Software Subscription Models Revisited

Adobe Logo
Adobe Logo

As some die hard friends and colleagues are aware, Canon Blogger, suffered a catastrophic failure about a year or so ago now, and I’ve slowly been crawling along as I try to resurrect the archives, and get everything back online. The process has been a tedious one as with nearly ten years of content, some was lost for good when the server crashed, other content survived in the last backup that was performed. Be that as it may, I recently was reading an article on Medium about The Rise of the Rent Seeker and thought to myself, “Oh my GOSH, this nails on the head exactly what I was trying to say way back in 2011 when Adobe made the switch to the subscription model for their software licensing model.  This was such a good read that I wanted to share it (thus realizing another two or three articles that were lost, but now recovered courtesy of The Wayback Machine) in the context of my original thoughts. You can read my original articles here and here.

In a nutshell, this most recent article from Medium explains that:

…the economy has two kinds of entrepreneurs: profit seekers and rent seekers, and those who participate in the latter are redistributing the wealth from the subscribers pocket to their own.  Adobe has made the shift to this model, and as such, they are extracting value, but not giving any real value back….”

It goes on to elaborate about how the technical space is inherently badly suited for innovation and development when they convert to this model.   But the statement made is pretty powerful:

Increasingly, mature software vendors who have run out of innovation runway turn to rent seeking, increasingly we are are told that the subscriptions will soon be everywhere and there is a real problem with that.

Toward that end, it raised the question in my mind:  Does that mean Adobe has stopped innovating? What else can be added Photoshop or Photoshop Lightroom to improve our workflow? I honestly don’t know as I’ve stopped upgrading as of CS5 and LR 4. I’d love to hear others thoughts on whether or not Adobe has really been all that innovative over the past 3-4 years. It was telling though, that the author actually used Adobe in his illustration of the dangers of entering into a subscription model:

Adobe Reference in  Medium Article
Adobe Reference in Medium Article

The article does give a little bit of validation to me though, in seeing someone else so much more eloquently than I as to why renting is almost always (in the long run) not in the best fiscal interest of the consumer.

Adobe Acknowledgement

Adobe

Whether tacit or not, Adobe seems to have listened to the concerns voiced by many in the creative community over their impending pricing and licensing policy changes.  As you may recall, I ran three posts late last year, first calling attention to the new policy.  Secondly, as discussed on Scott Kelby’s video podcast “The Grid“, called “Why Scott Kelby and Crew are Wrong“  Finally, I started running a poll to tally people’s thoughts on the policy shift.  Scott himself ran an entire post as an Open Letter to Adobe shortly thereafter, both addressing the issue squarely, as well as offering an alternative.  Apparently, Adobe was listening!

A news post came to my attention a few weeks ago, and while in the midst of the holiday fracas, I did not want to minimize both the significance and importance of this change. So, with the holidays behind us and a new year ahead, I’d like to give some kudos to Adobe for recognizing the painful effect their new policy would have on legacy customers.  They’ve made a change to their plans, allowing CS3 and Cs4 customers to upgrade at a reduced pricing schedule (very much in keeping with what Scott Kelby suggested), thus easing the cost of upgrading for them.  The full release is here:

Adobe Special Upgrade Announcement

For those not wishing to follow in-post links, here’s the full text of that announcement:

Upgrade offer for CS3 and CS4 customers

We’re very excited about the upcoming release of Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 software and Adobe Creative Cloud™. CS6 will be a major new release of our creative desktop tools, with huge improvements for every type of creative professional. Adobe Creative Cloud will be our most comprehensive creative solution ever, giving members access to all of the CS6 desktop software plus additional services, new tools, Adobe Touch Apps, and rich community features. In addition, Creative Cloud members will receive continuous upgrades and updates to all products and services as part of their membership.

With these great new releases coming in the first half of 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to determine which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4. This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

The only caveat here is that we still do not know when the CS6 suite will be released (well, some of us do…but as they say, those that don’t know guess, and those that do know – can’t say a word!).  All we can ascertain from this is that CS6 is coming in the first half of the year.  No surprise there, but if it is released closer to June, then that shortens the window for Cs3 and CS4 customers to take advantage of the reduced cost upgrade that Adobe is offering.  Still, better to not look a gift horse in the mouth.  Adobe has heard our concerns, and responded in what I think will be an appropriate manner.  While we don’t know the specifics of the pricing offer, we do know that they have heard us and are giving customers an opportunity to upgrade for a limited time.  So, start saving pennies now to make your eventual upgrade that much easier to swallow!

Of course, Cs5 or Cs5.5 customers will be able to upgrade at normal rates, so this announcement doesn’t really affect you – but it’s a welcome sign that companies and and do listen to their customer base!  So, thanks Adobe for listening!

Why Scott Kelby and Crew are Wrong

It was brought to my attention over the weekend that Scott Kelby chimed in on the pricing and policy change that Adobe has implemented on their latest episode of “The Grid”.  It’s a great vidcast that hits on the meat of topics that photographers are talking about, and this episode was no exception, helping to dispel some of the myths that surround photographers.  What I want to talk about here is what they prefaced the show with: a short five minute blurb about the Adobe policy, and what’s wrong/right with it.  I was dumbfounded.

Fair warning – this is a long post….much longer than what I normally post – but it’s that important!  Please take the time to read this whole thing because you will have a complete and clear understanding of these odd terms like Subscription Service, In Perpetuity,  and Creative Cloud.  You’ll understand the differences, and see why the new pricing scheme is not a good decision for anyone – personal or professional businesses!

So, in the interests of getting it right, I went back and listened to it several times, finally writing a transcript of it (which you can read here.  Here’s the nuts and bolts though of what they had to say…

[Scott] And that’s my guess.  I haven’t talked to Adobe on this.  Nobody in Adobe’s pricing dept. said this.  I can imagine the reason why Adobe did this is a couple of things:

1. I…and this is where all the controversy is, I don’t think it’s the pricing so much, I haven’t heard anybody gripe about the price it’s like $50 a month and you get everything they do. You get everything, right? You get like the whole Master Collection.  Again, I didn’t look at all the numbers, so I don’t …I could be a little off.

[Matt]  It’s ballpark and if you add up what it would cost you to buy the Master Collection, it actually in some ways can save you money.

They are looking at the Creative Cloud service, not the subscription pricing.  Let me state that again, unequivocally:

They are confusing the subscription model with the Creative Cloud stuff.

These are two different things, so let’s get that on the table right away.  The subscription service is not $50 a month!  What’s the difference?  It’s easy! A subscription service is something you pay a small amount for every month (or week, or year…whatever, you are a subscriber.  How is that different from the current licensing?  The current licensing (whether by download or media – it doesn’t matter)…means you own that license forever.  In legal terms, it’s called an in perpetuity license.  You’ve bought that license and are entitled to use it forever!  Renting a house (or apartment) is far more expensive than buying one.  Renting (or leasing) a car – the same.  Would you rent a camera?  For one time uses, sure…but who wants to use that model if you plan on doing anything regularly?  The answer:  no one!  From Adobe’s perspective (or any provider for that matter), it’s a great business model because it makes the renter more money.  The same holds true here for Adobe!  Don’t believe me?  Take a look…

We are assuming that we are starting from an upgrade perspective – people that already own a CS5 license.  The following chart is based on the cost to upgrade an in perpetuity license (assuming that doesn’t change…) and shows what that same cost would be under the subscription model based on a 24 month cycle:

Adobe Pricing Licensing Numbers

An important qualifier here – Adobe is also moving to an alternating schedule whereby dot releases are put out in alternating years to full version releases:

CS5 – 2010
CS5.5 – 2011
Cs6 – 2012
CS6.5 – 2013
CS7 – 2014
etc.

This is why you are renting on a 24 month schedule.  It’s also why there is no way that renting anything would cost you less.  They said they hadn’t had the time to look into it.  Several others have.  In their defense, the 5 minute bit was full of qualifications – Adobe didn’t tell us, we don’t know, we can only guess…all that sorta stuff, which is fine in and of itself.  But how can someone say with a straight face that renting costs less than owning?  Seriously.  Take any basic business course or economics course.  The pricing factor aside (which is already been demonstrated as exorbitant…) at the end of renting – you own nothing!

How is the subscription model a better model for anyone besides Adobe?  Scott and crew answered with the following:

“[Matt] The biggest problem I see, there’s gonna be a barrier to entry for someone who is on Cs3 or CS4.

[Scott] Especially hobbyists

[Matt] That’s who I’m really talking about.  For a company I think…it’s not just better for Adobe…to put in a subscription model because now they know how much they are gonna take in every year…but now a company knows exactly how much money you’re gonna spend each month on software.  So it’s easier for a company.

Hobbyists though, ya know, it’s hard to swallow six or seven hundred dollars…

[Scott] A year…

[Matt]  And then go into the subscription model too…

[Scott]  Oh no no…you’ve gotta upgrade…it depends on what you have…if you have the Suite..I don’t know…

[Matt]  It does get, it can get hairy…”

As you can see – it’s not that hairy – it doesn’t matter what you own: CS2-Cs5 will cost more to go to a subscription model than it would to stay on an in perpetuity license.  One more time for clarity, here’s where Scott Kelby and Crew got it wrong:

They are confusing the subscription model with the Creative Cloud.

Not only is it not that complicated – even for businesses, it’s very easy to extrapolate out the Total Cost of Ownership over time and see how this is not a good economic move for anyone (unless you are Adobe).  With all due respect to Scott and crew – I would ask them if they will switch to the subscription model?  My guess is no.  They also provided, in my estimation, a pretty lame explanation for why Adobe is changing their policy.  Here’s what they said:

“[Scott]I’ve been getting so many people asking about Adobe’s new pricing and all that stuff.

Adobe does not call us and ask what we think about pricing.  We learned when everyone else did.  I haven’t had any time to really look into it.  I think there are some good things about it.  I think the subscription model is really great, and by the way, you might as well get used to the subscription model, because it’s the wave of the future. You’re going to be subscribing to everyone’s software.  Especially when the big people like Adobe start moving into that thing.  I think the days of you going to the store and buying off the shelf – it’s either going to be direct download or it’s going to be subscription based.  And everyone wants the subscription model because it gives you revenue all year long ya know

[Matt]   Well,  it’s predictable they know Jan through December what they are going to get.”

Huh?  So they can get revenue year round?  They do already!  Different folks buy at different times…it’s called effective management of resources.  This isn’t about regular revenue – it’s about more revenue!  And we all know Adobe isn’t hurting.

That isn’t on the NAPP gang though – that’s just Adobe greed.  But I do think where Scott and crew are misunderstanding the outcry is that they think we are upset over the subscription offering.  It’s not that we are against the subscription offering per se.  It’s the exclusive and disingenuous way that people are being set up into that option.  Let me state more unequivocally what I think is wrong:

1.  The sudden elimination of 3-versions back upgrade options.  The solution to this is rather than just cutting it off immediately, to phase it out.  (This was posted in the comments from last week here.)

Since there was no major outcry when Adobe said that only 3 versions back could upgrade you would think that if they wanted to do this to go 2 versions back for CS6. Then they could offer a graduated sliding scale something like this:

Upgrade 2 versions back. Upgrade price $189.
CS3 and CS2 Upgrade at $249.00
Older Versions Upgrade at $329.00

Every Quarter or so offer older versions a 20% discount if purchased directly from Adobe.com

2.  For those that want the subscription program, fine, but I am here to tell you from a financial perspective:  It is a horrible idea for anyone…personal or professional!  The TCO is 4x what it would be for an in perpetuity license, and if you ever end the subscription program for yourself or your company – you have nothing left to work off of. It’s like renting.  For most outfits, that makes no sense for any software (or hardware) used on a regular basis.  Now if I had a one time need for In Design or something, that’s another story – but we are talking regular use here.  Heck, I’ll rent glass I can’t afford, but I also am not using that glass every day!  Only for 2 or 3 days.

3.  The last part I have a beef with is whether this will ripple over to other products.  We don’t know yet, but I can only assume that Lightroom and Acrobat are soon to follow if this subscription service takes off.  The installation base for Acrobat is far more extensive – going into regular businesses, not just creative businesses, and the impact there could be dire.  I suspect Adobe is merely giving an indication of what’s to come by testing their leading products in this model.  Unless we want to see everyone adopt this method of sucking that much more from our own wallets – we need to tell them to stop now!

So, chime in now, and share on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus – as well as to Adobe.  I gave out links on how to do this here.  Here’s the on-going poll too if you don’t want to comment.  Speak up now and let Adobe know how you feel.  We still have a chance to change their minds.

EDITOR NOTE:  This post was written and published before I had a chance to read Scott’s Open Letter to Adobe on his blog today.  That letter pretty much takes Scott and Crew off the hook – they are advocating on our behalf and I’ve already given my accolades to Scott over there.  Please read that post as well!

Improve your photo workflow!

Lightroom Logo

Keyboard shortcuts are great ways to improve your efficiency when working on post production.  Here’s a couple that I use in Lightroom to help improve things so I can get my processing done, and get out and back to shooting that much quicker!

CMD/CONTROL+8

This takes me all the way down the Develop Module to Camera Calibration.  If I ever want to make adjustments to which profile to use (typically I use Camera Standard, but it’s always fun to experiment), this gets me there a lot quicker than scrolling with my mouse or tablet!

R

Yup, that’s it – just the letter R.  From the Library Module, this will take you to the Develop Module, turn on the crop tool and show you how you currently have your image cropped for composition.  That’s it – one letter, no fuss no muss!

Module Switching

A super slick way to move between modules is to use your Command key (CTRL Key on Windows) and the ALT key along with the number for each module.  It’s super easy to remember too:

Library = CMD/CTRL+ALT+1

Develop = CMD/CTRL+ALT+2

Slideshow = CMD/CTRL+ALT+3

Print = CMD/CTRL+ALT+4

Web = CMD/CTRL+ALT+5

That’s it – 3 easy ways to improve your work flow with Lightroom shortcuts!  Wawnt some more?  Check out the full detailed reference guide straight from Adobe here.  What ways have you found to improve your own work flow?  There’s tons out there, so share your own in the comments!  Thanks for stopping in and we’ll see you here again next time!

Do you Have Your Torx in Order?



 

So, after years and years of advice and instruction on maintaining hard drive redundancy, and the benefits of upgrading from time to time, I finally am following my own advice and upgrading my venerable Macbook Pro.  After a screamingly good deal came out for laptop disk drives locally, I went out and snagged a 750GB 7200 RPM hard drive from MicroCenter and brought it home.  I also picked up a copy of Mac OS X.6 since my previous upgrade came through a friends DVD who was no longer living in the area.  All told, I am in for a little over $100 – not too shabby!  However, as they say, the Devil’s in the Details!

I’ve changed out lots of hard drives in my time…after all, it’s no secret that I am a working IT professional – that’s my day job.  I’ve been doing that for about 10 years now, so hardware upgrades are pretty routine for me by this point – and I’ve got lots of tools to do it with too…everything from magnets, to phillips heads, to flat heads, to Torx bits for unique screws, and even a pair of nylon pliers.  But all of this based on a Windows background.  I’d never done much with Macs.  The mentality I’ve always had though is that hardware is hardware, right?  I did check out a few tutorial videos on YouTube and all the tools sounded like ones I own, so I jumped right in and off I went – until I got inside the Mac and was presented with two teeny tiny screws that required a Torx bit T6.  I went to my trusty toolbelt and saw my Torx bits went from T30 all the way down to T4 – awesome!  Until I noticed that one slot was missing – and sure enough, it was the dreaded T6!

A trip to Wal-Mart yielded no dice (it was getting late), so this morning off to Lowe’s I went.  I did find the T6 bit – but it was in a package of other bits and a nut driver – for $20:

Torx KitSuffice to say, I was a bit (if you’ll pardon the expression), a bit torqued to be missing what was likely a 50 cent bit and having to spend nearly $20 to reassemble the Mac.  However, the eternal optimist, I put the positive spin on it – this is a nice kit I bought and the rest will probably go to Good Will since they are showing their age a bit.  Finally, of course, the educational moment for me:  I finally got my Torx in Order!

So, with the Mac now flying on a 7200rpm drive with plenty of storage, my weekend will likely be spent performing a fresh install of all my favorite apps.  Which ones do you think will go on there first?  I’ll give you a hint – the company name starts with A and ends with dobe!  The takeaway from all this – make sure you have your Torx in order – it is definitely a good motto to add to your motto book!  Have a great weekend everyone – just because I wont be shooting doesn’t mean you can’t so be safe, be smart, and…(wait for it)…

Happy Shooting!

Black and White Adjustments in Lightroom 3

As a regular contributor to the PhotographyBB magazine (which you can download for free simply bu subscribing here), I enjoy putting together articles to both educate and inspire.  In this upcoming month’s issue, I am guest-writing a tutorial on Black and White editing with Lightroom 3.  As a sneak-peak of sorts to the readership here, I’d like to share the first portion of that article…enjoy!

***

The power of Lightroom has been so well documented from various outlets across the internet and magazines, I often find it surprising that such a small amount of space is dedicated to black and white photography.  This month, I’d like to take an opportunity to delve more into the creative adjustments you can make in Lightroom to bring out more in an image than just shades of gray!

There are two areas in Lightroom where you can make creative adjustments to the color to make things pop.  The first two HSL (for Hue, Saturation, and Luminance) and Color are great resources to use when you want to massage the color palette of your image.  The Black and White “tab” though, is where it’s really at.  When you click this tab, the image will be converted to an automated black and white adjustment, where the colors are converted to shades of gray – with no color tones at all.  This is where I’d like to begin the exploration:

While this can be a powerful way to present an image, the automated method of conversion is not going to work all the time (and for my tastes rarely does the default conversion work).  So, you have to dive in and really get comfortable with adjusting color tones.  To start off, I am using a pretty basic image – a red flower, and you can see that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the colored version of the image.

Red Flower

It’s got some great black and white potential though, so let’s go ahead and take it into the BW adjustment panel tab.  When I do that, the automated adjustments will kick in:

Default Black and White Adjustments

It looks interesting, but let’s see what massaging the colors just in the panel can do.  To start, since the flower was red and made up nearly 95% of the composition, I started with the red slider to see what the extremes would do on each end.  Here’s the image with the red slider taken up to +100 and then to the opposite extreme of -100…

Red Flower +100

Red Flower -100

In both cases, for me it’s an absolutely hideous image.  Clearly, there is a balance that must be struck somewhere in the middle – the question is where?  Well, now it comes down to subjective tastes.  For me, the default adjustment had the red a bit too strong – which kind of hid the morning dew of the flower, so I dialed things back a bit, taking the red slider from +22 to -20.  The droplets are now much more visible as they are standing out from the petals!

Red Flower Conversion Progress

So, now we are getting somewhere fun!  I tested a few more sliders, and ended up with the yellows and oranges slightly higher than the default settings, just to give a bit more contrast.  Here’s what it looks like after the black and white adjustments are made:

Red Flower w/ all slider adjustments

Of course there is always a bit of sharpening and noise reduction to make in post production, as well as lens correction, and even a little bit of vignette from time to time to help draw the viewer in.  Once these are done, the final image definitely has a creative look and feel to it:

The Final Edit

It’s clearly not easy to decide both when, to make a black and white conversion, as well as how much to massage or tweak it to your tastes.  The ultimate decision is, of course, up to you as an artist and photographer, but you can’t get there by avoiding the Black-and-White panel!  Take some time to explore it!

***

There’s more to the article than that, and it has been modified somewhat to make for a better blog post, so be sure you subscribe to the PhotographyBB newsletter when you have a minute.  It is free, after all, and probably one of the best sources of a diverse set of reading material you can find.  Dave Seeram, the editor, has been quite generous with his kindness and patience in my contributions!  Please stop over and give him your thanks as well…nothing but learning and knowledge to gain!

As always though, I end up being more curious than informative!  What types of black and white adjustments do you make?  Do you prefer the neutral grays, or do you like to add a hint of color to your b/w images too?  What methods have you found useful versus not so much?  Sound off in the comments as I love to hear how others are working through their own images!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you next time right here!

Like this post?  Subscribe to the email version of the RSS:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Adobe Elements 9 Released!

You can tell that Photokina is generating quite the buzz with all the product launches and announcements that have been leaking out recently.  Adobe is no different as they announced today the release of Photoshop Elements 9!

This is a great product and actually is my recommendation for the cost-conscious crowd when it comes to editing your photos.  While Lightroom is a great resource for managing your photos and doing the “quick edits”, sometimes you do need the power of layers and more heavy-lifting tasks that Lightroom just isn’t equipped to do.

To add Photoshop CS5 adds a pretty big hit to the wallet, and unless you either have deep pockets, really need it for graphic work, or have a LOT of photos to manipulate, Elements is a great low-cost alternative that gives you most of what the CS5 option has, with some notable restrictions.  Elements 9 retails for $99, but as always, I’ve got a treat for you!  You can save $20 off your purchase by using the affiliate link below (and thanks to Adobe for offering it to me to give to readers).

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9

There are bundles and Elements Premiere (video editing) options available too…so if you’ve got previous bundled or Premiere versions, use the following links to save $30!

Premiere Elements 9 – Save $20

Elements and Premiere Bundle – Save $30

The frenzy has started, and there’s money to be saved, so get in while the gettin’ is good!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Lightroom 3 is here – Now What?

With all the hubbub of the release of Lightroom 3 and all the resources that cropped up online in mere minutes of the announcement, we often find ourselves asking more questions once the excitement and energy that surrounds a product release has drained.

I took these questions with me to a conversation with Senior Product Manager Tom Hogarty last week, and got a lot of insights and answers, with both a technical perspective and that of long-term development.  I give you this week’s podcast: Continue reading “Lightroom 3 is here – Now What?”