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Photoshop Creative Cloud?

lilholmes6

GingerScraps Site Creative Team
Does anyone use the Photoshop Creative Cloud or do you know anything about it? I've been reading up on it, but I'm still not sure it's something I'm wanting to invest in. I want to get a newer program, but I'm not sure what to do. I have PSE 12. If the CC is worth it I think I would do it, but I don't want to invest in it if I don't know anything about it. Anyone have any advice for me? Something better?
 
Getting PS CC is on my wish list but I haven't had much time for scrapping lately so am holding off until I have more time to focus on learning the program. I know it doesn't have the photo bin so that will be a big adjustment. But much of the process will be the same - - just lots more options and features not available in Photoshop Elements. I am using PSE 2018 and it had a lot of advances- the biggest is being able to do text in a shape and on a path that the my PSE 5 did not have. Not familiar with PSE 12 but I know it is pretty similar to PSE 2018 - at least a lot of youtube videos from 12 on up seem to have the same features and capabilities.

Considering how quickly and how well you have picked up scrapbooking and learned in PSE. I think you would be just fine. I found a thread with several positive comments on PS CC. Lot of people here use it.

https://forums.gingerscraps.net/showthread.php?43897-creative-cloud-photo-shop
 
Thanks Rochelle! I looked all over to see if anyone had written anything on it before I wrote this. Obviously I didn't look hard enough :(. I'm not sure which plan they're talking about for $10 though. I thought the one we needed to use was $20.99 a month. I'll have to look again. My birthday is Sunday and think I might ask for that, I'm going to have to do some more research though it looks like. Thanks so much for your help. oh, I don't like that it doesn't have the photo bin. What do you do with all of your paper and elements and pictures?!?! Something else to think about.
 
The basic photography plan with 20GB cloud storage, Lightroom and Photoshop CC is the $10 plan. The $20 version offers 100GB cloud storage and also some additional premium features like Adobe Fonts, Adobe Spark etc. You could try a free download - I think it is a 7 day trial. There are also some tutorials on the Adobe site to help learn PS. They are geared more towards learning the program and photography enhancements but still should be very helpful. I have encountered posts of people who made the switch in a facebook group and it sounds like they made the transition to life without the photo bin pretty easily. Just a different way of doing your scrapping flow. I am hoping to take the plunge after the holidays with some Christmas $$ gifts.
 
Well, I took the plunge! I'm downloading it as we speak. I'm going to do the seven day trial and see how that goes, but I think I'm going to love it. I've been watching tutorials on it. I did figure out that the 9.99 program was the one I needed. That's so much easier to swallow than 21.00! Thanks again for the help!
 
Hi Lynn!

I switched from PS Elements to PS CC about 4 years ago, and I LOVE it. I also have the $9.99 per month Photography version.

Here is a Free Photoshop Tutorial, that you may find helpful. It has both Beginner and Experienced courses, so you can pick which ones interest you the most.

Happy Scrapping,
Ginger
 
Thank you so much! I made my first page in it this evening and I didn't do too awful bad. I will go through all of those tutorials though, the beginner as well as the experienced. I love to learn!
 
Lynn I too have been looking at doing the switch but could never convince myself that PSE wasn't good enough for what I do which is just scrapping - no designing. Let me know what you think as you get more familiar with it.
 
Hey Bernice! Well, I've had Photoshop CC for a few days and I've got to say I love it! It has taken some getting use to. It's so much more advanced than what I'm use to using, but I'm teaching myself pretty easily how to use it.

One of the things I really don't like is there is no photo bin. I love having all of my things organized right there where I can see them and you can't do that in this. It's going to take time to get use to that. I'll have to figure out a system.

Anyway, I have found a lot more good than bad, so I am getting the photographer's membership. If you're looking for something new I would suggest you do the seven day free trial and see what you think. I'm hooked :)
 
would love to make the switch as still using pse 10 for all the added features but i rely so heavily on photo bin - one of main reason wont upgrade pse as photo bin is awful since pse 11
 
would love to make the switch as still using pse 10 for all the added features but i rely so heavily on photo bin - one of main reason wont upgrade pse as photo bin is awful since pse 11

I'm getting use to not having the photo bin. At first I really didn't think I could do without it, but I'm hardly noticing that it's not there now. You should try the free trial. If you find you can't live without it, it didn't cost you anything. There's so many upgrades that I think not having the photo bin is worth it. Let me know if you make the leap. Have a great day!
 
I'm getting use to not having the photo bin. At first I really didn't think I could do without it, but I'm hardly noticing that it's not there now. You should try the free trial. If you find you can't live without it, it didn't cost you anything. There's so many upgrades that I think not having the photo bin is worth it. Let me know if you make the leap. Have a great day!

have a 2 month trial of CC now and having terrible time without photo bin - any advice
scrapping just seems so much harder
 
have a 2 month trial of CC now and having terrible time without photo bin - any advice
scrapping just seems so much harder

I wish I had some advice for you. I got use to not having a bin. It might depend on how you organize your kits. I keep my kits together so I can just go in and open my file and work out of it. It makes it really easy, I keep it open while I make my LO. I hope this makes sense and I hope you can figure out a way to make it work for you. Let me know how it goes!
 
I wish I had some advice for you. I got use to not having a bin. It might depend on how you organize your kits. I keep my kits together so I can just go in and open my file and work out of it. It makes it really easy, I keep it open while I make my LO. I hope this makes sense and I hope you can figure out a way to make it work for you. Let me know how it goes!

im a one kit scrapper so all kits are kept together.

i feel i must be missing something - you have to open item ,drag and drop on to lo ( it misses half the time) then you have to close it as you can only have about 4 tabs open at the same time without it going off the screen. and layers arent even named like they are in pse. its jsut layer 1, 2 etc in CC. Only if you place do you get file name in CC
 
You can rename the layers anything you want. That helps me sometimes. as far as the rest, I don't know what to say. I'm guessing it's just something you either get use to or you don't. I really wish you could figure out how to make it work for you. It's no fun to scrap when you're irritated with the program you're working with.
 
I have been reading through this thread and am wondering what I should be focusing on in my 2 month CC free trial. I have been using PSE 15 for two years and really like it but I want to keep doing more and so I am wondering if CC is the way to go. I figure with 2 months to play around I should be fairly sure by mid-April whether CC is for me but am looking for suggestions as to where to start digging in.
 
im a one kit scrapper so all kits are kept together.

i feel i must be missing something - you have to open item ,drag and drop on to lo ( it misses half the time) then you have to close it as you can only have about 4 tabs open at the same time without it going off the screen. and layers arent even named like they are in pse. its jsut layer 1, 2 etc in CC. Only if you place do you get file name in CC

I recently switched to PS CC and love it and havent really missed the photo bin.
Hopefully i have a suggestion that might help. I use all my program and folder windows so they are not full screen. I have PS at the right side of the screen and my scrapping management program (or windows file explorer folder) nested behind and use windows 10 task bar to easily switch between the two.
The trick is to have your layout in PS as a free floating window. By default everything is tabbed- just grab the tab and pull down away from where it is "attached" to make it free floating. I position the free floating window so it over hangs the PS program window at the left. This way when i open my scrap supply folder (minimized window) from the taskbar, i can still see my layout window peeking from behind at the left. I just grab the paper or elements i want and drag and drop them directly onto my layout. File names stay intact this way.
I apologize for not seeing this sooner. I dont have internet access or my computer with me so i cant attached a screen shot and making this post from my phone. I will check back in a couple days and post a screenshot if needed.
 
I've had photoshop CC for a while now and prior to it was 2 different versions of photoshop. I also 'had' pse versions 1-10 for years because I taught it.
I'm very happy with it.
The PSE newer versions do a lot. So unless you are really into some serious photo editing it's not necessary.
m
 
have 2 weeks left of my 2 month trial - still miss the photo bin from pse 10 . realize you need to have super large monitor ( 32 and up ) or 2 monitors other wise you have to constantly bring up your layout as described above which is lots of extra clicking. one thing i do like is that extractions are so much better in CC and so are drop shadows. Long files names are nice too but i do know later versions of pse has that too. interface in CC is better than pse11 and up.


want to try lightroom classic but totally lost as to where to begin.
 
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I just work on a laptop. Another option to minimize the amount of clicking is to use one of PS CC scripts to streamline some of your process.
Go to the Menu- File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack.

Then use the Browse button to navigate to your kit folder and select all the items you might want in your layout. Once the files are all listed hit the OK button and wait for PS to build the stack.

I have found that this may create a document that is not 12 x 12 so I select all the layers of the Stack document in the layer panel - hold the shift key down (to center on the new document) and drag them all over into my new 12x12 document. The file names will stay intact. The stack kind of loads elements haphazardly. Hope to someday play and see if I can at least get all the papers to load at the bottom of the stack.

Would probably be easiest to have your document windows as floating documents in the work space. Go to Menu>Edit>Preferences>Workspace and be sure "Load Documents as Tabs" is unticked. This will change the default settings for how PS works. I just prefer working with floating windows instead of tabbed.

I am struggling with the drop shadow settings. Seems like my preferred settings for different items in PSE just don't look right in PS CC. I spend a lot more time fiddling with them than I used too.
 
I just work on a laptop. Another option to minimize the amount of clicking is to use one of PS CC scripts to streamline some of your process.
Go to the Menu- File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack.

Then use the Browse button to navigate to your kit folder and select all the items you might want in your layout. Once the files are all listed hit the OK button and wait for PS to build the stack.

I have found that this may create a document that is not 12 x 12 so I select all the layers of the Stack document in the layer panel - hold the shift key down (to center on the new document) and drag them all over into my new 12x12 document. The file names will stay intact. The stack kind of loads elements haphazardly. Hope to someday play and see if I can at least get all the papers to load at the bottom of the stack.

Would probably be easiest to have your document windows as floating documents in the work space. Go to Menu>Edit>Preferences>Workspace and be sure "Load Documents as Tabs" is unticked. This will change the default settings for how PS works. I just prefer working with floating windows instead of tabbed.

I am struggling with the drop shadow settings. Seems like my preferred settings for different items in PSE just don't look right in PS CC. I spend a lot more time fiddling with them than I used too.

Hi Rochelle! I've been sick and haven't been on for a bit. I have no idea what you're talking about when you say "scripts and stacks", but I'm going to find out. That sounds like it would make things easier. Using the floating documents is kind of hard for me. I like having the big space of just one document also. I work on a laptop as well. I would LOVE to have two monitors to work on. I think that would solve all my problems.

Given all that, I do still love CC. I had problems with the drop shadows in the beginning as well, but I worked and worked and finally came up with numbers that I feel really work. I feel there is still so much I can learn, I just haven't had the time to do it. One day I'm going to just spend exploring and experimenting and see what I can learn.

Please keep giving me (us) your advice as you learn new things. You have so much knowledge and I love to learn from you! you explain things so well.

Zanthia, I was so scared of Lightroom also, but I've started playing with it a little and it's not nearly as intimidating as you think. I got on Adobe.com and did some of tutorials for it so I could learn the basics and then went from there. Some of the photos I've worked with have turned out really beautiful! Give it a try! Let me know what you think.
 
I have been using Photoshop CC for a couple of years now. I really love it. I didn't have too much trouble without the bin. Even on my laptop I don't seem to have too difficult of a time with it. When I am on my computer I have a larger screen as well as a second screen. I find I prefer taking what I am going to use from the folder and placing it on my document. It doesn't seem to use as much memory that way as having everything open in the bin. I've used a few classes on it and learned a few things that I use all the time. Other things I don't use that often so I have to look up if I want to use them. Also it has chenged since I first got it as it is now Photoshop CC 2019. I think I started in 2017 or something so even within it I do things differently since January than I did last year. I don't find it too hard to adjust though. Some of the changes I felt were very good changes. I'll have to try the things you guys have suggested and see if anything makes things easier. Although I feel that it is pretty easy to do what I do. I guess I don't often go doing too many extras. Although I would like to learn to design a bit more just for personal use or freebies for others. I don't intend to sell anything.
 
I have been using Photoshop CC for a couple of years now. I really love it. I didn't have too much trouble without the bin. Even on my laptop I don't seem to have too difficult of a time with it. When I am on my computer I have a larger screen as well as a second screen. I find I prefer taking what I am going to use from the folder and placing it on my document. It doesn't seem to use as much memory that way as having everything open in the bin. I've used a few classes on it and learned a few things that I use all the time. Other things I don't use that often so I have to look up if I want to use them. Also it has chenged since I first got it as it is now Photoshop CC 2019. I think I started in 2017 or something so even within it I do things differently since January than I did last year. I don't find it too hard to adjust though. Some of the changes I felt were very good changes. I'll have to try the things you guys have suggested and see if anything makes things easier. Although I feel that it is pretty easy to do what I do. I guess I don't often go doing too many extras. Although I would like to learn to design a bit more just for personal use or freebies for others. I don't intend to sell anything.

I would love to learn how to design, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. I feel sometimes that I'm still learning how to scrap digitally. I can't imagine doing what some of these designers do. Some day maybe I could try to learn though. I think that might be a goal, but that's in the future. Right now I'm having a blast CT'ing for the designers! It pushes me to learn everything I can.
 
have 2 weeks left of my 2 month trial - still miss the photo bin from pse 10 . realize you need to have super large monitor ( 32 and up ) or 2 monitors other wise you have to constantly bring up your layout as described above which is lots of extra clicking. one thing i do like is that extractions are so much better in CC and so are drop shadows. Long files names are nice too but i do know later versions of pse has that too. interface in CC is better than pse11 and up.


want to try lightroom classic but totally lost as to where to begin.

Use Bridge! It's a file browser. When I'm using PS, it's a lifesaver for me! It looks like this when open:

52688647_10218751387117972_9116775273600122880_n.jpg
 
Okay, Susan, help me out. What the heck is Bridge?!?! That looks exactly like what I need!!!

Well until Susan chimes in I can share the little bit I know about Bridge. it is a DAM program (Digital Asset Management) that can run stand alone from Photoshop and apparently it is free. A DAM program is helpful for organizing your photos and digi supplies. I believe you can tag photos and element with keywords and then use those keywords to search specific photos or elements (that you had previously tagged) I use ACDSee as my DAM program so have never played with Bridge as I have many many hours spent in tagging my stuff to make the switch to Bridge. I do recall seeing comments where people got frustrated with ACDSee and switched to Bridge for their organizational tool. You can download Bridge from the Adobe Creative Cloud app that installed when you got PS CC. There is lots of info available from Google search and also on youtube.. Here is a link to get you started on the learning journey. I get frsutrated with ACDSee too so may need to consider making a switch myself.

https://prodesigntools.com/free-adobe-bridge-cc.html
 
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