Listening to the Voices in My Head

I know quite a few people who still use CS5, don't want to rent CC, and didn't get CS6 because they didn't need it, and they feel left out because too many software makers aren't including it in their new plugins and tools.

Because I actually still have CS5 (and CS6, which is still being supported) I test and experiment to find ways to make things works.

I posted before on how to use On1PhotoRaw 2018 as your default RAW editor. It slams Adobe Camera Raw to the sidelines when it comes to what it can do. But you do have to go through a few hoops to get it to work with CS5 as a plugin, but there is a way.

But moving on to Alienskin. I had been using OnOne Focal Point 2, but with the installation of On1PhotoRaw plugins, it doesn't work. You get a JAVASCRIPT error.



If you remove the photoraw plugins, it will go back to working. That is rather fiddly to have to do.

Enter Alienskin Bokeh. I installed it to CS5 years ago, and have kept it updated. It's one of the few Adobe compatible plugins you can SELECT what host program you want to install it to. It works just as well as OnOne Focal Point 2. I really liked Focal Point, but seeing that AlienSkin can pick up where FP left off, means I still have that tool as part of CS5.

And have had some sleep, I am revisiting my Adobe complaint.

Over the past 10+ years, I have purchased "Boxed" aka store bought versions of Adobe products. CS3 E, CS5 E, CS6 Master Collection, Photoshop Elements (9, 10, 11). I dutifully made an Adobe account, registered each and every purchase without fail, or incident. I had taken a screencap of all my products listed. I think that vanished because of a system restore, but I haven't given up looking for it.

The only product I purchased directly from the Adobe site as a download was CS6 E.

When my CS5 after years of no problems threw out the "Trial has expired", I was "whohuhwha?". Thinking it had to do with hardware upgrade (motherboard, HHD etc) I typed in my CS5 serial that was on the box. Then picked up my 'qualifying product' for the CS5 upgrade, typing in the CS3 E serial, only to get "Invalid Serial Number". *boggle*

I headed to my Adobe account, login to make sure I had the serial numbers correct, and then only find CS6 E listed. WTF? I checked every link, and even started a (useless) chat session. I ended up getting CS5 E working again without resorting to 'convincing' it to work if you get my drift.

So then, the support chat went to "Where did all my other products go?" This is where I am calling "Bullshit" on Adobe. Suddenly, after 5, 7 and 11 years, all my non-downloaded software are suddenly not mine, or never purchased, or don't exist. I gave up on that support session.

Started one with Adobe Customer Care on Twitter. The story changed. This time, I was told my products were teacher/educational ones. Uhh, no. Packaging of those would clearly have Student/Teacher Labels, and guess what? Mine don't. I even sent photographic proof of that. Then the ACC on Twitter said "Send your invoices as proof". I looked, and looked, and looked. Paypal and online bank records only go back to 2015. That's three years. My purchases were 5, 7, and 11 years ago.

Wing believes, seeing as the problem first started with old CS3, then CS5 and now CS6, that it's Adobe's way of painting people in a corner, forcing them to rent their software, instead of using the old tried and true. And remember, only the store bought hardcopy versions registered with Adobe disappeared from my Adobe account.

Yes, I know there are ways to 'convince' these programs to work, but there should be no need for me to resort to that as I bought and paid for mine.

No longer will you be saddled with Adobe Camera Raw popup telling your version of Photoshop that the file format is unknown.

To use it as a plugin for photoshop you do need version C6 and above.

That being typed, make sure you already have your earlier version of photoshop up and running CS5 (which I did) then On1 Raw 2017 stand alone, do all your edits/adjustments in On1, right click on image and "Send to Photoshop" and it will open as a 16bit PSD with all your edits and adjustments. Not sure if this worked because I have CS6 and Trial CC installed. If so, leave the trial CC installed, and keep using CS5. :D Or just scroll down and select “Send to other application” and select your version of Photoshop, or other photo editing software.


This was just a quick On1 Raw edit, with some tweaks to dynamic contrast, and a bit of sky enhancing.



Remember, one of the biggest reasons people started ‘renting’ Creative Cloud was because of no Camera Raw support for new cameras except for CC. With On1Raw you don't have to worry about having to convert everything over to DNGs, doubling your storage needs (unless you delete the CR2/ORF/RAW etc etc files after converting)

There are sometimes too many choices, and it can get confusing.

Many people felt coerced into getting CS6 or Creative Cloud because of new camera raw formats, even though their earlier versions of Photoshop worked just fine, but Adobe didn't update camera raw data base for those versions.

One great work around with this is using CaptureOne. It's less expensive then 'renting' Photoshop, and if you took up their free offer of CaptureOne version six, upgrading to v8 is even less expensive than Adobe Lightroom.

The tools in CaptureOne is like taking Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, and some aspects of Photoshop and making them into one neat package. it can be a bit overwhelming with all the menu choices, but taking your time and get familiar with them, and you will be developing a workflow that will become second nature.

I have been posting for 2 years on a thread I started on the Adobe Forums about CS6 Bridge being so slow.

Some twit decided to say he didn't feel like wading through 4 pages/130 posts to see if he could help.

I asked him "Then why did you bother posting this reply?"

He also said it's not a general problem. Really? I know quite a number of people who have this problem, many of them who didn't have an earlier version of Photoshop so didn't know its behavior was glacially slow. And instead of post "ME TOO!" they just visit the thread to see if there have been any new developments.

So, for this lazy person, I posted everything in one post. Did some copy/paste, some editing to make sure I wasn't repeating myself and posted it as a reply.

Not going to hold my breath.