Reasons to upgrade from cs 6?

[Guest]

Pro photoshop user here for 20 years.   Still using CS6.  Can anyone give me a good reason to upgrade to the subscription version if you're a pro and don't use filters or gimmicks? 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

If one is ab image editing professional one can hardly not be using Filters.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Liquify being applicable as a Smart Filter is one reason – or was that already the case with CS6? Not sure anymore.

[edgrimley]

I'm still using CS6 and haven't found a good reason to upgrade yet.

[Terri_Stevens]

If you never intend to ever upgrade your current operating system or buy a new camera or don't have any requirement to design for phones or tablets. Don't want any technical support-apart from here-and can do without bugfixes then CS6 will continue to suit you fine.

The fundamentals of Photoshop have not changed for years now and really cannot as it is a digital darkroom and there are only so many things you might want to do in a darkroom, but that doesn't mean things can't be made easier to do. For me the one feature I could not live without is Libraries. To be able to search for stock images, use them and if I like what I get then buy is very useful in the advertising world. Admittedly that can be expensive, but clients are used to charges for assets used.

[gener7]

Here are the added features since CS6. The reasons are up to you.

Photoshop CC new features | More library asset support

[Trevor.Dennis]

I like the ProDesignTools comparison table

What’s the Difference Between New Adobe CC 2017 vs. CS6, 5, 4, 3? | ProDesignTools

For me, roughly in order:

• The price.  If you only need Photoshop, the $10 a month Photography plan is a massive bargain.  This argument is reinforced for Australia and New Zealand because we used to suffer a 50% price gouging hike, but our pricing is inline with America since CC.
• Improved performance from improved use of the GPU.  Some tools work as soon as you move the cursor (Healing Brush)
• Camera RAW as a filter — I had this at the top of my list, but decided by a whisker, that the all round performance increase from the GPU had to take first place.  But Camera RAW as a filter has is like Photoshop's Swiss Army Knife.  I love the local adjustment tools; post crop vignette, grain (excellent for realistic skin texture), HSL sliders (eight way colour manipulation — I am big on targeting colour ranges), lens correction and manual transform, radial filter.  It evan has a half reasonable noise reduction tool.
• Font search, TypeKit, Match Font — these are collectively a biggie (blimey that was almost a Trumpism! )  A genuine time saver.
• Edit 32bit files with ACR — powerful but heavy on system resources.  Killed Photomatix dead in the water for HDR.
• Custom Toolbar and ability to save to custom workspace.  I 'know' this saves me time.  I've always removed shortcuts from tools I don't use, and I don't use the Shift key to toggle tools with same shortcut, but the custom toolbar tidies it up and gives us options.
• CC Libraries — if you make anything you might use again, make it a Smart Object and drag to a library. If you have a client who has favourite fonts and styles, make a CC library for them so you don't have to hunt all the information down next time they want work done.
• Better Smart Guides
• Linked Smart Objects
• Perspective Warp — if you use stock images in composites, and need to tweek perspective.
• Face Aware Liquify — I'm a bit embarrassed admitting to this, but I actually use it.  Liquify works way better with CC as well.
• Multiple layer styles — one drop shadow is never enough.
• New Guide layout — you have to weigh this against the GuideGuide Extension, but the Adobe version is just a bit better.

I am disappointed with the update schedule.  My impression is that we see less really useful new tools and features with CC upgrades, and too many new features are cynically focused on improving revenue streams for Adobe (TypeKit and Stock).  I also feel that Adobe make too big a deal out of old features cobbled together with a script like Content Aware Crop,  or the similar CAF panorama fix tool. 

That's all I can think of, but I'd hate to have to go back to CS6 now.

[D Fosse]

Trevor.Dennis  wrote

(ACR) ... even has a half reasonable noise reduction tool.

"Half reasonable" only because it's optimized for raw data. It's not quite as effective on RGB. Still, I think it's vastly superior to any of the native noise reduction tools in Photoshop - not the least because it allows direct control over many more parameters.

And let's not forget sharpening. As far as I'm concerned, ACR is the only sharpening game in town. It runs circles around anything else, and for the same reasons: fingertip control.

So all in all - yes, the ACR filter is a massive improvement to my daily workflow. It was available before, but required a full and complicated roundtrip.

[darrent17412506]

as always great advice!  hopefully you'll consider doing youtube videos...

[Trevor.Dennis]

as always great advice!  hopefully you'll consider doing youtube videos...

[Test Screen Name]

I tend not to upgrade software for new features unless they are compelling and satisfy a need I'd already identified, because relearning a UI is unproductive time. But these are the key reasons for considering swapping to the subscription model at $120 per year.

* New hardware support. New high res monitor. New camera (really surprised by people who will lay out thousands of bucks on a new camera and expect the software updates to be free).

* New system support. Windows 10 still seems more or less ok(?) but Sierra has so many gratuitous changes it causes problems with a lot of older apps.

* New Mac. Because like it or not it will come with Sierra and can't be downgraded.

* Businesses may have policies forbidding you from running software that is out of support.

So most of these boil down to trying to upgrade part of your setup but not another part.