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Lightroom 6 Suggestions?

Apple_Glen_UK

Apple_Glen_UK

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 26, 2015
1,192
15,532
West Sussex, England
#1
Hi,

I'm relatively new to this forum and the world of Macs too. Bought my first ever Mac (MacBook Pro) only a couple of months ago and am loving it & pleased with my purchase.

I had a bit of a dilemma with my photos though. I have tonnes of old photos and plan to continue adding photos to my collections. I am not interested in any Cloud storage - I like having them in one place on my computer (and I do back them up). However, I did not like the Photos app that was on my MBP. I trialled a few other apps but wasn't impressed either until I came across Adobe's Lightroom 6. I signed up to a 30-day trial and really liked it. I saw that the price of it was £89.00 on Amazon which I thought was quite high. It has now gone up to £108 and seems to be going up by the day.

But since my 30-day trial expired the other day Lightroom still opens up on my MBP and warns of 'reduced functionality'. It still allows me to sort folders etc which is the main reason I wanted it anyway. Will it continue to let me use it like this do you know?

I would quite like to buy the full version but am a tad skint at the moment with Christmas around the corner and the fact I've spent all of my money on purchasing my MacBook Pro!

Would love to know your thoughts and how good Lightroom 6 really is, as I probably don't appreciate even half of what it can do yet. If I mainly want it to store photos and not necessarily to edit them, can I continue to use the scaled down trial version do you think?

Thank you.
 
F

fieldsphotos

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2013
274
109
As far as I know you can use the expired trial version forever. You just won't be able to use any of the editing sliders in the Develop mode from what I understand. So if you are cool with just using Lightroom as a catalog manager, then you are good.

As far as Lightroom being worth it, I feel it totally is. It can do a lot of really nice editing and its easier to use than full up Photoshop. There are also lots of great plugins out there for it that can really add pop to your photos.

Keep an eye on the prices, as it tends to go on sale a couple of times a year.
 
R

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,471
339
Lr is the Big Dog of photo organizers. Probably the most widely used, and although tons of people prefer other programs for a variety of reasons, there is very little you can't do in Lr that you can do in the others.

You can search here for the alternatives; they get discussed a lot. What would work for you depends on what features you are finding useful in Lr right now.
 
MCAsan

MCAsan

macrumors 601
Jul 9, 2012
4,587
442
Atlanta
matt9013

matt9013

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2013
333
16
Does Lightroom get a lot of updates? Was thinking about outright buying it but if they get major updates every year or even every few months I may just go the sub route. Would rather just buy it outright though.
 
Apple fanboy

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
57,003
56,027
Behind the Lens, UK
matt9013 said:
Does Lightroom get a lot of updates? Was thinking about outright buying it but if they get major updates every year or even every few months I may just go the sub route. Would rather just buy it outright though.
Click to expand...
Minor ones throughout the year. I bought 6 as an upgrade from 5 as I also don't like being tied in to a subscription model.
I'm not sure that will be an option when 7 comes out.
But there is no reason you have to upgrade. You can still use an older version for a few years (although it might not support newer cameras after a while).
 
MCAsan

MCAsan

macrumors 601
Jul 9, 2012
4,587
442
Atlanta
I have gotten several upgrades to both LR and PS via the CC Photography subscription. Most notable is the Dehaze tool that is introduced in Develop module as a slider. Next Dehaze was added to Development module's adjustment brush and graduated filter. There are few more feature upgrades that happened in the CC releases.
 
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TheGenerous

TheGenerous

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2010
1,122
438
I'm an Austronaut
Lightroom is probably the best software for cataloging and editing large collections of photos. I don't think you'll regret the purchase. Is Adobe Bridge appealing to you for cataloging? I don't know if is free but it does help organizing (no editing)
 
matt9013

matt9013

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2013
333
16
TheGenerous said:
Lightroom is probably the best software for cataloging and editing large collections of photos. I don't think you'll regret the purchase. Is Adobe Bridge appealing to you for cataloging? I don't know if is free but it does help organizing (no editing)
Click to expand...
No, I don't have any cataloging needs at the moment and don't think I will.
 
Apple_Glen_UK

Apple_Glen_UK

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 26, 2015
1,192
15,532
West Sussex, England
Sorry to drag this up again but I have another LR6 query I'm hoping someone can advise on.

After trialling several different apps I settled on Lightroom 6. I only really want it for cataloging my photos. I'm not fussed about editing them. I signed up to a trial of Lightroom 6 and after the trial finished it continued working in that I could add photos/folders etc. No change there. The only thing that changed was that I was unable to edit them which didn't bother me anyway.

However, a week or so ago I clicked on the Adobe Creative Cloud symbol thing (sorry - new to Macs and don't know many technical terms!) and clicked on the options to remove it. Since then the symbol has gone but now whenever I open LR6 I am getting a message which reads 'Lightroom Trial - Your Trial Will Expire in XX Days'. This wasn't happening before and I am now worried that in 21 days from now it will disable completely on my MBP. I wish I'd never mucked about with it in the first place now!

Does anyone know anything about this or should it still continue to work in the same way again after these 21 days are up? I like LR6 and would purchase the stand alone version but having recently forked out a lot for my MBP I am kind of skint.

Thanks.
 
R

Ray2

macrumors 65816
Jul 8, 2014
1,170
489
I'm a Lightroom user. Some thoughts given budget is an issue. Photo Mechanics, Graphic Converter, Adobe Photoshop Elements.
 
kenoh

kenoh

macrumors 604
Jul 18, 2008
6,507
10,850
Glasgow, UK
Ray2 said:
I'm a Lightroom user. Some thoughts given budget is an issue. Photo Mechanics, Graphic Converter, Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Click to expand...

Good suggestions as alternates. Be careful though on photoshop elements. Certainly on version 11, if you bought it from mac appstore it didnt have the catalog manager capability. To get that you had to buy the retail pack from somewhere like Amazon. Dont know if it is still the same on version 14, just something to watch for
 
R

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,471
339
I think you should be able to continue to use Lr as you have for just finding photos, and not developing or editing them. But check directly with Adobe.
 
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