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This week, Adobe said that it would be making changes to its Photography plan pricing and eliminating the most affordable option entirely. Beyond that, as more camera and lens companies are pushing to support the “hybrid” creator (for good reason), Adobe continues to ignore them.
For some time now, photographers and videographers have been moving closer together into the “hybrid” creator that the modern media landscape demands. While there are certainly many photographers who never use the video mode on their cameras and many videographers that don’t touch that shutter button, the Venn diagram of what the modern digital creator looks like is becoming more and more overlapped.
Camera companies have seen this coming for the better part of a decade and in recent years — and especially in 2024 — have been making cameras and lenses that specifically appeal to this type of creator. Sony’s ZV series, the Panasonic Lumix S9, Fujifilm’s X-M5, Canon’s R5 Mark II, and Nikon’s Z6 III or Z50 II are all examples of hybrid cameras that don’t ask the user to sacrifice a lot to perform either task — and those are just a quick summary of some of the new options. Looking across the entire camera landscape, effective capture of both photos and videos is a major tent pole of almost any new camera released in the last five years.
What I’m trying to say is that the existence of this hybrid photo and video creator is no longer a guess or bet on the future, it’s the active present-term case for a large number of creators who are buying a camera and associated software to perform their jobs. Camera companies are providing options at a wide range of prices, too — it’s not all professional bodies. Fujifilm’s X-M5 is a perfect example of this lowered price bar without sacrificing performance.
That is why it is particularly egregious that Adobe doesn’t seem to care at all about properly supporting this type of creator. Looking at the new pricing structure, photographers are at least served with a plan that is somewhat reasonable in price, even if that price is going up. I’m not a fan of forcing more cloud storage onto a group that probably does not want or need it, but at least there is an option.
But if you want to also edit videos, your option jumps from $120 a year with the Photography Plan all the way up to $659.88 for the All Apps Plan — and that is if you pay upfront; month-to-month increases that cost further.
Modern hybrid creators don’t need every Adobe app, they just need three: Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro. Paying five times more just to access one more application is a jump a hybrid creator very likely will not make.
Years ago, photographers and photo media had to beg Adobe to provide them with some kind of option and the result was the, at first, test-run of the Photography Plan. The plan was so successful that Adobe eventually made it a permanent offering. It is absurd that Adobe doesn’t see the need for another tier in here.
It’s not like Adobe doesn’t know that this is a desired option, either. It has been made very clear to Adobe’s leadership for years.
You would think Adobe would want to do this if for no other reason than to try and lock-in a user base. Right now, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro are growing in capability and popularity for, among other reasons, their approachable pricing models. Adobe is undoubtedly losing video editors to both platforms now and that means the very first opportunity a hybrid creator has to leave Lightroom and Photoshop, they will — they’re already using a set of apps from a variety of companies, making that band-aid rip to a new photo editing application all that much easier.
There are a laundry list of reasons to create a hybrid creator app bundle of Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere Pro. Adobe could charge $25 per month for this ($300 per year) and that would be a fair, reasonable option. But right now, asking $660 a year minimum just feels like Adobe is looking at its user base with uncaring eyes.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
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