Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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pakodominguez
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

Unread post by pakodominguez »

bfitzgerald wrote: I don't need extensive catalogue options, but I do need to be able to add and browse files quickly making adjustments that are saved on the fly. So any other suggestions free or paid I'll consider any help appreciated.
If you don't need a strong catalog option, and you are only editing Sony raw files, Capture One is free for Sony. I'm not sure the license's price for the other versions...
I'm not upgrading from LR6. I'll use LR5 or LR6 depending on the files I'm editing, because there are few VSCO profiles I like to use. I need to work more wiht Capture One in order to get closer to the flavors I like, and I'm thinking on using Bridge for keywords, or even using LR6 for that and GPS info, but doing the editing on Capture One.
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pakodominguez
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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ValeryD wrote: I wrote a lot to Adobe about the problems with the latest LR, especially the speed of the LR (6. * 7. *), I was on Adobe webinar, asked about the speed of LR, they answered that they are working on this problem, but after almost 2 years, nothing new has been done in this direction.
Again, this is a problem ONLY with Adobe LR after ver 6.* .
I have no problem with other editors including Adobe Photoshop, C1 and many others works very fast!
This is, for me, the real reason i'm not upgrading to LR CC or any of the new offers.
in order to make LR6 work a little better, you need to increase the Cache a lot and erase previews often.
Some help:

http://digital-photography-school.com/1 ... -hardware/
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bakubo
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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pakodominguez wrote:
bakubo wrote: 1. The base file is not touched. The edits are just a list of commands that are stored and in real-time displayed. You can add to them, change them, undo them, etc. at will forever and none of it affects the base file.
I was about to tell you that using "sidecar" xml instead of storing all the edit and keyword info on the LR catalog allow you to "move" easily from one version to other, or even to Capture One (well, capture one will only see the keywords and GS info, not the edit info) but now I remember that you work often on JPG only...
Well, you are wrong on both counts. :) Saving LR edits as an sidecar file does NOT allow them to be carried over to other programs. Even using them to go to an older version of LR is not problem free since older versions will ignore any editing using commands/features that are not in the older version (which is as expected). Darktable can use a small subset of the LR edits, but others it ignores. And the result may not look much like the LR result. C1 is the same. It can only handle a small subset of LR edits and the result may not look like the LR result.

I mostly shoot raw and have for about the last 13 years or so. I occasionally shoot some things in jpeg depending on the occasion and subject. Certainly for all my massive travel photo collection they are raw.
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pakodominguez
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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bakubo wrote: Well, you are wrong on both counts. :)
You sound like my wife
:?
bakubo wrote: I mostly shoot raw and have for about the last 13 years or so. I occasionally shoot some things in jpeg depending on the occasion and subject. Certainly for all my massive travel photo collection they are raw.
Definitely the best choice is to shoot always raw (I'm looking for a good app for my phone now...)
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Dusty
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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I've been using Raw Therapee for several years, and am also looking at all the other freeware out there.

Since I usually don't do any heavy editing, it's not a problem for me. I like to capture images that I believe are true to what I see, but that doesn't mean I won't tweak color or white balance if needed. I can't remember the last time I did any masking or layering, so for me all of these really work okay.

I do like to sometimes tweak files with a film type overlay, just to see how they look.

My biggest wish is for a usable cataloging software that I can use easily, and also a universal type of keywording/rating system that's easily exportable, as I often work on the same photos on my laptop and desktop.

Dusty
An a700, an a550 and couple of a580s, plus even more lenses (Zeiss included!).
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the_hefay
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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pakodominguez wrote: If you don't need a strong catalog option, and you are only editing Sony raw files, Capture One is free for Sony. I'm not sure the license's price for the other versions...
I tried the Capture One free version for Sony and if I remember correctly it's not completely unlocked like the paid version. There are some features missing. Maybe I'm mistaken and need to take a look at it again.
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UrsaMajor
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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the_hefay wrote:
pakodominguez wrote: If you don't need a strong catalog option, and you are only editing Sony raw files, Capture One is free for Sony. I'm not sure the license's price for the other versions...
I tried the Capture One free version for Sony and if I remember correctly it's not completely unlocked like the paid version. There are some features missing. Maybe I'm mistaken and need to take a look at it again.
You are correct. The free version is Capture One Express for Sony, and it is actually quite good for a free program, IMO. Additional features are available with the paid upgrade to the full version. However, if you get the version that works only with Sony cameras, the license fee for the full version is only about a fourth of the cost of the full version that also works with other cameras.

Your Mileage May Vary, but I considered the upgrade worth the price, and paid it.

- Tom -
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bakubo
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

Unread post by bakubo »

Big LR performance boost finally coming. I hope it is real.

https://dpreview.com/news/6947305878/ad ... -to-try-it
Last edited by bakubo on Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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pakodominguez
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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UrsaMajor wrote: You are correct. The free version is Capture One Express for Sony, and it is actually quite good for a free program, IMO. Additional features are available with the paid upgrade to the full version. However, if you get the version that works only with Sony cameras, the license fee for the full version is only about a fourth of the cost of the full version that also works with other cameras.

Your Mileage May Vary, but I considered the upgrade worth the price, and paid it.

- Tom -
In general, I'm OK with Capture One, specially rendering for pre-view (LR became painfully slow). I'm still not 100 happy with the final output, I find their sharpening too aggressive. I need to work more with the software in order to find the right flavors for me.

I'm doing DAM with Lightroom and editing with Capture One. Paid version on Capture One doesn't really add anything to DAM. I also have to give a try to the Capture One Styles.
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ValeryD
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

Unread post by ValeryD »

Finally, Adobe fixed general problem with Lightroom. New Lightroom CC v 7.2 works fine with large size of the files. :D
Everything in the life unusual!
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bakubo
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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I will download the update when I get back to Japan. I am traveling for the last 5 weeks in Europe and Morocco and still have 2 weeks until back home. I am hoping I notice a bit of a performance boost in the new version.
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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Quick update I'm still looking for a LR replacement. However I did try a few other programs such as Affinity Photo which is pretty good. However I have always used a raw development package and a seperate editor (as and when needed). I sat down and looked at what I actually used a pixel editor for, and it's mostly basic adjustments. So I ditched paint shop pro 9 which I rarely used and the raw development was pretty horrible, which didn't matter as I mostly tweak TIFF or Jpeg files. I still scratch my head at why GIMP doesn't have out of the box as such WB adjustment, neither does paint.net you have to get a plugin.

Some very odd people working on these software packages. As for raw I will use LR at the moment until a suitable replacement comes along with adequate browsing/cat simplicity. Maybe RT or Darktable will get there. For simple pixel editing I've simplified things massively came across a program that is free (Photopad) has most of the adjustments I use often such as crop/WB/distortion etc and shock it's easy to use. I even dumped a few raw files in there and it opened them up fine MRW/ARW and did a decent job of rendering them. It's still in beta 4.0 and certainly needs a speed boost (NR is basic eats up CPU time), exif isn't exporting and needs some work histogram etc can't find that. What it does do is what I was mostly using the Corel software for and it does it quite well. So I will keep using that I won't be looking at any more Corel products because their contant pop up "hey buy new versions" irritate me and I find their raw processing to be pretty pants. Affinity is worth a look if you need more advanced features..if it had the LR style catalogue or simlar I'd be tempted. Right now I'll play around with this and kee an eye on the open source raw programs in the hope the geeks come to their senses. Darktable has a very weird UI and RT is stuck in a mess of super tweaks few will use I could get by with RT at a push
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bakubo
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

Unread post by bakubo »

I got back to Japan a couple of weeks ago after 7 weeks traveling in Europe and Morocco. I updated to LR Classic CC 7.2 from 7.1. Seems a bit faster. Been busy working on Europe and Morocco photos every day.
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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Here is a new multi-part user review of darktable 2.4.1 and an interesting discussion thread:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/60904532

It sounds like darktable is getting to be a very interesting program. Available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Free.
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Re: Why it's time to move away from Lightroom

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