What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Adobe Photoshop is working as a photographer for an international pageant and also for its local department. Since no one is perfect, I am always retouching, doing the hair, the makeup, tiny spots on the face and hands and things like that.
An example of a recent project where Adobe Photoshop really made a difference in my editing process is that there is one task every year to create huge banners about 160 cm. I can do it with a full sensor camera, blow it up, edit it, and it is crystal sharp.
In terms of my main use case for Adobe Photoshop, I always use RAW as an input format for my images. It can deal perfectly well with RAW. I have some templates in RAW where I can adjust the settings and lens corrections, and then I can continue in Adobe Photoshop. I have a specific workflow with adding layers and additional plugins like Portrait Studio. Everything works together pretty well with Adobe Photoshop.
How has it helped my organization?
Adobe Photoshop has positively impacted my organization and photography work in that it has saved me time, improved my results, and helped me land more clients. I am really good at Adobe Photoshop, so I can easily work with it. My images are of outstanding quality. I can isolate the background and make it a little bit cooler, select the foreground and make it a little bit warmer, so the images are much richer. The images will sell themselves. If anyone sees my images, then they are happy to work with me.
Regarding the time savings with Adobe Photoshop, my workflow is at least 50% faster compared to before. Sometimes it is not possible to do it without Adobe Photoshop. Basic tasks I can do with other tools, but it takes me at least twice as much time. Some tasks I cannot do without Adobe Photoshop.
What is most valuable?
The best features Adobe Photoshop offers for my work are that it is fast and really intuitive. I have used it for many years, so I am not used to anything else. I can see the results immediately and it renders quickly. There is integration with other products like Illustrator, so I can copy a vector from Illustrator and then scale it without loss of quality in Adobe Photoshop. AI is integrated, so I can replace some parts in my images. Sometimes when you are photographing in a park, you see a bin somewhere in the background and you can replace it for a flower or whatever you like. It is covered with all kinds of tools that are really helpful for me.
Regarding the quality of the AI edits for replacing parts of images, I only use it for very small parts and the input quality is somewhere around HD format. When I use it on a small part of my images, then it is really good. The remove tool is done with the help of AI and it is much easier to remove tiny dusts or other things with the remove tool instead of the clone stamp tool that we had in the past.
In terms of the accuracy and reliability of output from Adobe Photoshop's AI capabilities, most of the time it gives me the results I expect. When I do not use any description, for example, if there is a traffic sign in the background of a portrait and I want to remove it, I can just create a rectangle around it and press generate, and it will automatically fill in the trees or the landscape or whatever is there. When I want a specific object, then I type in a description. Sometimes, but it is very rare, it gives me a weird object. Most of the time it is working perfectly fine. If I need to do one redo, then that is all. But it is not all the time.
What needs improvement?
I think Adobe Photoshop can be improved in that I see sometimes reviews that some people do not like that you can only rent the software. You can never buy it, and in the past, it was possible to buy and you could decide for yourself if you wanted to keep that version for two years or more. Now you always have the latest version, so that is great for me, but I can also imagine that it is a problem for someone else if they want to just buy the software and not rent it forever.
Regarding the needed improvements for Adobe Photoshop, I do not miss anything in the performance. I do not miss anything in the functionality. Whenever I use a new functionality, there is always newer functionality added. Adobe Photoshop moves faster than I do. I do not miss anything. I miss only the time to deep dive into all the new features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Adobe Photoshop for at least 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Adobe Photoshop is stable for me; it never crashes.
How are customer service and support?
If I do not understand the application itself, I look at YouTube channels. I follow some people who are always experimenting with the latest features. That gives me a good feeling of what is possible and what is not. I never faced any issues with installing the software or licensing, so I never needed the help desk.
What was our ROI?
I see a return on investment with Adobe Photoshop as it saves me around 50 to 60% of editing time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Adobe Photoshop is that pricing is not very cheap, but also not very expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Adobe Photoshop, I looked at versions also from Adobe, like Photoshop Light. For some tasks, they are helpful, but they are not professional. You cannot work with RAW data images. I looked at them to see if they were a little cheaper, but they are not useful for me, so I stuck with Adobe Photoshop.
What other advice do I have?
I absolutely rate Adobe Photoshop a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
I give Adobe Photoshop the highest rating of 10 because I cannot imagine editing my images without it. It is really important in my workflow. When I create images, it does not matter if it is just regular images or a snapshot or an official portrait from an international pageant; I always think in layers and know exactly what I need to do at the moment of photography itself and what I can do later in Adobe Photoshop.
Regarding Adobe Photoshop's AI capabilities, I am comfortable with how my data is handled when using its features.
Adobe Photoshop is installed on my computer in my organization.
My recommendation to others reading reviews is that you need to master the program before you can get the maximum results out of it. If it is just cropping, you can use something else, even free programs. But if you are willing to make the next step and create professional work, then start doing a course, read the manual, or follow someone on YouTube who knows all the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop, and then start creating amazing work.