Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe continues to keep a steady trickle of Photoshop improvements coming. Today it announced improved support for high-DPI monitors, with the Photoshop UI now adapting the native Windows scaling of between 100% and 400%. That will be particularly well received for those (like me) with 4K laptops and less-than-super-human vision. There is also a new slider for Masking off Selections that tries to calibrate how precise you want it to be. Presumably this builds on its “Sensei” machine learning technology for improved results over previous systems.

Adobe rocked the world for many photographers with its cloud-first pivot on Lightroom announced at Adobe MAX 2017. The current CC version has been renamed "Lightroom Classic CC" and gets some performance bumps for loyal desktop-centric users. A new cloud-first version, the new "Lightroom CC" has rolled out. It has a similar UI to the current mobile versions of Lightroom -- a subset of the features found in the desktop version. It requires that all images sync to Adobe's Cloud, for which Adobe charges something extra. Not everyone is thrilled, though, and there is plenty of fear that this means Adobe will de-emphasize its power tools for serious photographers. Along with the new Lightroom, Adobe also made some solid upgrades to its Adobe Photoshop CC. You can read more about the new products and changes in the article I wrote for Extremetech.com.

As a photographer who sometimes needs to create my own banners and Facebook ads, I’m a big fan of Adobe’s Spark design tool. I’ve also used it extensively to create prototype web page layouts to help commercial clients visualize how a product launch or marketing campaign might look. Adobe has just added some exciting new capabilities to Spark, which now allows users to “Brandify” their content. Basically, you can add a logo, focus color, and favorite font, and Spark’s back end will create versions of its templates that respect and use your brand elements.

There is no doubt that Lightroom’s new Reference View is a useful addition to the product. It is a fancy name for allowing you to have a static image displayed on part of the screen while you work on another. This is helpful for looking through a variety of shots, comparing them, checking for stable white balance, etc. However, it does make me laugh a little bit, since if Lightroom supported any type of windowing or multi-document interface – like Photoshop and nearly every other full-blown desktop application, we could already do that, and much more.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend Adobe Max last week. It is one of the largest gatherings of creative professionals in the world, with over 10,000 attendees this year. In literally hundreds of sessions participants learned about the latest and greatest Adobe products, got teasers of Adobe’s future directions, and had the opportunity to get hands-on training with experts. Interspersed were some inspirational keynotes from leading creatives including Quentin Tarantino, Simpsons Director David Silverman, and veteran war photographer Linsey Addario. There was a lot to cover, so I’ve split my coverage of the event into two. First is my overview of what’s new and important in Adobe CC for 2017. Then, here are what I thought were some of the best highlights of Max in photos.

I’ve been using the new June update for Creative Cloud for about a week, and am enjoying both the new Content-aware Crop feature in Photoshop, and the native 360-degree video support in Premiere (anyone who has tried to edit 360-degree video in a traditional video editor knows how painful it can be). There is also much improved integration with Adobe Stock for those of you who buy images, rather than sell them. On the sell side, Adobe has also promised a spiffy contributor portal for Adobe Stock, but no details yet on when it will be available. You can read my full hands-on with sample images on Extremetech.

If you don’t already know the ins and outs of Photoshop, or hate the idea of sending Adobe a check every month forever, Photoshop Elements 14 is easier-to-use, less-expensive, and almost as powerful as its big brother. It also includes image cataloging, so you don’t have to deal with a second application like Lightroom. I’ve done a full hands-on review of it and its companion application, Premiere Elements 14, for Extremetech. As I point out in the review, owning it does not give you access to Adobe’s mobile apps the way a Creative Cloud Photography Plan subscription ($120/year from B&H) does, and it doesn’t allow for syncing to your mobile device. It’s also a bit behind on esoteric features (although Dehaze and camera shake reduction have been added, for example). But its wizards make it far easier to learn and to use than plowing through videos and web tutorials to try to do the same things in Photoshop.