My recent and first blogpost about Photoshop Camera app was written last weekend. I realised that lot of the viewers of this blog were quite unhappy about my viewpoint about the potential of the app, what it offers and how it stands in Photography landscape. Let me start with apologising if I hurt your feelings in anyway and let me say that I am totally hooked to Photoshop Camera these days. Before going to the bed, it has become a ritual to look at old photographs and see how those can be improved with what Photoshop Camera app offers. Recent 25+ videos on my youtube channel talk a lot about how much I am using it & loving it for certain use-cases.
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Let me start with expressing that whatever I share on the blog are my personal views and may not hold true for myself after few days. This blog is a way to express myself and how I feel about app, gadget, service, photograph, book etc and honestly speaking, I have seen my views changing and I don't mind that. It's a continuous journey with lot of learnings, experiences, realisations and corrections.
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With that let me clarify on few which confused lot of you.
1. As a Photographer, I always liked to share photographs in most natural form with touch-ups in Adobe Lightroom. Photoshop is not even installed on my computer because of simple reason that Lightroom offers me more that enough to process my photographs and for my photography, I don't need Photoshop to manipulate my photographs. By that, do I mean I don't like Photoshop and only like Lightroom. No. It's a choice as per my medium of express. I know lot of photographers/artists who make great photographs through brilliant use of photoshop. Is that bad? No. For an artist, as art is important and every artist produces different kinds of art-pieces. Some are able to appreciate a particular and some can relate with some other style. At the end, it's about choice.
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2. Some of you felt that how I am not praising about Photoshop Camera app.
I don't think I didn't praise the app. I like the app for what it offers but is it something I will use for my regular basis? Right now, I don't think it's something that will be fulfilling my regular needs. For example, I am using 'Reverie' Lens a lot and created 25+ videos using it. Now I am almost at the verge of getting bored with same sky style in multiple photographs. Does that mean, I am not liking it? No. I am loving it but question for how long.
Other aspect is that as an Artist I like to have more control in my hands to apply my own imagination to photographs. Photoshop Camera app provides more ready to use things, which are fantastic for wider usage and it enables lot of those who may not have time to learn about photo-editing or they may not need to or some other reason. The Photoshop Camera app has zero learning curve, which is great for lot of many people out there but would the answer be same for me? No.
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3. Some of you were surprised about the tone of my blog for an 'Adobe' app.
In my professional career, I have spent 11 years with Adobe and in the field of Photography, lot of folks associate my love for Adobe Lightroom with me working with Adobe. That's not true at all. Adobe is second home for me, where I learnt a lot about Photography & other things, made great friends etc. Adobe will always remain special for me. But when it comes to Photography or Blogging, my choices won't be influenced by my associations or non-associations with any company. For example - I was fan of Snapseed (Smartphone app by Google) even when I was working with Adobe. So on Desktop I would use Lightroom and for phone photograph I use Snapseed. Interestingly most of the photography for me is happening with phone now so Snapseed is app of my choice on phone.
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4. Some of you didn't like the blogpost because it compared Photoshop Camera App with Snapseed.
That's a fair point. Both apps can't be compared and I didn't try to compare but expressed what Photographers like me need and what smartphone users may need for fun with their casual clicks. Again, my initial assessment may be wrong on this front as all of you would define what you would want to use for your use-cases and only that defines success an app.
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5. I sensed some anger around comparing Photoshop Camera app with Prisma app.
As explained in first blog, many of the portrait editing capabilities are more like Prisma app and that simply reminded of an old app like Prisma. And to prove my hypothesis, I used Prisma's example that the app usage was at peak when it was launched and all social media channels were full of Prisma processed photographs. Today I hardly come across Prisma processed photographs. That tells me that such apps gain huge momentum but to keep engaging, it's important to provide more of those editing capabilities which can be used in sustainable way. Otherwise, users get bored by same thing. How many times in my lifetime, I would want to use same sky & stars in my photographs. So such apps demand more frequent upgrades and differential value on continuous basis.
Again, all these are my current views and may be proven wrong. Above is a screenshot of some of the portrait images I processed with Photoshop Camera. It was fun and it certainly reminded of Prisma app.
With that, I would again say that intent is not to hurt any of the followers of this blog but share what I feel. I may be wrong and would be happy to correct myself. Hope this blogpost would help you find your answers. Not sure, how would I get those email-subscribers back, who unsubscribed in last 2 days due to this. The app is on my phone and as I said I am having lot of fun processing old photographs. And liking instant videos I am able to create through Photoshop Camera. 'Reverie' has been my favourite lens so far in Photoshop Camera app and will be sharing soon, what kind of photograph may look awesome with this lens, so stay tuned for next blog about Photoshop Camera app.
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