Adobe editing software the most used in the world for a reason.

If your shadows are dark enough.

For the way I shoot, I leave it at ISO 64 setting if I need it below 400.

I need to ask this because it has been my working assumption since Adobe moved to the subs model and I have never actually confirmed it. If my assumption is wrong I have egg on my face and have been guilty of "Adobe prejudice".

Q. If you sign up for a LR subs for a couple of years and build up a catalogue of say 5000 edited raw files in LR, then for some reason you have to cancel your subscription, can you continue to use LR for your 5000 images in an unfettered way just as if you still has a subscription. Or does LR basically shut down the editing capability. I've assumed it was the latter and I essentially lose access to 5000 lots of edits unless I re-subscribe.

I would change my mind about the subs model if you retain full functionality over your existing catalogue in perpetuity and just lose the power to import new files.

When you quit subscription, you loose only Develop and Map modules. You still can use LrC in Library mode with all your adjustments applied, you still can print from LrC. You cannot process new files in Develop mode.

My understanding is that in LR Classic you would retain the images in their catalogue with the existing edits but the editing module is basically frozen in place. The library module continues to work, with its editing tools, and presets can be applied. The exporting tools, slideshow tool, bookmaking and the printing module still work. Maps do not work.

If using only LR mobile you'd have to get your images out of the cloud onto some personal storage.

Yes. You cannot access the Develop module, but you can export and print your files with all the changes that you have applied while you had a subscription.

I haven't paid much attention to Adobe since LR went subscription. Two questions:

Can you subscribe to LR without subscribing to PS? I hate the idea of paying for PS when I won't use it, even if it's not all that expensive.
Can you subscribe for less than a year? Or, month-to-month?

No. As far as I know, they are making it ugly.

It seems that you can subscribe to Lightroom only but not to Lightroom Classic only.

Here are the plans:
www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html

You can pay per month, but the subscription is per year (after a trial period).

So my original assumption appears to be correct.

Stopping a subscription does not only block you from importing and editing new images (which would be ok in my mind), but it also stops you from doing any editing to your back catalogue (which is as bad as I feared it was).

See, in my opinion, while the copyright of LR belongs to Adobe and they are permitted to protect their IP by stopping the ability to import new images, the thousands of hours of editing I have done on my back catalogue is my IP.

Under the perpetual licence, once Adobe decided to stop further upgrades, the owner ends up frozen in time with their software, but it still works. In effect, the way that Adobe have chosen to run the subscription model holds your life's work hostage: pay us for ever, or lose the ability to do anything new with your life's work.

I've heard plenty of complaints from people who thought the subs was too expensive, and forced you to accept continuous upgrades whether you wanted them or not, but I'm not bothered by that so much. No, my problem with the subs model is that every single image you edit increases the hostage stakes. Every time you add an image, that's one more image you lose control over, one more image's worth of editing held hostage that forces you to pay Adobe forever.

Not going there, not having my own work held as a gun to my head. Even if they made the subscription free, no way am I doing that. I'm sticking with the perpetual licence for my old stuff and open source for my new stuff. Adobe and any other vendor that wants to play that game, can go F themselves. This is most definitely not among the best 5 deals in imaging, it's the worst - irrespective of the price. Never, ever leave your pictures and your creative editing hard work in the control of a faceless corporation.

I agree about Darktable. I've started exploring it, like you as part of a switch to linux. Powerful but complicated.
I mainly use ACR and Bridge but the issue with XMP incompatibility remains.
To be honest, loss of previous edit data doesn’t worry me. I save edited files as JPGs. The raw files I keep are ones I think I may want to re-edit. In these cases I like to start from scratch anyway.
So once I do decide my Adobe days are done there shouldn't be too many problems... In theory at least.

Well, I have different opinion about the LR issue David. I keep my raws, and I take my edits as definitive, and export them into JPEGs.
That´s all that is to it. Edit settings? "Why would I trust anyone with these"? What if superior software emerges, that outdoes Adobe or DXO big time? What if they update the tool and so it acts differently even if you stayed subscribed? It is not very wise nor safe to trust someone with this. With no judgement, I would call it irresponsible from your side. You do that at your peril. And you are lucky that Adobe was bold enough about that for you to luckily realize that.

I have not tried Darktable or the like, mostly because I seem to be limited in recent years with respect to learning new software.

In terms of the principle of things though, I absolutely refuse to cave in to adopting the subscription model. To me, with software, once you've downloaded it and installed it, that's it. It should work for forever and into infinity. It should work offline. As for how the company is going to make money going forward, oh well, figure it out, but not that way, no way no way.

Incidentally I use Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CS2. I don't retouch much. About all I do are RAW edits of white balance, exposure compensation, sharpness etc and then maybe "clone" out a mole in portraits or bits of trash in landscapes. That's it. Much more than that, and at that point it becomes phony AI fraud in my opinion.

Regardless, LR5 and PS2 work for all time, which is as it should be.

As much as I hate the rental model, I don't understand this particular complaint. You edit your images and be done with them. You can still view, catalog and export. In fact, I think you can still import and even edit (with Quick Develop - so limited editing) new images. You can still use QD on old images (I think - I don't subscribe).

The service you're renting is the ability to edit images (and to get mapping data). So it makes sense that it goes away when you stop renting.

I think you're suggesting that what they should have disabled when you stop paying is import rather than Develop. I guess that's one way to do it.

I would rather keep import. In this case you can use it as a pretty good DAM and printing software.

Can't you just use another editor? It's not like they eat your pictures. Everything I subscribe to runs out when I cancel the subscription. And I'm ok with that - part of the deal.

You can "buy" Photolab or other but when it's upgraded you won't get the new benefits if you don't pay again. Same goes with your car etc.

I'd have to disagree there, Darktable has a ton more functionality than Lightroom and you don't need PS because Darkroom offers all the tools you'll ever need to produce high quality images without using resource intensive layering. Darktable 4 has a very impressive feature set and the masking tools are unmatched anywhere else. You can also use it comfortably on lower end computers and it'll recognise pretty much any raw file you throw at it (Maybe Sigma X3F's being the exception, which is not uncommon). Add that to the fact it's completely free and regularly updated and you have a winning package. The main issue is that it takes some time to learn fully and get the best out of it, so if you don't want to spend time doing that then the commercial offerings may be a better choice on that basis. That being said, once you've got your head around it then it can be easily configured and fast to process files to taste. If you do need to use layers to blend images then Gimp or Affinity Photo will do that job very well. Cataloguing images can be done with a whole host of programs, either free or commercial and you're not tied to the whole Adobe subscription thing.

How do I get to Carnegie Hall ?

LMAO