BIRDS AS ART Bulletin #439
BIRDS AS ART Bulletin #439 is online now. It can be accessed here. Seven never published images, each with our legendary BAA educational captions and lots of great features:
- Texel Holland IPT Report
- Short Notice, Dirt Cheap, In-the-Field Nickerson Beach Photographic Instruction with Arthur Morris
- Dynamic Nature Photography Teaching Team
- Japan in Winter
- New York City–On Location with Denise Ippolito & Arthur Morris
- Bosque del Apache 2013 IPT: “The Complete Bosque Experience
- Next Year In Holland
- Affiliate Links
- Canon EOS-5D Mark III User’s Guide
- Used Camera Gear
- IPT Highlights
- IPT Info
Short Notice, Dirt Cheap, In-the-Field Nickerson Beach Photographic Instruction with Arthur Morris
|
|
This American Oystercatcher chick was photographed on May 30, 2010 with the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM Autofocus Lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV (now replaced by the Canon EOS-1D X). ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/1250 sec. at f/8 in Manual Mode. Central sensor/AI Servo/Rear Focus on the bird’s eye and re-compose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. There will be a good chance to find and photography tiny American Oystercatcher chicks on the Short Notice, Dirt Cheap, In-the-Field Nickerson Beach Photographic Instruction trips. See immediately below for details. |
Short Notice, Dirt Cheap, In-the-Field Nickerson Beach Photographic Instruction with Arthur Morris. May 14 (am/pm) & 15 (am), 2013. (Yes, that is soon.) 6-9:30 am/4-7:30pm. This one is priced so low that you need to e-mail for the rates. Limit 4/session. 3 1/2 openings left.
Payment in full due immediately. If you would like to join me please get in touch via e-mail or call me at 863-692-0906. Breeding American Oystercatcher and Piping Plover (small chicks possible). Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Sanderling, and other shorebird species. Early-arriving Least and Common Terns, and breeding plumage Lesser Black-backed Gull likely. Courtship and mating behaviors; flight. Learn digital exposure and creative image design.
With only one photographer signed up for Tuesday morning, and another for Tuesday afternoon, you have a great chance to take advantage of some private or practically private instruction with me this week at give-away prices.
Photoshop Creative Cloud…. Confusion for Sure. But is it a Ripoff or a Boon?
In a Photoshop.com blog post here, Maria Yap, Senior Director of Product Management, recently announced that–well, I am not sure exactly what they said. Something to the effect that soon you will not be able to purchase a Photoshop boxed set for a given price as we have been doing for quite some time. Folks are now invited to pay $19.99/month for Photoshop Creative Cloud ($9.99 for the first year for current CS-6 owners). Those payments need to be made forever.
Everyone is confused and there has been a firestorm of negative reaction on the web.
One question that I have not been able to find an answer for is “If I pay my $20 and get a copy of whatever Photoshop onto my computer, what stops me from stopping paying and continuing to use the program? I do understand from reading their frequently asked questions here, that you do not need to be online to use Photoshop Creative Cloud.
Questions are welcome but I am not sure that I will have any answers. And I am not totally sure that Creative Cloud is either a bad thing or a ripoff. But I am not sure that it is a good thing either. As always, time will tell.
Feel free to chime in with your opinion, or better yet, with facts.
Next Year In Holland
Despite a 100-year record cold spring with very few tulip fields in bloom this trip has been a spectacular success. The colors and variety of tulips at Keukenhof simply stun the mind and the senses. Denise and I are planning our Holland trip for next year: the Keukenhof Creative Tulip Photography IPT with a Touch of Holland. If you are a Happy Camper who is interested in joining Denise and me next spring, please shoot me an e-mail. Details will be announced soon.
New York City–On Location with Denise Ippolito & Arthur Morris May 25 – 26, 2013, 2-day Workshop-$495
Join Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris for a two-day creative workshop in the Big Apple. This exciting adventure through the streets of NYC will begin with an informal get-together at our hotel on the evening of May 24th. This will give us all a chance to get to know each other before we hit the streets in the morning for our first exciting photo shoot. We will explore China Town, Little Italy, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station (tripod permit included) and much more during our two days together. The emphasis will be on street photography, seeing and capturing dynamic images, and expanding your creativity using a variety of in-camera techniques including HDR and Multiple Exposure.
Please contact me via e-mail for complete details and the itinerary.
Bosque del Apache 2013 IPT: “The Complete Bosque Experience.” NOV 26-DEC 2, 2013. 7-FULL DAYS: $3399. Co-leader: Denise Ippolito. Introductory Slide program: 6:30 pm on 11/25. Limit: 12.
Tens of thousand of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks including point-blank American Wigeon and Wood Duck, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with one of (if not the) world’s premier photographic educators at one of his very favorite locations on the planet. Top-notch Photoshop instruction. This will make 19 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for me. Nobody knows the place better than I do. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the sky conditions, the light, and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home applying what you learned will prove to be invaluable. Includes all lunches and the Thanksgiving Buffet at the Crowne Plaza in Albuquerque. I hope that you can join me for what will be an unparalleled learning experience.
Click here for registration info and the complete IPT schedule. Scroll down for complete Bosque IPT info.
Typos
On all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂
Support the BAA Blog. Support the BAA Bulletins: Shop B&H here!
We want and need to keep providing you with the latest free information, photography and Photoshop lessons, and all manner of related information. Show your appreciation by making your purchases immediately after clicking on any of our B&H or Amazon Affiliate links in this blog post. Remember, B&H ain’t just photography!
Photography is my hobby so I look at this change from that perspective.
If I purchase a boxed version I can use it forever. If I buy a subscription I can only use it if I continue to pay the monthly price – which will increase over time. Monthly subscription is not acceptable for me. Rather than agonize over the change, I am looking at other options.
My first thought is keep CS6 and stay with an upgraded boxed version of LR. What is not clear to me is what support, if any, Adobe will provide boxed LR owners? There are indications and comments that suggest that support will minimal (if any) for boxed versions – only the cc version will receive true support? This approach does allow me to have access to updated camera raw versions via LR.
Is Elements a viable alternative?
Is Aperture a viable alternative?
I could stay with CS6 & LR4; however, raw files from new cameras will not be supported?
It is probably not a good idea to keep files in psd format? Also, I think I will continue to avoid the dng format.
Unfortunately, Adobe has taken the focus off its new Photoshop CC and all anybody is talking about is the new marketing model. This is a huge corporate blunder for Adobe because many new features are truly extraordinary such as the camera shake reduction and new ACR tools and being able to use ACR as a filter within Photoshop. Not good corporate planning. A lot of concern/anger would be alleviated if Adobe would just let us keep Photoshop running after a certain period of subscription, say 18 months. No upgrades of course but at least the retiring photographer could still keep using what he has already paid for.
I paid for the complete Photshop program when I jumped in with Photoshop 6.O I have bought every upgrade to CS6.
I have th plug ins from Nik, On One, and, Topaz Labs. This is how it will stay with me. My cameras are the D700 and the D7000. Old by today’s newer models, but fully functional. Btw my car is a 2004 Toyota Highlander, that still runs fine. No thank you Adobe, that wants monthly money from me.
I purchased a cloud subscription which allows me to try a number of programs I would not have used otherwise: Premier, Acrobat, InDesign, CS6 and other programs. I still have Photoshop 5.5 and the most recent Lightroom. If, in a year, these other programs are not of burning interest, I will drop back to Lightroom with third party add ons. I will still have Corel VideoStudio Pro for video work. I still would have had the chance to play with a lot of stuff that I otherwise could never afford. There is still the question of what future subscription rates will be.
Thanks all for shedding some light on what is surely still a confusing situation, at least to me. I will share my thoughts on the blog soon.
In the meantime, there are lots more comments on the subject over at BPN here.
Wasn’t asking for a free lunch RL Caron. Simply an affordable way to continue with Photoshop Upgrades. The new model is not feasible for me.
Is that all you read in my carefully considered response — the last two words? If so, I give up!
“The new model is not feasible for me”.
And what – exactly – will you lose by not engaging with CC, Sarah?
Nothing, I imagine…
If you don’t pay the Adobe overlords $20/month to live in the Adobe fifedom, then you will be banished to who knows where. This is oppressive. I would gladly pay for a “boxed” verson vs. pay $20/month.
That really is infantile, Graham.
Adobe isn’t your friend or your lover – it owes you nothing – and conversely, nobody is forced to use its software.
Surprisingly it’s possible to function amazingly well without Adobe, and/or without the absolute latest-and-greatest it has to offer.
” It should also be noted that they have left open, for now at least, the availability of their software in a “boxed” version that can be purchased, so that the user has a choice. Something that Adobe has chosen not to do, at least for now.”
Not strictly true, Ron: Lightroom will continue to be a stand-alone application, so it’s entirely possible to avoid CC entirely by continuing to use (say) CS5, and updating Lr as and when to maintain support for new cameras.
No knowledge of this, but if the Photoshop CC model is successful, it seems possible that Lightroom will also go to a monthly subscription fee. However, it seems to me that if you have any non-subscription software that does a good job of RAW conversion it should be possible to get a lot of extra miles out of Photoshop CS, whether CS6 or a previous version.
For those of us on a limited income, making us pay $20 per month to use Photoshop hurts! I have Photoshop CS6, but did not buy each upgrade as they came along due to my financial situation. So to respond to RL Caron, not all of us bought the extended version and buying boxed editions when we need an upgrade is way less expensive than paying $20 per month for life! I will be keeping my CS6 and be looking for other software when I can no longer use it. Hopefully by then, a competitor will have other software I can use. Not happy with Adobe right now!
Hey, I’m on a limited income, too — as are most people who are trying to make a living taking pictures!
New software releases are no different than new car models — one can choose to upgrade or not. Few absolutely “need” to. Most people skip a few model years with their cars — and I believe many photographers are similarly reserved about buying every new app or gadget that plops into the marketplace.
As one who has just purchased CS6, you likely would have chosen to get more than a year’s use out of your considerable investment regardless of what CS7 would have offered had it become the next upgrade rather than Photoshop CC. We really don’t know much about what genuine and valuable “improvements” CC will offer — other than the full set of Extended features that only people who wear white coats at work care about, now do we?
Additionally, remember that the free market cuts both ways. Those who don’t like the monthly ‘rental’ plan can simply withhold their participation. CS6 isn’t being taken away and has more photo processing power than many of us could absorb in the next 10 years!
People are complaining about not being able to access additional capability they don’t know about and likely would never use post being better informed! The mighty Coca-Cola dynasty fell flat on its face with New Coke. Those who don’t like Photoshop CC can simply opt not to use it. Enough people do that, and a market retreat is sure to follow.
Additionally, how can one’s photography be diminished by the lack of features and processing tricks that didn’t exist at the time of the original vision for the capture? Should I be shooting now for the capabilities I imagine will be in Photoshop 200 in the year 4012?
OTOH, and back to reality, Lightroom gets more powerful with every upgrade — and that’s still available on the “I own it” paradigm. I know several people here in Naples who sell $2000 canvasses at art shows and wouldn’t know a Photoshop loop from a Fruitloop. Lightroom by itself is processing dynamite. Especially for those who shoot off the Green Square. Add a few plug-ins, which get more powerful by the week — and maybe you can just kiss goodby to Photoshop — the now drinking-age graphics program that somehow morphed into a photographer’s must-have.
I see much of this flap as rote and/or poorly informed hand-wringing — over what is likely to become a near non-event in the rapidly evolving field of digital photography. Hell, Adobe’s decision may be precisely the corporate decision some of the more creative photo app upstarts have been wishing for!
Both ‘sides’ have valid points here. I happen to like the ‘renting’ model — but I respect the well-considered opinions of those who differ. Just remember, there are no entitlements to free upgrades to your car or phone unless you fork over the $$ to help support them.
I’m not understanding the sudden objection to monthly fees from people who have been spending a grand or two per month on access fees already! One way or another, we all have to pay for the intellectual property apps that make our lives easier.
Pay up front, or pay by the month. But pay we must. Adobe leaves us with plenty of options. What’s the problem?
But there is no free lunch.
What’s the Problem? – Adobe has taken away our options. We no longer control which upgrades we wish to pay for – we must pay for all, whether they fit into our system and workflow or not – even if we do not install the upgrade. And, for those who have purchased the standard version of PS and its’ upgrades over the years – the loyal PS users – we are forced to pay almost twice as much ($360) as we would have if we upgraded every 18 months ($190), and even more ($720) if we skipped an upgrade. Of course we all know that the subscription price will increase in time
The primary incentive for Adobe to provide new features is gone – you now have to pay even if they offer few or NO improvements. Once you have used any of the new features in CC Photoshop you will no longer be able to open your image in CS6, unless you save it in a format that can be read by other programs. So…if you ever stop your CC subscription you will have to re-save all your images in another format (possibly without layers) – and of course Adobe could always change the PSD format in the future. If you read their terms of service, they have the right to change anything, anytime, without notice!
As for Lightroom, although they say they have no intention “at present” of making this a subscription only program, they also say that future Lightroom upgrades will be limited to bug fixes and the inclusion of new cameras in ACR, and WILL NOT include the new features included in the CC version of Lightroom. So don’t expect any new PS-like features in the non-subscription version of Lightroom.
As a user (and a one time Beta tester) since PS 2.5 I view this as nothing more than a way to increase profits at the expense of their customers, especially those that use only PS Even new users who initially save a great deal by not having to pay the full purchase price, eventually wind up paying more through “rental” fees.
Adobe has lost my trust – they have forced us to upgrade when we purchased a new camera, they changed requirements for upgrades so that only owners of the immediate previous version could purchase an upgrade, they promised that the new features made available in the cloud version would also be made available to others when a full upgrade became available and now they mandate a rental only program with no exit strategy.This not only affects PS users, but the many 3rd party producers of plug-ins, PS instructional DVD’s and PS books – for many CS6 will be their last version and there will be no need to purchase instructional materials or plug-ins that are geared to the new features available in the subscription-only program.
“the loyal PS users”
Can we have some honesty here?
We’re not PS users because we’re “loyal” – we use it because it’s bloody good at what we want it to do, and “loyalty” simply doesn’t come into it.
Indeed, if you were “loyal” to Adobe, you’d bite the bullet and accept the CC Model: that’d be the loyal thing to do, after all.
No. Most of the complaints I’ve read are based on nothing more than people resenting Adobe wanting to maximise its revenue stream (capitalism – don’t you just love it?), resentment which is usually on the back of a complete lack of understanding of what CC actually means to users.
This is only a problem if you let is be. Don’t like it? Use something else.
“OTOH, and back to reality, Lightroom gets more powerful with every upgrade — and that’s still available on the “I own it” paradigm. I know several people here in Naples who sell $2000 canvasses at art shows and wouldn’t know a Photoshop loop from a Fruitloop. Lightroom by itself is processing dynamite. Especially for those who shoot off the Green Square. Add a few plug-ins, which get more powerful by the week — and maybe you can just kiss goodby to Photoshop — the now drinking-age graphics program that somehow morphed into a photographer’s must-have.”
Indeed. And as I suggest elsewhere, the ongoing availability of Lr does everything we need from an ongoing camera support point of view too.
My plan is to continue using CS5, updating Lr as and when to maintain camera support: but being “converter agnostic” I also happily use Photo Ninja, DxO Optics Pro 8 Standard edition and Capture One 7 Express, so if Lr disappeared into the (inappropriately named, for sure) Creative Cloud tomorrow, I’d hardly notice.
But there’s no indication that Lr won’t be available as a stand-alone for a long time to come: Adobe is actually pretty clear about this – there will be a CC version of Lr, but the stand-alone will continue to be available.
The subscription model with its ongoing monthly cost may be a good one for heavy users of Photoshop, especially those who make their living with it. I am not convinced, however, that it makes any sense at all for me, who paid with pain for the cost of CS6 and is into photography and Photoshop only for the joy of it. I will stay with CS6 as long as I can, but I know that Adobe will no longer provide updates or support new RAW formats in ACR and eventually I will need to give it up. Too bad, it is really hard to love Adobe when they are so ruthless with their established consumer base.
My understanding from Adobe is that you must pay for ‘life’ otherwise you will loose your work. The software will not reside on your hard drive, it is in the cloud. So when you are not a paying customer you loose the software and your work. This is outrageous and ADOBE Has Chutzpah to even try this. Thousands of people have signed petitions that states objections to this policy. Competitors will develop alternatives, watch Google after buying NIK they will be ripe to enter this market.
I don’t know much, but I am pretty sure that the info above is incorrect.
Wrong on pretty much every level, MORRISh.
What Patty says down the page sums up the reality: the only significant change over what we have now is that the software on your machine will periodically “phone home” to Adobe to ensure that your subscription is paid up.
If it is – business as usual. If not, the software will eventually stop working.
“Eventually” is significant here: you do not have to be permanently connected to the internet for the software to work, which means that when we’re out in the sticks without a connection, we’ll still be able to use Photoshop.
And yes, your images will be on your own machine, just as they are now, unless you put then into the cloud.
MOORISH, you are dead wrong.
The situation that Adobe has created, is that those of us who have CS6 and are casual users for the functionality that we cannot get in Lightroom will have to decide to subscribe or not. I will not, as the subscription price far exceeds my perceived value of my general usage of CS6. I will continue to use CS6 until such time as it no longer functions in whatever version of Windows that Microsoft decides to inflict upon us. At that point, I would guess that I will revert to Photoshop Elements and an assortment of plugins, a lot of which provide functionality that is currently available in CS6 and its future offspring.
It will be interesting to see what will happen with various plugins, such as those available from Nik Software, onOne, and Topaz when Photoshop CS becomes Photoshop CC. As long as they continue to function in Lightroom and Elements, then I suspect that a lot of us may be quite content to go that route. I would also wonder if some of the “plugin” suppliers will step in to provide their own products to compete with PS CC as it would seem like a perfect time to do this.
Patty Corapi has noted that Microsoft has gone the “subscription” route. It should also be noted that they have left open, for now at least, the availability of their software in a “boxed” version that can be purchased, so that the user has a choice. Something that Adobe has chosen not to do, at least for now.
It will be interesting to watch this “subscription” scenario unfold to see if other suppliers adopt it, or whether it fails to produce the business benefits (e.g. profit increase)that Adobe and Microsoft seem to feel that it is going to provide. I, for one, hope that it fails miserably, but the market will decide.
While Patty’s explanation seems to make sense in terms of presenting the “benefit” of immediate updates, it’s actually a false benefit and sounds more like an Adobe sales point to justify their new pricing model.
I’ve purchased or used many types of software that offers small updates on a regular basis. Adobe Reader is one that probably everyone can relate to. Camtasia (screen recording software) is another. And there are literally hundreds of more examples.
So to suggest that Adobe could not release updates more frequently than every 18-24 months stretches the imagination a bit.
Also, I’m curious and have a question for Patty. Are you in any way involved with Adobe on a basis that compensates you? I hope this doesn’t sound accusatory, because I don’t mean it that way. However, if you have a relationship with Adobe where you’re compensated by them, it would only be fair to disclose that.
My relationship with Adobe involves my money flowing to their coffers. I wish it was the other way around, but alas it is not. Do I wish there was not as much flowing to them? Of course. But if you want and need the tools be prepared to paid for it.
I have a lot of knowledge of their current plan and prior pricing models as the owner of a small business. I have analyzed my current software usage and my future needs. I have spoke to Adobe sales about the need to run PS on both platforms and by their licensing I would have to purchase a Mac based copy if I wanted to do both. I see a need for InDesign. I see a big movement of my money to their coffers if I purchase this all as boxed and then have to upgrade both platforms over the years. With the Cloud (a very poor choice of marketing in my opinion and if I worked for them I never would have let them call it this – too confusing LOL)subscription, I will be able to try the other products and then if I have no need for them I have the ability to change to just the PS choice. I wish I could do that with a bunch of other monthly bills I have.
As I originally said, each person has to look at what Adobe is doing and weigh the pros and cons for their situation. Some may want jump on board for the whole top of the line subscription and others may just quit processing photos and in talking with others I have heard both thoughts and a whole bunch of others. Adobe is moving in this direction for a whole bunch of reasons which is just too long to go into here. But it is probably one of the most pirated pieces of software out there. So maybe the subscription will get more people to obtain and use it legally and cross your fingers the price won’t go up in a year.
Like others, I have no problems with the subscription model but rather with Adobe’s choice to make it mandatory for all users. If, as they suggest, subscriptions will prove beneficial for most of us why not continue giving us a choice?
It seems to me that the monthly payment model failing to meeting their sales expectations gives us an important clue. If your objective is selling hot dogs rather than hamburgers you make a better dog, adjust prices to make the tube steak shine or cease selling the burgers.
One thing I don’t understand is their use of ‘cloud’. It really isn’t a cloud app since the software will still be physically located on our hard drive.
It seems Adobe is using the word ‘cloud’ to simply define their way of us continuing to use their product and upgrades. To pay $10, $20, whatever it is every month for something I don’t use everyday is insane.
What happens if paying for continous updates, Photoshop stops working cause I no longer have the minimum requirements to run it? For example, Photoshop no longer runs on Win XP machines. Now I’m forced to upgrade my OS to run Photoshop? Uh-uh.
There are plenty of misconceptions circulating about this one — like the notion that if one quits paying to ‘rent’ Photoshop CC that our picture files will be inaccessible. Not so! This is NOT cloud-based computing.
I like the new plan. Say you jumped in at CS5 (April of 2010) and purchased the Extended Edition — there’s what, $900? Then you paid $200 for an upgrade to CS6. So now you’ve been using Photoshop for just over 3 years and you’ve coughed up a grand, give or take. That’s $300 a year. Even at the ‘long’ price of $19.95 a month for Photoshop CC, you ante up only $240/year. Nobody is being forced to upgrade. CS3-4-5-6 will continue to work forever — or for as long as you can keep your present OS running. You don’t want a new car? Just keep driving the old one.
I’m going for the initial $9.95 for a year deal. In three years, I’ll still be averaging only $200 a year. If at any point I find a constantly updated Photoshop CC isn’t worth 55 cents a day, I’ll just reinstall CS6 and live with that and any new software OnOne, Nik, or Topaz may come up with. Or do everything in Lightroom or Aperture.
There will always be plenty of options. Adobe made a free market decision — and we are all able to do the same.
Oh, just one final thought: we have never “owned” Photoshop or most of the other programs we use daily. Program code generally remains the property of the software company and we are only licensed to use it in certain ways.
Frankly, I don’t see much of a difference other that a more reasonable payment system that requires less ‘up front’ money. Pay as yo go and use. I wonder if those who are complaining about this understand that without paying a monthly fee to ATT or Verizon, their smart phones turn into bricks?
All the net chatter supposes that Photoshop is the program you will use forever. If (when) something better comes along you will still have to keep paying Adobe, for a program you don’t use anymore, just to get access to “your” files. This has happened to me with subscription based accounting software..FYI.
Actually you will be creating and storing your photos on your own hard drives the same as always. The Cloud storage is like Dropbox and all the others. It allows others to share in your storage or you can have access from anywhere to what you chose to have stored there. This is more for creative teams that are working on projects or sharing with friends and family. You can use the Cloud storage part if you want or never place a photo in the Cloud – that part is all up to you.
Your photos will be on your hard drive or wherever you chose to store or back them up to. That part you are in full control of. Plus if you stop paying for the software, your photos are already done and store safely away if you did that. You will have to have a different viewing platform as Bridge will stop working along with PS. But any viewer capable of reading the file will have access to them. Just be sure to move all files from the Cloud as you would if you were cancelling any Cloud service.
That accounting program is Internet based and highly restrictive if it’s the one I’m thinking your using.
Patty did a great job explaining the new Photoshop CC but I will repeat, if you make one payment and then cease paying, you will NOT be able to continue to use Photoshop even though it is downloaded. Otherwise Adobe would be selling Photoshop for $10. I think the $20/month fee after 12 months is a bit steep. Hopefully, Adobe will reconsider and continue the $10/mo price.
The new Adobe subscription model. Apparently, PS will no longer be sold as a boxed/downloaded piece of software or make us wait for all the new developments until the next release – 18-24 months. They will be updating and releasing the new features as they are ready for primetime. This is actually a good thing for us. Especially if you don’t like to wait for the new features. Plus you can learn each new thing as it comes about instead of having to learn a large number of new things all at once.
They have already released the Creative Suite as a monthly/annual subscription. At that time, you could purchase a single product subscription as well. Not really advertised as they hope you would sign up for the whole suite is the way I see it. And with the suite you get all of the products except for the apps for the smartphone and that has to do with iTunes and the Android marketplace.
Basically after you sign up, we will have access to a Adobe user area and then you download your software as you would have if you purchased a downloaded version from Adobe. Depending on which subscription length is chosen would determine how often you need to connection to the Adobe area to make sure your subscription is up to date. I would guess that it would work similar to when you use trial software. After so many days, you would either need to pay your subscription or connect to verify it’s paid. If there is no payment, the software will not launch same as if the trial was over.
The program resides on your hard drive – it’s not internet based use. One just needs to connect program to the Internet either every 30 days or 99 depending on your length of subscription. It will update the keycode and you are good to go until the next required subscription check in.
There are pluses and minuses involved with the whole process. You basically have to look at your situation to see which works for best for you. From what I can gather at this time, Lightroom and Elements will still be sold as a box, but you will have to wait for the new features at the release dates. From what I can gather with the subscription, you will receive the new features as they are available.
Hopefully this will help some. Hopefully I understand what Adobe said they were doing. Plus if you run both platforms – PC and Mac – you will only need one subscription for both and you can run on more than one computer which was an issue with the old style license. And Microsoft is headed in the same direction as they have quietly rolled out subscriptions for their new software as well. Just look at the shelf in your choice of electronic/office supply store.