Hi guys, I am looking to acquire a nice legal copy of Photoshop/Lightroom to progress my photography. Thanks to Creative Cloud I am currently lost in a minefield of various Adobe products. I don't want to turn this into a CC discussion/rant thread, just help in finding the cheapest way for me to get hold of the software whether it be signing up to creative cloud or buying the current perpetual license versions. Right so here goes: 1) I am student (at Uni of Southampton) though my studies are in science and not any of the art departments. I presume that won't matter and I will still be able to get a discounted price? (well the student and teacher versions of Lightroom/Photoshop CS6). Anyway how can I check if I am eligible? (Exploring the universities own website atm) 2) I assume these licenses are for life and it wont matter that I will stop being a student at somepoint? 3) The CC student option looks actually attractive at the current price of £16 a month. However what happens to that price when I stop being a student? It would be nice to spread the cost of software over several months though of course as the years go on I will end up paying a lot more (though whilst presumably getting updated versions) Thanks guys as I said please keep it to answering my questions or pointing out other solutions I may not have thought about. -Fused
I recently read an in-depth article (micro mart mag) entitled "Adobe's big gamble" with it's move to the creative cloud and as you may already have worked out it's not for the customers benefit and most of if not all of Adobe's future products will work out more expensive and require a monthly/annual subscription, it's not gone down well. As you have identified the cheapest option is the CC student and teacher edition which costs £15.88 per month incl vat, institutional affiliation required with an annual commitment and billed monthly but the article doesn't say how you verify your student status but surely your uni could help you with that? Anyway, it would be cheaper to buy a hard copy of CS5 full version which you own and can forget about, there is a new sealed copy of CS5 on ebay now for £110 which works out a lot cheaper than a year of the student and teacher edition, I've used CS5 for post processing photos and it's got more than enough options and facilities for most people and there are loads of extra plugins available. Most of the licenses require an annual commitment and are billed monthly and if you can't verify every 12 months that you are a student Adobe will no doubt restrict your access and use of the CC which they could easily do, just like the software model that many game developers are now using via Steam etc, Adobe are trying to remove ownership of their products and as the article pointed out, "with the new model you must keep on paying indefinitely or you will lose access to your files in the CC!" Have you tried "GIMP" it's free
Not sure if it can natively, but you can get plugins for it that allow you to do it. About the OP, I don't think doing it monthly would be good since as soon as you stop paying you'll lose it I think? Probably better to try and find a copy somewhere for a decent price.
Photoshop is nice and it certainly has earned its place as a standard in the art world, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that you have to have the full professional version to make nice pictures. Since this is a hobby and you're not doing photography or design for a living, GIMP and Paint.net are two very good free alternatives to Photoshop. I don't believe either of them offer native raw support, but there are plugins available for each. Most camera manufacturers offer a raw converter for their cameras as well. In my case, I process all of my raw files using Canon's Digital Photo Professional. You can also download the Adobe Digital Negative Converter. It is free, and can process raw files into a more accessible format. In the 'paid programs' world, you can try Corel PaintShop Pro and see if that fits your needs. The price is reasonable. If you absolutely must have Photoshop, then you have a couple of options. One option is to purchase a used copy. Beware, however. Used copies might not be all that much cheaper, and you could very likely end up with a pirated version. The entire CS2 suite is still available for free from Adobe, but since it's an old version it may not support raw files for newer cameras. This is where the free DNG converter would come in handy, and CS2 will still provide a whole host of tools to manipulate photos. Finally, since you're just doing this as a hobby you can always get Photoshop Elements. It will let you make use of many of the latest Photoshop tools (as well as offer native raw support for most cameras), but since it's the consumer version it's a fraction of the price and you're not tied to the recurring costs of the Creative Cloud. EDIT: I know this is a bit off-topic, but I wanted to point out that this is not true. Despite its name, when you subscribe to the Creative Cloud the programs are still downloaded and installed on your computer. Additionally, all of your image files belong to you and remain wherever you save them. If you discontinue your subscription you will no longer be able to access the programs, but all of your files still belong to you. If you choose to pay for additional Creative Cloud storage and eventually cancel your subscription, you can still access your files, with some restrictions.
or buy lightroom with the student discount ,elegibility here , for library and raw work, then if you need a pixel editor link in Gimp as an external editor or buy photoshop elements. Elements these days has layer masks natively so you don't have to install workaround add ins, and there are even curve filter addins available if you require more curve work than Lightroom can provide. If its a hobby and you don't need the prolevel wizzy bits, its a great program.
Thanks for clarifying that, I will take great pleasure informing micro mart that they got it wrong, tech journalists can't trust them
If I were you, I would just get Lightroom. It is stand alone and you own it (as of writing this). Since I started using Lightroom, I very rarely open photoshop. If your work demands the functionality of Photoshop, then get CS6 and own it. You should be fine for the foreseeable future with one provision, RAW conversion drivers.
