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Adobe Releases New Web-Based Image Editor; Adobe Photoshop Express

By Scott on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 9:57 am | updates.

Hi everybody! I put together a special video clip (along with my buddy Matt Kloskowski) just for you guys who read my blog, to give you an exclusive first look at the just-announced Beta release of Adobe Photoshop Express, the new Web-based image editor).

WARNING: Before you play the video above, I want you to clear your mind of any preconceived notions that this is a version of Photoshop as we know it (so forget things like the Layers palette, and filters, and all that stuff). Although Photoshop Express does use some Photoshop technology, it’s designed to be a totally different experience (after all, it’s free), and it’s aimed at a totally different audience (18 to 22 year-old MySpace and Facebook users, who aren’t going to spend $600 to $900 to buy Photoshop CS3, or even $99 to buy Elements).

My buddy Terry White put it perspective for me. He said, “Imagine a kid going to his parents and saying “I need a hundred bucks to buy Elements to fix the photos I’m putting on my “MySpace” page.” Now you know why Adobe created Express, and who it’s made for.

That being said; because Photoshop Express has such great Flash-based online galleries, and you can post your images there for free (you get 2 Gig of online storage free), and put a web gallery of your work online today, with no Web experience whatsoever, I think we’ll all be surprised at how many serious shooters and pros wind up using at least part of Express.

So, clear your mind before you watch that video. Think “This wasn’t designed for me—I already have Photoshop—this is for my kids, and my neighbor’s kids, etc.” and remember—”This isn’t a stripped down version of Photoshop,” instead think; “This is a new online photo editing experience and community,” and if you do, I think you’ll be amazed, and surprised at what Adobe has been able to do. OK, now it’s safe to watch the video.

When you’re done, go check out Photoshop Express yourself (Here’s the link). Thanks everybody, and make sure you scroll down to the next post for free info on how to learn Adobe Photoshop Express.

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  1. #1

    Nice of Adobe to add this nice feature.

    I added a new account to see show off my grandchildren for Easter to replicate the “grunge” factor

    https://www.photoshop.com/user/klaw

    Affectionately Nikon and Adobe,

    Ken

    KenL on March 27th, 2008 at 10:39 am
  2. #2

    I’m very excited to start using Adobe Photoshop Express! What a fun and creative way to share albums.

    I can’t believe that you’ve already created a great website for training, you’re just too good. Way to go guys! You’re to good to us!

    Christy

    Christy on March 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
  3. #3

    I think photoshop express looks great, too… But I don’t think I’ll use it - that’s why:

    Taken from Adobe Photoshop Express - General Terms (https://www.photoshop.com/express/terms.html)

    ” […]
    8. Use of Your Content.

    a. Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

    b. […]”

    Chris on March 27th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
  4. #4

    This program looks nice for beginners or for having a site going while you are away from home. This site is ONLY for JPEG files as there is no support for RAW files of any type. This means that to use the site while on a trip you will have to shoot RAW+JPEG.

    Robbie R. on March 27th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
  5. #5

    Hi everybody!

    Thanks for sharing this video clip. I really enjoy your blog, Scott! (as much as I enjoy practically everything produced by the photoshop guys)
    Photoshop Express DOES look very promising, especially the cool and easy ways to put together a web gallery. However, even as a non-pro, I’m very very reluctant to make any of my pictures available on this platform, at least until Adobe clarifies what they mean by the following part of their “General Terms”:

    “8. Use of Your Content.

    1. Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.”

    I’m not a native speaker, but this sounds at least a little awkward to me. I don’t think I agreed on anything like that when I created my flickr account. I have to double check that.

    Any thoughts on this?

    Bjorn

    Bjorn on March 27th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
  6. #6

    I guess I was a little slow this time…

    Bjorn on March 27th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
  7. #7

    As others have already pointed out, there is a disturbing clause in the terms of use that allows Adobe to grab rights to any image that is shared.

    Not a good thing IMO. For the “average Joe” user this is probably not a big deal but if they get a once-in-a-lifetime photo and share it, Adobe gets it for free to do whatever they want.

    TJ Asher on March 27th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
  8. #8

    OK, I give up. Where did they put the print button? When I right click on the picture and “print” I get a low res print with a lot of album/picture description surrounding the photo. If I have to go to a 3rd party software the ease of use is defeated.

    As per the ownership rights, if I delete the photo Adobe still has rights to it?

    William Chinn on March 27th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
  9. #9

    I wouldn’t use PS Express! Adobe is able to use your uploaded images for commercial things and so on and that’s not what I’m looking for…

    Markus Hörster on March 27th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
  10. #10

    Uh… how do I export all of the changes back to my computer? Boy, I guess Adobe really wants to keep them.

    William Chinn on March 27th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
  11. #11

    and when I run out of the 2gb hard drive space, then what happens? ps. it refused to upload some of my “huge” pictures (4.5mb, 2288×1712) that LR and PS wrote out. Having some serious doubts about pro shooters and customer albums.

    William Chinn on March 27th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
  12. #12

    I have to agree re: Adobe’s “irrevocable” rights.I think it would be a shame to see good photographers emblazon all their shots with huge copyright banners,but I can’t see any alternative.Fortunately I am not a good photographer!!!But then again it is free,so what can you expect?

    Martin E.Morris on March 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
  13. #13

    this is a little scary!

    8. Use of Your Content.

    Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

    thanks for sharing this hex.

    cp on March 27th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
  14. #14

    Don’t know why, but other sites are reporting system lockups. I locked twice, and had a lot of slow screen changing. Don’t know if its a memory requirement as I was doing multi-tasking at the time (woot-off).

    William Chinn on March 27th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
  15. #15

    Scott,
    In case you didn’t read this already:

    http://photojojo.com/content/tips/food-photography-tips/

    I’m sure by now you know a lot about food photography, but maybe just one will be there that you haven’t. :-D

    -Dan
    http://danfrancisphotography.com/

    Dan Francis on March 27th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
  16. #16

    What!? No channel blends? No LAB? But I jest …
    I suspect Adobe’s legal team got the best of them. Making money from photos posted to PX in the conventional ways would probably be very difficult for Adobe (just check out the legal guides at iStockPhoto for reasons why). There’s no way the revenue from using pictures from PX would make up for ill will and possible loss of revenue from Adobe’s core products. I think they put that clause in to protect themselves from litigation. It will be interesting to see if they scale it back.
    For comparison, Google’s Picasa web albums has a similar (although less draconian since it doesn’t mention filthy lucre) clause in their license agreement.
    As a photographer in no danger of making a dime from my pictures, I uploaded a few to fool around. It’s pretty neat! I’m amazed at what they were able to accomplish through a browser. I hope PX opens up the possibilities of photo editing to more people.

    Kurt Shoens on March 27th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
  17. #17

    Yeah, these terms are becoming more popular. It’s almost exactly the same terms as Facebook uses. It’s beyond disturbing: it’s completely inappropriate. If Adobe, a purveyor of stock photography, wants to use my images for their own publicity or for sale or sublicensing they can pay me for them.

    I was excited about this new opportunity but I refuse to use it with such inherently anti-photographer clauses.

    Jon on March 27th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
  18. #18

    Ah free software, you have gotta love it, in any form.

    James on March 27th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
  19. #19

    Any hope for Flickr integration?

    Doug Pieper on March 28th, 2008 at 8:13 am
  20. #20

    Well, concerning the terms of service there’s some hope. Check out John Nack’s blog:

    http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/03/a_note_about_ps.html

    Once they alter the terms (in a reasonable that is) I’m in.

    Bjorn

    Bjorn on March 28th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
  21. #21

    I just watched their tutorial… It is great.
    I even wrote a blog about my experience.
    http://paulopics.com/blog/2008/03/29/adobe-photoshop-express/
    Paulo Jordao

    Paulo Jordao on March 28th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
  22. #22

    Scott: did you read the the Adobe Photoshop Express End User License Agreement (EULA)?

    ArsTechnical posted an article on the Adobe Photoshop Express EULA:

    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080329-adobe-joins-list-of-companies-not-reading-own-eulas.html

    It’s a non-starter until they alter the terms.

    David

    David on March 30th, 2008 at 8:13 am
  23. #23

    just to keep you guys updated:

    Adobe is going to alter the terms of use. However, the new terms won’t go into effect until April 10.
    For further info, check out John Nack’s blog again.

    Bjorn

    Bjorn on April 5th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

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Scott Kelby

Scott Kelby is the editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine, Layers magazine (the how-to magazine for everything Adobe®) and President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). Make sure you check out Scott's Gear *updated* and his Photography Portfolio.

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