So, as you stated in your video, there is no one suite of applications that work together. Because we are very small, we use a variety of tools..little more work but we are okay with that. For video editing, compositing and audio - we use Davinci Resolve, Fusion and Farlight. If we need to create audio tracks in house, Presonus Studio One. For photo manipulation, Gimp and we just added Affinity to our workflow last year. If there is something that is needed that we simply can’t create with the tools we have, the client gets charged and we outsourced. Because we are not a large company with major corporate clients or other big productions houses, we are not trapped with having to be in the Adobe ecosystem. We can usually find workarounds to meet client needs. Adobe has forced this monopolistic environment on creators for over a decade, we chose to go a different route. Luckily it work for us. Products like indesign, illustrator, Lightroom - we never had to use. I will admit, I miss audition a lot. In the end, we made a choice to not take on more then we could chew and this help parsing the work flow to other applications.
The "if you are not using adobe, you cant work in the professional world..." needs to stop. Another line is "unless you work in the professional industry, you dont need Adobe.." which implies all Pro's only use Adobe... its utter nonsense This stranglehold is the same the music industry held with "ProTools" software, if you are not using ProTools, it's not professional music...and you can't work here..BS Today hardly anyone is still using ProTools in the professional music industry.. If anyone is complaining and not finding a solution, you fit in the herd... Many users *"want"* to use Adobe because of the "fashion statement" not because its better..its become a stigma.
I didn't say I agreed with it - I'm simply stating facts. I'm sure the medium to large companies that buy Adobe products would switch in a heartbeat if comparable software at a better price came out. They also undoubtedly enjoy the convenience of the bundle of apps that saves them from supplying single version alternatives.
I have been using Adobe for over 20 years, have every reason in the world to feel stuck to the Adobe system because... "features". But at some point enough is enough and enough was LONG ago! I cancelled my Adobe subscription last week and have moved to programs like the Affinity app. Doing just find during this adjustment period. My Graphic Design business is free from the Adobe Cloud.
I canceled my Adobe subscription on the 13th, which they confirmed. Today (23rd), they attempted to bill me for another year. I'll be sending the information to the FTC, and I hope they stomp a mudhole in Adobe.
I've cancelled a few Adobe subscriptions in my time. They always send an email out a few days after cancellation that is written as if you are still a subscriber but that your payment method didn't work and that you need to update it to continue with your subscription (words to that effect). I believe they send these emails out automatically on the small chance that the email reaches someone in accounts who thinks "oh! I better fix this payment issue before it affects the company operation". Standard scummy business practices by Adobe.
How did you prevent the 'attempt' to bill you? I had to cancel my credit card to stop them from charging it (replaced it with an expiring zero-balance debit card) to stop them billing me and they cancelled my subscription for non-payment.
It was time to Ditch Adobe years ago and now Affinity is good as if not better. For those who need an entire Adobe suite, well there are other alternatives for everything.
Every edit I do in Affinity I'm unhappy with. Not from a technical stand-point but simply the end result. Each app has its own look and it's nearly impossible to replicate one in another. :)
Affinity apps are nowhere near as good as Illustrator, Photoshop, or Indesign. This youtibe video is rare in being honest aboutnit rather than just giving people something that makes people feel good. People don't want the truth if it's not good.
Though I understand the need to call out the scum that Adobe is as a company, I’m sick and tired of all the people posting their anger at what Adobe is doing. Instead of complaining, do something about it! Stop subscribing! Adobe is a green eyed money machine that is too big for it’s own good. Records show that they will not stop their bad behavior until it affects their bottom line! I was an Adobe user since PS was first introduced back in the early nineteen nineties, but once they changed pricing models, that was it for me. No more Adobe for me. But What impact did my actions have… none. Why. Because they know that one or two angry ex-users don’t matter. The only language Adobe understand is money. Want Adobe to change hit them where it hurts, stop subscribing by the masses an watch what happens. Complaining won’t change a thing! They did the math, and they know a few lawsuits will set them back a few millions but they anticipate generating billions from the continued rapping of their imprisoned user base. “Who’s your daddy, now” they will say when their stock price continue to rise in spite of the lawsuits. Remember, the users have the ultimate power to change the course. But if you do nothing, then nothing changes. They’re are alternative tools out there.
To add, stop pirating too. Pirating Adobe is the equivalent of breaking up with someone but never losing their number and still stalking them on social media.
Disagree. The more channels with posts covering the facts of this and not letting it get swept under the rug (like most things Adobe has done) the better. Adobe counts on that type of attitude and bets this will soon pass for another story. You want change? Keep this in the forefront so it hits their pocketbook hard. If you're sick & tired of these posts then just don't click on them. If you're sick & tired of being treated like garbage by Adobe just don't buy their services. Don't let this story fade away anytime soon.
when something is considered the industry standard. then it needs everyone to denounce it. so it no longer is industry standard. because the big dogs also said, no more, enough. you can click the "not interested" button below adobe hate videos. and you can even click "do not recommend channel" to completely remove the channel from your recommended
4 years ago, I terminated my subscription to Adobe. I went to alternative products: Serif Affiniry Suite, Capture One, Davinci Resolve, etc. It took me 2-3 months to fully retrain. When I retrained, I realized how backward Adobe software was in places. I don't need their artificial intelligence at all. Therefore, I look at these Adobe users who overpay tens of times simply by habit and this is a sad show.
@@Andyhutchinson People who think renting software and putting the roofie in their own drink is the only game in town haven't explored anything else. Not a single piece of software installed on my computer is rented or contains any kind of drm. If the enablers would have stuck with their old versions as renting software began and pushed back appropriately, this wouldn't be an issue today but thanks to schools and parents indoctrinating and not educating, they take the roofie without questioning cause critical thinking wasn't part of their education.
Pentax gives you the raw software to edit Your images... I got a K1 and My Silky Pix allows Me to edit Them and I still use Paintshop Pro to colour grade. Quick edits can be done in Snapseed. I stopped using Adobe many years ago.
Adobe Creative Cloud is "industry standard" because creatives keep it so. If a critical mass of creatives quit supporting Adobe and started using alternatives, Adobe would cease to be "industry standard" because the creatives themselves _are_ the industry. Would be even better if businesses made the move internally away from Adobe and toward alternatives for their workforce where possible. And they are more likely to do so if their workforce creatives asked them to do so-especially considering it would save them an incredibly amount of money, no longer having to shell out for their Adobe commercial subscription.
Sure - 100% agree - but there needs to be a viable option to move to. The right company could make an absolute killing there's so much resentment towards Adobe.
Emphasis on "where possible". Trust me, when a better product comes along people will move towards that product, even if it's not cheaper. If you're not familiar with it, you should look up when happened to Quark Express when Adobe released Indesign. The only somewhat realistic competitor to Illustrator is the same as always, Coreldraw Suite. The realistic competitor to Indesign is QuarkExpress. And there is no real competitor to Photoshop. Depending on which software you use, there might actually be some real competition such as DaVinci Resolve. I have Adobe CC but I'm a big fan of DaVinci Resolve. I just really like the way it works, but my income really comes from Photoshop, Illustrator, and a range of other software like those.
I’ve never felt more vindicated in my decision to leave Adobe 5 years ago for Davinci Resolve for my post work than this shitstorm of TOS drama. Never looked back
@@Andyhutchinson imagine if Blackmagic added a page for stills editing. They already have a good strong use of tools that would be great for a stills editing platform 😍
Andy, and many others here, seem to have resigned themselves to being hooked on Adobe forever. His choice to feel defeated and powerless. I left Adobe for Affinity and DV Resolve and haven't looked back. Don't miss Adobe at all. This "Adobe is the only game in town" is just defeatist and lazy! "Industry standard" talk is nonsense for those of us not "in the industry." And industries have accountants to get these subscription costs written off. You can get off Adobe . . . but it takes a little effort and willingness to change.
That depends on what software people are using. For some, there are serious and real alternatives. For other software there are no real alternatives. Just wishful thinking. I've personally been trying to at least have an option from Adobe since the early 2000's. I haven't found it yet.
I put a lot of time into AP - I've owned it since it came out. But I can never get results I'm happy with when processing shots and its masking capabilities (crucial for landscape photography) are woeful.
Kept using my old suite when they went subscription-only. Ditched them completely when they told me they revoked my old license. Haven't looked back once. So, no - Adobe hasn't earned a single buck from me in over a decade, and they never will again.
Anyone who decides to stick with an abusive relationship should expect continuing abuse. I don't think you should expect others to feel sorry for you in getting these continue abuses from this point on since you are fully aware of the relationship and chose to continue it.🙄😬
This is how I feel, in fact they should be held accountable for enabling this behaviour to be forced onto the people who pushed back against it by letting one of the biggest companies get away with it and set a precedent. I've been listening to people who could have stuck with their old versions of software until they company was forced to change if they didn't want to go under complain about it and give them more money without hesitation.
@@KuttyJoe I'd rather starve with my self-respect. The analogy breaks down anyway as there are other tables; you just don't like the food or think the portions are too small.
@@Window4503 The analogy is perfect but just throw it out. We don't need it. With Adobe I have the tools I need to do a job and make money. Without Adobe, I either don't, or the tools are so inferior that I need to take much more time to try to do the work, so I'm losing time(money). It's as simple as that. But, you are not having the same priority. I respect that. Not everybody is making their living with these tools.
If I pay a freelancer to create some work for me then do the new terms of service between the freelancer and Adobe mean that Adobe has rights over my purchased work? I cant take the risk. So from now I will have to insist freelancers confirm they are not using Adobe software for my😂 commissioned work.
Yep means less $$ paid to CC / need to have as many CC when AI tool X,Y,Z can generate content using no of templates and someone building it. Also means less users subs to Adobe will mean they need to raise the Sub price to keep revenue healthy
Downloaded & purchased Skylum Luminar Neo to replace my Adobe Lightroom. The learning curve is not steep and the disassociation with a bully (Adobe) is liberating.
When adobe started the practice of "forcing" their customer to access their "creative cloud" to access ALL the features of their software, red flags should have popped everywhere. This tactic was either , software protection, or free access to all images sent to the cloud. But no one questioned this tactic. The "big" users were complacent. It's now shown the tactic is to use customers creations to train adobe ai. So, the answer to the question, the time to ditch adobe was several years ago, and I did.
A good rundown on how bad Adobe have become. I ditched all Adobe software a couple years back and moved all my RAW editing to the free open source Darktable. It was a pretty steep learning curve due to a completely different workflow and "less polished" user interface. However, it was worthwhile - the image control available Darktable far exceeds what Adobe offers and my images are far better for it.
We should have a recorded RAW editing session - same photo in both Lightroom and Darktable, 3 minutes maximum and see which produces the best result :)
It's actually in my list of videos to make. I have tried it in the past but gave up due to the learning curve and counter-intuitive design. I've downloaded it and will experiment - looking forward to seeing what it can do. :)
@@GordonRunklePhoto It is a very different workflow to Lightroom that's for sure and much more complex, but thats what you have to put up with to harness the power it provides. Even after 2 years, I'm still learning every time I use it. The results I'm getting with Darktable are far better than with Lightroom.
@@Andyhutchinson I wouldn't say the design is counter-intuitive, just very different to Lightroom. Lightroom tries to hide anything complex from you and make it super easy to get a result. Darktable exposes all the complexity and lets you tweak to the nth degree and, if you know what you are doing, get even better results. (hint, parametric masking is the key to many of the best results, but that takes a good while to get your head around.)
They really hosed those who contribute to Adobe Stock. Their reassurance is basically "Don't worry. We're not stealing your content. We're just screwing over those dumb enough to sell photos on Adobe Stock". No very reassuring at all. As far as Lightroom, Adobe's behavior is leaving a big vacuum and it is only a matter of time before before something comes along. As for Photoshop, I find it rather hypocritical that the lament is that Affinity Photo doesn't have AI tools while at the same time complaining about what Adobe is doing with it. I also find it self-limiting to be always holding out for one to one replacements for Adobe products. As far as having a cohesive group of apps that work together, that is sure to come and already there is the Affinity suite. Basically this video is just another one where Adobe is loudly complained about but where it is suggested to suck up anyway because it is the "industry standard". Reality check: An "industry standard" is whatever the industry decides it is and Adobe doesn't have a guaranteed lock on it. This latest scandal is big enough to show the cracks in their so called "impenetrable" fortress. There are examples in the past of companies that were supposed to have unquestioned dominance and seemed to be never to fail. Many of these are memories now or shells of their former selves. Sticking with Adobe only rewards their arrogance and makes it harder for competitors to develop the tools to do the same things because of Adobe sucking up all the money.
I signed up for Adobe Stock many years ago to test the waters. Uploaded about 20 shots. Sold my first photo, checked the royalty payment and it was about 7cents because the person that bought it had one of the stock subscription deals. Deleted my account that day.
The head-teacher at my art school insisted we use adobe products, then we had a guest star teacher, this superstar-illustrator who had worked for all the big companies who shocked her when he told us he doesn't give a shit what we use as long as it can export to tiff. The internet at the school also had a tendancie to not work during the first hour in the morning for some reason, and thus we couldn't launch any adobe products because you need internet a internet connection to use that stuff. Thankfully the computers also had software such as Krita installed on it.
Several points: • The cancellation fees only apply if you try to cancel in your first year. If you've been with Adobe longer than that, you won't face these fees. • The new legal language still has lots of loopholes. One big one is they claim that they "don't" train on customer content, not that they never did. And biggest point: • It's not inevitable that corporations operate only on behalf of shareholders, to the exclusion of all other stakeholders (customers, workers, vendors, citizens of countries where they operate, etc). This is a modern development that has been reinforced by years of training for business school MBAs, but it's not the only way to run markets. If we want less sociopathic corporations, it's possible to have them. It will take political and social pressure to make it happen, but it is a thing that could come to pass. One important thing is not to see each predatory corporation in isolation. Taming capitalism is something that has to be addressed society-wide.
So how do we do that? If there were a mass exodus of Adobe users wouldn't that be a message to corps? If their tactics plunged their stock price than that would end up as a chapter in an MBA textbook. Isn't this the kind of social pressure you're talking about? If we are going to wait for government to take care of it then it will never happen. Example Trump in 2022 "I'm gonna ban TickTok its Chinese propaganda." 2024 "Mr Trump here's a check for $3mill from Jeff Yass" Trump: "I love TickTock, don't we all love TickTok, folks?!"
Your first statement is incorrect. You pay monthly but you sign up for a year at a time, and if you cancel part way through the year then they'll charge you 50% of the amount due for the rest of that year while removing access to the apps immediately at the end of the current month. I'm in the fifth year of my current subscription but they still want me to pay £29.95 to cancel it now.
I'd love to see it change, but political and social pressure all seems to be heading in the wrong direction in most 'western' democracies. It's certainly no different here in Australia than it is to America - businesses and their lobbyists write the statute books - not the people.
@@Jupa I also tried to cancel and was faced with extra charge, BUT then I found a way out..... I changed my subcription from one of the Photography plans to the other, and what Adobe then does, is that they treat this as if you had cancelled your plan, and signed up for a new plan.... and signing with a new plan gives you some weeks to regret.... so I "regret" immediately after getting the welcome mail from Adobe.... and without paying anything :-)..... so I sort of beat them by using their own rules
I have the best of both worlds. I’m still using PS CS6 and LR 5 desktop that I purchased when the subscription model was first announced. I didn’t want to pay to play on a continued basis. I also use the Affinity 2.x suite of desktop products as well. This combination of products allow me to do all that I need to do.
The question is not only whether there are better alternatives for Adobe programmes. As a freelancer, for example, the question is whether you can afford to use Adobe products at all. Or you are sued by your customer for breach of contract, that their data, concepts, trade secrets have been passed on to third parties. With the changes to the terms and conditions, Adobe secures rights to things that its users may not even have themselves.
I ditched Adobe the day they announced the new subscription model. Every piece of software on all 3 operating systems. Even Acrobat Reader. The writing was on the wall and plain for all of us to see. Never looked back. Adobe is a shit show of bad business practices and "screw you" attitude toward all their users. Any creative who still uses Creative Cloud is part of the problem.
Everyone's situation is different. If you're a freelancer, for instance, and clients are sending you deliverables in Adobe-only formats, and expecting them back in the same format, what do you do? Quit?
Ditched Adobe when they switched to be a subscription service. Haven't looked back. That decision made it clear that Adobe no longer cared about their users, nor their product. It's been downhill ever since. Why improve a product, or customer service, when you've got a cash cow that makes money regardless of whether its good or bad, and that has an audience built on goodwill from years past? Well it seems they've nearly exhausted that goodwill from the past, but everybody should've jumped ship years ago.
I genuinely want to leave adobe. But you're right no matter what I alter for PS no one can replace or be better than PS yet. Unfortunately for PS I'm stuck with adobe for the time being. However I have already switched DaVinci for premier and after effects. And it was awesome and better than premier. Few things it can't compete with after effects entirely but close enough to replace it. For me DaVinci resolve alone is a great alternative for -Premier, AE, Audition, Media Encoder. Just waiting someone to be better than PS when someone pull that off. I'm leaving Adobe for good.
I'm sorry I have yet to figure out what can be don in photoshop ( specifically to photos) that can't be done in gimp. If one is absolutly against open source Corel Aftershot and Coreldraw would be an option, But I haven't used the Corel products. Darktable and Gimp are what I've used and on windows or Mac I've been able to go from camera to Print quite well.
@@noithinknot4583 How do you rotate your images by an arbitrary amount in Gimp? (last time I looked it couldn't). This is a common task for me if the camera wasn't perfectly horizontal when taken.
For many the Affinity suite (Photo, Designer, Publisher) is proving to be a good replacement for the original Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign). With Photo the key things they need are covered with the extra bells and whistles that Photoshop offers being things that would hardly be used. There's just that resistance to having to learn new software that holds many back. For many who cling to Photoshop it's like a woman with an abusive boyfriend - "Sure he beats me but he brings me candy."
@@AnthonyRosbottom Ok, so to be honest it's not a task I've had to perform, most of my shooting is from a leveled tripod. If it were me I'd hit a gimp forum. Also unlike most open source software there is a current book availible on gimp. I'm sorry I coulden't be of further assistance. My process is to shoot to bring my shots into darktable for minor editing/developing and then into gimp only to preview for printing.
Nope, I'm gone. There are other just as good alternatives and that's where my £ is at, and I do not miss any of the adobe products. For context, I've played with LR since V1, along with Aperture and C1 and as 'just' a photographer I can access a DAM which does what I want through C1 along with a similar set of non destructive editing options, and can send an image to a pixel level image editor with Affinity. If I want DTP or Vector graphics there is Affinity that covers both of those and If I want Video editing than there's plenty of other options. So, just how many creatives need the full stack? My guess is very few. In most cases, fear of switching is laziness. Accept that other companies can do the same things sometimes better, and be honest with yourself as to why you use the software you do. You may well be surprised
My Setup here: Affinity Suite (Creative Cloud), Apple Motion 5 (After Effects), Final Cut Pro (Premiere), I have the Pixelmator Pro (PSD and also AI) also, just in case, Blender, Apple Compressor (Media Encoder). I bought all of then with a lot of discount and with a one time payment. I only use Adobe when some project or agency cannot work with the alternatives (and they are who pay for it).
Light bulb moment! We're talking a lot here about features we just can't live without. We all DID live without them back when. When tool y hadn't been developed yet, we managed just fine with tool X. (Yes, I can think of some exceptions, but very few.)
We had been paying for and using many Adobe Apps since the mid 90's including creative suite 6 and when we updated our Macs to ARM we decided that the outrageous subscription fees Adobe wanted to charge were out of the question, so we switched to Affinity Photo, Design, Publisher, and DaVinci Resolve. We would never go back to Adobe.
I ditched Adobe back when then moved it to the Cloud realizing this would be a bad long-term decision for me to stick to such a model where I can’t just own the software. I am perfectly comfortable with darktable, Hugin, GIMP, Krita, & Inkscape now that I can do what I need to & since I don’t follow Adobe news, I can be blissfully ignorant of any features. Embracing the free software offerings has brought a lot of benefit to me, & I have filed bugs upstream too.
I find it unfortunate that software like Gimp is still behind the curve. I consider it one of the OG open source projects because in the mid-2000s where internet became very wide spread, Gimp was one of the softwares that introduced people to the concept of open source. Gimp has such lackluster development that one of it's components, Gimp Too Kit (GTK), branched off, renamed itself Gnu Tool Kit, on it's way to releasing GTK5, and Gimp is still on GTK2. Meanwhile, Blender, which is a wildly much more complicated tool to develop, is amazing and even cutting its own corner in the industry. Inkscape is actually not bad. The biggest holdback from being used by professionals is CMYK support, but they are working hard to add. I even donated directly to the developer who is working on this feature.
As far as Photoshop alternatives Affinity Photo seems to be the best one (no subscription, one time payment) or if a free alternative is wanted Photopea which is an online photo editor with a very similar interface to Photoshop.
Thank you Andy, nice editorial. Thankfully, I don't have a workflow that needs Adobe systems. I can get by just fine with DXO and (sorry) Topaz AI. Looks like I dodged a bullet. Many thanks, cheers. 🎉🎉🎉
A long time ago, I bought Photoshop 4 in a bundle with Illustrator. At that time I didn't use it in my business but in the pure joy of being an artist. I think it was as a student rate of $350 and it was worth every penny. I never pirated a copy or passed on a copy. I did not buy every up-grade but I bought every other up-grade because that was all I could afford. My last copy was CS5 and Adobe gives a hard time just installing it, wanting proof of every PS I've ever owned, product key and customer pass words. I'm old now and just want to use in my leisure but it was individual artist that helped build Adobe Adobe is not alone. Increasingly these corporation are regarding their costumers as an exploitable resource.
I had *just* bought a lightroom classroom in a book from amazon, and was about to get a lightroom sub when this all went down. I decided I'll just step back from Adobe because I don't actually need it. I have Davinci for the video, but am still trying to decide on a raw editor I can live with. I do think this is the perfect storm for the Panasonic/Olympus LUT in camera presets, where they basically have their version of lightroom presets already built in live in the camera. You can download more presets any time if that's your thing, or create your own. This is the perfect storm for that to take off if they'll license it to others.
Depending upon how sophisticated you like your RAW editors, give the trial version of DxO Photolab a go. Photomator on the Mac is also surprisingly powerful.
I'm still with Adobe.....CS6 and LR6 that is, until they ditch their subscription model or give users the option to buy a perpetual licence version of their software, which I can't see happening. And yes, you're right, companies like Affinity need to have an alternative to LR and asset management as well
Given that they're now owned by Canva, a $26bn company that thrives on a subscription pricing model, it can only be a matter of time before Affinity goes the same way.
making the excuse that all corporations are evil is a mistake. some companies do behave themselves better than other. we should be punishing the worse ones as best we can by shaming them and boycotting them as best we can.
Affinity may be able to step up more now that they're partnered with Canva though. They're a small team on their own, so Canva would give them the power they need to start upgrading their software.
I would argue that dxo PL7 has better denoise than LR PL7 does not have the library bit tho, but the thing I really miss is the ability to make presets for local adjustment brushes
No argument here - I've made videos comparing the denoise results in LR, DxO, Topaz etc and DxO wins every time - best noise removal and no compromise on details loss.
Great to hear somebody from the UK voicing this issue, great video, Andy 👍👍👍 ! I've been working in post-production from the time when Sony were the kings of all non-liner post. Then along came Avid with a desktop software editing system that they said "it will never catch on"... then it did!. Move over, Sony, there's a new kid in town. Then for a short period, Apple through its hat into the ring with its much cheaper FCP and took a lot of the non-broadcast editing work away from Avid. Which finally brings us to Adobe and Premiere Pro which is currently “king of the hill” of NLEs. What has been the downfall of all the previous companies in my option is when they stopped listening to their user base and became arrogant and complacent because of their market dominance. I’m sure history will repeat itself and Adobe will just be another name on the wall of mega corps that took their eye off the ball. Fingers crossed 🤞🤞🤞
Thanks mate. DaVinci is another one that continues to go from strength to strength and I would love to know what the global instals are for each app. :)
Quit Adobe when it went monthly! Don't miss it at all, years ago Cyberlink did the same, and the ads were constant! Kdenlive suits me and it's open source. Having issues with Resolve on Linux, once a month may open Win-dose just to use Resolve. MS is also on my list to avoid!
I dumped Adobe three years ago when Lightroom 6 and Photoshop CS6 couldn't open my new camera's RAW files any more. I've never fancied subscription plans, and probably never will. I turned to DxO and Affinity and haven't had any regrets about that step.
You should try krita, people used to say it is a painting program but once you explored all features of it you will find 95% of photoshop features and even 20% extra. Gimp is garbage in terms of UI/UX
Thanks for a complete run-down on the Adobe monolith. As much I'd like to give Adobe the middle finger, you're right, I haven't found a suitable alternative to Lightroom and Photoshop.
It depends on what you do. I work as a web-dev and my use of PS, AI and ID are primarily for receiving Adobe files from clients' designers, opening and viewing them, and making the occasional export of web images from them, etc. For me, the 3 Affinity are more than sufficient, and I was very happy to say goodbye to Adobe. I dare say there are many who use these mainstays of Adobe, who don't actually need to, because they are not in the creative industry.
A major impoetus for subscription software was that it put an end to copy piracy, but the paradigm it has created is nothing new, a digital plantation where paying users are merely sharecroppers. If Adobe were really about a collaborative relationship, you'd get an option on Adobe profits, perhaps so the longer you 'cropped' (pun intended) on Adobe territory.
it's just a matter of willing to learn new things.. and to really think deeply about the actual needs. (not the luxury you actually don't need, it's just nice to have) either you keep falling for the fucking adobe scam.. or you stand up against it (and start changing the world), and embrace the alternatives, even if they are lesser refined, or differenly looking. If you want, you can. Sorry, and correct me if wrong.. but you seem to be a person, that acknowledges the evil sides, but yet am not willing to actually change your patterns/use to the alternatives, because of inertia, and because of being hooked on some features or looks of some adobe apps. Ask yourself this: do i really really really need all the features (in one app), so i want to support an evil company? can i do without them? and be honest like on gun point.
Utlimately I'm a pragmatist. The central problem I have is that I have nearly 250,000 photos in my LR Classic catalog all with flags, tags, GPS, keywords and develop settings and no viable alternative, even if I could transfer them. So it's all well and good saying 'just move' when there is literally nowhere to move to. Also - I own more of this software - the apps made by smaller independent developers - than most people. I bought Affinity Photo when it came out and paid again when they forced us to purchase the v2 update. I have over 30 photo related editors and utilities all bought and paid for and kept up to date. I appreciate what you're saying, but altruism doesn't get you very far when it's your job. :)
One alternative to Lightroom is dark table. If photographers want alternatives to Adobe, then they need to either fund existing open source projects, like dark table, or start their own software development company.
"Adobe have so much rope they've hung themselves. They could start again, call themselves Eboda, lose the subscription nonsence, and for a one off buy price of £100 they'd do really well! Nice thought provoking vid Andy
The HUGE problem with Alternative is Lack of FUNCTIONS and TOOLS that makes things faster and shareable with other software. Adobe really sucks in many things, and I think they have many software that does great things on each of them. But not in one alone. Like for instance, the design and rendering engine Animate is better than any other software, but they don't implement them across other design and animated tools. I see Illustrator start to use some Animate design functions, but not all there. Alternatives are cheap and FREE but you will pay a HUGE price for re-learning them with the risk of them being own by another Adobe like company. I started with some Open Source and I always end up finish the project in Adobe products. Adobe is a company run by idiots and greedy people!
Good information! I'm jumping ship for a few reasons. Firstly, is the AI scanning / file upload process that I was unaware of. I have nothing to hide but hate the idea of my files being uploaded, even if temporarily, without a clear message indicating that it's occurring. I've also been looking for a less bloated alternative for basic photo editing. I can use CC for free through the company I work for, so cost isn't a factor. Secondly, I'd rather patronize another company as long as their software gets the job done. Having recently tried Affinity Photo 2.5, for me it does just that. It has what I need as an amateur photographer who isn't interested in all the bells and whistles Adobe has to offer. And the way I see it, if we want true competition, we need to support the smaller companies so they can afford to compete on features. If course, a business built on Adobe's products can't just up and jump ship, but for those like me, I think there are good alternatives. Lastly, Adobe's attitude with its licensing, shady anti-consumer practices, and bloated buggy software has tipped me over the edge. Also, Bridge, Camera Raw, Lightroom and Photoshop could have all been condensed into 2 products at most rather than having features that overlap and the quirks and awkwardness of having these products try to work together.
All perfectly sound reasoning. I would say that Affinity stopped being the little guy when they were purchased, four months ago, by the global behemoth that is Canva. Affinity also charged everyone to upgrade to v2 of their software despite the 'single fee' pricing. Also, given that Canva is a built on a subscription based model, it is surely only a matter of time before the Affinity suite follows suit. Agree regarding the software. They keep ACR of course because Photoshop needs a RAW editor. If Bridge was combined with ACR it would effectively be a hybrid version of Lightroom Classic, which is probably not something they're interested in pursuing. :)
@@Andyhutchinson Good Q - maybe V3 will be a choice - Subscription with updates for free, or Pay one of for Basic VR of Vr3 but an additional upcharge for every update you wish to apply
Adobe abandoned creatives many years ago. Adobe's customers are large corporations, not the individual artist. That's how they make their business decisions -- appease other corporations and shareholders.
Nice, rational analysis. I've been an Adobe client forever and love their stuff. I must admit, I do like your style of presentation. Unfortunately, I can't ditch it easily because my clients EXPECT work to be done and passed back to them using Adobe CC tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. The AI "rules of engagement" are intrusive and really make me wonder, but as their competitors will employ AI to remain competitive, who says they will be more "hands-off?" This is one of several Adobe issues that IMHO makes them completely anti-customer. Things Adobe should do (and they are simple): 1. AI "ownership" of your stuff (local, cloud, or both?): Place responsibility back on the the user with regard to unsavory artwork. Their spokeslawyer kept on mentioned the worst (child porno) in her three-part response video. As most anti-Adobe reviewers say this isn't a new problem. Keep humans out of it and make the whole upload, verify, reporting of bad stuff automated and self-policing. If another client complains about your uploaded stuff, do something about it (ex: take it down, correct it, …). 2. Make it easy to cancel an annual subscription. Some other pissed-off videos state the terror (waste of time) it takes to cancel a subscription. It's easy to sign onto an Adobe's subscription, so keep humans out of it as they attempt to talk you out of canceling. OK, when you cancel online, prompt them that there is a cancellation fee based on some pro-rated formula and show the calculations. If you still want to cancel, click Cancel, and your credit card will be charged $x amount. 5 minutes. Easy in, easy out. Sometimes we all make mistakes and have buyer's remorse. 3. Reduce this nightmare of restricting personal computer installations. I have four computers (3 macs and 1 pc) and I have licensed two subscriptions that require DIFFERENT email addresses. Not only expensive, this lack of trust approach towards licensing is really out of date. Just because I am a computer junkie and go out in the field a lot and need Adobe software on a couple of other laptops, doesn't mean I'm going to attempt to run Photoshop on more than one computer at the same time. Do what Escape Motions (Rebelle), Sketchbook, The Omni Group (OmniGraffle), TechSmith (Camtasia Pro), and Microsoft Office does: allow basically up to 5 or so computers to have your stuff installed. Their online licensing software can check to see if more than one or two computers are using Adobe apps (based on IP addresses) at the same time. Almost all of us are honest customers. Otherwise, why make this so difficult? Surprisingly, compared to many reviewers, I don't have a problem with subscriptions. Adobe puts a lot of work enhancing and supporting their software. And that costs money. OK. But to avoid Adobe from becoming "Big Brother" to their creative community, they can become user-centric overnight and do some basic repositioning of their business practices. "Attention to user needs" always wins in the long run. This DOJ issue is the wake-up call I guess most of us need. It seems like there are a LOT of unhappy customers out there with this latest AI fiasco. One final note (sorry!) … When licensing, terms of use, and legalese become a larger issue than using the software, you have already lost. Explaining, re-explaining, and re-simplifying "what you really mean" wears most of us out. Many great tech companies have realized that true customer trust is much more important than exploiting revenue opportunities. AI appears to be the current excuse. I'm going to rethink continuing to use Adobe CC, too. It's not a good thing. I find it to be GREAT software. Now, if only Adobe can rethink what it means to be a GREAT company. Best, Ken Bellingham, WA USA
You can install CC on more than two pc’s with one license. You can only use it on two of them simultaneously. It’s easy to activate and de-activate according to the ones in use …
Thanks Ken. It's possible that Adobe will be forced to implement changes around subscriptions after the current FTC investigation concludes. The issue seems to be current leadership which has a very 1980s attitude to customers, where it's simply about squeezing every last cent out of as many people as possible.
Left them at subscription announcement and never looked back. Still have my LR 6.14 installed just to spite them 🤭 ON1 is getting closer with every build and it's raw development would be on a par (no where near DxO of course) .. but i keep it in my toolbox just for the masking. Affinity would be perfect if they'd get the masking tools on a par with what's out there now.
For most people this may not be a sensible solution, but I’m still using CS 6 on an old Mac running Sierra. I’m lucky I’m not depending on many of the new features that Adobe included in the suite since then. In addition to CS 6 I have the Affinity suite.
Same here, except when v2 of the Affinity suite came out, I (finally) switched my workflow 100% to Affinity. (Plus Resolve.) There are things in Affinity that I much prefer over older (or current) Adobe apps. And I'm an OG fanboy of Adobe's-my professional use predates Photoshop.
That was very thorough. To complete the picture, Adobe's ace-in-the-hole is PostScript in professional printers and the emulator in still MOST of office printers.
I used to buy Photoshop and illustrator regularly. When they went to a subscription base I stopped and got rid of all the old software and just quit. Never missed any of it.
It is a matter of simply not wanting to support Adobe, not that other software might, or might not be better. If you find their practices evil, then you will simply use alternatives, like DarkTable, and Gimp, as I have. They are far inferior to Adobe's offerings (especially Gimp, Darktable is quite good), but it's a matter of doing the right thing.
Difficult with corporate clients supplying files in layered .PSD format (amongst other scenarios) but also, sacrificing processing capabilities when it's my job is not a hill I'm prepared to die on. 😁
There will be those who will argue that alternatives to Adobe software is not as good but that is changing. Already DaVinci Resolve is better than Premiere and there are many who are preferring Affinity Designer to Adobe Illustrator. It's just a matter of time before other apps outside the Adobe "Creative" Cloud begin to outshine this behemoth's products.
Adobe are taking all who subscribe to them as fools, as you are making them a lot of money. Ask yourself why I am I working just to give this company my money?
These videos are currently trending wildly. Since I left everything from Adobe almost 3 years ago, I have never realized that people are willing to buy their products, or rent (subscription). I use Affinty and Davinci, amazing products. And one-time purchase. From Adobe, I mostly used Premiere pro, lousy editor. Especially after I started Davinci. Now people need to wake up, drop Adobe
If all I used was Photoshop I'd probably switch too. But Affinity Photo is definitely not a replacement for Lightroom and there isn't an app on the market that matches its feature set.
While it may vary from country to country, typically it is not only a company's prime directive to focus on shareholders interests, but is a legal requirement. Customer relationships are important to a business in so far as it benefits profits and shareholder returns, but make no mistake - in a choice between the two, the shareholder interests will always win - and for a public company, quarterly reports and share-value are the focus of CEOs.
Lots of folks swear by Darktable for a clear alternative to Lightroom. It has a steep learning curve, but if you are prepared to put in the time it can do as much as Lightroom. Other than that, I'm not sure.
@@daveindezmenez photoshop primarily. truly open source , im basically looking for what Reaper is to DAWs (better that other options basically everyway but still cheaper and open source)
@@Andyhutchinson --darktable, It takes time to gain experience to achieve great results in darktable. I've been using it for raw processing more than a year and am still finding improved results with every edit. One has to try to understand the concepts--get to the logic of what is behind the whole of the program's design and processes.
FCPX, Motion, Davinci, Affinity, Pixelmator Pro, Photomator, Sketch, Ocenaudio, Blender all get the job done for me. Maybe not in every sense and certainly not in such a cohesive way but, seriously don’t miss the quagmire of shite CC installs on every system. Everyone’s different though and admittedly if you have to collaborate it’s nigh on impossible to avoid.
I was happy with PS CS5, then CS 6 came out, so was it 64bit (because apple would stop supporting 32 bits) ? Yes they said, it is. So upgraded to CS6 Later I upgraded my OS on my iMac and PS stopped working. Support told me I could take a subscription So I said F-you, and bought Affinity Photo Later I bought an older Mac and thought I will install PS CS6 on that. Installation of CS5 went fine, but, could not upgrade to 6 because Adobe went a switched of the license servers. So, for me, I wil never ever go back to adobe. Adobe should not be ditched, it should kneel in a ditch an get a you know what in the neck. I have been using FCPX since it came out, great fan.
@@petebateman143 That probably does explain some people. Not everybody. And the fact still remains that not all tools are created equal no matter how much you may wish it to be true because you've decided to champion it and now need to justify your choice.
@@KuttyJoe The reality is that FOSS tools are good enough for most people. Most of those saying they simply can't exist without adobe are delusional. They're basically insisting that they simply must have their Rolls Royce to go shopping, a Ford just won't cut it.
@@petebateman143 It's not about Rolls Royce vs Ford. It's more like hammer vs screwdriver. Or hammer vs pneumatic nail gun. Pickup vs 18-wheeler. What's delusional is the people who say that Affinity products are "alternatives" for Adobe products. They're not. If you're good with what Affinity products offer then that is wonderful, but it necessarily means that you never actually needed Adobe's much more complete solutions anyway. You only needed a hammer. I don't think it's delusional as much as it is plainly dishonest. I get it. People feel a certain way about it all and they love the idea of sticking it to the man. But their naive to think that Serif/Affinity are any different than Adobe. Affinity products are cheap because that is how they could gain market share. Once they gained enough marketshare, they move to phase two. Dipping a toe into the subscription waters. They didn't really feel confident to do it until Canva came along and made them an offer they couldn't refuse. It's of course what they always wanted because it's just a business trying to make money at the end of the day. And now people have no champion, yet, they're not doing the whole let's abandon ship. Now, there's no where to go so they're just pretending like Affinity didn't just show exactly what they're doing. Affinity will become subscription. Affinity lied big time and took advantage of people's feelings about Adobe in order to get market share. Celsys Clip Studio did the same thing and so did Corel. If a company is not looking for subscription pricing, then that company must have some goal other than money.
As I explained in the video, I need to maintain my Photography subscription because no developer has created a viable alternative. I have nearly 250,000 photos in my LR Classic catalog generated over two decades of use, all with flags, tags, GPS, keywords and develop settings and no viable alternative to move them to, even if I could transfer them. And as a paying customer I have more right to hold Adobe to account than those folks who ditched them a decade ago and are simply viewing this video for confirmation bias.
Im done using Adobe after scamming me out of 240 Euro for using it only once Did use it a lot in the past as selfemployed photographer for years believed I could cancel the subscription after a month NOPE
Check my other videos - I've even done a guide to switching to Photolab from Lightroom. But there is nothing on the market that does what LR does in terms of asset management. I have nearly 250,000 landscape photos in a catalog I began two decades ago - all tagged, flagged, keyworded and GPS with full processing on most of them - there is no other app on the market that does that and no easy way to transition to it even if there was.
ditched it ages ago, AI is already old school, and is nothing exciting. Why pay subscriptions when software like Darktable is way better and it's free! Why pay for Photo manipulation, when you can all have it for free?
What really happened with the recent Adobe fuss was that pro creatives couldn't live with the new ToS, but also couldn't see themselves trying an alternative to Adobe. So, they complained like hell until Adobe was forced to walk it back a bit, at which point those creatives breathed a collective sigh of relief that they could continue to use Adobe products. People don't like change even if that change might be good for them.
It's always interesting to me how transactional these discussions are. Principles count for nothing. As long as the software does more than their rivals' and doesn't crash _too_ often, apparently Adobe can just continue with their shitty practices as far as most creators are concerned. As much as they complain, they don't appear to be willing to change their habits and customs even a little bit. And Adobe clearly knows it.
That's one take - here's another. There's a huge opportunity for another developer to step up and provide real competition to Adobe but so far nobody seems to care enough to make the effort.
I have left Adobe and I am not returning. I agree that Lightroom Classic has no good alternative, but Adobe being nonchalant with intellectual property and private information scared me away from using it.
I personally always find alternatives for Adobe products and they all works perfectly fine. It does require a bit more improvising skill on my part, but when was Art supposed to be easy?
What ultimately needs to happen is for the Federal Trade Commission in America to step in and use antitrust laws to break up Adobe and enforce more competitive practices like making all their third party plugin APIs more open and usable with other software packages. Adobe have a near total monopoly in their sector, and it's become incredibly destructive to the industries forced to rely on their products because there simply aren't viable alternatives for their needs.
Yes, though TBH they shoiuldn't have been asleep at the switch as Adobe gobbled up so many other companies. And that applies to a lot of other consolidations, too.
Thanks. That was interesting. I’m sticking for now. Lightroom is so good now that I barely need PS at all and since I hate PS and have always found it ludicrously complex, I’m very pleased about that. I’d move but whatever I move to would have to be able to import LRC catalogues, have full DAM and be equally good at editing etc. Whatever that is, it doesn’t yet exist. Aperture could have been it but Apple killed it. After making me pay NZ$850 to buy the software.
Yea, I rarely venture into Photoshop for photo processing these days. In fact if they did a subscription that *just* came with LR Classic - I'd switch to it.
I agree entirely. LRC is a one stop shop for the vast majority now. PS is really only for people who need to produce composite images, merge other graphic elements etc etc. or who have the skill and need to produce pixel perfect alteration. A friend of mine has serious PS skills. I once held an exhibition of my work and one image was of a cyclo taxi driver at rest in the Philippines. Due to error on my part I’d sliced off the bottom of the wheel and it spoiled the image. He was able to cut the top of the wheel and create an extra slice at the bottom which, when done, was indistinguishable. The wheel and background just looked exactly as if I’d shot it that way. AI can’t quite do that. Yet. But it’s only a few years away.
I looked into buying photoshop ages ago but was put off by the price, now I'm ready to take the plunge and it's changed to subscription which is off putting. I'd been looking to have a low cost hobby to work on so when I retire i already have the expensive bit done and some knowledge, now I'm left wondering what to do and prefer not to go pirate so to speak. I'm interested in landscapes and macro and curious about focus stacking along with other editing techniques.
I think you'll be happy with DxO PhotoLab, and there's a 30-day demo. I'd also recommend trying out DxO Nik Collection, which is brilliant. For focus stacking, I've been very happy with Helicon Focus, and if you want to do panoramas, PTGui can't be beat (but is a bit more expensive).
Everyone looks for different things, but here's some suggestions. For stacking (HDR, focus, pano) give the Luminar Neo trial a go. For RAW editing - Photomator (on Mac) is great - DxO PureRAW 4 (Mac, Windows) is a superb RAW pre-processor. Also give the Affinity Photo 2 trial a go.
I just let my Adobe subscription end, happily. I've bought into lifetime licenses for Photomator and Pixelmator Pro. I think they're very good, and they seem to be developing quickly to become even better.
The old Piximperfect 'Jack Sparrow' edition. Before I became a technology journalist I used to do the same, but it was always such a pain in the arse cracking them.
I hate Adobe but I don't understand why people think piracy is a good alternative? I'm not even thinking about the moral and legal issues here but rather, I don't want an unknown coder controlling what gets installed on my system. If you think the people writing the keygens and coding protection bypasses are morally pure, Robin Hood type people then I have a bridge in London to sell you. If people are going to go down the Jack-Sparrow route, I really hope for their sake that they are installing on a spare machine that isn't connected to the internet (pass files back and forth via usb thumb drive or similar), that they don't mind reformatting if the thing ever attempts to mine some sh!tcoin or scrape credit card details.
I never used Lightroom so I cannot speak to its innovations, but Illustrator, Photoshop, and Illustrator seemed to only make minor improvements over the years - not enough to justify the hefty annual subscription in my opinion. I think Adobe has taken its customers for granted because they think they have no competitors. I hope that changes because competition is a good thing.
I bought into Luminar AI and Luminar Neo in years' past, but I did not join the new subscription model. I respected Skylum's previous practice of making users buy new software over renting it, if the users wanted the latest features. But I was not about to opt into another Adobe model. I don't know what remains of actual non-subscription editing software, beyond what I already have. At some point, those programs will likely stop working.
My video production company left Adobe 6 years ago. I and my pocket book have happily never looked back.
What do you use now?
Yes. Do tell.
Yep - what did you switch to? Davinci?
So, as you stated in your video, there is no one suite of applications that work together. Because we are very small, we use a variety of tools..little more work but we are okay with that. For video editing, compositing and audio - we use Davinci Resolve, Fusion and Farlight. If we need to create audio tracks in house,
Presonus Studio One. For photo manipulation, Gimp and we just added Affinity to our workflow last year. If there is something that is needed that we simply can’t create with the tools we have, the client gets charged and we outsourced. Because we are not a large company with major corporate clients or other big productions houses, we are not trapped with having to be in the Adobe ecosystem. We can usually find workarounds to meet client needs. Adobe has forced this monopolistic environment on creators for over a decade, we chose to go a different route. Luckily it work for us. Products like indesign, illustrator, Lightroom - we never had to use. I will admit, I miss audition a lot. In the end, we made a choice to not take on more then we could chew and this help parsing the work flow to other applications.
@@ccevideo that's cool - thanks for the info. Everyone's situation is different and you've found a solution that works well for you and your company.
The "if you are not using adobe, you cant work in the professional world..." needs to stop.
Another line is "unless you work in the professional industry, you dont need Adobe.." which implies all Pro's only use Adobe... its utter nonsense
This stranglehold is the same the music industry held with "ProTools" software, if you are not using ProTools, it's not professional music...and you can't work here..BS
Today hardly anyone is still using ProTools in the professional music industry..
If anyone is complaining and not finding a solution, you fit in the herd...
Many users *"want"* to use Adobe because of the "fashion statement" not because its better..its become a stigma.
right. I am a pro designer for decades and I am working Adobe free since 2018
💯 THIS!!! "Industry Standard" is ant-creative because it suppresses new ways and means in the creative community.
The same people who use this mantra are mac users who think that its not possible to use a PC for design.
I didn't say I agreed with it - I'm simply stating facts. I'm sure the medium to large companies that buy Adobe products would switch in a heartbeat if comparable software at a better price came out. They also undoubtedly enjoy the convenience of the bundle of apps that saves them from supplying single version alternatives.
I have been using Adobe for over 20 years, have every reason in the world to feel stuck to the Adobe system because... "features". But at some point enough is enough and enough was LONG ago! I cancelled my Adobe subscription last week and have moved to programs like the Affinity app. Doing just find during this adjustment period. My Graphic Design business is free from the Adobe Cloud.
I canceled my Adobe subscription on the 13th, which they confirmed. Today (23rd), they attempted to bill me for another year. I'll be sending the information to the FTC, and I hope they stomp a mudhole in Adobe.
I've cancelled a few Adobe subscriptions in my time. They always send an email out a few days after cancellation that is written as if you are still a subscriber but that your payment method didn't work and that you need to update it to continue with your subscription (words to that effect). I believe they send these emails out automatically on the small chance that the email reaches someone in accounts who thinks "oh! I better fix this payment issue before it affects the company operation". Standard scummy business practices by Adobe.
How did you prevent the 'attempt' to bill you? I had to cancel my credit card to stop them from charging it (replaced it with an expiring zero-balance debit card) to stop them billing me and they cancelled my subscription for non-payment.
@@thiefofa1073 I changed my payment info to a dead card, similarly to what you did.
@@AnthonyRosbottom Right Anthony like the old scam of sending false invoices to large corporations for services rendered and marked overdue.
It was time to Ditch Adobe years ago and now Affinity is good as if not better. For those who need an entire Adobe suite, well there are other alternatives for everything.
Every edit I do in Affinity I'm unhappy with. Not from a technical stand-point but simply the end result. Each app has its own look and it's nearly impossible to replicate one in another. :)
@@Andyhutchinsonskill issue... Robin Whalley has shown you can get very similar end results in Affinity...
The excuses are kinda lame😅
Affinity apps are nowhere near as good as Illustrator, Photoshop, or Indesign. This youtibe video is rare in being honest aboutnit rather than just giving people something that makes people feel good. People don't want the truth if it's not good.
@@KuttyJoe Then pay your rent to Adobe. What is the issue?
@@KuttyJoe they're pretty close to each other, Affinity is not As good I will agree but one plus side is that it isn't clunky and bloated like Adobe.
Though I understand the need to call out the scum that Adobe is as a company, I’m sick and tired of all the people posting their anger at what Adobe is doing. Instead of complaining, do something about it! Stop subscribing! Adobe is a green eyed money machine that is too big for it’s own good.
Records show that they will not stop their bad behavior until it affects their bottom line! I was an Adobe user since PS was first introduced back in the early nineteen nineties, but once they changed pricing models, that was it for me. No more Adobe for me. But What impact did my actions have… none. Why. Because they know that one or two angry ex-users don’t matter. The only language Adobe understand is money. Want Adobe to change hit them where it hurts, stop subscribing by the masses an watch what happens.
Complaining won’t change a thing! They did the math, and they know a few lawsuits will set them back a few millions but they anticipate generating billions from the continued rapping of their imprisoned user base. “Who’s your daddy, now” they will say when their stock price continue to rise in spite of the lawsuits.
Remember, the users have the ultimate power to change the course. But if you do nothing, then nothing changes. They’re are alternative tools out there.
To add, stop pirating too. Pirating Adobe is the equivalent of breaking up with someone but never losing their number and still stalking them on social media.
Disagree. The more channels with posts covering the facts of this and not letting it get swept under the rug (like most things Adobe has done) the better. Adobe counts on that type of attitude and bets this will soon pass for another story. You want change? Keep this in the forefront so it hits their pocketbook hard. If you're sick & tired of these posts then just don't click on them. If you're sick & tired of being treated like garbage by Adobe just don't buy their services. Don't let this story fade away anytime soon.
when something is considered the industry standard.
then it needs everyone to denounce it. so it no longer is industry standard.
because the big dogs also said, no more, enough.
you can click the "not interested" button below adobe hate videos. and you can even click "do not recommend channel" to completely remove the channel from your recommended
4 years ago, I terminated my subscription to Adobe. I went to alternative products: Serif Affiniry Suite, Capture One, Davinci Resolve, etc. It took me 2-3 months to fully retrain. When I retrained, I realized how backward Adobe software was in places. I don't need their artificial intelligence at all. Therefore, I look at these Adobe users who overpay tens of times simply by habit and this is a sad show.
I did do something about it, i stopped using Adobe when they went the subscription route!!!
Just bought the Affinity series yesterday. Really liking them so far.
They're great little apps, I just wish I could be happier with the results I get from them - or from Photo at least.
great software switched to them a while ago, you wont be disappointed.
@@Andyhutchinson Try Skylum Luminar Neo.
I never rent software. Renting is a mugs game.
Unfortunately it's the only game in town unless (as Piximperfect puts it) you go the Jack Sparrow route ;)
@@Andyhutchinson People who think renting software and putting the roofie in their own drink is the only game in town haven't explored anything else. Not a single piece of software installed on my computer is rented or contains any kind of drm.
If the enablers would have stuck with their old versions as renting software began and pushed back appropriately, this wouldn't be an issue today but thanks to schools and parents indoctrinating and not educating, they take the roofie without questioning cause critical thinking wasn't part of their education.
@@Andyhutchinson agreed. Whether we like it or not, Software as a Service is here to stay.
Pentax gives you the raw software to edit Your images... I got a K1 and My Silky Pix allows Me to edit Them and I still use Paintshop Pro to colour grade. Quick edits can be done in Snapseed. I stopped using Adobe many years ago.
are you a homeowner too? that’s nice, do you mock people who don’t have $500,000 to buy a house?
Adobe Creative Cloud is "industry standard" because creatives keep it so. If a critical mass of creatives quit supporting Adobe and started using alternatives, Adobe would cease to be "industry standard" because the creatives themselves _are_ the industry.
Would be even better if businesses made the move internally away from Adobe and toward alternatives for their workforce where possible. And they are more likely to do so if their workforce creatives asked them to do so-especially considering it would save them an incredibly amount of money, no longer having to shell out for their Adobe commercial subscription.
Sure - 100% agree - but there needs to be a viable option to move to. The right company could make an absolute killing there's so much resentment towards Adobe.
@@Andyhutchinson And be able to provide that alternative without fulfilling The Who's prediction, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!"
Adobe is the "industry standard" because a whole lot of people have been brainwashed by Adobe to think it is.
Emphasis on "where possible". Trust me, when a better product comes along people will move towards that product, even if it's not cheaper. If you're not familiar with it, you should look up when happened to Quark Express when Adobe released Indesign.
The only somewhat realistic competitor to Illustrator is the same as always, Coreldraw Suite. The realistic competitor to Indesign is QuarkExpress. And there is no real competitor to Photoshop. Depending on which software you use, there might actually be some real competition such as DaVinci Resolve. I have Adobe CC but I'm a big fan of DaVinci Resolve. I just really like the way it works, but my income really comes from Photoshop, Illustrator, and a range of other software like those.
@@Andyhutchinson I wonder why nobody is taking on that challenge.
I’ve never felt more vindicated in my decision to leave Adobe 5 years ago for Davinci Resolve for my post work than this shitstorm of TOS drama.
Never looked back
It's an epic app and all I use on my Windows PC.
@@Andyhutchinson imagine if Blackmagic added a page for stills editing. They already have a good strong use of tools that would be great for a stills editing platform 😍
100%
Andy, and many others here, seem to have resigned themselves to being hooked on Adobe forever. His choice to feel defeated and powerless. I left Adobe for Affinity and DV Resolve and haven't looked back. Don't miss Adobe at all. This "Adobe is the only game in town" is just defeatist and lazy!
"Industry standard" talk is nonsense for those of us not "in the industry." And industries have accountants to get these subscription costs written off.
You can get off Adobe . . . but it takes a little effort and willingness to change.
That depends on what software people are using. For some, there are serious and real alternatives. For other software there are no real alternatives. Just wishful thinking. I've personally been trying to at least have an option from Adobe since the early 2000's. I haven't found it yet.
I put a lot of time into AP - I've owned it since it came out. But I can never get results I'm happy with when processing shots and its masking capabilities (crucial for landscape photography) are woeful.
Kept using my old suite when they went subscription-only. Ditched them completely when they told me they revoked my old license. Haven't looked back once.
So, no - Adobe hasn't earned a single buck from me in over a decade, and they never will again.
Ditch Adobe!
Affinity Photo = Photoshop
Affinity Designer = Illustrator
Affinity Publisher = InDesign
100%!!! I love Affinity Publisher.
For a Lightroom alternative with a library, Darktable is worth a look. It's free.
Anyone who decides to stick with an abusive relationship should expect continuing abuse. I don't think you should expect others to feel sorry for you in getting these continue abuses from this point on since you are fully aware of the relationship and chose to continue it.🙄😬
Haha - I'll take it :)
This is how I feel, in fact they should be held accountable for enabling this behaviour to be forced onto the people who pushed back against it by letting one of the biggest companies get away with it and set a precedent.
I've been listening to people who could have stuck with their old versions of software until they company was forced to change if they didn't want to go under complain about it and give them more money without hesitation.
We prioritize. First we need to eat, and the best way to eat is at the abuser's table. Only a fool would choose to go without meals.
@@KuttyJoe I'd rather starve with my self-respect. The analogy breaks down anyway as there are other tables; you just don't like the food or think the portions are too small.
@@Window4503 The analogy is perfect but just throw it out. We don't need it. With Adobe I have the tools I need to do a job and make money. Without Adobe, I either don't, or the tools are so inferior that I need to take much more time to try to do the work, so I'm losing time(money). It's as simple as that. But, you are not having the same priority. I respect that. Not everybody is making their living with these tools.
If I pay a freelancer to create some work for me then do the new terms of service between the freelancer and Adobe mean that Adobe has rights over my purchased work? I cant take the risk. So from now I will have to insist freelancers confirm they are not using Adobe software for my😂 commissioned work.
Adobe see a whole different level of issue. The majority of their current customers will be unemployed due to AI
lol - you're probably right.
Yep means less $$ paid to CC / need to have as many CC when AI tool X,Y,Z can generate content using no of templates and someone building it. Also means less users subs to Adobe will mean they need to raise the Sub price to keep revenue healthy
Downloaded & purchased Skylum Luminar Neo to replace my Adobe Lightroom. The learning curve is not steep and the disassociation with a bully (Adobe) is liberating.
Jeez I knew they were bad but I had no idea how creepy and unscrupuous Adobe has been. They make Welles Fargo Bank look like a charity.
They have a long and storied history of bad behaviour.
When adobe started the practice of "forcing" their customer to access their "creative cloud" to access ALL the features of their software, red flags should have popped everywhere. This tactic was either , software protection, or free access to all images sent to the cloud. But no one questioned this tactic. The "big" users were complacent. It's now shown the tactic is to use customers creations to train adobe ai. So, the answer to the question, the time to ditch adobe was several years ago, and I did.
A good rundown on how bad Adobe have become. I ditched all Adobe software a couple years back and moved all my RAW editing to the free open source Darktable. It was a pretty steep learning curve due to a completely different workflow and "less polished" user interface. However, it was worthwhile - the image control available Darktable far exceeds what Adobe offers and my images are far better for it.
We should have a recorded RAW editing session - same photo in both Lightroom and Darktable, 3 minutes maximum and see which produces the best result :)
It's actually in my list of videos to make. I have tried it in the past but gave up due to the learning curve and counter-intuitive design. I've downloaded it and will experiment - looking forward to seeing what it can do. :)
I gave Darktable a fair shot, but I concluded that the effort required exceeded the results.
@@GordonRunklePhoto It is a very different workflow to Lightroom that's for sure and much more complex, but thats what you have to put up with to harness the power it provides. Even after 2 years, I'm still learning every time I use it. The results I'm getting with Darktable are far better than with Lightroom.
@@Andyhutchinson I wouldn't say the design is counter-intuitive, just very different to Lightroom. Lightroom tries to hide anything complex from you and make it super easy to get a result. Darktable exposes all the complexity and lets you tweak to the nth degree and, if you know what you are doing, get even better results. (hint, parametric masking is the key to many of the best results, but that takes a good while to get your head around.)
Adobe are laughed at in the music industry. Our equivalent is Avid...
Avid is for Hollywood. I think Resolve is a good alternative
Lol - I was just thinking yesterday that Adobe sounds like the Art&Design version of AVID.
They really hosed those who contribute to Adobe Stock. Their reassurance is basically "Don't worry. We're not stealing your content. We're just screwing over those dumb enough to sell photos on Adobe Stock". No very reassuring at all.
As far as Lightroom, Adobe's behavior is leaving a big vacuum and it is only a matter of time before before something comes along. As for Photoshop, I find it rather hypocritical that the lament is that Affinity Photo doesn't have AI tools while at the same time complaining about what Adobe is doing with it. I also find it self-limiting to be always holding out for one to one replacements for Adobe products.
As far as having a cohesive group of apps that work together, that is sure to come and already there is the Affinity suite.
Basically this video is just another one where Adobe is loudly complained about but where it is suggested to suck up anyway because it is the "industry standard". Reality check: An "industry standard" is whatever the industry decides it is and Adobe doesn't have a guaranteed lock on it.
This latest scandal is big enough to show the cracks in their so called "impenetrable" fortress. There are examples in the past of companies that were supposed to have unquestioned dominance and seemed to be never to fail. Many of these are memories now or shells of their former selves. Sticking with Adobe only rewards their arrogance and makes it harder for competitors to develop the tools to do the same things because of Adobe sucking up all the money.
I signed up for Adobe Stock many years ago to test the waters. Uploaded about 20 shots. Sold my first photo, checked the royalty payment and it was about 7cents because the person that bought it had one of the stock subscription deals. Deleted my account that day.
The head-teacher at my art school insisted we use adobe products, then we had a guest star teacher, this superstar-illustrator who had worked for all the big companies who shocked her when he told us he doesn't give a shit what we use as long as it can export to tiff. The internet at the school also had a tendancie to not work during the first hour in the morning for some reason, and thus we couldn't launch any adobe products because you need internet a internet connection to use that stuff. Thankfully the computers also had software such as Krita installed on it.
Maybe the head of IT was secretly building an army of open source advocates! ;)
Several points:
• The cancellation fees only apply if you try to cancel in your first year. If you've been with Adobe longer than that, you won't face these fees.
• The new legal language still has lots of loopholes. One big one is they claim that they "don't" train on customer content, not that they never did.
And biggest point:
• It's not inevitable that corporations operate only on behalf of shareholders, to the exclusion of all other stakeholders (customers, workers, vendors, citizens of countries where they operate, etc). This is a modern development that has been reinforced by years of training for business school MBAs, but it's not the only way to run markets. If we want less sociopathic corporations, it's possible to have them. It will take political and social pressure to make it happen, but it is a thing that could come to pass. One important thing is not to see each predatory corporation in isolation. Taming capitalism is something that has to be addressed society-wide.
So how do we do that? If there were a mass exodus of Adobe users wouldn't that be a message to corps? If their tactics plunged their stock price than that would end up as a chapter in an MBA textbook. Isn't this the kind of social pressure you're talking about? If we are going to wait for government to take care of it then it will never happen. Example Trump in 2022 "I'm gonna ban TickTok its Chinese propaganda." 2024 "Mr Trump here's a check for $3mill from Jeff Yass" Trump: "I love TickTock, don't we all love TickTok, folks?!"
Your first statement is incorrect. You pay monthly but you sign up for a year at a time, and if you cancel part way through the year then they'll charge you 50% of the amount due for the rest of that year while removing access to the apps immediately at the end of the current month. I'm in the fifth year of my current subscription but they still want me to pay £29.95 to cancel it now.
I'd love to see it change, but political and social pressure all seems to be heading in the wrong direction in most 'western' democracies. It's certainly no different here in Australia than it is to America - businesses and their lobbyists write the statute books - not the people.
First point is completely untrue. I’ve had it for about 3 years but I can’t cancel until I’m about to hit the fourth or I get charged extra.
@@Jupa I also tried to cancel and was faced with extra charge, BUT then I found a way out..... I changed my subcription from one of the Photography plans to the other, and what Adobe then does, is that they treat this as if you had cancelled your plan, and signed up for a new plan.... and signing with a new plan gives you some weeks to regret.... so I "regret" immediately after getting the welcome mail from Adobe.... and without paying anything :-)..... so I sort of beat them by using their own rules
I have the best of both worlds. I’m still using PS CS6 and LR 5 desktop that I purchased when the subscription model was first announced. I didn’t want to pay to play on a continued basis. I also use the Affinity 2.x suite of desktop products as well. This combination of products allow me to do all that I need to do.
If you can find a way to work outside the Adobe bubble it's great. If I could, I would.
The question is not only whether there are better alternatives for Adobe programmes.
As a freelancer, for example, the question is whether you can afford to use Adobe products at all. Or you are sued by your customer for breach of contract, that their data, concepts, trade secrets have been passed on to third parties. With the changes to the terms and conditions, Adobe secures rights to things that its users may not even have themselves.
They haven't helped themselves, that's for sure.
I ditched Adobe the day they announced the new subscription model. Every piece of software on all 3 operating systems. Even Acrobat Reader. The writing was on the wall and plain for all of us to see. Never looked back. Adobe is a shit show of bad business practices and "screw you" attitude toward all their users. Any creative who still uses Creative Cloud is part of the problem.
Everyone's situation is different. If you're a freelancer, for instance, and clients are sending you deliverables in Adobe-only formats, and expecting them back in the same format, what do you do? Quit?
Ditched Adobe when they switched to be a subscription service. Haven't looked back. That decision made it clear that Adobe no longer cared about their users, nor their product. It's been downhill ever since. Why improve a product, or customer service, when you've got a cash cow that makes money regardless of whether its good or bad, and that has an audience built on goodwill from years past? Well it seems they've nearly exhausted that goodwill from the past, but everybody should've jumped ship years ago.
I genuinely want to leave adobe. But you're right no matter what I alter for PS no one can replace or be better than PS yet. Unfortunately for PS I'm stuck with adobe for the time being. However I have already switched DaVinci for premier and after effects. And it was awesome and better than premier. Few things it can't compete with after effects entirely but close enough to replace it. For me DaVinci resolve alone is a great alternative for -Premier, AE, Audition, Media Encoder. Just waiting someone to be better than PS when someone pull that off. I'm leaving Adobe for good.
Spot on and totally agree. There's a huge opportunity for someone to come in with a bitmap/RAW/compositing app that's aimed at mainstream users.
I'm sorry I have yet to figure out what can be don in photoshop ( specifically to photos) that can't be done in gimp. If one is absolutly against open source Corel Aftershot and Coreldraw would be an option, But I haven't used the Corel products. Darktable and Gimp are what I've used and on windows or Mac I've been able to go from camera to Print quite well.
@@noithinknot4583 How do you rotate your images by an arbitrary amount in Gimp? (last time I looked it couldn't). This is a common task for me if the camera wasn't perfectly horizontal when taken.
For many the Affinity suite (Photo, Designer, Publisher) is proving to be a good replacement for the original Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign). With Photo the key things they need are covered with the extra bells and whistles that Photoshop offers being things that would hardly be used. There's just that resistance to having to learn new software that holds many back. For many who cling to Photoshop it's like a woman with an abusive boyfriend - "Sure he beats me but he brings me candy."
@@AnthonyRosbottom Ok, so to be honest it's not a task I've had to perform, most of my shooting is from a leveled tripod. If it were me I'd hit a gimp forum.
Also unlike most open source software there is a current book availible on gimp. I'm sorry I coulden't be of further assistance.
My process is to shoot to bring my shots into darktable for minor editing/developing and then into gimp only to preview for printing.
Nope, I'm gone. There are other just as good alternatives and that's where my £ is at, and I do not miss any of the adobe products. For context, I've played with LR since V1, along with Aperture and C1 and as 'just' a photographer I can access a DAM which does what I want through C1 along with a similar set of non destructive editing options, and can send an image to a pixel level image editor with Affinity. If I want DTP or Vector graphics there is Affinity that covers both of those and If I want Video editing than there's plenty of other options. So, just how many creatives need the full stack? My guess is very few. In most cases, fear of switching is laziness. Accept that other companies can do the same things sometimes better, and be honest with yourself as to why you use the software you do. You may well be surprised
If you're a Mac user, v2 of Peakto is coming soon and could prove to be the missing link in terms of asset management.
My Setup here:
Affinity Suite (Creative Cloud), Apple Motion 5 (After Effects), Final Cut Pro (Premiere), I have the Pixelmator Pro (PSD and also AI) also, just in case, Blender, Apple Compressor (Media Encoder). I bought all of then with a lot of discount and with a one time payment.
I only use Adobe when some project or agency cannot work with the alternatives (and they are who pay for it).
Ahh, and I use also Figma/Sketch to web prototype and UI design.
Apple Motion is a severely underrated app.
I'm only on the photography bundle and happiliy using FCPX, Motion and Compressor for video.
Light bulb moment! We're talking a lot here about features we just can't live without. We all DID live without them back when. When tool y hadn't been developed yet, we managed just fine with tool X. (Yes, I can think of some exceptions, but very few.)
We had been paying for and using many Adobe Apps since the mid 90's including creative suite 6 and when we updated our Macs to ARM we decided that the outrageous subscription fees Adobe wanted to charge were out of the question, so we switched to Affinity Photo, Design, Publisher, and DaVinci Resolve. We would never go back to Adobe.
I ditched Adobe back when then moved it to the Cloud realizing this would be a bad long-term decision for me to stick to such a model where I can’t just own the software. I am perfectly comfortable with darktable, Hugin, GIMP, Krita, & Inkscape now that I can do what I need to & since I don’t follow Adobe news, I can be blissfully ignorant of any features. Embracing the free software offerings has brought a lot of benefit to me, & I have filed bugs upstream too.
Ditched them years ago and happy with Affinity and capture one
I find it unfortunate that software like Gimp is still behind the curve. I consider it one of the OG open source projects because in the mid-2000s where internet became very wide spread, Gimp was one of the softwares that introduced people to the concept of open source.
Gimp has such lackluster development that one of it's components, Gimp Too Kit (GTK), branched off, renamed itself Gnu Tool Kit, on it's way to releasing GTK5, and Gimp is still on GTK2.
Meanwhile, Blender, which is a wildly much more complicated tool to develop, is amazing and even cutting its own corner in the industry.
Inkscape is actually not bad. The biggest holdback from being used by professionals is CMYK support, but they are working hard to add. I even donated directly to the developer who is working on this feature.
Don't forget about Krita. Personally I use AzPainter for my art
As far as Photoshop alternatives Affinity Photo seems to be the best one (no subscription, one time payment) or if a free alternative is wanted Photopea which is an online photo editor with a very similar interface to Photoshop.
Thank you Andy, nice editorial. Thankfully, I don't have a workflow that needs Adobe systems. I can get by just fine with DXO and (sorry) Topaz AI. Looks like I dodged a bullet. Many thanks, cheers. 🎉🎉🎉
Mate - you've got some great apps there - as you know I'm a huge DxO fan. If it did asset management I'd drop Adobe tomorrow.
A long time ago, I bought Photoshop 4 in a bundle with Illustrator. At that time I didn't use it in my business but in the pure joy of being an artist. I think it was as a student rate of $350 and it was worth every penny. I never pirated a copy or passed on a copy. I did not buy every up-grade but I bought every other up-grade because that was all I could afford.
My last copy was CS5 and Adobe gives a hard time just installing it, wanting proof of every PS I've ever owned, product key and customer pass words. I'm old now and just want to use in my leisure but it was individual artist that helped build Adobe
Adobe is not alone. Increasingly these corporation are regarding their costumers as an exploitable resource.
Very true. The Affinity graphics app is a great alternative to Illustrator.
I had *just* bought a lightroom classroom in a book from amazon, and was about to get a lightroom sub when this all went down. I decided I'll just step back from Adobe because I don't actually need it. I have Davinci for the video, but am still trying to decide on a raw editor I can live with. I do think this is the perfect storm for the Panasonic/Olympus LUT in camera presets, where they basically have their version of lightroom presets already built in live in the camera. You can download more presets any time if that's your thing, or create your own. This is the perfect storm for that to take off if they'll license it to others.
Depending upon how sophisticated you like your RAW editors, give the trial version of DxO Photolab a go. Photomator on the Mac is also surprisingly powerful.
@@Andyhutchinson Cool, downloading it now and will check it out. Thank you.
I'm still with Adobe.....CS6 and LR6 that is, until they ditch their subscription model or give users the option to buy a perpetual licence version of their software, which I can't see happening. And yes, you're right, companies like Affinity need to have an alternative to LR and asset management as well
And Affinity need an app that also updates all installed software at once, not installing updates on opening software, too time consuming
Given that they're now owned by Canva, a $26bn company that thrives on a subscription pricing model, it can only be a matter of time before Affinity goes the same way.
@@Andyhutchinson I doubt it because they’re not as big as Adobe
One the most succinct concise presentation I've heard thus far. Agreed on most points indeed. Thank you.
Appreciate it - thankyou :)
making the excuse that all corporations are evil is a mistake. some companies do behave themselves better than other. we should be punishing the worse ones as best we can by shaming them and boycotting them as best we can.
Fair enough.
Quick tip. If you want to bail on you Adobe plan early, without paying the penalty, just change your plan and then cancel before seven days.
Yep - that's in the video ;)
@@Andyhutchinson LOL, I should watch more closely
Once Adobe sees a rise in this method, they will stop it.
Affinity may be able to step up more now that they're partnered with Canva though. They're a small team on their own, so Canva would give them the power they need to start upgrading their software.
Everyone's holding their breath until the parent company instigate the same subscription model they use on their main product.
I would argue that dxo PL7 has better denoise than LR
PL7 does not have the library bit tho, but the thing I really miss is the ability to make presets for local adjustment brushes
No argument here - I've made videos comparing the denoise results in LR, DxO, Topaz etc and DxO wins every time - best noise removal and no compromise on details loss.
and honestly, I would prefer donating to open source developers than paying adobe's subscription plans ...
Great to hear somebody from the UK voicing this issue, great video, Andy 👍👍👍 ! I've been working in post-production from the time when Sony were the kings of all non-liner post. Then along came Avid with a desktop software editing system that they said "it will never catch on"... then it did!. Move over, Sony, there's a new kid in town. Then for a short period, Apple through its hat into the ring with its much cheaper FCP and took a lot of the non-broadcast editing work away from Avid. Which finally brings us to Adobe and Premiere Pro which is currently “king of the hill” of NLEs. What has been the downfall of all the previous companies in my option is when they stopped listening to their user base and became arrogant and complacent because of their market dominance. I’m sure history will repeat itself and Adobe will just be another name on the wall of mega corps that took their eye off the ball. Fingers crossed 🤞🤞🤞
Thanks mate. DaVinci is another one that continues to go from strength to strength and I would love to know what the global instals are for each app. :)
Quit Adobe when it went monthly! Don't miss it at all, years ago Cyberlink did the same, and the ads were constant! Kdenlive suits me and it's open source. Having issues with Resolve on Linux, once a month may open Win-dose just to use Resolve. MS is also on my list to avoid!
I've seen tutorials on how to get DaVinci Resolve to work on Linux if you aren't using CentOS or a Red Hat distro.
@@daveindezmenez Thanks, I tried a few, not all features in Resolve worked on my Mint OS, I will keep trying!
I dumped Adobe three years ago when Lightroom 6 and Photoshop CS6 couldn't open my new camera's RAW files any more. I've never fancied subscription plans, and probably never will. I turned to DxO and Affinity and haven't had any regrets about that step.
You should try krita, people used to say it is a painting program but once you explored all features of it you will find 95% of photoshop features and even 20% extra.
Gimp is garbage in terms of UI/UX
I'd agree with most of that. Hoping Gimp 3.0 makes a difference, but krita is good.
Thanks for a complete run-down on the Adobe monolith. As much I'd like to give Adobe the middle finger, you're right, I haven't found a suitable alternative to Lightroom and Photoshop.
I'd add Bridge and Camera Raw to the list. Yeah, that's the Adobe photography bundle in a nutshell. ;-)
Cheers Jack - yea pragmatism to the fore :)
Character animator just works so great also
It depends on what you do. I work as a web-dev and my use of PS, AI and ID are primarily for receiving Adobe files from clients' designers, opening and viewing them, and making the occasional export of web images from them, etc. For me, the 3 Affinity are more than sufficient, and I was very happy to say goodbye to Adobe. I dare say there are many who use these mainstays of Adobe, who don't actually need to, because they are not in the creative industry.
Affinity and Luminar Neo are the best alternatives so far.
A major impoetus for subscription software was that it put an end to copy piracy, but the paradigm it has created is nothing new, a digital plantation where paying users are merely sharecroppers. If Adobe were really about a collaborative relationship, you'd get an option on Adobe profits, perhaps so the longer you 'cropped' (pun intended) on Adobe territory.
Man that'd be nice. I just wish I'd bought shares in '86.
it's just a matter of willing to learn new things.. and to really think deeply about the actual needs. (not the luxury you actually don't need, it's just nice to have)
either you keep falling for the fucking adobe scam.. or you stand up against it (and start changing the world), and embrace the alternatives, even if they are lesser refined, or differenly looking. If you want, you can.
Sorry, and correct me if wrong.. but you seem to be a person, that acknowledges the evil sides, but yet am not willing to actually change your patterns/use to the alternatives, because of inertia, and because of being hooked on some features or looks of some adobe apps. Ask yourself this: do i really really really need all the features (in one app), so i want to support an evil company? can i do without them? and be honest like on gun point.
Utlimately I'm a pragmatist. The central problem I have is that I have nearly 250,000 photos in my LR Classic catalog all with flags, tags, GPS, keywords and develop settings and no viable alternative, even if I could transfer them. So it's all well and good saying 'just move' when there is literally nowhere to move to. Also - I own more of this software - the apps made by smaller independent developers - than most people. I bought Affinity Photo when it came out and paid again when they forced us to purchase the v2 update. I have over 30 photo related editors and utilities all bought and paid for and kept up to date. I appreciate what you're saying, but altruism doesn't get you very far when it's your job. :)
One alternative to Lightroom is dark table.
If photographers want alternatives to Adobe, then they need to either fund existing open source projects, like dark table, or start their own software development company.
I've reinstalled Darktable after about a five year hiatus. I'll properly test it and make a video about it.
After 25 years as a micromedia and adobe user I canceled my subscription 3 weeks ago when it came up for renewal...
"Adobe have so much rope they've hung themselves. They could start again, call themselves Eboda, lose the subscription nonsence, and for a one off buy price of £100 they'd do really well! Nice thought provoking vid Andy
Thanks mate. :)
The HUGE problem with Alternative is Lack of FUNCTIONS and TOOLS that makes things faster and shareable with other software. Adobe really sucks in many things, and I think they have many software that does great things on each of them. But not in one alone. Like for instance, the design and rendering engine Animate is better than any other software, but they don't implement them across other design and animated tools. I see Illustrator start to use some Animate design functions, but not all there. Alternatives are cheap and FREE but you will pay a HUGE price for re-learning them with the risk of them being own by another Adobe like company. I started with some Open Source and I always end up finish the project in Adobe products. Adobe is a company run by idiots and greedy people!
Very true.
Good information! I'm jumping ship for a few reasons. Firstly, is the AI scanning / file upload process that I was unaware of. I have nothing to hide but hate the idea of my files being uploaded, even if temporarily, without a clear message indicating that it's occurring. I've also been looking for a less bloated alternative for basic photo editing. I can use CC for free through the company I work for, so cost isn't a factor.
Secondly, I'd rather patronize another company as long as their software gets the job done. Having recently tried Affinity Photo 2.5, for me it does just that. It has what I need as an amateur photographer who isn't interested in all the bells and whistles Adobe has to offer. And the way I see it, if we want true competition, we need to support the smaller companies so they can afford to compete on features. If course, a business built on Adobe's products can't just up and jump ship, but for those like me, I think there are good alternatives.
Lastly, Adobe's attitude with its licensing, shady anti-consumer practices, and bloated buggy software has tipped me over the edge. Also, Bridge, Camera Raw, Lightroom and Photoshop could have all been condensed into 2 products at most rather than having features that overlap and the quirks and awkwardness of having these products try to work together.
All perfectly sound reasoning. I would say that Affinity stopped being the little guy when they were purchased, four months ago, by the global behemoth that is Canva. Affinity also charged everyone to upgrade to v2 of their software despite the 'single fee' pricing. Also, given that Canva is a built on a subscription based model, it is surely only a matter of time before the Affinity suite follows suit.
Agree regarding the software. They keep ACR of course because Photoshop needs a RAW editor. If Bridge was combined with ACR it would effectively be a hybrid version of Lightroom Classic, which is probably not something they're interested in pursuing. :)
@@Andyhutchinson Good Q - maybe V3 will be a choice - Subscription with updates for free, or Pay one of for Basic VR of Vr3 but an additional upcharge for every update you wish to apply
i canceled ADOBE.. purchased AFINITY, RESOLVE STUDIO, CAPTURE ONE.
Adobe abandoned creatives many years ago. Adobe's customers are large corporations, not the individual artist. That's how they make their business decisions -- appease other corporations and shareholders.
True
Nice, rational analysis. I've been an Adobe client forever and love their stuff. I must admit, I do like your style of presentation. Unfortunately, I can't ditch it easily because my clients EXPECT work to be done and passed back to them using Adobe CC tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. The AI "rules of engagement" are intrusive and really make me wonder, but as their competitors will employ AI to remain competitive, who says they will be more "hands-off?"
This is one of several Adobe issues that IMHO makes them completely anti-customer.
Things Adobe should do (and they are simple):
1. AI "ownership" of your stuff (local, cloud, or both?): Place responsibility back on the the user with regard to unsavory artwork. Their spokeslawyer kept on mentioned the worst (child porno) in her three-part response video. As most anti-Adobe reviewers say this isn't a new problem. Keep humans out of it and make the whole upload, verify, reporting of bad stuff automated and self-policing. If another client complains about your uploaded stuff, do something about it (ex: take it down, correct it, …).
2. Make it easy to cancel an annual subscription. Some other pissed-off videos state the terror (waste of time) it takes to cancel a subscription. It's easy to sign onto an Adobe's subscription, so keep humans out of it as they attempt to talk you out of canceling. OK, when you cancel online, prompt them that there is a cancellation fee based on some pro-rated formula and show the calculations. If you still want to cancel, click Cancel, and your credit card will be charged $x amount. 5 minutes. Easy in, easy out. Sometimes we all make mistakes and have buyer's remorse.
3. Reduce this nightmare of restricting personal computer installations. I have four computers (3 macs and 1 pc) and I have licensed two subscriptions that require DIFFERENT email addresses. Not only expensive, this lack of trust approach towards licensing is really out of date. Just because I am a computer junkie and go out in the field a lot and need Adobe software on a couple of other laptops, doesn't mean I'm going to attempt to run Photoshop on more than one computer at the same time. Do what Escape Motions (Rebelle), Sketchbook, The Omni Group (OmniGraffle), TechSmith (Camtasia Pro), and Microsoft Office does: allow basically up to 5 or so computers to have your stuff installed. Their online licensing software can check to see if more than one or two computers are using Adobe apps (based on IP addresses) at the same time. Almost all of us are honest customers. Otherwise, why make this so difficult?
Surprisingly, compared to many reviewers, I don't have a problem with subscriptions. Adobe puts a lot of work enhancing and supporting their software. And that costs money. OK. But to avoid Adobe from becoming "Big Brother" to their creative community, they can become user-centric overnight and do some basic repositioning of their business practices. "Attention to user needs" always wins in the long run. This DOJ issue is the wake-up call I guess most of us need. It seems like there are a LOT of unhappy customers out there with this latest AI fiasco.
One final note (sorry!) … When licensing, terms of use, and legalese become a larger issue than using the software, you have already lost. Explaining, re-explaining, and re-simplifying "what you really mean" wears most of us out. Many great tech companies have realized that true customer trust is much more important than exploiting revenue opportunities. AI appears to be the current excuse. I'm going to rethink continuing to use Adobe CC, too. It's not a good thing. I find it to be GREAT software. Now, if only Adobe can rethink what it means to be a GREAT company.
Best,
Ken
Bellingham, WA USA
You can install CC on more than two pc’s with one license. You can only use it on two of them simultaneously. It’s easy to activate and de-activate according to the ones in use …
Thanks Ken. It's possible that Adobe will be forced to implement changes around subscriptions after the current FTC investigation concludes. The issue seems to be current leadership which has a very 1980s attitude to customers, where it's simply about squeezing every last cent out of as many people as possible.
Left them at subscription announcement and never looked back. Still have my LR 6.14 installed just to spite them 🤭
ON1 is getting closer with every build and it's raw development would be on a par (no where near DxO of course) .. but i keep it in my toolbox just for the masking.
Affinity would be perfect if they'd get the masking tools on a par with what's out there now.
For most people this may not be a sensible solution, but I’m still using CS 6 on an old Mac running Sierra. I’m lucky I’m not depending on many of the new features that Adobe included in the suite since then. In addition to CS 6 I have the Affinity suite.
Surprisingly large number of people apparently doing exactly this, based on the comments on this and other videos. :)
Same here, except when v2 of the Affinity suite came out, I (finally) switched my workflow 100% to Affinity. (Plus Resolve.) There are things in Affinity that I much prefer over older (or current) Adobe apps. And I'm an OG fanboy of Adobe's-my professional use predates Photoshop.
That was very thorough. To complete the picture, Adobe's ace-in-the-hole is PostScript in professional printers and the emulator in still MOST of office printers.
Very true.
I used to buy Photoshop and illustrator regularly. When they went to a subscription base I stopped and got rid of all the old software and just quit. Never missed any of it.
It is a matter of simply not wanting to support Adobe, not that other software might, or might not be better. If you find their practices evil, then you will simply use alternatives, like DarkTable, and Gimp, as I have. They are far inferior to Adobe's offerings (especially Gimp, Darktable is quite good), but it's a matter of doing the right thing.
Difficult with corporate clients supplying files in layered .PSD format (amongst other scenarios) but also, sacrificing processing capabilities when it's my job is not a hill I'm prepared to die on. 😁
Losing battle. No one cares about the right thing.
There will be those who will argue that alternatives to Adobe software is not as good but that is changing. Already DaVinci Resolve is better than Premiere and there are many who are preferring Affinity Designer to Adobe Illustrator. It's just a matter of time before other apps outside the Adobe "Creative" Cloud begin to outshine this behemoth's products.
The lack of a direct alternative to lightroom is a great opportunity for devs.
100%
Great video mate. Adobe has been exploiting and gouging users and getting away with it for far too long. AI is the new camera..? Utter tools.
Yea, unbelievable the bollocks those Adobe execs have been coming out with lately.
Adobe are taking all who subscribe to them as fools, as you are making them a lot of money. Ask yourself why I am I working just to give this company my money?
These videos are currently trending wildly. Since I left everything from Adobe almost 3 years ago, I have never realized that people are willing to buy their products, or rent (subscription). I use Affinty and Davinci, amazing products. And one-time purchase. From Adobe, I mostly used Premiere pro, lousy editor. Especially after I started Davinci. Now people need to wake up, drop Adobe
If all I used was Photoshop I'd probably switch too. But Affinity Photo is definitely not a replacement for Lightroom and there isn't an app on the market that matches its feature set.
While it may vary from country to country, typically it is not only a company's prime directive to focus on shareholders interests, but is a legal requirement. Customer relationships are important to a business in so far as it benefits profits and shareholder returns, but make no mistake - in a choice between the two, the shareholder interests will always win - and for a public company, quarterly reports and share-value are the focus of CEOs.
Yep - the priorties are pretty clear. :)
Interesting that Adobe have gone from strength to strength in many ways, despite the decline of camera purchases as a whole.
It helps them greatly that they're so embedded in large public and governmental institutions.
Don't pronounce it as a question. Make it the answer.
any good open source options?
Lots of folks swear by Darktable for a clear alternative to Lightroom. It has a steep learning curve, but if you are prepared to put in the time it can do as much as Lightroom. Other than that, I'm not sure.
For which particular app(s)? And by "open source" are you talking about truly open source or free?
@@daveindezmenez photoshop primarily. truly open source , im basically looking for what Reaper is to DAWs (better that other options basically everyway but still cheaper and open source)
@@Andyhutchinson --darktable, It takes time to gain experience to achieve great results in darktable. I've been using it for raw processing more than a year and am still finding improved results with every edit. One has to try to understand the concepts--get to the logic of what is behind the whole of the program's design and processes.
FCPX, Motion, Davinci, Affinity, Pixelmator Pro, Photomator, Sketch, Ocenaudio, Blender all get the job done for me. Maybe not in every sense and certainly not in such a cohesive way but, seriously don’t miss the quagmire of shite CC installs on every system. Everyone’s different though and admittedly if you have to collaborate it’s nigh on impossible to avoid.
I was happy with PS CS5, then CS 6 came out, so was it 64bit (because apple would stop supporting 32 bits) ? Yes they said, it is.
So upgraded to CS6
Later I upgraded my OS on my iMac and PS stopped working. Support told me I could take a subscription
So I said F-you, and bought Affinity Photo
Later I bought an older Mac and thought I will install PS CS6 on that. Installation of CS5 went fine, but, could not upgrade to 6 because Adobe went a switched of the license servers.
So, for me, I wil never ever go back to adobe.
Adobe should not be ditched, it should kneel in a ditch an get a you know what in the neck.
I have been using FCPX since it came out, great fan.
Friend of mine at the photography club told me he runs an emulated version of MacOS just to keep using CS6.
Yeah but most people won't, learning new stuff is hard, giving up your rights is easy.
When they get over that problem, the other problem of there not being serious competition will still be there.
@@KuttyJoe If you're too lazy to learn new things nothing will ever replace what you've got.
@@petebateman143 That probably does explain some people. Not everybody. And the fact still remains that not all tools are created equal no matter how much you may wish it to be true because you've decided to champion it and now need to justify your choice.
@@KuttyJoe The reality is that FOSS tools are good enough for most people. Most of those saying they simply can't exist without adobe are delusional. They're basically insisting that they simply must have their Rolls Royce to go shopping, a Ford just won't cut it.
@@petebateman143 It's not about Rolls Royce vs Ford. It's more like hammer vs screwdriver. Or hammer vs pneumatic nail gun. Pickup vs 18-wheeler. What's delusional is the people who say that Affinity products are "alternatives" for Adobe products. They're not. If you're good with what Affinity products offer then that is wonderful, but it necessarily means that you never actually needed Adobe's much more complete solutions anyway. You only needed a hammer. I don't think it's delusional as much as it is plainly dishonest. I get it. People feel a certain way about it all and they love the idea of sticking it to the man. But their naive to think that Serif/Affinity are any different than Adobe. Affinity products are cheap because that is how they could gain market share. Once they gained enough marketshare, they move to phase two. Dipping a toe into the subscription waters. They didn't really feel confident to do it until Canva came along and made them an offer they couldn't refuse. It's of course what they always wanted because it's just a business trying to make money at the end of the day. And now people have no champion, yet, they're not doing the whole let's abandon ship. Now, there's no where to go so they're just pretending like Affinity didn't just show exactly what they're doing. Affinity will become subscription. Affinity lied big time and took advantage of people's feelings about Adobe in order to get market share. Celsys Clip Studio did the same thing and so did Corel. If a company is not looking for subscription pricing, then that company must have some goal other than money.
So ALL that ranting about Adobe and you're still going to stick with them????
As I explained in the video, I need to maintain my Photography subscription because no developer has created a viable alternative. I have nearly 250,000 photos in my LR Classic catalog generated over two decades of use, all with flags, tags, GPS, keywords and develop settings and no viable alternative to move them to, even if I could transfer them. And as a paying customer I have more right to hold Adobe to account than those folks who ditched them a decade ago and are simply viewing this video for confirmation bias.
I suspect Adobe is currently being run by people in "Microsoft Tech Support" based in Mumbai.
I started using Affinity software back when it came out so I already ditched Adobe quite a while back. I use Davinci for video.
Im done using Adobe after scamming me out of 240 Euro for using it only once
Did use it a lot in the past as selfemployed photographer for years
believed I could cancel the subscription after a month
NOPE
Yea - I've been stung in the past too. I'm on the basic photography plan now.
Your content delivery is funny with a slap of real. Thanks!
I appreciate that, thank-you :)
Another great video. Thank you for your honesty.❤
You obviously dont know about Capture One, DXO Photolab or On1 these are all either same features and or better than LR.
Check my other videos - I've even done a guide to switching to Photolab from Lightroom. But there is nothing on the market that does what LR does in terms of asset management. I have nearly 250,000 landscape photos in a catalog I began two decades ago - all tagged, flagged, keyworded and GPS with full processing on most of them - there is no other app on the market that does that and no easy way to transition to it even if there was.
ditched it ages ago, AI is already old school, and is nothing exciting. Why pay subscriptions when software like Darktable is way better and it's free! Why pay for Photo manipulation, when you can all have it for free?
Edits in Darktable take considerably longer than in LR and when it's your job, time is money.
As a newby in this field, i am trying powerdirector 365. Thoughts?
Saw a review of it quite recently and have added it to the list. :)
What really happened with the recent Adobe fuss was that pro creatives couldn't live with the new ToS, but also couldn't see themselves trying an alternative to Adobe. So, they complained like hell until Adobe was forced to walk it back a bit, at which point those creatives breathed a collective sigh of relief that they could continue to use Adobe products. People don't like change even if that change might be good for them.
It's always interesting to me how transactional these discussions are. Principles count for nothing. As long as the software does more than their rivals' and doesn't crash _too_ often, apparently Adobe can just continue with their shitty practices as far as most creators are concerned. As much as they complain, they don't appear to be willing to change their habits and customs even a little bit. And Adobe clearly knows it.
That's one take - here's another. There's a huge opportunity for another developer to step up and provide real competition to Adobe but so far nobody seems to care enough to make the effort.
I have left Adobe and I am not returning. I agree that Lightroom Classic has no good alternative, but Adobe being nonchalant with intellectual property and private information scared me away from using it.
Fair enough. :)
I'm getting ready to cancel mine. Thanks to all the helpful experts on here, I'm learning about replacement apps 👍
There's definitely life outside the Adobe bubble, but do remember to give all your options a full 30 day trial before committing to purchase. :)
Hell yeah, let's ditch Adobe ASAP. The only reason I use them is because I have a free perpetual licence.
I personally always find alternatives for Adobe products and they all works perfectly fine. It does require a bit more improvising skill on my part, but when was Art supposed to be easy?
What ultimately needs to happen is for the Federal Trade Commission in America to step in and use antitrust laws to break up Adobe and enforce more competitive practices like making all their third party plugin APIs more open and usable with other software packages. Adobe have a near total monopoly in their sector, and it's become incredibly destructive to the industries forced to rely on their products because there simply aren't viable alternatives for their needs.
Yes, though TBH they shoiuldn't have been asleep at the switch as Adobe gobbled up so many other companies. And that applies to a lot of other consolidations, too.
True.
Thanks. That was interesting.
I’m sticking for now. Lightroom is so good now that I barely need PS at all and since I hate PS and have always found it ludicrously complex, I’m very pleased about that.
I’d move but whatever I move to would have to be able to import LRC catalogues, have full DAM and be equally good at editing etc.
Whatever that is, it doesn’t yet exist. Aperture could have been it but Apple killed it. After making me pay NZ$850 to buy the software.
Yea, I rarely venture into Photoshop for photo processing these days. In fact if they did a subscription that *just* came with LR Classic - I'd switch to it.
I agree entirely. LRC is a one stop shop for the vast majority now.
PS is really only for people who need to produce composite images, merge other graphic elements etc etc. or who have the skill and need to produce pixel perfect alteration.
A friend of mine has serious PS skills. I once held an exhibition of my work and one image was of a cyclo taxi driver at rest in the Philippines.
Due to error on my part I’d sliced off the bottom of the wheel and it spoiled the image.
He was able to cut the top of the wheel and create an extra slice at the bottom which, when done, was indistinguishable. The wheel and background just looked exactly as if I’d shot it that way.
AI can’t quite do that. Yet. But it’s only a few years away.
@@jjaylad spot-on. Endless adjustment layers and trips back and forth in the Camera RAW filter ... or just a few slider changes in LR.
I looked into buying photoshop ages ago but was put off by the price, now I'm ready to take the plunge and it's changed to subscription which is off putting. I'd been looking to have a low cost hobby to work on so when I retire i already have the expensive bit done and some knowledge, now I'm left wondering what to do and prefer not to go pirate so to speak. I'm interested in landscapes and macro and curious about focus stacking along with other editing techniques.
I think you'll be happy with DxO PhotoLab, and there's a 30-day demo. I'd also recommend trying out DxO Nik Collection, which is brilliant. For focus stacking, I've been very happy with Helicon Focus, and if you want to do panoramas, PTGui can't be beat (but is a bit more expensive).
Look to darktable--a gift to hobbyists. It's hard to master, but the end results are worth it.
Everyone looks for different things, but here's some suggestions. For stacking (HDR, focus, pano) give the Luminar Neo trial a go. For RAW editing - Photomator (on Mac) is great - DxO PureRAW 4 (Mac, Windows) is a superb RAW pre-processor. Also give the Affinity Photo 2 trial a go.
I just let my Adobe subscription end, happily. I've bought into lifetime licenses for Photomator and Pixelmator Pro. I think they're very good, and they seem to be developing quickly to become even better.
They're brilliant apps and you'll find videos on this channel singing their praises - particularly Photomator which is a superb RAW editor.
@@Andyhutchinson Definitely. Your videos helped me make that decision!
ill still use adobe but out at the high sailing seas don't need the AI part since there's an alternative for it and it actually works offline.
The old Piximperfect 'Jack Sparrow' edition. Before I became a technology journalist I used to do the same, but it was always such a pain in the arse cracking them.
I hate Adobe but I don't understand why people think piracy is a good alternative? I'm not even thinking about the moral and legal issues here but rather, I don't want an unknown coder controlling what gets installed on my system. If you think the people writing the keygens and coding protection bypasses are morally pure, Robin Hood type people then I have a bridge in London to sell you.
If people are going to go down the Jack-Sparrow route, I really hope for their sake that they are installing on a spare machine that isn't connected to the internet (pass files back and forth via usb thumb drive or similar), that they don't mind reformatting if the thing ever attempts to mine some sh!tcoin or scrape credit card details.
I never used Lightroom so I cannot speak to its innovations, but Illustrator, Photoshop, and Illustrator seemed to only make minor improvements over the years - not enough to justify the hefty annual subscription in my opinion. I think Adobe has taken its customers for granted because they think they have no competitors. I hope that changes because competition is a good thing.
100% - somebody could make a real killing with a proper alternative to Lightroom Classic.
@@Andyhutchinson Agree.
I'm now with Affinity Software. Great software.
I bought into Luminar AI and Luminar Neo in years' past, but I did not join the new subscription model. I respected Skylum's previous practice of making users buy new software over renting it, if the users wanted the latest features. But I was not about to opt into another Adobe model. I don't know what remains of actual non-subscription editing software, beyond what I already have. At some point, those programs will likely stop working.