or Windows
- No Importing!
- Direct migration from Lightroom (so you don’t lose the work you’ve done)
- Tons of tutorials
On1 Photo Raw costs $63.99 (for upgrade), $79.99 Full Version, or $129.99 (including On1 Plus Pro – amazing support, free presets, and more). And you OWN the license – NO SUBSCRIPTION. Buy 2019.2 today, and you’ll receive the upgrade to 2019.5 for free, when it comes out.
Skylum is offering a Discount to their Luminar 3.1 application until May 14th.
Luminar 3.1 offers:
- AI Image Enhancement (one click enhancements)
- A Full-Featured Organizer and Editor (with keywording, labeling, rating and more)
- Powerful Presets to use as they are, or to edit
- Layers, Blends, Filters (50+), Masks
- AI Sky Enhancer
- AI Foliage Enhancer
- Erase Unwanted Objects
- Powerful Noise Reduction
- Non-Destructive Photo Editing
- Workspaces
- Activation on up to 5 Computers – Windows or Mac
And, if you order before May 14th, you get a great discount, Plus “Photography 101” Video Course at a SERIOUS discount!
$60 Full Price ($50, with discount code: SGANS_DISC) – regular price $70
$69 including Photography 101 Video Course ($59, with discount code: SGANS_DISC) – regular price $169!
$129 including Aurora HDR and Photography 101 Video Course ($119, with discount code: SGANS_DISC) – regular price $268!
Again, you OWN the license – no subscriptions!
Affinity Photo is also a powerful alternative for Photoshop. And serif.com has created a strong ecosystem of their own – offering an Illustrator and an InDesign alternative as well. Affinity Photo can be purchased at $69.99 (Canadian dollars)
And for those of you who like to work with Donation-ware (FREE, but requesting donations), please take a look at GIMP – a powerful, cross-platform image editor at https://www.gimp.org
If you feel I left your favorite out of this list, please say something in the comments!