No more standalone version of Lightroom (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

Adobe has announced their new version of Lightroom, and it will only be available via their cloud-based subscription service. There will be no standalone version of Lightroom -- the current version 6 is the last standalone versions and will only be supported through the end of this year.

I have been using Lightroom for many years. I never upgraded to LR6 -- I am still on LR5.7. I had planned on upgrading to LR7 when it was released, but now I need to start looking for alternatives. The subscription model doesn't work for me. I paid about $75 to upgrade to LR5 from version 4 three years ago, and was planning on spending about $80 to upgrade to LR7. In those three years, I would have spent $360 on Adobe's subscription service for the essentially same software.

I found an offer for a free license for DxO OpticsPro 11 Essentials, so I downloaded that and plan on giving it a try. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Affinity Photo looks like a possibility. It's a $50 one-time fee, and gets some decent reviews.

 

[Sam Posten]

Planning on switching from Lr at this point is crazy talk. There is nothing else out there that even remotely comes close. That said, I agree with every word of this:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/art...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Switching isn't crazy talk for me, Sam. Adobe just more than quadrupled the price for me to use Lightroom. That is unacceptable to me. I will not move to their subscription service. My choices are to either upgrade to Lightroom version 6 for $80 to get me by for the next few years while I look for something else, or find something else sooner. I have not decided which way I'll go yet. I hate the idea of giving Adobe any more of my money because of their decision, but it may be the most practical solution for now.

I recently upgraded my Photoshop Elements from version 10 to the new 2018 version when I bought a new PC. I wish I hadn't done that now, and had just continued using the old version.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm in Scott's shoes too. Still using LR 5.7, and PS CS6 (I know, ancient software!!!!)

I'm probably screwed when I finally upgrade to newer camera body models because LR 6's support for up-to-date camera profiles for RAW will end soon. And no one wants to convert their RAWs to DNGs (if older LR6 doesn't handle the new camera body RAW file formats) before going through the post-processing tasks in LR.

But, that being said, I do process a ton of photos, so if I ended up having to go to CC for $10/month going forward, c'est la vie.

Now, if Adobe gets greedy and jacks up their photography CC bundle of LR/PS to $19.99/month (it's totally a possibility they basically force folks off of LR6 as time rolls on), I may bite the bullet and go with Capture One, or punt and mess around with On1 or Affinity (I have 2017 versions of those software applications, but still ended up defaulting back to LR/PS).

But no way in hell would I consider using LR CC, no cloud-based post-processing for this guy, I'd stick with LR Classic for the "client-side" standalone option for now.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I downloaded Canon's Digital Photo Professional software, and will give that a try when I have some spare time. I used DPP years ago before moving to Lightroom, and the app has supposedly been improved quite a bit over the years. It's free, so the only thing I will be wasting is time if I don't like it. It only supports Canon cameras (no surprise), but that is not an issue for me.

Now, if Adobe gets greedy and jacks up their photography CC bundle of LR/PS to $19.99/month (it's totally a possibility they basically force folks off of LR6 as time rolls on), I may bite the bullet and go with Capture One, or punt and mess around with On1 or Affinity (I have 2017 versions of those software applications, but still ended up defaulting back to LR/PS).

But no way in hell would I consider using LR CC, no cloud-based post-processing for this guy, I'd stick with LR Classic for the "client-side" standalone option for now.

I have been reading up on Capture One, and that looks like an intriguing product, albeit a little on the expensive side. Maybe they will offer some sort of discount in the near future to entice disgruntled Lightroom users.

I think you can count on Adobe jacking up the price on their creative cloud service in the future once they get enough perpetual license Lightroom users to migrate over. I already think $120 / year is too expensive for how I use Lightroom, and I have no need for Photoshop -- the Elements version I own is more than I need, and I don't use it much anyway. I'm not starting down the subscription path with Adobe.

 

[Sam Posten]

"Good luck with that".

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I recently upgraded my Photoshop Elements from version 10 to the new 2018 version when I bought a new PC. I wish I hadn't done that now, and had just continued using the old version.

I'm still using v11 of that and was considering upgrading. What didn't you like about the latest version? In my case, I'd probably also be considering the Premiere Elements upgrade since I do use it for the occasional video edit.

As for LR, I might finally go buy the standalone v6 given this development. I also have no interest in subscription-based usage of Adobe software (unless I someday end up making $$$ doing work w/ it perhaps) -- kinda stuck for now when it comes to MS Office subscription because of growing family needs (even though I actually have a couple perpetual older licenses), but at least that gets used by the rest of the family (including away from home in college)...

_Man_

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I'm still using v11 of that and was considering upgrading. What didn't you like about the latest version? In my case, I'd probably also be considering the Premiere Elements upgrade since I do use it for the occasional video edit.

As for LR, I might finally go buy the standalone v6 given this development.

I haven't really tried out Elements 18 much yet -- just scanned in a couple of photos to make sure it worked okay on the new PC. The reason I am sorry I bought the upgrade is it will probably be unnecessary if I end up moving to Capture One. I did not upgrade Premiere Elements, since I do not shoot hardly any video and haven't edited any in a long time. So I haven't used my version 10 in a few years, and did not even install it on the new PC yet.

I am leaning towards upgrading to LR 6 as well to buy myself some time, but I haven't made up my mind for sure. I have two other apps to try out -- Canon's Digital Photo Professional and DxOptics Pro 11, plus I may download a trial version of Capture One to test it as well. Once the weather turns bad here I will have more time to play with the other apps, but right now I have other priorities.

 

[Sam Posten]

https://fstoppers.com/apps/creative-cloud-it-time-ditch-adobe-200441

Retweeting does not indicate agreement with conclusions

 

[Scott Merryfield]

https://fstoppers.com/apps/creative-cloud-it-time-ditch-adobe-200441

Retweeting does not indicate agreement with conclusions

Yes, I don't agree with everything in this article, either. First, I have not found Lightroom to be unstable -- it's worked well on my PCs since I first started using it. Also, his pricing structure is off for Lightroom-only users. He figures a $149 charge for the perpetual license. However, since this is really affecting current Lightroom perpetual license users, the cost to upgrade an existing perpetual license is only $80 -- so the subscription model costs more after only 8 months of use, not 15 months as he stated. When you consider that Adobe only releases new versions of LR every 2-3 years, they have effectively more than quadrupled the price of their software for Lightroom-only users.

The added risk of moving to the subscription model is that Adobe is likely to eventually force their current subscribers to move to their completely cloud-based solution at some point, and with that will come additional cost increases. Then all those people who today claim to be fine with the subscription model but not Adobe's cloud-only solution will be the ones complaining, just as we perpetual license Lightroom users are today.

 

[JohnRice]

This reinforces one reason I've stayed away from LR. It always struck me that it would be far too easy for Adobe to hold me hostage, despite their promise that wouldn't happen.

This is all so confusing. Is LR Classic CC essentially the old CC version of LR?

 

[Sam Posten]

Yes

 

[Mike Frezon]

Is it possible for me to get a stand-alone version of LR now? Or, am I too late?

We had to go to the subscription service at my work for Premiere Pro and it’s really a PITA—partially on their end but also on our end. The process just complicates things when conditions aren’t perfect.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Is it possible for me to get a stand-alone version of LR now? Or, am I too late?

We had to go to the subscription service at my work for Premiere Pro and it’s really a PITA—partially on their end but also on our end. The process just complicates things when conditions aren’t perfect.

Adobe is still selling the perpetual license version of Lightroom 6 for now. The issue is that after one last update this month, Adobe will no longer be providing any updates or support for this version. That means any new camera or lens you may purchase in the future will not be supported -- the app is frozen with the current equipment it supports. At this point, if you are not a current Lightroom user and do not like the subscription model, I would not recommend buying LR6. Put that $150 towards a different product.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

This reinforces one reason I've stayed away from LR. It always struck me that it would be far too easy for Adobe to hold me hostage, despite their promise that wouldn't happen.

I forget now, but what do you use instead, John?

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

I forget now, but what do you use instead, John?

_Man_

I've used Photoshop for as long as I can remember. At least since Digital Darkroom. Remember that? I realize Adobe can hold me hostage to some degree with that as well, but it always seemed like more of an eventuality with LR. I resented the subscription model, but I deal with software developers at work as well and have seen this trend for a few years. Software goes to subscription, prices go up and UP, and service always, ALWAYS deteriorates. Sometimes to the point the software isn't even worth it anymore. Typically this happens after the software company is sold to an equity firm, who promise historic levels of awesome support, only for support to vanish or become extremely expensive.

Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness there.

Anyway, another reason I didn't want to deal with LR is because I didn't want to learn such a complex app, after all these years of learning PS, plus LR just didn't do half of what I want at first. I don't spend a cent on things most people spend a hefty chunk on, like smart phones and cable TV. So, I figure I'm still way ahead with the $10/month on PS.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I have downloaded and installed DxOptics Pro, which is being offered free if you install and activate by early November, but have not tried it out yet. I also have installed Canon's DPP and the beta version of On1 Photo RAW 2018 to try when I have some time. I have yet to install the trial version of Capture One -- that will wait until I know I have some time to play with it. Finally, I have Photoshop Elements 2018 -- I had upgraded from my old version 10 a couple of weeks ago when I bought a new PC and before Adobe made their announcement on dumping the perpetual license model for LR.

Hopefully one of the above will meet my needs. I can mostly live without the digital asset management (DAM) features of Lightroom, as I have my photos well organized in a folder system. I just need a quality RAW processor with the non-destructive editing capabilities that LR provided. The only DAM feature of LR which I really need is the ability to quickly preview all new photos upon import so I can select which to keep and which to delete before beginning the editing process. I never saved anything in DNG format, either, so all my original files are still RAW with the edits recorded within Lightroom. All photos were also exported to jpeg format upon completion of editing, and I rarely go back and re-edit old photos, so even not having the old edits of the RAW files is not a huge deal for me -- I can always re-edit from the start on those rare occasions.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I chuckled at On1's migration options from LR to On1 (i.e., no easy road if you want to go back and re-edit photos with a lot of changes made to them in LR initially, but it's mostly on rare occasions that I also re-edit photos after I'm done with that particular set anyway).

 

[Patrick Sun]

I wonder if I already have LR 5.7, if it'd be worth it to snag LR 6 at this point in time.