Photo by David Ledbetter
The Curvemeister road show begins!
(And by that I mean, this is my first blog post on the new site.)
OK folks, it finally happened. After holding out and grumping about monthly subscriptions for what seems like ages, der Curvemeister, moi, jumped onto the Creative Cloud band-wagon. There were several reasons for this:
- The main one was that 10 bucks a month was just too tempting. Heck, I spend 3 times that going to a movie, including 3D, popcorn, etc. Photoshop is, and has been, an extremely productive tool. Greg pointed out, with inimitable wisdom and persuasion, that I can always go back to stand-alone Photoshop CS5 if Adobe pushes the button and raises the price too much.
- The second main reason was that I need to support customers who have made the move. The word is that 64 bit Curvemeister installs just fine on CC 2014, but it is necessary to manually select the target plugin folder.
- Another main reason was the availability of 3D functionality. Frankly, who has not found 2 dimensions too restrictive? I know I have.
- Finally, there is Light Room. I’ve been limping along on Bridge for years, and Light Room is just so much whizzier and cooler, and I LIKE whizzy and cool. Plus I can directly interpret my Panasonic’s raw files, and actually see some of my grand canyon and other American SW photos.
OK, so, being allergic to monthly charges, I paid my $120+, installed Adobe’s CC app (very cool, BTW, to have the apps and SDK’s all in one spot [oh, but what happened to the Plugin SDK, Adobe <gripe gripe.]) Then I downloaded Photoshop – what better time to go and watch Netflix than during a gigantic download, LOL, and fired the puppy up. CRASH CITY. Now what???!!!$%^&*?? Adobe suggests its a video driver problem. They should know, so I go to the Acer site, and it says the video driver on my 4 month old system is up to date. Groan. The driver I have is ancient – older than my computer by a year or so. Nice going Acer. Intel has a newer driver, just a month or so older than my computer. YAY Intel!!! I download it, and it says no, the computer manufacturer has somehow blocked Intel from installing the new driver.
So, I’m stuck. The new features are tantalizing, but I can’t stand to use the program at all until I have smooth zoom, etc, the same as my CS5 had. So, I amuse myself for a while by playing with Lightroom, and try to ignore the fact that Photoshop crashes unless it ignores video acceleration – gag.
Regarding Photoshop, I stew for a while, and then the voice of Hermione, or someone from Harry Potter, whispers “Intel force display driver install”. At least, it must have been Hermione, or some other Harry Potter character, because up comes a web page full of skulls and such, with instructions on exactly how to force the new drivers to install. Basically, you unzip the files Intel sends you, and select the driver .inf file in just the right way, with the right amount of whatever eye of dragon seasoning, and BAMMO!
Like a stone falling down a well, the new driver installed perfectly, splashed, and Photoshop worked perfectly. No reboot required. Other programs, such as Youtube, etc, seem to run smoother too. Sweet. So now, I am cavorting around in the new Creative Cloud Photoshop, and will report more on this later. So far, it is a lot like the old Photoshop – surprisingly so, since my previous PS was two versions back at CS5. More on this in a future article. Soon. Really.
Mike Russell, at The Curvemeister Institute
PS – just to anticipate, do I think you should jump on the Photoshop deal and get Photoshop and Lightroom for $10 a month? Sure, I could say maybe, or it depends on your wants and needs, etc. But, being me, I will just say SURE, ABSOLUTELY! I mean, what are you holding out for, $5 a month?? – Mike R