This is pretty amazing!
Despite the extremity of all the problems relating to COVID-19, one good thing is coming out of this:
Adobe MAX 2020 will be offered online – for FREE this year!
Check out the information here!
This is pretty amazing!
Despite the extremity of all the problems relating to COVID-19, one good thing is coming out of this:
Check out the information here!
By now, many of you may know WHY I suggested backing up your systems with older versions of Adobe software installed. Unfortunately, I was under NDA, so I could not disclose that as of a few days ago, Adobe has pulled ALL previous versions of the Creative Cloud Apps, leaving only this version and the last most recent version. In this case, leaving only last year’s and this years. An exception to this is InDesign, which, for a while will still offer access to older versions. While this doesn’t affect people who bought boxed versions of software (despite some technical difficulties in accessing the electronic download files at the moment), anyone who was using something from CS6 Subscription, to CC2017 are out of luck in ever restoring these versions, if necessary. This includes me – who started using the subscription model at CS6.
I know that Adobe is not doing this because they want to. I know they have a legal reason for doing so (which was not disclosed to us), but it goes against every promise Adobe made to it’s subscription users from the beginning – the promise that we’d have access to older versions at any time.
For people who have been balking about the subscription model, this has just added fuel to the fire.
The good news for those who need alternative software to Adobe’s Photoshop/Lightroom bundle, there are a few great alternatives. In a previous post, I revealed a discount from Skylum, on their Luminar offering.
But, On1 Photo RAW has extended it’s $30 off discount in it’s software until May 15th.
SO many features to list, but the new ones are:
For those of you who want to get out of the Adobe software subscription plans and still use POWERFUL image editing software at a reasonable price for a license you own, please note that Skylum Luminar’s Spring Offer is ending in less than a week!
Don’t forget the pricing – and to add SGANS_DISC as your coupon code!
Despite the fact that Under pressure, Adobe has reconsidered it’s “test” of new pricing for it’s photography bundle and gone back to $9.99/mo for Photoshop/Lightroom, this is a serious consideration for photographers who want powerful image editing capabilities. One never knows what’ll happen in the future.
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:
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:
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!
Today, Skylum (previously MacPhun) Software released a new update to their amazing photo editor, Luminar (this version called Jupiter).
Of course, Luminar can be used as a Photoshop Plugin, but it’s also positioned to work as a Lightroom/Photoshop replacement for photo editing (all this, WITHOUT a subscription fee!)
Current users of Luminar may upgrade for $49 ($39 with coupon code SGANS_DISC)
New users can purchase Luminar 2018 for $69 ($59 with coupon code SGANS_DISC)
Luminar 2018: the most powerful and technologically advanced photo editor for Mac & Windows (worth $69) – Luminar 2018 is a fast, versatile, and intuitive image editor, which can take your workflow from RAW file to fully finished image without needing to use any other image editor.
The Complete Landscape Photography Guide ebook from Photzy (worth $50) – An outstanding guide written by professional photographer and writer Kent DuFault. This ebook has something for everyone, with 237 pages packed full of information and assignments that will transform your landscape photography.
Aerial Photography & Video with Matt Granger (worth $79) – World-renowned photographer, Matt Granger will share planning, shooting and editing aerial stills and video. Matt will also demonstrate editing with Luminar 2018 on his still aerial images..
Photography Tutorial by Daniel Kordan (worth $29) – Extensive tutorial with a full workflow demonstration by expert landscape photographer Daniel Kordan. This tutorial includes shooting and post-processing images in Luminar 2018.
119 Dramatic & Romantic Sky overlays (worth $29) – This is an amazing addition to your photo editing workflow, and will help give boring skies that ‘wow!’ factor.
Splitsville Presets By Brian Matiash (worth $15) – Add a professional polish to your images with these cool presets.
Skylum has dramatically increased the speed of editing across all areas of Luminar. Now images open faster, filters apply quicker, and the entire application is more responsive.
Luminar Jupiter also got numerous interface and user experience improvements based on users’ feedback for an improved editing experience. The new version has several “under-the-hood” enhancements to add stability as well as to improve performance when editing even the largest of images.
Getting the perfect shot is now easier than ever. The RAW Develop filter analyzes an image and its metadata to calculate an Automatic Lens Distortion fix that can be applied in one-click. This is a perfect tool to get rid of wide angle distortion and get truer perspective lines and more attractive portraits.
Luminar recognizes the industry standard DNG Camera Profile, or “DCP” files, that users may already have on their computers (or have purchased from third parties) to ensure accurate and consistent colors. Users will also be able to use DCP profiles from DNG files. This feature is currently available for Mac and will be available soon for Windows.
The Skylum team has put a lot of effort into making the Windows experience be world-class and significantly faster. In fact, the PC version now matches the Mac version for all core features with Batch Processing, Free Transform and Flip and Rotate tools.
Here are some Windows-specific additions
Here are some before and after images, made in Luminar:
As many of you on the Adobe Creative Cloud Plan know (through an email you may have received), the price is going to increase on April 16th, 2018, however you won’t see that increase until your current plan renews.
Now, firstly – this increase is only going to affect the All Apps and Single-App plans (not the CC Photography plan, or the Student/Teacher Editions), and it’s not a huge amount – in fact, it’s only about a 5% increase, and the only increase since the Creative Cloud was introduced in 2012.
Yet, many people are going to be unhappy about this change – so, my friend at ProDesignTools.com has found Adobe’s solution to the problem!
Read his article all the way through – the information is at the bottom (spoiler alert: Adobe won’t raise the rate if you prepay the year!)
Check out the story – thank Mr. ProDesignTools, and come back here and let me know what you think!
As many of you know, I’m not a fan of upgrading my operating system for a great deal of time after the release of any new ones. Currently, I’m using Sierra 10.12.6, and will be continuing to hold off on upgrades. However, some people have either upgraded already, or have bought new equipment that comes with the new OS already installed.
For users of Adobe Creative Cloud products (as well as several other developer’s products), High Sierra has introduced quite a few bugs that need to be resolved.
Fortunately, Adobe has a page about compatibility issues with several of their products, with some workarounds and temporary fixes, until they resolve the problem with a CC update.
To view the list, please visit https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/macos-high-sierra-compatibility.html
This is a known issue. For those of us who used Export>PNG for high rez output, this seems to be broken in the new release of Illustrator CC2018. This seems to only affect people who chose to “Import Previous Settings and Preferences” when upgrading.
Fortunately, Adobe has published a work-around to resolve this issue!
Take a look at this article, to see their answer:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/troubleshoot-export-issues.html
I just got back from the AMAZING Adobe MAX conference in Las Vegas, NV. Perhaps you caught some of my social posts on the events!
This MAX introduced a bunch of new device apps and updates, as well as desktop apps. BUT, it’s very important for some people to retain their older versions, when upgrading their apps. The default behavior is to overwrite previous version with the new version – for instance, if you install the new Photoshop CC, you’ll be overwriting Photoshop CC2017 with Photoshop CC2018!
If that’s okay with you, great! But, if you’re like me, and prefer to wait until bug fixes are in, but still want to see (and get used to) some of the amazing new features in the new version.
Here, I’m going to add a set of images to ensure you see WHERE to adjust your choices so you can ensure to keep your OLD version while also installing the new version. Don’t forget to comment, if you have any questions! Or, ask on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/aym4training
Or, on our Twitter feed at @aym4training
Hopefully, this will save some of you the pain of encountering some of the inevitable bugs associated with upgrading, or will allow you to work in your older versions of the applications you use, so you may collaboratively share files with others who may not have updated yet.
Please remember to comment here, or on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/aym4training/ or my Twitter feed @aym4training if you need assistance, or clarification.
This week, Adobe is having it’s Adobe MAX conference in Las Vegas, NV. I’ll be working as a Teaching Assistant for several classes, and according to the conference schedule, anticipate being kept VERY busy for the week! I’m looking forward to it, very much – and anticipate I’ll be “paying” for the worthwhile time with some exhaustion for the entire following week!
For those of you trying to reach me this week, either via the blog, our Facebook page ((2) AYM 4 Training – Home), our Twitter Account (AYM 4 Training (@aym4training) | Twitter)
I do hope that some or many of my students and colleagues will be attending this event, and if so, please seek me out – I’d love to see you! I’ve been assigned to TA the classes named
B342 – Photoshop Magic: Making Brushes to Speed Up Your Workflow, and B341 – Photoshop+After Effects = Awesomeness (multiple bookings of each in my schedule). I’ll also be attending other classes with some of my favorite speakers/writers and Adobe Evangelists.
I hope to see you at the conference, if you can make it, and I’ll do my best to respond to questions and such, as time allows. Have a great week!