In all the fanfare of the launch of its more cloud integrated, edit-anywhere Lightroom CC software, Adobe has made a lot of noise about ease-of-use and faster speeds, but it also quietly made reference to the death of the standalone desktop version, Lightroom 6.
With it, it feels like Adobe is turning its back on a certain type of enthusiast photographers: those users who enjoy and care about their photography enough to buy Adobe`s products, but don`t need to edit `in the field` or have clients to justify the ongoing cost of subscription software.
What`s that, Granddad, software in a box? How do you get it onto your phone, then?
With the company stressing ease of use of the latest version, they probably don`t see it that way, but it`s clear that the user who upgrades their camera and their software only occasionally has no place in Adobe`s shiny new future in the cloud.
In my look back at my excitement surrounding the development and launch of Lightroom v1.0, I said I felt that the subscription model `runs counter to the longevity benefit of building a database around my images`. I stand by that.
The tension at the heart of Lightroom
As I understood it, Lightroom was almost two pieces of software in one. In part it was an attempt to provide all the tools a broad range of photographers needed, without the cost and complexity of buying Photoshop. Photoshop`s success and name recognition had meant that lots of users who didn`t really need most of its capabilities, felt they had to buy it. Lightroom gave them an affordable alternative, and allowed Adobe to focus on their professional users (in both photo and non-photographic fields), with Photoshop.
archiving: the creation of a long-term library of work that you might want to refer back to and perhaps update
But, equally, Lightroom was Adobe`s attempt to bring an asset management tool to a wide range of photographers who suddenly found themselves generating and needing to process and store ...
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