Finally bit the bullet and upgraded to LR5.

[maflynn]

I've been hemming and hawing on this since Apple announced the demise of Aperture.

I had LR4 and moved on to that, but I always had issues with Facebook connectivity. Perhaps FB changed its interface and the older version could deal with it, I don't know.

I also seriously looked at Capture One, I really do like how it renders my RAW images. The lack of plug-ins and more importantly the UI were the biggest factors on not going that route.

I was waiting for LR6 (hoping perhaps in vain) that it would also be offered in non-subscription, but having some issues with LR4 during my vacation convinced me to get current. Since it made little sense to "buy" LR5 with LR6 coming at some point, I embraced the subscription model. I guess the upside is that I now can upgrade my old version of PS and use the two together.

The Adobe plugin to import my images seemed to work decently though it grabbed some old images (I'm talking 4 year old images) from I don't know where, but once those were cleaned up. I was happy with the results.

In the end, I guess I'm really happy to have this decision behind me and I can move forward in learning and enhancing my LightRoom knowledge.

 

[HantaYo]

I also seriously looked at Capture One, I really do like how it renders my RAW images. The lack of plug-ins and more importantly the UI were the biggest factors on not going that route.

That is the reason I did not choose CaptureOne and went with Lightroom after Aperture.

 

[monokakata]

I haven't been following the chatter about LR6.

I have LR5 (that I bought stand-alone back with V4) and I also have a CC subscription.

Are you saying that when 6 appears, it's likely to be part of CC? Even for those with stand-alone licenses?

 

[phrehdd]

Here are some things you and others might consider -

As long as Aperture works and there are continued plug ins, there may be no real reason to switch right now.

Capture One does great with various types of RAW file and more often than not produces superior results with tricky RAW files but it doesn't do well as a DAM.

Lightroom has advantages that it has a continuing life with upgrades and such though many of us hate anything to do with subscription services. It does take plug ins which lead to the next line ...

For some, (particularly those with Fuji X cameras) using Photo Ninja in conjunction with Lightroom offers results similar to Capture One and sometimes better.

Odd but effective workflow - if you really prefer the results of Capture One, you can always start there, end with a fixed file and import to Lightroom. The basic idea is to do the major corrections, delete bad files and then what is left is what goes to lightroom for DAM purposes and possibly more work. The import to Lightroom would consist most likely of a "corrected" file that is converted to TIFF.

 

[maflynn]

As long as Aperture works and there are continued plug ins, there may be no real reason to switch right now.

I was thinking along those lines as well. It works why switch, but I think LR provides better results out of the box at this stage, especially when it comes to handling noise. True there are plugins for Aperture but I think emotionally I felt that LR was a better choice in the long run, and why defer or wait to move on, if that was the case.

I suppose since this is a subscription, I could go back to what ever apple is providing as a replacement to Aperture, however their track record is horrendous. If their prior rewrites are any indication, its quite possible the new photos app will lack features of what we've grown used too. In the end, I know where Adobe stands, and they've had a long track record of improving their image editing apps. That's enough to give me peace of mind.

 

[Apple fanboy]

For noise reduction, you can't beat Optics Pro from DXO. You can download a free trial from their website.

Also as I'm too lazy to start a new thread, and this is vaguely related, Pixelmater is at 50% off for Black Friday. Might be worth a look for those not wanting to subscribe to Adobe.

 

[maflynn]

^^ I already own a copy of pixelmator. Yes, its a good app. Tbh, I rarely use PS, as Lr handles most of what I throw at it. Still its nice to have it, since I'm "paying" for it

 

[phrehdd]

For noise reduction, you can't beat Optics Pro from DXO. You can download a free trial from their website.

Also as I'm too lazy to start a new thread, and this is vaguely related, Pixelmater is at 50% off for Black Friday. Might be worth a look for those not wanting to subscribe to Adobe.

Perhaps I wax quixotic here but I really do hope that Pixelmator continues with its pricing, advances to the point it truly sits right between Lightroom and Photoshop in capabilities. What I would like to see is a good DAM feature and fully capable of taking near all of the Lightroom/PS plug-ins.

 

[MCAsan]

Mike,

Now that you finally upgraded to LR 5, that means we can expect LR 6 at any moment.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Mike,

Now that you finally upgraded to LR 5, that means we can expect LR 6 at any moment.

On a subscription does it matter?

 

[MCAsan]

On a subscription does it matter?

Only to those of us who would never do a subscription to Adobe for anything.

 

[maflynn]

Mike,

Now that you finally upgraded to LR 5, that means we can expect LR 6 at any moment.

Actually if I bought the non subscription version, then that would guarantee LR6 to be out, since I'd have to buy that one as well.

I'm not pleased with the subscription model, but at the moment I feel like I'm getting value for my money. Plus the changes Adobe made to open up LR so that you can still use the app after you cancel the subscription gave me some peace of mind.

I wish Adobe offered a pre-payment discount, that is, prepay for the year and save x dollars. They don't, so I'm only going month to month. Technically I could still switch back to Aperture and then what ever else Apple does but I don't think that will happen.

 

[robgendreau]

I did that Capture One to LR workflow for a while; I liked the way C1 did the RAW processing as well. I had the express version, but they axed that and I am gonna pass on the upgrade. Too bad; I wish they'd divorce RAW processing from their DAM stuff somehow so I could use it as a plugin in LR.

I'm using the MacPhun Pro apps, especially the Tonality Pro BW application, quite a bit lately. Excellent. Hardly opening Silver Efex as much. Check 'em out; been on sale a bunch lately.

 

[macphunteam]

I did that Capture One to LR workflow for a while; I liked the way C1 did the RAW processing as well. I had the express version, but they axed that and I am gonna pass on the upgrade. Too bad; I wish they'd divorce RAW processing from their DAM stuff somehow so I could use it as a plugin in LR.

I'm using the MacPhun Pro apps, especially the Tonality Pro BW application, quite a bit lately. Excellent. Hardly opening Silver Efex as much. Check 'em out; been on sale a bunch lately.

We're so happy you like our products, robgendreau, thank you for the compliment!! ~Ana

 

[VirtualRain]

I've been hemming and hawing on this since Apple announced the demise of Aperture.

I had LR4 and moved on to that, but I always had issues with Facebook connectivity. Perhaps FB changed its interface and the older version could deal with it, I don't know.

I also seriously looked at Capture One, I really do like how it renders my RAW images. The lack of plug-ins and more importantly the UI were the biggest factors on not going that route.

I was waiting for LR6 (hoping perhaps in vain) that it would also be offered in non-subscription, but having some issues with LR4 during my vacation convinced me to get current. Since it made little sense to "buy" LR5 with LR6 coming at some point, I embraced the subscription model. I guess the upside is that I now can upgrade my old version of PS and use the two together.

The Adobe plugin to import my images seemed to work decently though it grabbed some old images (I'm talking 4 year old images) from I don't know where, but once those were cleaned up. I was happy with the results.

In the end, I guess I'm really happy to have this decision behind me and I can move forward in learning and enhancing my LightRoom knowledge.

I'm curious why you moved BEFORE seeing what the new Apple Photos app was like? It could be only a few months away, extremely affordable (if not free) and it's very possible it will offer great RAW rendering, UI, and adjustments followed soon after launch by all the plugin compatibility you need. The worse case is that it offers none of this and you've simply delayed your transition to LR by a few more months.

I mean here's a screen shot of the adjustment panel from several months ago... It looks pretty comprehensive. Let's face it, if they have a "Levels" adjustment panel, they're not dumbing it down. And if you're a NIK fan, they are looking into support for Photos.

Switching now seems premature, especially if you were a fan of Aperture and had been holding out on switching to LR this long.

 

[maflynn]

I'm curious why you moved BEFORE seeing what the new Apple Photos app was like?
...

Switching now seems premature, especially if you were a fan of Aperture and had been holding out on switching to LR this long.

I saw no advantage in waiting. I'm sure many of the other regular posters to the Digital Photography can attest too. I mulled this decision over and over Ad infinitum

Here's my logic.

• First Apple's track record with Aperture. The app withered on the vine for years, only receiving various patches to make it compatible to OS X or other services. There's no guarantee apple won't repeat that and fail to keep improving the new app.
• Lack of tools in the current version played into my decision as well. LR has a much richer tool set.
• Apple's track record for releasing new apps or major overhauls. For instance, you take a look at iWork, and you see apps that they were gutted of prior functionality. They were (and for the most part still are) a shell of their former self. Apple did this with the other pro apps as well.
• Apple has long moved away from catering to professionals (not that I am) and prosumers. The new app will in all likelihood be focused on consumers who just post to Facebook.

So I could continue using aperture, though I knew full well it will be killed off and waiting for a product that I'm fairly certain will lack features I expect either because they pulled those features like in iWork, or because its focused now on the consumer segment.

Or I could use something that has more features from a company that has a long track record of improving the product and take advantage of those features.

 

[robgendreau]

Well said Mike. I think it was a good move. And if Photos turns out to be spectacular it's not like you've burned bridges.

One aspect of making the decision that doesn't get enough attention in my opinion is the availability of plugins. Yes, maybe Photos will work with them, but that depends on two groups, Apple and the third parties, making that happen. Perhaps Apple's strict control is making developers keeping mute about plugins for Photos, but perhaps they aren't bothering. Hard to tell. I'm finding I spend a lot more time with plugins as they get better and better and better; now that MacPhun's have layers I use PS even less frequently too. I am absolutely sure that these will work with LR cuz they do now; as Nik said, they are "looking into the possibility" at most with other plugins. That isn't a confidence building statement for those of us that rely on these tools.

 

[maflynn]

Good point on the plugins. One factor in my deciding against Capture 1, was its inability to use plugins. Not a complete show stopper, but a major factor nonetheless.

 

[OreoCookie]

First of all, we already know that Photos includes support for plug-ins via Extensions (e. g. watch the PhotoKit WWDC session). And Photos solves a different problem, namely that of storage. Photos isn't (just) an app, it's a framework called PhotoKit. That means you have several different hooks on the library:

(1) You can write your own app which uses your photo library.
(2) You can write an Extension to add capabilities (e. g. for editing or sharing) to any app which supports Extensions.
(3) You have complete interoperability among apps using this new framework. Hence, if you want to use, say, a future version of Pixelmator with PhotoKit support to access your photo and video library, you can use it in concert with Apple's Photos app, for instance.

While there are downsides (e. g. there is no Windows cross-platform compatibility and it is not clear what features it does and doesn't have when it comes to asset management), it's obvious that there are some pretty significant upsides. Given that Apple is dog fooding this framework and basing its future photo apps on it, I expect it'll be improved continuously, not least because the camera is one of the iPhone's most important features to both, Apple and its customers.

To me photo management is more important than the editing options (meaning, Aperture covers that for the most part). And since moving to a 13" Retina MacBook Pro (which is a great machine), I'm still struggling to manage my photos because I hate having to manage my files manually. I have two libraries at the moment, and periodically, I need to shuffle files back and forth. If Photos solves this problem like iTunes Match did, I'll gladly choose Photos. As it is now Lightroom's management options are more limited and from what I've heard (I don't own an iPad) syncing between the Lightroom app for iOS and the Mac is a very limited, very manual affair. Add to that the fact that Lightroom will soon be available as part of a subscription service only. And if you hear around, that to this day still causes significant stir in the design community (I was surprised by the prices for shrinkwrapped CS4 and CS5 boxes). Adobe's behavior reminds me of Quark just before the release of InDesign. That's another reason why I'd be careful to switch at this point in time, because I know that in the future I'll be paying $120/year every year.

I'll definitely wait to see what Photos is like before I make my decision.

Edit: I just noticed that the WWDC session is for iOS only. So it's not clear whether the OS X version of Photos will support things like Extensions in v1. I hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up.

 

[fcortese]

Recently I began looking into Lr in more detail than I ever had in the past to see what it had to offer as an alternative to Aperture. It clearly has some very powerful tools, lens correction and chromatic aberration jump to mind, that seem a lot easier to use than Aperture. However, I am in agreement with oreocookie. I figure we have a good year to year and a half before Aperture will no longer be supported by any future OS X that Apple releases and the potential for Photos, at least in theory, seems boundless. No more saving TIFF files of plugin processed photos, seamless use across all iOS devices, etc. The question remains whether Apple will really push to make Photos a system for both consumers and prosumers and professionals alike. In the meantime, I am considering some limited use of Lr to get a feel for it. I really do not want to be stuck in a subscription plan year in and year out. I can see where that might be an advantage for pros who utilized many of Adobe's apps for photography and design, but for the enthusiast I can see where that is not as appealing. So I will be anxious to see what the roll out Photos looks like in early 2015 which is just around the corner.

 

[OreoCookie]

There is one thing I'd like to add: the distinction between pro, consumer and prosumer is completely arbitrary: if pro means commercial (as in you make your living with it), then any software you use to make a living is pro software even if, well, some other people don't think it's up to snuff. I understand that certain workflows require features which may not be present in some pieces of software (e. g. if you need native CMYK support for your work, then Pixelmator is not a substitute for Photoshop), but in many cases, you don't rely on the whole feature set. And almost always competitors come »from below«, and they're ridiculed by the market leader for that reason.

 

[Traverse]

I wish Adobe offered a pre-payment discount, that is, prepay for the year and save x dollars.

That's what surprised me. It was $10 a month and $120 for 12 months, I initially thought I had missed something.

________________________

I just got my first DSLR (nikon D3300) and am feeling the limitations on iPhoto. I was all set to buy Aperture the day before they announced they were ceasing development. I want lightroom but $150 for a stand alone license or $10 a month for the subscription is a lot to pay when your in college. (The camera money was money I had saved on the side for a few years).

I wish Apple would surprise everyone with the new Photos app, but I don't see that happening. Plus, Lightroom is probably the most future proof software to learn and adapt to.


EDIT: You know, it's the little expense you forget about! Reviewing my bills I realized I'm spending $20+ a month at Subway on campus! Bring food from home and buy lightroom and I'm still coming out better!

 

[maflynn]

I wish Apple would surprise everyone with the new Photos app, but I don't see that happening. Plus, Lightroom is probably the most future proof software to learn and adapt to.

My expectations are so low, that Apple could easily surpass them With that said, its not just one release and I'm won over. Its their support over the course of time, and that's why I went to Adobe. Apple's track record is what caused me to finally switch over.

 

[Razeus]

Picked up a copy yesterday myself. BuyDig had an offer for both LR5 + 2GB Western Digital Ultra hard drive for $109. I needed a hard drive anyway.

There's so much I use LR for, I can't really leave it. I've thought long and hard how to leave the Adobe ecosystem, but LR is a damn good solution to alot of workflow. Everything from remaining files, resizing files, making files smaller for the web using the quality settings, applying adjustments and presents to a group of photos, geotagging, posting to various networks, etc. Since my CC year is up, I'm sticking with LR5 with Pixelmator instead of Photoshop but won't subscribe to CC anymore.

----------

Recently I began looking into Lr in more detail than I ever had in the past to see what it had to offer as an alternative to Aperture. It clearly has some very powerful tools, lens correction and chromatic aberration jump to mind, that seem a lot easier to use than Aperture. However, I am in agreement with oreocookie. I figure we have a good year to year and a half before Aperture will no longer be supported by any future OS X that Apple releases and the potential for Photos, at least in theory, seems boundless. No more saving TIFF files of plugin processed photos, seamless use across all iOS devices, etc. The question remains whether Apple will really push to make Photos a system for both consumers and prosumers and professionals alike. In the meantime, I am considering some limited use of Lr to get a feel for it. I really do not want to be stuck in a subscription plan year in and year out. I can see where that might be an advantage for pros who utilized many of Adobe's apps for photography and design, but for the enthusiast I can see where that is not as appealing. So I will be anxious to see what the roll out Photos looks like in early 2015 which is just around the corner.

I wouldn't count on Apple making anything for professional photographers. Unless they have something like a "pro mode", I see Photos as a Soccer Mom App.

 

[VirtualRain]

I wouldn't count on Apple making anything for professional photographers. Unless they have something like a "pro mode", I see Photos as a Soccer Mom App.

While we don't know much, the fact that early screen shots show a "Levels" adjustment brick, indicates they're being a little bit more ambitious than the average Soccer Mom shooter.