I’ve had an Adobe subscription for over 10 years now, possibly close to 15. Even though I’ve been more of a Capture One user for the last 3 years for my photography editing, I still maintain my Adobe Photography Plan to use Lightroom mobile and Adobe Photoshop. While I’ve been fairly impressed with the additions and improvements they’ve brought to the table for the most part of the last decade, I can’t say I’m a big fan of their love affair with AI and everything to do with it. With the announcement of the price increase that’s going to hit all monthly payment plan subscribers in 2025, I might just pull the plug on Adobe altogether. Unless they decide to give some of us a separate, non-AI-priced plan.
What Gives Adobe?
I believe the price of all their Creative Cloud plans is about to increase in some countries at the start of 2025 and in others around March this year. But let’s talk specifically about the Photography Plan (20 GB). If you head to the FAQ page about Creative Cloud Photography (20GB) pricing changes and click on theWhy is the price of my Creative Cloud Photography plan (20GB) changing question, you’re presented with this:
“We are committed to continually improving our plans to meet the needs of all creative users, from enthusiasts to professionals. The Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan has embraced the latest advancements in digital imaging and continues to be a powerful solution for editing, organizing, storing, and sharing images for anyone interested in photography.
Since its launch over a decade ago, the Photography plan (20GB) has maintained its competitive pricing, all the while expanding to include highly sought-after apps like Lightroom for mobile, Photoshop for iPad and the web, among others.
Recent additions to your membership include tools capabilities like Select Subject, Remove Background, and the Contextual Task Bar in Photoshop and Lens Blur, Denoise, and hundreds of Premium Presets in Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. In addition, we are committed to supporting photographers and continuing to innovate across our platform, including Lightroom Classic. “
To me, this just sounds like a fancy way of Adobe saying – Hey folks, we’ve gotten too deep into AI without realizing how expensive it would be. Since we have no way of slowing it down without burning up our cash reserves, we’ve decided to pass on those costs to you. We realize you’ve been long-time users of us now, so we know you don’t really have another alternative to start looking for at such short notice. Some of you might leave since you can’t pay the annual fee upfront or afford the monthly increase. We can hardly be bothered as we need more cash to come up with more and more AI-related gimmicks that photographers like you will hardly ever use.
I’d argue this increase is mostly coming from all the generative AI investments for Adobe Firefly. But speak to serious photographers who use Lightroom and Photoshop for editing their photos, and I’d be willing to wager that most of them don’t need any of the generative tools that Adobe wants to sell to us via this price increase.
Do I have a personal grudge against Adobe – no.
Am I darn peeved off over this increase in the monthly plan – damn right I am.
What has been a convenient payment method for over 10 years now has me contemplating between finding how to pay upfront for a year or canceling my plan altogether and just doing all my edits on a desktop. This one change alone isn’t really what’s worrying; it’s a series of moves by Adobe over the last few years that have had a lot of us worried about whether they truly value their customers over their shareholders. Here are some of the pieces we’ve penned in recent years that you should read if you have similar concerns about them:
- Understanding Adobe and its AI Use of Images and Data: – That time last year, when many Adobe users were outraged that they unknowingly opted in to have Adobe analyze their images to train its AI
- Nearly 1 Billion Images in, Is Photoshop Generative AI Being Used Ethically? – Our concerns on how ethical the Firefly AI training was.
- The Dystopian Future of Photoshop Raises Lots of Questions: When Adobe showed us they could create an image without needing a photograph at all.
- The New Adobe Terms of Use Have Upset Photographers: Adobe suddenly decided that they would sift through all your images anyway, under the guise of “content moderation” to combat illegal and child sexual abuse material.
- What Photographers Should Know About the Adobe Lawsuit: Adobe was sued by the FTC for charging an early termination fee when you wanted to cancel your plan.
- How Much Did Adobe Make From the Cancellation Fees?: Check out our approximation of the whopping amount Adobe could have made from the earlier-mentioned termination fees.
- Has Adobe Forgotten About Photographers?: Adobe’s announcements for Lightroom at Adobe Max 2024 clearly showed they didn’t value photography or photographers.
- Adobe Stock Finds New Ways To Hurt Photographers: Adobe allows Generative Edits and Generate Variations (Firefly tools) to be used on any stock photograph before it is licensed
Is There A Solution?
For photographers, I think Adobe’s AI capabilities and features peaked around October 2022 when their desktop version (non-Classic) got a load of AI tools. These were great additions because they weren’t generative AI nonsense. They genuinely could help photographers edit their photographs faster and more seamlessly get their work out. To me, this was Adobe bringing out a version upgrade with photographers in mind. The majority of genuine photographers like you and me don’t give two hoots about any generative AI capabilities that Adobe has now or has in mind for the years ahead. Stuff like this is why I don’t really care about Skylum‘s software and its sky replacement capabilities, as good or not they might be. So why are we now having to pay for Adobe’s incessant desire to swim in the questionably unethical ocean that is AI?
Give Me A Non-Generative AI Photography (20 GB) Plan
I would prefer to continue paying Adobe USD 9.99 monthly, just as I have been doing for the most part of my professional career. I definitely don’t want to have to pay over 50% more at USD 14.99 just to continue paying monthly instead of an upfront annual fee. What could make a lot of us photographers happy is if Adobe continued to allow us to keep this plan at 9.99 a month and exclude all the generative AI features they claim to so generously be adding for our benefit. Leave out the Generative Remove AI feature which looks like it was introduced to counter what Samsung and Google introduced in their phones (allowing you to remove your ex from a photograph). Take away the Adaptive Presets for Portraits, too, if you must. I can live without the Quick Actions. And I’m certain later this year, you’ll say that I can add butterflies to the skies in my photos and turn a still photo into a cinemagraph with one click.
Seriously, skip all the generative AI features and don’t make me pay another USD 60 a year to have to continue paying you monthly. I’m a professional, and this unwanted increase seriously irks me. Imagine what all the amateurs out there must feel like at the moment. Why inadvertently urge them to move away from Adobe, or worse, have them consider software piracy as a means to get their editing done?
Honestly, if Capture One brings out their mobile app to Android this year, I probably won’t have any more reason to stay on this Adobe plan anymore.