I Hope Adobe Can Overcome Some Photographers’ Vitriol

This week, PetaPixel published a podcast where the entire premise was simply posing questions provided by photographers to Adobe. But just the act of publicizing those answers immediately turned some viewers off, showing a huge number need to see action, not words — if anything at all will work at this point.

The response to the podcast was immediate — so fast that it isn’t even possible that a majority of those who left comments and hit the dislike button could have listened to the whole podcast. Simply for setting foot in Adobe’s building, we were called shills as the hate flowed in. It feels very much like a “shoot the messenger” situation — one I’ve been in before, but that doesn’t make it any easier to come to terms with.

In this case, my feelings are tempered by the fact that I get it: Adobe is not beloved. Far from it, actually. The shift to subscription pricing has been wildly unpopular and seems to color almost every response to any step the company takes. Photographers have long memories, so it doesn’t even matter that the choice to give up perpetual software was made more than 10 years ago; some photographers are still mad now.

The past few years of minimal communication with the community at large followed by the tidal wave of bad press over the past six months has left Adobe’s standing with many photographers in shambles. Adobe couldn’t explain why it let its once excellent relationship with photographers and media lapse, only that it is sorry that happened.

I do believe them, at least when I hear it from the people responsible for making the software. There is a big divide between the folks who code Photoshop and the C-level executives who are so out of touch with the end users.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter what those people down in the trenches of development say or even how good Adobe’s software happens to be, some photographers just don’t like the feeling of giving money to the company because of the people at the helm.

At this point, those photographers are going to demand more than nice words from the good people who happen to work at Adobe. They’re going to need to see changes in the product that actually show the company is listening.

Folks, Adobe is not going to go back to perpetual software. You can ask until you’re blue in the face, but the company’s entire stock value is based on recurring revenue, and splitting from that isn’t going to happen.

What Adobe can do, however, is not nickel and dime users for access to AI features (the planned credits system should just be removed). Adobe can also listen to users and offer an “a la carte” way to choose the software you want rather than force you into the photography plan or the all apps plan. Modern creative professionals need Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere — restricting the latter to a far more expensive plan feels greedy, especially when they’ll be paying for a laundry list of apps that they’ll never even download, let alone open and use.

Adobe can streamline its mobile strategy, which feels disjointed across the board. Photoshop on iPad is woefully under-powered, Lightroom’s two versions are confusing, and mobile video editing options are a joke — quite frankly, they always have been. Instead of chasing the next pretty shiny thing on the horizon — the most recent example being AI — photographers would like to see the products they already rely on feel better to use and give them more ways to get their work done. Sure, you could argue AI is supposed to do that, but making a cohesive and complete desktop and mobile ecosystem is a better approach right now.

For some people, Adobe’s not just disliked — it’s actively hated. For too long they feel as though the company has been all about “take, take, take.” For now and for the next good long while, it’s going to have to substantially “give” in order to win back community support.

If Adobe cares as much as its product teams say it does, the C-level executives who make all these decisions are going to have to get on board and start caring, too.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.