Farewell to the Photoshop Tax

A new year's gift for Marcel

December 31, 2011, I had a decision to make: pay to upgrade from Photoshop CS4 to CS5.5 or lose a 20% discount. The end of year deadline served to bring forward a bigger decsion: whether to remain a Photoshop customer at all. I found that I could not justify even the reduced $140 that the increment in version number would cost me. That’s is all the upgrade would have brought: a change of digits at the end of the name that contained no new capabilites that I cared about.

Like many photographers, I am deeply frustrated by Adobe’s change in policy – to no longer offer upgrade pricing for owners of three versions prior but only one (see Scott Kelby’s open letter to Adobe for the full details on this) – but perhaps there is a silver lining? Whether Adobe’s planners are being smart capitalists or doing a Netflix remains to be seen, but it has been quite refreshing to be forced to recognize that I truly don’t need Photoshop at all.

The fundemental reason that photoshop upgrades offer nothing new to photographers is that there is nothing we need that it does not already do and can’t get cheaper elsewhere. Despite the “photo” in the Photoshop name, photographers have not been Adobe’s primary market for the product in a long time (if we ever were). Adobe’s own Lightroom, Apple’s Aperture, ACDSee Photo Manager, and a growing collection of tools from other suppliers cover the needs of photography more effectively than Photoshop; it’s time to move on.

A few weeks ago, right after news of Adobe’s upgrade rule change percolated out, I spent $30 on a copy of Pixelmator through the Mac App Store. It’s not a complete Photoshop replacement, not yet at least, but in combination with Lightroom I am confident I have all my bases covered. I won’t regret discontinuing payment of the semi-annual Photoshop upgrade tax.

One Comment