Digital BW, The Print

On 11/25/2013 02:40 PM, jimbo wrote:
> Ernst,
> The path your taking is fine, especially if your not favorable to the
> moves that Adobe is taking.. The question does and will remain however
> if this path delivers what the other path would .. So that answer will
> always be up in the air.. having said that and your asking what others
> think about your not going the way of Adobe.. I would like to say this.
> I was all geared up on my end to by pass Adobe's new way of doing
> business but it still bugged me as I was being a bit stubborn plus I
> will have to spend some bucks to go that route..  They then came out
> with the Photographers package which included PS CC, LR 5.2, Beyonce,
> 20Gb of storage that can be used as a drop or place for clients to get
> data and also a few freebee's like Bridge CC which interfaces with all
> CS 6 apps..and maybe older issues but I haven't tested that yet..
> Anyway it's 9.99 a month so 120 bucks US for a year.. I did it simply
> for the test ride so that I can make a proper decision... I feel that if
> after that time I can live without it then I simply will but I also feel
> that this way I'll have all the facts and not be dealing with jimbo's
> stubborn streak.. If you choose to do that I especially feel it would be
> a good thing as you have chosen to walk both sides of the fence.. In the
> end you too would have all the tools necessary to make the perfect
> decision.. We are all doing this going different ways.. But to really
> compare and share we, in my opinion , need to know what's on both sides
> of the fence.. Your having PS 5.5 makes you eligible for the package..
> so your call but just saying..ok?
> Also not sure who here uses many plugins.. but Nik and OnOne and several
> others work very well with PS & LR and the improvements in smart objects
> in the latest version now allow the use of all the raw tools on tiff and
> similar files including non destructive editing.
> jimbo


Jimbo, thank you for your comment.

There are several factors why I decided that. Some with more logic, in 
other cases based on sentiments I am not ashamed off.

66 years now. How long I will do business is one thing but I will 
continue with photography and printing in another fashion. I can learn 
some new tricks but see that it is not going as fast as it used to be. 
To explore two or more paths to find the best one is not a good choice 
anymore. I can find my way in Qimage Ultimate, DPP, ACR and Photoshop CS 
5.5, Neat Image, Vuescan and some other programs. The limitations in 
some are compensated by other programs and none, including Photoshop, 
have the full scope aboard. Not now and not in the future. I see a lot 
of knowledgeable people go by the horses for courses approach with good 
reasons so why shouldn't I follow their path? Some even creating their 
own applications being unsatisfied by existing programs for various 
reasons. I do not see Adobe as a real inventor either in for example 
features for printing, Lightroom is still behind Qimage Ultimate there. 
DxO has the better lens and sensor information + algorithms to exploit 
them. Many Open Source initiatives have people aboard that show 
creativity and knowledge in programming and the tasks needed. They act 
on user demands more than on marketing strategies. Slick ergonomic GUIs 
do not have the appeal for me that they have for others. I usually get 
the feeling that it obscures the functions for the user.

The other one is that I never liked to deal with big companies and Adobe 
in particular. I had some nasty experiences with Adobe on purchases like 
the company taking 3x the amount I had to pay for a CS upgrade. That 
took more than a month to rectify.
It has a bad protection of my identity as shown last month. I have some 
reservations about the security (and hype) of the cloud in general. The 
chance the content of my HDs ,hidden in the shed, gets stolen by a nasty 
NSA employee must be 1 to a billion compared to cloud storage. Yes, I 
know nobody is interested in my data.  Adobe's pricing for Europe is as 
usual not representing the Euro<>$ rate even if I count in that we have 
a VAT system. We should go on an international cloud yet I would need a 
more expensive EU subscription. For what reason?
I do not have the impression that Adobe has a good price/performance on 
the goods they deliver and I am not prepared to subsidize 8000 men 
working there or share holders when I see that some software groups like 
Mike Chaney's shop (4 men) deliver far more for the money than this 
mastodont does, even on innovative features. I can contact Mike and get 
an answer. There are more small companies like that and they get my 
support where possible. Some gurus may have better connections with 
Adobe but they also have a biased opinion which does not help in 
discussions and in solving issues.

I see Adobe/Apple throw their weight around in this industry and fine 
porcelain like profile target printing gets broken and in the end it has 
to be repaired by third parties like Roy Harrington without even an 
excuse by Adobe to its customers. Whoever caused that issue does not 
matter, it was not flawed on my Windows system. Adobe has no interest in 
users that like to fine tune their workflow. It likes to sell its 
proprietary, black box solutions and obeys only to partners that are 
important for its existence.

On the deal here, I could not get that deal based on my Design CS 5.5 
license, one could get it based on whatever Photoshop CS license. Now 
everybody and his aunt can get that deal. I find that as disloyal as the 
first deal was. Something did not go as nice as Adobe expected it to go. 
My gut feeling is that Adobe enters a difficult period in its existence 
with a shrinking graphics market and a growing market of mobile 
applications that show Adobe is not really needed to get things done. 
The pricing of Lightroom is a result of that competition, a good thing. 
Where Adobe is a monopolist it will not go towards competitive pricing. 
It became a monopolist mainly by buying up the competition in the past 
with the exception of InDesign versus Quark. I expect that the programs 
in the Design CS packet including Photoshop will be cows milked by Adobe 
till the company finds a new place in the market. I do not like my 
position in that shift. I am out.


-- 
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst Dinkla

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2012: 500+ inkjet media paper white spectral plots.