Questions concerning PS CC (or whatever they call it now)

I still use PS CS6 because I was just so angry about Adobe's subscription arrangement when it first came out, but I'm considering upgrading to CC because I want to upgrade to some of the new tools and because I'm fixing to also move up to a medium format camera that CS6 ACR doesn't support, but I have some questions before I do.

1.  I have heard something about if you save a file using CC, then it cannot be opened by an earlier version (CS6).  Is this true?  I save my files as a TIF, and I don't see why any other processing program wouldn't be able to open a TIF.

2.  If I go with the subscription will I actually download the program to my computer or do I open it through the internet??  I know, probably a stupid question, but I have to be able to open the program in the field & with no internet.

If anyone has any other tidbits of helpful info or pros/cons about CC, I would love to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Bill

Am probably not the best qualified to answer, but will kick off with a start, and have been using CC for some years, so may be of practical use.

1.  I still have PS4 on my PC.  New files taken this year on my D850 can be opened with PS4 if I want as have just tried.  Saving as a Tiff should be no issue at all.  (reason I kept PS4 as there are a couple of useful Filter programs still functioning there that CC doesn't support...Imagenomic Noiseware...Understand there are better programs nowadays but CC doesn't support that version and I don't see the need to pay for an upgrade when all I have to do is open the file in the older PS4.  If I were geek quality, I'd probably be able to fix that but I'm not, so sought an easier solution.  

Have heard of the "not being able to open files", but never encountered it using CC.  (Only time I've not been able to open a file was years back in 2012 when I bought a D800 and the PS version I was using didn't support that file.  Can't be too sure but I think somewhere in my memory Adobe stopped updating older versions and tried to force users into more current versions.  Might be wrong.  

Anyway, CC updates pretty well with updates that come out fairly soon after new Camera model launches.

2.  My PS 2021 is downloaded onto my desktop.  Not tried it in the field, and it's not a stupid question, but once on your desktop you should be on a roll.

Hope that helps Bill, or at least kicks off some more useful contributions.

Here's a post on that topic: https://prodesigntools.com/open-use-sav ... s-cs6.html

The only thing that might hang you up might be a layered tiff if one of the layers is not available in CS6, I don't even know if this is a thing that could happen.

My solution for a new camera was Capture One, I've been happy with that and still using CS6 just fine. What tools are tempting you to switch?

I second Capture One... I use PS CC but just to do a few things after I use Capture to convert and adjust the RAW files.
Better color, less noise, cleaner better files.
PS CC should open any TIFF file.

Thank you both! I appreciate your comments and help.

David & Chris - I use Capture One Pro 20 also, but there are times (very few) that I still prefer using ACR. If I really like a particular image, I will often do the RAW conversion in Capture One, ACR, and Luminar, and then pick the conversion I like best to further process. One of the main reasons I want to go to the latest version of PS is so I can use the latest TK panel (version 7) luminosity masks as Tony as seemed to have really streamlined their use over what I'm still using in Version 5. I also want to upgrade to the latest version of PS so I can use it on a 4K monitor and be able to scale the menus, panels, etc.

Have you considered Affinity Photo?  There is nothing that Photoshop does that it doesn't do without a subscription...  90 day free trial!

Dan Kearl wrote:I second Capture One... I use PS CC but just to do a few things after I use Capture to convert and adjust the RAW files.
Better color, less noise, cleaner better files.
PS CC should open any TIFF file.

Thanks Dan for your input.  Yes, I use Capture One also, have since version 3, but there are times I will still use ACR, plus I also want to use the latest version of TK's Luminosity Masks (version 7), so I have to move up to the latest version of PS to be able to do that.

If you want to occasionally use ACR try the free DNG converter for occasional use rather than paying a subscription. It will open in ACR just fine I believe.

I don't know what the new TK action panel does, I use the free version in CS6 and I can't imagine anything more stream lined - click one button and I have my choice of highlight midtone or shadow mask in a layer ready to push the curve around as I like.