Lightroom

[Jediboy]

Hi,

I am thinkImg about putting Adobe Lightroom in my Christmas list as the wife is asking for ideas for presents. I'm currently using PSE 14 and it tends to serve a well.

Does anyone here use LR?
Wondering if I'd see much benefit from the upgrade, although from doing a bit of research it does look good.

Any thoughts/ideas welcome.

Thanks

Chris

[Alfonso_Frisk]

I still use LR 4.4 as a stand alone. Had it years and years and it suits my needs.  I refuse to get into the monthly payments for editting software.
I also have DXO 11 elite which is good for some images, its also a decent RAW importer and converter

[Simple]

I refuse to go to monthly rip-off. I still use LR classic I believe it is LR4 as well. I also use DXO to convert my RAW files. Mainly because it is the best noise reducer I can find, and I need that because my Nikon D3 and D300 are ancient.

[Hinfrance]

I have a full version of 4.4, which IMO is seriously past its sell by date. It doesn't really work in any meaningful way for me any more, without having to do work arounds to get images into it. It also crashes and hangs a lot. So I stopped using it.

Now I use the monthly plan, which honestly doesn't cost more than two Sunday papers a month*, and I get PS to boot. There is no doubt that the latest versions of LR and PS** are very good, although LR still suffers from many of the quirks and annoyances that it's always had. But as a DAM it's the best (just). I really don't see the monthly sub as a rip-off, I think it is good value for money.

I did upgrade my DxO the time before last, but I'm not going to lay out another wedge so soon after the last time for what looks like only small incremental changes. Ditto On1.

So I'd say keep it on your Christmas list.

My list has nothing camera related on it; but it does have a nice Marcus Miller bass in the 'not a chance in hell' section.

*The Sunday Times is €5.70 a week here 
** If you ever use luminosity masks you can't beat PS

[SimonW]

I bought Lightroom 5 when it first came out, and now cannot imagine being without its catalog, which makes it so easy for me to find any old photo. S shoot RAW, and find its RAW processing including highlight recovery very good, as well as tools like the spot remover, graduated filter and adjustment brushes. I also have Photoshop Elements 9 but very seldom need it unless I want to do things like add text to a photo. PSE 9's RAW development is useless in comparison with LR5. I've just being trying out the free trial of Serif Infinity on a friend's recommendation, but I won't be buying it. Its RAW tools don't compare with LR5, and while it seems to offer much more than PSE, it seems very complicated, and there's nothing there I need.

When LR6 came out the reviews said it wasn't much changed from 5 other than speed improvements. I believe that though it's no longer supported it can still be downloaded from Adobe's site and used stand-alone.

When I replaced my camera - Pentax K10D with a KS2 I found LR5 didn't support the new Pentax RAW files. However, the Pentax can be set to save RAW files in Adobe DNG format, and LR is fine with those, so I'm happy. But it might be a sign that other makes of camera won't work on an unsupported LR without first converting their files with Adobe's free DNG converter.

Simon



Simon

[Hinfrance]

Interesting comment about Affinity - I use that rather than PS most of the time - because it is simpler - I do a few basics in LR then 'edit in' a 'copy with LR adjustments'. I find LR rather clunky, always have.

Affinity is particularly good at HDRs, much better IMO than LR - which is rubbish for that - and even PS which I suspect uses much the same engine as LR for them. The trouble is there is no one piece of software that is 'just right' - we all have different requirements and tastes.

A suggestion for something else to play with - Darktable - one of the freeware RAW front ends that works with GIMP - fabulous split toning

[SimonW]

I found one very useful tool in Affinity - the donut. It's perfect for drawing a circle round one face in a crowd or a location on a map. Adobe's circle tool is badly named - it only draws disks. (The work around is to draw a circular selection on a new layer and add a stroke to it). And other Affinity drawing tools such as the cog wheel, with all its adjustments, look like fun, but I doubt I'd use them. Tools like resizing (for example) appeared over complicated. Perhaps I should have spent more time to get to know it, but niggles like not having a simple undo button, and the zoom tool being on top of the toolbar in some personas and at the  bottom in others put me off.

Simon

[Hinfrance]

In Affinity, as in PS, undo is ctrl+z, or pick any point in the history window and click, or use the undo history brush for pixel adjustments. Resize is ctrl+alt+i and type in the dpi then the dimensions. Zoom is press and scroll the mouse wheel (or ctrl + scroll) just scrolling the mouse wheel moves up and down, shift+scroll goes side to side. Ctrl+0 (number not letter) is fit to screen.

But I take your point, after Elements it looks very complex, because it is, but it's not as mind boggling as PS which can do just about anything you can think of, and loads more besides.

I do use a Wacom Intuos which makes a lot of things easier - preprogrammed layer functions, shortcut keys and the various scroll wheel modes make working with all of the editing programmes a bit easier. LR, however, doesn't play well with the Intuos, probably because my Intuos is 6 years old now.

Horse for courses applies, as always. 

[anglefire]

I have the monthly subscription to LR - and would find it hard to go back to the older version now as I do like the extra bits that the latest version offers - but is annoying - though it does depend how often you upgraded before as to the cost benefit.

I did buy Affinity at the last photoshow for £25 because I thought it a bargain. And it wasn't. Used it about twice. Don't like it, not used it since.

[Jediboy]

Thanks for the replies gents. Very useful and LR certainly sounds like a good bit of kit. I  was chatting to a friend at work who also uses LR and was very positive about it.

I was reluctant to pay £10 per month but have seen it on John Lewis website for £119.
Must admit to be very tempted but there's so many things that I want Father Christmas to bring me.

Thanks again for the replies.

[Hinfrance]

I have the monthly subscription to LR - and would find it hard to go back to the older version now as I do like the extra bits that the latest version offers - but is annoying - though it does depend how often you upgraded before as to the cost benefit.

I did buy Affinity at the last photoshow for £25 because I thought it a bargain. And it wasn't. Used it about twice. Don't like it, not used it since.

The monthly sub isn't just for LR - to be honest I wouldn't give a monkey's if the sub was just for PS. LR is just a bolt on, in many ways ACDSee is a better DAM, especially the Ultimate version. PS remains the top of the game in editors, a bit behind in a very few areas, but streets ahead in others.

As an aside, has anyone else had a look at Darktable?

[SimonW]

Jediboy,

Be careful!

The John Lewis site has it as you say, but the product description does not mention Windows 10. It's for 7 and 8 only. It is LR6 so probably the description is incorrect. However, it is probably a CD with LR6 as it was first issued, without all the following updates before Adobe stopped supporting it. I don't know whether or not it could still be updated to the latest version.

Simon

[Jediboy]

Thanks Simon for the heads up.
I'm using Mac so will double check the details to make sure its right for me.

H said that LR is rubbish for HDR which is one of the things i was interested in. At the moment I use Photomatix for HDR which is OK but I'm not really happy with the results, but to be fair thats probably me and not the software!
Also wanted it for star trails as the software I'm using at the moment is rubbish.

[anglefire]

Chris, it depends how you want your HDR shots to look - I find many are overcooked to my taste - and LR seems more natural.

You can't upgrade the paid version of LR to the latest subscription. LR6 I think is the latest in that form and the rest are subscription only.

Howard, interesting you say LR is a bolt-on - I rarely use PS as most of what I need to do, I do in LR - each to their own I guess!

[Jediboy]

Thanks Mark.

I too prefer the more subtle approach to HDR, which to be fair, Photomatix can do.
Ideally I would avoid subscribing and as it may be a Christmas present a one off purchase would be better.