You may recall a while back when Adobe made a big fuss over the launch of Creative Suite 6. It was worth making a fuss about as well since it featured numerous upgrades from previous software versions to make a lot of old programs feel new again, especially Photoshop. The most exciting part of the CS6 launch, however, was the launch of Creative Cloud, a subscription-based program that gives users access to everything in CS6 for a small fee every month.
The cloud is the future and Adobe obviously wants Creative Cloud to be one of the best when the future arrives. To that end, they have begun an initiative to keep Creative Cloud subscribers on top of the latest and greatest software innovations beginning with Photoshop Lightroom.
Adobe announced today that Photoshop Lightroom 4 is now available to all Creative Cloud subscribers. Lightroom is described as “the essential digital photography workflow solution helping amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase images.” Lightroom seems especially well-suited to cloud storage as professional photography is one of the more storage intensive hobbies/professions around.
“The addition of Lightroom to Creative Cloud delivers on our promise to bring the best in Adobe innovation to Creative Cloud members,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “Over the next few months we’ll continue to add new products and services, keeping Creative Cloud members up to date with the latest advancements in Adobe software and services.”
If the allure of Lightroom and promise of more Adobe software has made you itching to get a Creative Cloud subscription, you should be made aware of its limitations. Users pay $49.99 a month to get access to every software application within CS6. That’s great, but users are also limited to only 20 GB of space on said cloud where multiple video and photo projects will take up that space pretty quickly. You can grab a Creative Cloud membership for only $29.99 a month if you can prove that you’re a student or teacher.
If the Creative Cloud just doesn’t interest you in the least, you can get Lightroom 4 for $149 or $79 for the upgrade. If you’re only going to use Lightroom, that’s a pretty good deal. If you want to use the other applications in CS6, Creative Cloud may be the most cost effective option even if I think the $49.99 price tag is a little steep.