Adobe is no longer offering the $9.99 photographer plan for new subscribers
bfluegie
Registered Users Posts: 850 Major grins
And apparently existing subscribers will see the increase at their renewal according to this info from Adobe. Did I miss a discussion about this? The new pricing went into effect 12 February.
There is apparently no longer a $9.99 plan that includes Photoshop or the desktop version of Lightroom. I was checking on the Adobe site to see if I could get a trial version of the subscription. Well, you can, but it said it is $19.99 per month after a 7 day trial. I thought it must have defaulted to the Lightroom Classic, CC, and Photoshop plus 1TB of storage version. So I started clicking options and there isn't a version with the lower level of storage for $9.99. At least not that I can find. Eventually I came across the info page I linked above. You can get a Lightroom CC only plan with 1TB of storage for $9.99, but if you want Photoshop it goes up to $19.99. Still with 1TB of storage. Also, I'm not sure what the difference is between Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic, but Classic only comes with the $19.99 plan.
Just as I was starting to waver since any alternative I tried wasn't doing what I wanted... well, actually I kept getting frustrated and just went back to Lightroom since I am familiar with it.
I'm still using Lightroom 6 with very rare excursions into Photoshop CS6. Anyone have any thoughts on whether or not the latest version of Photoshop Elements would give me enough of the capabilities I already have with the familiar interface? Has anyone switched from Lightroom/Photoshop to Elements and been happy with the transition? I used to use Elements but switched from version 9 when Adobe offered an amazing Lightroom/Photoshop bundle (coincidentally right before they announced the Creative Cloud...cynical? Moi?). I suppose I could go back if necessary. Or maybe I'll give ON1 Photo Raw 2019 a try since I can get an upgrade for less than $70.
edited 4/12/19 to correct link.
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I've switched to Affinity. $50 stand alone software. It's just as good and not so baroque.
Thanks. I'll have to check it out. Maybe I'll find a few good options and download free trials, if available. Then I will see what I can do with a few of my photos that were challenging in Lightroom but I ended up happy with the results. If I can get similar results using a program with a better pricing structure (i.e. not a subscription) I could go that way.
It's just kind of a bummer since I have just been doing some online tutorials for Lightroom and reviewing some Creative Live courses I have for Lightroom to learn more. After spending all that time and having several thousand photos in my LR catalog I hate to abandon it. I would possibly even consider going with the new $9.99 plan if it had LR Classic, but not for the mobile version. But I have been seeing good reviews of Affinity so it's worth trying the free trial version anyway.
Time to generate a list of candidates with free trials and start a comparison study...
Kind of depends on what you use in Lightroom. If the Develop module is most important, you have lots and lots of choices (Capture One, ON1 Raw, Luminar, etc.). If you need to replace the Library module of Lightroom, that's harder. I'm not familiar with Elements but I assume its Organizer is not as powerful.
Affinity Photo is a great replacement for Photoshop for all but the highest of high-end users. Affinity has some raw develop tools, so it can also replace the Lightroom Develop module. But Affinity has no bulk image management/organization tools that I know of, and their DAM (Digital Asset Manager) that they said they were "working on" has been missing in action for literally years now.
@colourbox , thanks for the info about Affinity Photo. I'll definitely be checking it out.
Boy, for a while I thought I was hallucinating or something. When I search with my Android phone or tablet I can still see the $9.99 20GB photographer plan, but when I search with my Windows computer sometimes I can see it but I can't select it. Apparently it has something to do with how I am looking or where on the Adobe site I am looking. I chatted with an Adobe sales rep who said the $9.99 plan is still available and he would be happy to sign me up. I also found this article on dslrbodies.com. So for now new subscribers can still get the $9.99 plan with Lightroom classic and Photoshop if they know how to get to it. There is a link in the article on dslrbodies.com. I can probably see the $9.99 plan with my android devices since I didn’t log into my Adobe account.
I had kind of talked myself into subscribing but now I think I might reconsider. Suspicious me, but I'm wondering if this is preparatory to a general subscription increase. I guess my main problem is that over the last 5-6 years I have come to like using Lightroom. I'm using the Library module more, organizing and keywording my photos, and I have spent some time doing tutorials to improve my skills. Lightroom 6 will still work for a while unless I decide to get a new camera that isn't supported. It doesn't have as many problems with my 4K display as Photoshop CS6 so I will first try out some free trials to get a replacement for Photoshop. I’m going to finish a backlog of photos with Lightroom and then pull a few of the better ones and some with different lighting/contrast, etc. to try with different programs. Just going to take my time.
By the way, CreativeLive is streaming a tutorial on Capture One Pro 12 today in case anyone is interested.
I've been reading this thread with interest and concern, because I subscribe to the Photographer plan as well, but my last bill just a few days ago was still only $10.99 - but I use ONLY LR and PS and Bridge - nothing else despite Adobe's desperate entreaties to get me to try other software programs. I think we can guess why, don't we??
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
I bought the 150 stand alone Lightroom awhile back (after a ton of digging and eventually a support ticket to adobe).. I can't a relationship with adobe after this version is obsolete for me. I refuse to pay a monthly subscription.
Canon Mark IV & 6D. Too many lenses to list, mostly L. 35mm L is my pride and joy and the 85mm 1.4 will be legend. Fan of Adorama, Smugmug and Mpix.
While the RAW developer is a bit lacking, and I've needed to use third party DAM, I believe it meets and exceeds anything I ever managed to accomplish with Adobe products. It just takes time to get to know it. I ran Lightroom and Affinity Photo in parallel for some time before I felt that I had a good handle on Affinity. As a bonus: Removing all of the creeping, constantly running, constantly-taking-up-space Adobe background junk has made a marked improvement in overall PC performance. Adobe has just become so much bloat. If you run a system monitor while doing the same operations in Affinity and in Lightroom, I believe you'll see that Affinity is notably more efficient.
If you time it right, you can get Affinity Photo for $25 on sale, and upgrades are free. So, you've purchased a life-time of Affinity for the cost of three months of Lightroom. Well worth the time it will take to transition to new software.