Disclaimer: As an Adobe Community Professional, I receive my Creative Cloud membership at no charge. This does not influence my views in any way.

What is Creative Cloud

In a nutshell, the Creative Cloud is a subscription service that offers all of Adobe’s creative software, 20GB of storage, and a slew of other benefits such as syncing and web/app publishing. All of this comes with a monthly fee, which can vary depending on a few factors.

Pricing

This is where things get confusing. Adobe is offering the Creative Cloud at a few price points, which are outlined below.

Complete (All Apps)

• New Subscribers: $50/month
• Current CS6 Owners: $20/month for the first year
• CS3 and later customers: $30/month for the first year

Single Apps

• New Subscribers: $20/month
• CS3 and later customers: $10/month for the first year

No More Perpetual Licenses

Starting in June, Adobe will no longer be offering perpetual licenses for their new software. If you want to remain up to date, a Creative Cloud subscription is required. When Adobe announced this change, the Internet went on defense. Customers complained that they don’t want to be ‘renting’ software, they’d rather ‘own’ it.

To an extent, I agree. Just like my Internet service, I don’t want to worry that, if I miss a monthly payment, my connection will shut off. The same goes for the Creative Cloud. Customers don’t want to lose their software if they miss a payment, or if their subscription is cancelled.

Understandable, but Adobe is offering a 99 day grace period for annual subscribers who may not have access to the Internet every month.

However, I do agree that once a subscription is cancelled, the software shouldn’t just cease to exist (in some situations). Customers who have made ‘x’ amount of on-time monthly payments should have the option to keep some or all of their software if their subscription is cancelled (depending on how much has been paid). This would mean no new updates until payment is resumed, but at least you wouldn’t be without your work tools.

“I Don’t Own My Software!”

You never really ‘owned’ previous versions, either. But this goes back to my previous point that I feel Creative Cloud subscribers should have the option to keep their software once they meet a payment threshold.

“It’s Too Expensive!”

This is another common complaint, which can go in either direction. Let’s take a look at some math to figure out if this is true or not.

Assuming you’re a current CS6 Master Collection owner who keeps up to date, the upgrade price would be $525, every approximately two years ($1050).

With the Creative Cloud, at $30/month (for the first year), you’re out $360 for the first year, and $600 for the second year when the price goes up to $50/month.

To some, that may seem like a $435 loss, but amongst all the benefits of being a Creative Cloud member, you’re getting frequent updates and new features. You’ll no longer need to wait until Adobe releases the next ‘big’ paid update. When new features are ready, you’ll be able to download them right away.

Plus, if you’re one to jump on every new release, at the end of the second year, when “CS8” would have come out, that’s another $525 hit for a perpetual license, which brings you $90 in the green by subscribing to the Creative Cloud!

“I Only Want Photoshop! Rawr!”

Okay, fine! You can! If you’re only looking to use Photoshop and nothing else, as mentioned in the pricing plans above, users can subscribe to individual applications starting at $10/month, which also includes the 20GB of storage!

“I Don’t Want to Upgrade!”

So don’t! If you ‘own’ CS6 or lower, no one is forcing you into the Creative Cloud. If the new features in Photoshop CC aren’t attractive to you, don’t upgrade. Stick with your current version, and be happy. Of course, once an attractive upgrade is available, the Creative Cloud is waiting for you.

Listen Up, Photographers!

Photographers have been one of the heavy hitters in this debate, but Adobe has some answers!

Adobe has confirmed that, in addition to being part of the Creative Cloud, Lightroom 5 will also be available as a perpetual software license, which means you’ll be able to purchase it at full price, and use it forever.

Why I Prefer The Creative Cloud

• Assuming that I was a paying customer, which I was before I became an ACP, paying monthly for my software allows me, as a business owner, to not only plan my expenses, but factor my payments into my invoices. It also allows me to spread out the once expensive upgrade price.
• No more do I have to search the planet for my serial number, which was usually on the back of the DVD case. Simply log into your account with your AdobeID, and you’re in!
• Updates galore! When a new feature is ready, it’s in your hands. Waiting 2 years for an upgrade was boring!
• In the rare case that I have to use a Windows machine, my Creative Cloud membership allows me to install Adobe software on both the Mac and Windows.
• As I use Adobe software for my business, I have no intentions of canceling my subscription.

Misconceptions

• You do NOT need to be connected to the Internet at all times in order to use Photoshop. You only need to be connected to download the software, and once every 99 days (for annual subscribers) to validate payment.
• You do NOT run applications in your web browser. All software is downloaded and installed on your computer, just like before.
• Your work is NOT stored in the cloud. All of your work remains on your local hard drive, with the option of saving a COPY to your Creative Cloud account.

Get Used to It

Whether you like it or not, subscription models are here to stay. Adobe may be one of the first to offer such an extensive subscription, but more will follow. Software companies, gaming platforms, and so on. It may not be this year, it may not even be next year, but this will be common practice very soon.

Ideas

Sure, the Creative Cloud model isn’t perfect, and it isn’t right for everyone. Here are some ideas which I think will make it a more attractive service.

• The option to keep software after a payment threshold is met. This would allow users to safely cancel their Creative Cloud membership, but still have access to their work tools. However, once the subscription is cancelled, the user would no longer receive ‘new feature’ updates until their subscription is renewed. Think of this idea like leasing a car. Once the lease is paid off, many car companies allow you to take ownership of the car. You just wouldn’t get the new model without a new lease.
• More specific ‘bundles’. Photographers would love a Photoshop/Lightroom bundle instead of subscribing to the whole suite of software.
• Loyalty pricing. If you’ve been a CS user for many years, monthly pricing will remain at the ‘introductory’ rate.
• More storage. 20GB seems like a nice amount of space, until you start uploading your elaborate designs to the cloud. Considering that Dropbox offers 100GB for $10/month, a bump in storage would be nice to see for Creative Cloud members.

More Questions?

If you have more questions about the Creative Cloud, please refer to this article by Chief Customer Advocate, Jeffrey Tranberry.

Check out what’s new in Photoshop CC | Learn more about Creative Cloud

Read my thoughts on Adobe’s Creative Cloud

Top 5 Features

Camera Shake Reduction

Demoed during the last MAX, Adobe’s ‘deblurring’ feature will be one of the most talked about features in this release.

What Shake Reduction Is

This feature is geared at blurry photos due to camera shake. For instance, if you were nudged during shooting, or the wind caught your camera, this feature will give you nice results.

What Shake Reduction Isn’t

Before you get disappointed in your results, Shake Reduction will not fix blurry images due to misfocus, or images that contain motion blur. If you focused on a subject in the background, instead of the subject in the foreground, Shake Reduction will give you disappointing results. Also, if your subject moved while you were taking the picture, motion blur will usually not be fixed using Shake Reduction.

Examples

Here are a few examples to show you the results that Shake Reduction can achieve.

Camera Raw Filter

Camera Raw has traditionally been used to edit raw images, but now in Photoshop CC, you’re able to access Camera Raw as a filter. This not only allows you to edit your raw images after they’ve been open, but it also gives you the option to use Camera Raw on your every-day layers!

Upright, Radial Filter, Improved Healing Brush

For those who have been using the Lightroom 5 beta, you may be familiar with Upright, Radial Filter, and improved healing brush. If you’re not a Lightroom user, you’ll be happy to hear that these features are now part of Camera Raw in Photoshop CC.

Upright

The new Upright feature allows you to automatically straighten out your images using the “Auto” mode, or the three specific modes that are also available; Level, Vertical, or Full.

Radial Filter

In previous versions of Camera Raw, you were able to apply selective adjustments by using a Graduated Filter, as well as the Adjustment Brush. Now, a new Radial Filter has been added for even more selective adjustment goodness! If you were one of the many users who would have loved to create painless, customizable vignettes, life just got awesome!

Improved Healing Brush

In addition to spot healing, which has been available in previous versions of Camera Raw, you can now create brush strokes for your healing needs.

32-Bit HDR Toning in Camera Raw

If you’ve done work with 32-bit HDR images before, you may be familiar with steps that needed to be taken in order to properly tone that image. Photoshop CC makes the process a bit easier, especially for those who don’t use or own Lightroom.

Now, once you’ve brought your images into HDR Pro, you have the option to tone the image directly in Camera Raw, avoiding the need for Lightroom or any other external application.

Improved Smart Sharpen

Smart Sharpen has been in Photoshop for quite a while, but in Photoshop CC, improvements have been made to help reduce noise and haloing, which you may have gotten in previous versions.

Editable Rounded Rectangles

Finally, FINALLY, the corners of rounded rectangles can be edited after they’ve been created! In your Properties panel, you can adjust all four corners at once, or tweak them individually. What’s even cooler, is that if you started with a regular rectangle, you can still curve out the corners later on!

Multiple Path Selection

In previous versions of Photoshop, even when you had two vector shapes selected, their paths were not visible in the Paths panel. In Photoshop CC, the paths of your selected shape layers will appear in the Paths panel.

This also works for standalone paths. If you’ve created two paths on your document, you can now select both of them, just like you can select multiple layers. Multiple paths can also be reordered, deleted, and duplicated.

Isolation Mode

Working with many layers can be quite the chore! Wouldn’t it be great it there was a way to isolate one of your layers for a distraction free workflow? Now there is!

Isolating a layer is a great idea if your design contains many vector based shapes, and you’d like to avoid altering other paths.

Isolation can also be triggered by double-clicking on a path with either the Direct or Path Selection Tool.

Intelligent Upsampling

Photographers and designers often find themselves with ‘smaller than desired’ documents, which they’d like to scale up for print. Unfortunately, scaling up a rasterized image usually results in heavy pixelation and blurriness. In Photoshop CC, the Image Size dialogue contains new options to help you enlarge your photos, while preserving details, sharpness, and giving you the option to reduce noise.

Creative Cloud Integration

Users have been asking for more syncing options for quite some time. Now that the Creative Cloud is in full swing, Photoshop CC users can now sync many aspects of Photoshop to the cloud, which syncs with other installations they may have.

When you first launch Photoshop CC, you’ll be asked if you want to sync your settings with the Creative Cloud.

If you choose not to sync on launch, you can always turn on and customize your sync settings within Photoshop’s preferences.

3D Improvements

In Photoshop CS6, 3D received a huge upgrade from CS5. Since then, the 3D functionality within Photoshop continues to improve with each update. Photoshop CC brings more improvements to create a more fluid 3D workflow.

Live Paint

Similar to Cinema 4D BodyPaint, Live Paint in Photoshop CC allows you to paint on your texture document and view a live preview of the result. For best results, arrange your documents so you can see both the texture and 3D mesh at the same time. Window > Arrange will give you a few options to do you.

Now, once you start painting on your texture, you’ll see the updates in real-time!

Unlit Textures

When working in a 3D environment, lighting, shadows, and bump maps can obstruct the view of your mesh’s texture. If you’re live painting, you may want to view your mesh without any distractions to be able to see the full texture. Now, in the Scene properties, you can choose to view your textures as “Unlit“, which ignores any lighting, shadows, and bump maps.

Texture/Paint Projection

There will be times where you have your mesh in the ‘perfect’ spot, but your texture isn’t displaying properly due to the viewpoint. With layer projections, you’re able to paint or place a texture on a blank layer right above your 3D mesh, then merge it down to project it right onto your mesh.

Release Date

Photoshop CC will be released on June 17th, and will only available on a subscription basis. You can subscribe to the Creative Cloud starting at $19.99/month, or individual applications like Photoshop starting at $9.99/month.

Click here to learn about the Creative Cloud

What are Smart Previews?

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Current digital cameras take massive raw photos! While most sit around 20MBs, some can hit upwards of 60MBs each! After a day of shooting, you can find yourself with a few gigabytes of photos. Instead storing photos on a computer’s hard drive, many users choose to use an external hard drive for their photos.

Here’s the problem. If you’re a laptop user, your internal hard drive space can be quite limiting. Storing all your raw photos will fill it up very quickly! So if you decide to store your photos on an external drive, you previously had to bring that drive with you to edit your photos.

No more with Smart Previews!

In Lightroom 5, your raw files no longer need to be online in order to edit them. When Smart Previews are generated for your photos, Lightroom stores a ‘slim’ version of the original, allowing you to edit your photos, even when the massive raw file is offline!

Enabling Smart Previews

There are a few ways to build Smart Previews. When you are importing your images, check the “Build Smart Previews” field in the File Handling Panel, as seen below.

Additionally, if you would like the “Build Smart Previews” checkbox enabled by default, in your Lightroom Preferences, you can turn on “Build Smart Previews During Import“.

What about for existing photos?! Don’t panic! Under the Library > Previews menu, you can choose to build Smart Previews for your existing photos!

Working with Smart Previews

In the case that the original image is offline, the Smart Preview comes to the rescue to take its place. This is only until the original comes back online, of course. During this time, you can continue to make adjustments to your image, which Lightroom 5 will remember, and once the original image makes an appearance, the adjustments you made to the Smart Preview will be applied to the original, as well!

Notes About Smart Previews

- Exporting as an ‘Original’ is not available while a Smart Preview is active, as the original file needs to be online.
- Smart Previews can be published (Facebook, email, etc).
- Quick develop works with Smart Previews.
- Zooming to 1:1 may seem different, as Smart Previews tend to be smaller than the original image.

Learn more about Lightroom 5! Click here!

User Interface Text Size

By default, the UI text size is set to “Small”, which for some people, may be difficult to see. Here’s how to enlarge it.

Preferences

To access this feature, you need to hop into Photoshop’s interface preferences.

Windows: Edit > Preferences > Interface
Mac: Photoshop > Preferences > Interface

Once you’re in the interface preferences, towards the bottom, you’ll see the Text option, where you can choose from one of three sizes; Small, Medium, Large.

Comparison

Here’s a look at the difference between the small and large settings.

Small:

Large:

Dialogue Boxes

In addition to the workspace’s UI becoming larger, you’ll also see the change within dialogue boxes, such as Layer Styles, as seen below.

A Big Difference?

The difference you’re going to see between the small and large settings won’t be astronomical, but it will be enough to ease your eye strain. I hope this helps!

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For more information about Doctor Who and the 50th anniversary, check out BBC. Also, be sure to check out my free Doctor Who wallpapers!

Doctor Who Inspired Designs

About Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord—a time travelling, humanoid alien known as the Doctor. He explores the universe in his ‘TARDIS’, a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, a common sight in Britain in 1963, when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, the Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilisations, help ordinary people, and right wrongs. (via Wikipedia)

Video

What do you guys think? Do people typically see themselves as ‘uglier’ than they actually are?

Smart Previews

Smart previews are ‘light’ versions of your original images, which are automatically called upon in the case that the original is unavailable (offline). These images can be edited in place of the original, until it comes back online.

Video

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Enabling Smart Previews

There are a few ways to build Smart Previews. When you are importing your images, check the “Build Smart Previews” field in the File Handling Panel, as seen below.

Additionally, if you would like the “Build Smart Previews” checkbox enabled by default, in your Lightroom Preferences, you can turn on “Build Smart Previews During Import“.

What about for existing photos?! Don’t panic! Under the Library > Previews menu, you can choose to build Smart Previews for your existing photos!

Working with Smart Previews

In the case that the original image is offline, the Smart Preview comes to the rescue to take its place. This is only until the original comes back online, of course. During this time, you can continue to make adjustments to your image, which Lightroom 5 will remember, and once the original image makes an appearance, the adjustments you made to the Smart Preview will be applied to the original, as well!

Notes About Smart Previews

- Exporting as an ‘Original’ is not available while a Smart Preview is active, as the original file needs to be online.
- Smart Previews can be published (Facebook, email, etc).
- Quick develop works with Smart Previews.
- Zooming to 1:1 may seem different, as Smart Previews tend to be smaller than the original image.

Improved Healing

In previous versions of Lightroom, the Spot Removal tool used the ‘circle spots’ method to heal your photos. A click+drag would use the ‘click’ as the area to be healed, and the end of the drag would be the source. While this method works well, you’re limited to a circular area.

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Healing BRUSH!

Now in Lightroom 5, in addition to the ‘spot’ method, you can now use the Spot Removal as a brush! By default, you have the ability to click+drag overtop of the area you want to heal. The white area in the image below shows the brush bring applied.

Once the brush is released, the healing takes place, similar to the Spot Healing Brush in Photoshop.

Legacy Support

Of course, if you prefer the old method of healing, using the spots, that’s still available to you in a variety of ways.

Single Click - Performing a single click will create a circle spot and attempt to heal the clicked area. If the result isn’t as desired, the source spot can be moved with a click+drag on the source. (If you do not see the spot overlay, you can activate it by pressing the H shortcut key).

Command/Ctrl + Drag – This will create a spot at the starting location, and define the source at the ending location. Again, spots can be moved even after they’ve been created.

Notes on the Spot Removal Tool:

- A new shortcut has been added! Use “Shift + Q” to switch between Clone and Heal modes.

Radial Filter

In previous versions of Lightroom, you were able to apply selective adjustments by using a Graduated Filter, as well as the Adjustment Brush. In Lightroom 5, a new Radial Filter has been added for even more selective adjustment goodness! If you were one of the many users who would have loved to create painless, customizable vignettes, life just got awesome!

Video

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With the new Radial Filter, located beside the Graduated Filter, you can drag out an ellipse, or Command/Ctrl + double click the image to set the ellipse to the image bounds. From there, the adjustments that you know and love are ready to be put to use!

Upright

Straightening a crooked image has always been a chore. Wouldn’t it be great it there was a feature that did it for you? Upright does just that! Using a complex algorithm, Lightroom searches for key lines in your photo to straighten it out, whether it’s a horizon or a building.

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Using Upright

With your Develop module open, head down to the Lens Corrections, and turn on Enable Profile Corrections (Upright works better when this is enabled). Now select one of the four Upright settings. In most situations, Auto will straighten out your image with pretty high accuracy, but you’re free to try out the other options, as well.

Upright Modes

Off: Upright is disabled (no adjustment). This is the default option.

Auto: Apply an automatic “balanced” correction to the image. It generally tries to level the image and fix converging horizontal and vertical lines, but will be conservative (e.g., it will not completely fix converging verticals if doing so would involve an overly strong correction that would result in distorting too many image features). In general, Auto will not be the same as Full, Level, or Vertical.

Full: Apply a full 3D correction to the image (level + fix converging horizontals and verticals), even if it involves an extremely strong correction (large rotations).

Level: Level the image (i.e., fix tilts). Similar to an automatic application of the Straighten tool or using the Rotate slider. Does not fix converging horizontals/verticals.

Vertical: Combines the leveling step (see previous item) with fixing converging verticals.

Other Worthy Updates

PNG Support!

Lightroom now supports PNGs! Need I say more? If your imported PNG contains transparency, it will appear as white, and if you choose to “edit-in Photoshop”, the PNG will be converted to either to a TIFF or a PSD, depending on your preferences.

Fullscreen Mode

In Lightroom 5, a new fullscreen mode has been added. By pressing “F“, you will enter a more ‘true’ fullscreen mode to view your photos. Of course, if you prefer the legacy fullscreen functionality, “Shift + F” will activate it.

Go Get It!

To learn more about Lightroom 5, check out Adobe’s blog post, and to download the beta, grab it over at Adobe Labs!

Doctor Who Wallpapers

All images are 1920 x 1080 pixels. iPhone, iPad and higher res versions will be released soon, but feel free to modify the designs below to fit your device.

Download All Three!

The Tardis

Gold Dalek

Red Dalek

If you have any suggestions for future designs, leave them in the comments below!

The Journey

Started in 2007, I released my first Photoshop tutorial to YouTube, never expecting what was around the corner. As I wrote about in my “How Photoshop Saved My Life” article, these tutorials kept me occupied, and out of trouble. But even with the fantastic comments and messages that I receive from viewers all over the world, I have been battling the negativity since day one. As a result, my views have been on a steady decline since 2010. 6 years, hundreds of videos, and over 80 million views later, I am physically and mentally drained. So today, I say goodbye to the agony that I have put up with over the last few years, and hello to a brighter tomorrow.

Negativity

Many may not see it, but the amount of negativity I receive is mind boggling. It’s gotten to the point where I have had to bring aboard an intern specifically to deal with hate comments and emails. I tend to keep the negativity in the dark, but occasionally I let some of it slip, as I did in my “You Stole That” article.

What This Means For You

As you may have feared, yes, this means the end of IceflowStudios training. I will no longer be producing Photoshop or Lightroom tutorials. I simply can’t bear to look at a microphone any longer. As for content that’s already available, I will be closing down my YouTube channel at the end of this week. That should give you guys enough time to figure out how to download past tutorials, if you so choose.

Thank You

To those who have supported me over the years, thank you. This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I feel it’s a necessary one. Will I be back? Who knows.

Update: April Fools!

As some of you [correctly] guessed, this morning’s post was an April Fools’ joke. I honestly didn’t expect such a response. Thanks for all the kind words, and I’m sorry to those who took it seriously. New tutorials are coming soon!

Video

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Source Files

The images that I’m using in this tutorial were both found on Shutterstock.