Anyone re-thinking their usage of Lightroom?

[MCAsan]

I'm not sure what you're saying regarding On1's Photo Raw. The editing is non-destructive but are you saying I cannot get back to the original master after an edit and leave the module?

With On1 Photo Raw all non-destructive with edits stored in catalog and in sidecars.

It is in Affinity Photo that does not work that way when you leave the raw module to go to the photo editing module, the app renders the raw edits. So you can not go back and have the same full range of capabilities if you want to change the way you did the basic raw editing.

 

[Janichsan]

Affinity Photo can be used non-destructively. … The background photo is of course committed as soon as you use the Develop persona in AF or ACR in Ps, but you can go back to that.

Yeah, what you say in the last sentence here is actually the point: one you commit the settings in the Development persona, there's no going back and changing or editing them in any way without loading the original, unedited file again.

In Photoshop, you can actually apply the Camera Raw edits as Smart Objects, which preserves the ability to edit the settings. AP has no such option.

But what you say here is absolutely true:

But comparing it (or Photoshop) with say Lr is apples and oranges. Both AP and Ps are different beasts.

AP and Photoshop are not meant to be primary tools for RAW editing. I mean, technically PS can't even really handle RAW development at all: it's only able to do this with to an external application as plug-in.

 

[MCAsan]

Got an offer for Capture 1 Pro 12 for 50% off. Yearly subscription of $90. Discount also on perpetual 12 license.

Very tempting!

 

[Clix Pix]

About a year ago I tried out Capture 1 Pro, and since I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of things by the time the trial was to finish up, I bought the program (Capture 1 Pro 11 for Sony) but still never really grasped it and made it work for me, so as far as I’m concerned that’s the end of it with that particular program... Not the fault of the program, it just wasn’t in sync with how I do things or my needs, which are much simpler than most professionals’. I can see how for many people it would be very useful and also how it would work well with their particular requirements, but for me it was, among other things, just overkill and I didn’t have the time or the patience to really delve into the whole thing deeply enough to really learn the program. So I never moved on to v. 12.....

 

[maflynn]

Got an offer for Capture 1 Pro 12 for 50% off.

No email for me.

Here's the cost breakdown as I see it - assuming a 3 year upgrade cycle
C1
Year 1, $300 (full price), year 2, no upgrade, year 3 - 150. Total cost of ownership: $450.
50% offer
Year 1, $150 (full price), year 2, no upgrade, year 3 - 150. Total cost of ownership: $300.

Adobe
Year 1, $120 (full price), year 2, $120, year 3 - $120. Total cost of ownership: $360.

On1
Year 1 $80 (seems to be always on sale at 64), year 2, no upgrade, year 3 $64. Total cost of ownership $144

In adobe's case, you also get PS while I don't use much but its nice to have. With the 50% coupon C1 is less expensive and that will continue as you pay 150 every third year but you're paying 120 annually with Adobe.

Regarding Photo Raw, that's by far the more affordable product that as I said in the photo raw thread is about 80% of LRs features/functionality. My biggest pet peeve with Photo Raw, so far is the database structure that holds the info for the images - its not easily backed up. I believe close enough is good enough in this case.

I've not gotten the 50% email as I said above, and that helps make my decision easier, i.e., Photo Raw. Funny, I get beta invites from Phase one for C1 and other emails but no 50%. If I was anxious to jump ship and go to C1, maybe I could pester the support staff for the 50% coupon but I think I'm good with Photo Raw (watch me get the email now and all my logic is thrown out the window )

 

[MCAsan]

For me two main issues with Photo Raw:

• import capabilities (naming destination folders and renaming files) are very poor compared to Lr, PM, C1P and others. To depend on Photo Raw I would need PM to do the importing....and it costs as much as Photo Raw.
• No support for digital camera profiles. Heck, even Skylum supports that in Luminar. Supposedly they are working on that. But that was what I was told years ago about doing lens corrections from m43 raw files and that has still never happened.

 

[nburwell]

I am so used to Adobe products (namely Photoshop and Lightroom), that it would be quite hard for me to just quite them and look elsewhere. Even though I know there a couple other photo software options available which I've heard are pretty good.

The only thing that would make me look outside Adobe is if they raise the monthly price for LR/PS CC bundle from $10/month to $20/month.

 

[maflynn]

import capabilities (naming destination folders and renaming files) are very poor compared to Lr, PM, C1P and others. To depend on Photo Raw I would need PM to do the importing....and it costs as much as Photo Raw.

Yeah, in playing with PhotoRaw, I'm seeing this as a hassle at the minimum.

I am so used to Adobe products (namely Photoshop and Lightroom)

Yeah, I'm finding that out, as I play with alternatives. I'm Photo Raw is similar but lacks the polish of LR and some features. What I find may be hard for me to deal with is, that I may take one laptop on a trip and want to then import what I shot into another computer. Easy enough to do with LR but a bit more cumbersome in On1, though with the sidecar files enabled, in theory that should work.

I'm looking at AlienSkin's Exposure and it seems nice enough, but it seems to be killing my CPU. I have it running and my cpu is pegged at 80 percent, maybe its building indexes or other background processes but man alive I have a fairly powerful laptop (hex core ThinkPad) and hearing the fans blast and the CPU pegged so high, I'm not sure I'm wanting to keep playing with it.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yeah, in playing with PhotoRaw, I'm seeing this as a hassle at the minimum.


Yeah, I'm finding that out, as I play with alternatives. I'm Photo Raw is similar but lacks the polish of LR and some features. What I find may be hard for me to deal with is, that I may take one laptop on a trip and want to then import what I shot into another computer. Easy enough to do with LR but a bit more cumbersome in On1, though with the sidecar files enabled, in theory that should work.

I'm looking at AlienSkin's Exposure and it seems nice enough, but it seems to be killing my CPU. I have it running and my cpu is pegged at 80 percent, maybe its building indexes or other background processes but man alive I have a fairly powerful laptop (hex core ThinkPad) and hearing the fans blast and the CPU pegged so high, I'm not sure I'm wanting to keep playing with it.

You obviously need a new Mac Pro!

 

[maflynn]

You obviously need a new Mac Pro!

Definitely but short of selling my kids to the gypsies, I'm not sure I can swing it

 

[Apple fanboy]

Definitely but short of selling my kids to the gypsies, I'm not sure I can swing it

I’ve got my kidneys on eBay so I’m sure I’ll be ordering one soon!

 

[maflynn]

I’ve got my kidneys on eBay so I’m sure I’ll be ordering one soon!

Yeah, I posted my pancreas and liver, but someone just told me I need those ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[maflynn]

So far,
On1's Photo Raw is decent, but the app is a bit buggy, I was working on one image and it rotated the image after saving it, and then when I re-rotated it, the dimensions were messed up. I'm kind of concerned that it would do that to my images. It only happened once and I can't duplicate the issue, but still...

Alien Skin's Exposure X4 is similar to Photo Raw, but is more compact, the DAM and editing is combined on one screen. It pegs my CPU too high for the simplest tasks, the CPU is bumped to 100 for anything involved. No reason for that with a hexcore laptop.

PS Elements - too limiting lack of controls and settings that I'm used to in other apps.

Again, when I looked at replacing LR a couple years ago, there were apps that could do some stuff but LR seemed the best at what I want to do the way I'm used to working. Kind of along the lines of what @Apple fanboy said, inertia and workflow.

 

[Janichsan]

By the way, the venerable Graphic Converter has gained some new RAW development features in the recently released version 11.

I haven't really looked into this yet, but at first glance, they seem somewhat limited.

EDIT: Forget I mentioned that. It's really very limited, fairly slow, and the dialog is bugged (you can't access some of the interface elements as they overlap each other)…

 

[SkiHound2]

I've tried to divorce Adobe in the past but have never been able to sign the final papers. The subscription price for LR Classic, + PS, + LR CC (I use the iPad version some) is really not that bad (assuming it doesn't get raised). They support new cameras and lenses quickly. They update regularly, etc. Though it works well if you do everything via LR, I'm not that fond of a proprietary catalog. And I find ACR pretty average. I've been using On1 Raw more and more recently. Earlier versions always seemed to have some issues with which I just couldn't live but the current version seems to work pretty well. I've grown to like the browse module, doesn't rely on a proprietary catalog, gives a lot more freedom with respect to copying and moving files. I also really like having pretty good masking and selective editing tools in every effects module. No need to round trip files to PS for a lot pretty basic editing. That said, I do think some of the tools in PS are better. But On1 raw gives me a faster, cleaner workflow. Still haven't signed the final divorce papers with Adobe, but I am having a pretty serious fling with On1.

 

[MCAsan]

So far,
On1's Photo Raw is decent, but the app is a bit buggy, I was working on one image and it rotated the image after saving it, and then when I re-rotated it, the dimensions were messed up. I'm kind of concerned that it would do that to my images. It only happened once and I can't duplicate the issue, but still...

Alien Skin's Exposure X4 is similar to Photo Raw, but is more compact, the DAM and editing is combined on one screen. It pegs my CPU too high for the simplest tasks, the CPU is bumped to 100 for anything involved. No reason for that with a hexcore laptop.

PS Elements - too limiting lack of controls and settings that I'm used to in other apps.

Again, when I looked at replacing LR a couple years ago, there were apps that could do some stuff but LR seemed the best at what I want to do the way I'm used to working. Kind of along the lines of what @Apple fanboy said, inertia and workflow.