Question about Photoshop CC

Kalle Rantaaho
I really, really dislike that subscription idea in general. I don't use Photshop for making money, I use it a few times a year, but I'm used to using it's advanced features as well, so PS Elements feels pretty crippled for me.
Over 200 euros a year is a lot compared to paying 300-400 for the product and using it for fifteen years.

Kalle, I'm finding myself in the same position.
 
Specifically, the lack of support for 16bit images in Elements is really starting to become an obstacle. I've got Elements 11 maxed out with some great plugins such as the excellent Elements XXL2, Topaz Lab and the Nik Efex Suite. I 'develop' all my RAW files in Lightroom, but once I export them to Elements, the options for processing the 16bit images is really limited.
 
On the other hand, I'm now two versions of Elements behind, so that's about £170 I haven't spent. As the 'Photography' Plan works out at about £105 a year, I look at it as though my £170 'credit' means I'm good for well over 18 months, plus I'll actually be using much more sophisticated software, and get automatic upgrades to both PS and Lightroom.
 
What I found a bit annoying was having to have Lightroom included in the Plan, but seeing as version 5 is now over 16 months old, I guess it won't be long until that's replaced by #6.
 
Whatever happens, I'm going to download the free months trial of PS, that effectively brings my monthly outlay down to £8.10

I also have Lightroom 4 and the upgrade to 5 was $79.
I considered buying PS CS6, but found out there would no longer be upgrades/updates for the standalone app.
I assume they would issue bug fixes, but no new features. 
 
I weighed the pros and cons, and decided to go with the Photo Plan with PS & LR.
 
Yes it stinks that I already had LR4 and yes, I know I'll still be "paying for it" a few years down the road, but I use LR a few times a week and PS more than a few times/month, so to me it's worth the $10/month, since I always have the current versions with upgrades.
 

As I understand it, PS-CS6 is the last non-subscription version Photoshop.
It's still for sale, but it's just being updated for new cameras and lenses, not new features. 
New features will only be in the CC version.
 
But then again, you own your copy of PS (a pro), and I only rent mine (a con) and will have to for the foreseeable future.
And if I stop the subscription, I'll have nothing except fond memories (a worse con).
But the CC version will have the most current version/features (a pro)

 
 
I just installed the Demo version of Photoshop CC.
 
Looks like I have a pretty steep learning curve to negotiate 

Jeff M.
I had the same impression when I first got it, too 
 
The tuts were helpful getting things going.
I started here and went through the 3 sections - Getting Started, Essentials, Key Techniques:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/tutorials.html
 
 
 
Then there's this batch: http://www.photoshop.com/tutorials?product=ps
 
 

Thanks for the links Jeff, I really appreciate that
 
So far, I've just about managed to customise PS to how I like it, user-defined Keyboard Shortcuts are a great feature. I've also got my Nik Efex and Topaz plug-ins to appear in the appropriate menus.
 
I've also been finding my way around and sussed out how to do everything I could in Elements. Next step is to start learning the rest of it!
 
One thing that's really beginning to bug me though, is how incredibly small and difficult to see (especially with my eyesight) the Tools Panel is. It also doesn't help that whichever colour scheme I set, the icons stay an incredibly drab monotone.
 
Does anyone know if there's any way to make the panel/icons bigger? I've tried undocking it but I can't figure out a way to make it larger. Or how to colourise them?
 
To show what I'm after, here's the difference between Photoshop and Elements (11):