Photoshop

FLOOPER

Hi all,

Just want to know if it's possible to buy a Photoshop suite from a few years ago that's subscription free.

I'm just looking for a decent system that will also catalogue my pics also act as simple darkroom.


Thanks

Heebie

I think Photoshop Elements is still sold as a perpetual license and not their subscription bull-hockey.

Photoshop isn't much for organizing, although fill versions come with "Bridge" Adobe's product for organising is lightroom.

Irishphotodesk

Depending on the age of your computer previous versions of photoshop suite may not work, I had to change my laptop last year, hard drive failed on me, tried to reload photoshop cs2 or cs5 onto it but couldn’t ...I was forced into subscription !

I had purchased a secondhand 2017 MacBook Pro, the one that gave up was a 2012 MacBook Pro, which cost me over €3k at the time of purchase, now I have an expensive paperweight.

I have CDs for photoshop cs2 and Lightroom 2 ....cant remember if it was €600/800 when I purchased photoshop originally, either way the subscription model is the way forward, unfortunately.

Alanstrainor

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

Depending on the age of your computer previous versions of photoshop suite may not work, I had to change my laptop last year, hard drive failed on me, tried to reload photoshop cs2 or cs5 onto it but couldn’t ...I was forced into subscription !

I had purchased a secondhand 2017 MacBook Pro, the one that gave up was a 2012 MacBook Pro, which cost me over €3k at the time of purchase, now I have an expensive paperweight.

I have CDs for photoshop cs2 and Lightroom 2 ....cant remember if it was €600/800 when I purchased photoshop originally, either way the subscription model is the way forward, unfortunately.

What happened here is the Macbook got an update that made it exclusively 64bit, all 32bit apps stopped working. So effectively you've run into an OS problem, I would expect the old versions of photoshop/lightroom to run on Windows 10. But then you may run into issues with raw file support.

I was stuck in your position OP, tried hard not to get sucked into a subscription as it's something I hate about modern software/life. But ultimately ended up going with Adobe's photography plan. Tried Luminar 4 and it was pure garbage to use, even though I thought it was ok during the trial. There are other options and even free options, but usually there's some caveat like lack of cataloguing that was a deal breaker.

You have to weigh up what's right for you really, Adobe lightroom and photoshop are amazing bits of software. But a subscription model for a hobby is not ideal depending on your usage.

FLOOPER

Alanstrainor wrote: »

What happened here is the Macbook got an update that made it exclusively 64bit, all 32bit apps stopped working. So effectively you've run into an OS problem, I would expect the old versions of photoshop/lightroom to run on Windows 10. But then you may run into issues with raw file support.

I was stuck in your position OP, tried hard not to get sucked into a subscription as it's something I hate about modern software/life. But ultimately ended up going with Adobe's photography plan. Tried Luminar 4 and it was pure garbage to use, even though I thought it was ok during the trial. There are other options and even free options, but usually there's some caveat like lack of cataloguing that was a deal breaker.

You have to weigh up what's right for you really, Adobe lightroom and photoshop are amazing bits of software. But a subscription model for a hobby is not ideal depending on your usage.

I have the late 2013 MacBook that I think can be upgraded to 64 GB. Elements would be what I think I would go for.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Irishphotodesk

FLOOPER wrote: »

I have the late 2013 MacBook that I think can be upgraded to 64 GB. Elements would be what I think I would go for.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

If you are on a 32bit machine the old CDs will work for you, there might even be free versions available given that it's not supported by Adobe anymore.

retoos

Most of the tools in this list (What’s the Easiest Photo Editing Software? 30+ Tools to Choose From) have been closely compared, but I wanna recommend For photographers who use Photoshop already, Lightroom is also a default option.

Dinarius

Adobe have adopted the Netflix/Amazon/Spotify/etc. price point approach of €10-12 per month.

Given that this gives you Photoshop and Lightroom for the price of about 3 takeaway coffees, they have never been cheaper. I don't use LR (I use CaptureOne for processing files) but I use PS a bit, so it's worth it for me.

If you want a buyout solution you might consider Affinity which is highly thought of in professional circles. I haven't tried it myself.

D.