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The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

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Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#71

Post by jlarcombe »

bensyverson wrote: post #13

For a long time, "pro" software was able to retain its price premium, even while consumer apps essentially all became free. But two things are happening: First, competitors are realizing pro software can be a "loss leader" for a different offer (see: Blackmagic Resolve, Canva's Affinity suite). Second, AI is making it possible to create open source alternatives that are very full-featured. Blender is a pre-AI example…

before Affinity was a "loss leader" for Canva, it was a profitable suite of applications in its own right

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#72

Post by timmytokyo »

Calavar wrote: post #21
bensyverson wrote: post #13

For a long time, "pro" software was able to retain its price premium, even while consumer apps essentially all became free. But two things are happening: First, competitors are realizing pro software can be a "loss leader" for a different offer (see: Blackmagic Resolve, Canva's Affinity suite). Second, AI is making it possible to create open source alternatives that are very full-featured. Blender is a pre-AI example…

> we're seeing an explosion of brand-new high-polish OSS apps this year Do you mind sharing a few examples?

A veritable "explosion"! Surely GP can name 3.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#73

Post by kjkjadksj »

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #62
ktallett wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether you need masking or such level of tools is dependent on how you approach photography. You can change your method of taking photos to remove such a need for editing.

Give us a tutorial please. Otherwise this statement makes no sense.

What is confusing? A well exposed shot shouldn’t need any editing really.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#74

Post by larusso »

ktallett wrote: post #50
CWuestefeld wrote: post #22

We all love to hate on Adobe. But as a photographer my primary software tool is Lightroom. And I continue to use it despite its $120/year price and less-than-stellar cataloging subsystem because its photo editing features (it's primary mission) still exceed the capabilities of its competitors. I don't see anyone else here talking about the huge strides that Adobe has taken in the past few years with their masking too…

Whether you need masking or such level of tools is dependent on how you approach photography. You can change your method of taking photos to remove such a need for editing.

I mean yes. But the advent of exposure / focus bracketing lifted the dynamic range limit for most cameras. The only other way, at least for landscape I see is to buy expensive ND filter plates or invest into a camera with more dynamic range.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#75

Post by socalgal2 »

II2II wrote: post #47
CWuestefeld wrote: post #22

We all love to hate on Adobe. But as a photographer my primary software tool is Lightroom. And I continue to use it despite its $120/year price and less-than-stellar cataloging subsystem because its photo editing features (it's primary mission) still exceed the capabilities of its competitors. I don't see anyone else here talking about the huge strides that Adobe has taken in the past few years with their masking too…

If you can afford it, that is wonderful. For those who either cannot afford it or who don't need its features, then be happy that the competition is stepping up. They get the software they need. You get the software you need. I've never really understood why people insist that there can be only one or two products per software category, particularly when the category has a large enough customer base to support multip…

no one is insisting there are can only be one or two products per category.

Rahter, at some point in your life, $120 a year is not that much. It's $10 a month, that's two coffees, A MONTH!

I bought Affinity Photo at one point, when it was $50. Then I tried to use it for a work project where I needed to do a minor edit to 150 photos. I figured out how to do it but it's workflow was tedious. At 3 mins per photo it would have taken me 7.5 hours. I paid Adobe the $120 and got it done in 1.5hrs. Those 5 hours of my life were worth far more than the $120 I paid to Adobe.

I'm not saying you should buy Photoshop or Lightroom. Rather, I'm just making the point that spending money on a good solution should not be seen as a failure. Lightroom is designed around editing lots of photos. It has tons of batch processing features and it's UI is designed to make it easy to edit lots of photos in minimal time. I'm not saying there isn't a better design, maybe there is, but so far I haven't personally run into it so I stick with Lightroom because it gives me my life back. All for the price of 2 coffees a month

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#76

Post by drfloyd51 »

worthless-trash wrote: post #65
CWuestefeld wrote: post #22

We all love to hate on Adobe. But as a photographer my primary software tool is Lightroom. And I continue to use it despite its $120/year price and less-than-stellar cataloging subsystem because its photo editing features (it's primary mission) still exceed the capabilities of its competitors. I don't see anyone else here talking about the huge strides that Adobe has taken in the past few years with their masking too…

People absolutely COULD design something better, but if there is a lesson that I have seen replayed across the internet over the last 20 years is that adobe users, only want adobe, they dont want anything else. They want the shortcuts exactly the same, the screens exactly the same, the outputs exactly the same. They simply dont accept anything else, it basically needs to be a carbon clone copy to keep them happy, and…

Never bet against laziness.

“You mean I have to go to adoby.com and not adobe.com to download? Forget it. It am out.”

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#77

Post by Arcanum-XIII »

croes wrote: post #56
teamonkey wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s that surprising. People will pay for software that has better usability and better functionality.

Mostly people stick to what they know even if better alternatives exist

I've tried the alternative for Photoshop and came out unimpressed. It's even worse for Illustrator, and I hate this software. They're not perfect. I don't like the pricing either or their attitude. Still, After Effect, Illustrator, Indesign are very good. I'm not ripped off with the suite at the end...

I have the same issue with Maxon and Zbrush: nothing is close, but it's still the best at what it does.

We have an even worse company around: Autodesk. And they have competition in the CAD, 3D creation world (that they tried to destroy, but Blender changed the game and Houdini is another world)... but not so much around Revit. Architect would destroy them if they could. But no alternative works.

So let's not insult user here: people tries the alternative. They're not good enough. They're worse.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#78

Post by socalgal2 »

chromacity wrote: post #24

Every time I see one of these HN threads, I am actually amazed with what Adobe was able to pull off. I'm not surprised that they could do this to pros who were used to a particular workflow. In fact, for some businesses, a subscription may have some benefits. You were probably upgrading regularly anyway, and the only downside is that it's an expense you can't cut back on in a lean year. But there are so many hobbyist…

It boggles the mind how many people will go and use an inferior solution to avoid spending the price of 2 coffees a month.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#79

Post by kjkjadksj »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #22

We all love to hate on Adobe. But as a photographer my primary software tool is Lightroom. And I continue to use it despite its $120/year price and less-than-stellar cataloging subsystem because its photo editing features (it's primary mission) still exceed the capabilities of its competitors. I don't see anyone else here talking about the huge strides that Adobe has taken in the past few years with their masking too…

Have you vetted them? They are all the same. Lightroom imo has the worst raw converter algorithms used. At least for fuji still not using the right algorithms. Capture one uses the right algorithms. So does dcraw. In terms of the editing tooling they all can do the same things. They all have the same library management affordances. Ps has been feature complete in my eyes for over a decade might as well pirate it and not spend $1200 a decade for the same couple functions you actually use.

Re: The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe

#80

Post by oliwarner »

nehal3m wrote: post #6

http://archive.today/WCDgq It’s so insidious to sell yearly subscriptions that you pay for monthly. I want to pay by the month precisely because I decide on a monthly basis whether I need a service. If you want out early with Adobe you have to cough up half of the remaining subscription time. For hobby photography do yourself a favor and skip this dark pattern peddler. I’ll pour one out for the pro’s.

I struggle to think of it as insidious. The problem you have is you're reading it wrong. There is no monthly licence. It's an annual licence that you can either pay up front or split, either way, you need to pay.

In 1995 it cost us the equivalent of $2k up front to buy Photoshop. I think there was actually a small discount but it was a hecking big payout. You'd get to keep that version forever, but what if you only needed it for a month? What happened when just a year later Photoshop 4 came out? Tough.

I get that software subscriptions suck, but it's the compromise that makes it both affordable to you in your life, and affordable to Adobe.

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