Lightroom replacement

DxO Optics Pro is now DxO PhotoLab. It's excellent and finally has local adjustments. DxO's PRIME noise reduction may be the best NR you can buy. They have a free 30-day trial. A big plus for me, besides being a super RAW converter, is that PhotoLab doesn't try to organize your files for you. That's a negative for some and a big positive for me.

$700 is still a piece of change.

It is. But it's not a grand! You get an iPhone X for that.

About 6 months ago I came to the conclusion that Adobe was going in a direction I didn't want.

I downloaded and started to learn Darktable. Took my time. Created a table in MS Word with LR actions i frequently use on the left and the DT method for doing the same thing on the right. DT has extensive Help on the web and many youtube videos - both of which helped.

 

If I can do this transition you can do it. No reason to pay a new utility bill for the rest of your life when there is a better alternative out there. Just be systematic in your approach, take your time, learn DT and EPL, and plan your transition as I have done.

 

And don't forget: DT is free!!!

The oost of Photoshop as a one-time license is moot. Except for CS6 ($150), it is not available in that package.

 

From a financial point of view, the monthly lease is a bargain. If the present value of Photoshop is $700, it would take nearly 6 years to pay that amount in monthly installments of $10. Furthermore $700 would be money now, wheres the installments are money then. That leave more cash in your pocket for other things. Adobe gets roughly a 17% ROI in distributed cash flow, which is a good thing to present to management. Lightroom is virtually free in the bargain.

 

Lightroom and Photoshop are the best there is. Lightroom saves me time, which more than pays for the expense. It takes money to develop good software. There's no free lunch.

Again, it's not a bargain if you are a Lightroom-only user who needs support for new raw formats, but not Photoshop. In the UK, LR6 costs £104. Upgrading every 18 months or so from the previous version used to cost £60, and you could skip a version. 18 months of the cheapest subscription that includes LR is £180. Adobe just wants more money, and the success of the CC subscription scheme shows enough people are prepared to pay it. If only half of regular LR users convert to a subscription, Adobe will still come out ahead.

You could save money buying only one shoe, but for most (not all) you need a pair to be fully functional. That's how I feel about Lightroom and Photoshop - left shoe, right shoe. YMMV.

 

In Adobe's model, you have to connect to the internet and log in to Adobe from time to time to continue using the product. If there is a lapse, you have a grace period in which the product is still fully functional in demo mode.

 

Office 365, on the other hand, requires an internet connection nearly every time you use it, or it doesn't open at all. when it does open, it takes two tries to open an email attachment, punctuated with a force quit (Mac).

 

Adobe DNG Converter is free, and generally up to date. All versions of Lightroom recognize DNG files. Most camera manufacturers offer a free converter for their products, sometimes two (Sony has a limited version of Capture One in addition to their own converter).

 

I sense an underlying resentment that Adobe makes money from their products. Good! We've tried the other way, leaving the old Soviet Union with an economy the size of Maine's.

Edited November 9, 2017 by Ed_Ingold

Somehow I think western capitalism will survive mild criticism of software company price gouging, though sometimes I feel Adobe fans are as keen to suppress dissent as any Soviet commissar :)

 

But right now the free market seems to be swinging into operation. Affinity got quite a boost from the end of perpetual licences for PS and Illustrator, while the latest announcement seems to be doing the same thing for LR alternatives. I think we'll end up with a much better choice of tools than we had in the near-monopoly era of CS.

Adobe is doing pretty good financially with the Creative Cloud. According to Reuters (Adobe's cloud push fuels profit beat, shares surge),

"Revenue in Adobe’s digital media business, whose flagship product is the Creative Cloud, rose 29 percent to $1.21 billion in the second quarter, beating analysts’ estimate of $1.17 billion, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet."

With profits like this, there will be no going back stand-alone software for Adobe.

Edited November 10, 2017 by Glenn McCreery

I own Lightroom 5.7, which I have never really used because I never got around to migrating all my Aperture files (and would lose all of my Aperture edits, if I did). Recently, I purchased a new Canon 5D IV. I initially intended to subscribe to Photoshop and Lightroom CC, since my copies of Lightroom and Photoshop CS5 do not support the camera. However, I am quite impressed by Canon's Digital Photo Professional's RAW conversions and lens correction profiles. I also own Affinity, which supports the camera.

 

The Canon 5D IV supports dual cards, CF and SD, so my approach is now to capture RAW images on the CF card and jpeg images on the SD card. I import the jpeg images into Aperture and store the RAW files separately. If I want to edit a RAW image, I look at the jpeg in Aperture file and then find the same file number and date for the corresponding file of RAW images. I then open it in DPP and make adjustments. If further editing is needed, I then send the file to CS5 as a tiff image, edit it, and then save it in a separate edited images file. I can also open the RAW file in Affinity, edit it, and save it in the separate edited images file. My editing approach must look rather contorted, but after much practice is really rather quick and efficient.

 

Here is a simple flow diagram, without the blocks for decision making steps.

 

DxO & PracticalPhotography | DxO.com

Free to good home:)

I refuse to buy Lightroom by subscription, so I'm interested in peoples opinions on a good replacement that would be good with either Sony, Nikon, or Fuji?

Looking over all the entries in this post I am curious as to why absolutely no one mentions ACDSee Ultimate 2018. Why is this?

I've just been made aware of Luminar 2018 which is now available for Windows and with a DAM to follow.

 

 

This is not a recommendation I only whats in the youtube vid, link attached.

$10 a month for Photoshop and Lightroom always up to date is too steep? Yet you are buying a new camera. Sorry, but this is weird.

It's the principle for me, I like to own stuff outright, not be on a leash with yet another bill.

In no particular order:

 

 

Image Processing Applications / Software

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++ AKA: alternatives to Photoshop +++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Pixelmator

Pixelmator Pro

 

CameraBag RAW

 

RAW Therapee

 

DxO Optics Pro 10

 

Paint.net

 

ON1 Photo 10

 

Pixlr Editor

 

Serif Affinity Photo

 

GIMP

 

Capture 1

 

Corel PaintShop Pro X8

Corel AfterShot Pro 3

 

ACD Systems ACDSee Pro 6 and ACDSee Photo Editor

 

MacPhun Luminar 1.0 and Luminar 2018

MacPhun Creative Kit 2016

 

PhotoScape

 

Fotor

 

Picasa

 

Inkscape

 

Alien Skin Software Exposure X2

 

Cyberlink PhotoDirector 7

 

Zoner Photo Studio 18

 

Aftershot Pro

 

Topaz Labs - many products, many plugins

 

 

The Best Photography Software for 2017 is...

 

Best photo editing software in 2017 | TechRadar

 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++ AKA: alternatives to Lightroom +++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Photo Mechanic Version 5

 

Cyberlink PhotoDirector 8 Ultra

 

XnView MP

 

Darktable

darktable | the photo workflow software

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Recommended apps for rendering NEF files

 

Some years ago when adobe started the subscription model for photoshop I acquired LR as an alternative to avoid paying a monthly software rent and upgraded to the latest LR 6 version. Unfortunately, I don't like the software at all - in particular the tedious import and preview generation; I also have no use at all for the catalog functions. I also looked at a couple other options:

 

About a year ago, I gave up and started a subscription for PS/LR but most recently picked up the evaluation of DxO Optics Pro, Capture One (for Sony), and most recently, ON1 Raw. A couple of things I don't like so far: the need of an intermediary file when transferring images to photoshop which I use for some plugins and the final finish of the images. And the rather steep learning curve with either package - given that I have a somewhat decent handle on ACR/photoshop.

 

I don't like or need the library function in Lightroom. I use Lightroom 6.13 and set it to write edits to xmp files. You have to import the images into the Lightroom library in order to edit them, but after I export edited files I remove them from the Lightroom library. If I need to make additional changes in the future I just import them again and since they have xmp files they open with the last edits. I complete any changes, export completed files, and remove from the library. My Lightroom library is empty unless I am editing something. Works for me.

My Lightroom library is empty unless I am editing something. Works for me.

 

Why would anyone do this? It's simply an organizational tool that takes up little space. Deleting it serves no purpose and does away with the ability in the future to use its organizational capabilities for old images.

Why would anyone do this? It's simply an organizational tool that takes up little space. Deleting it serves no purpose and does away with the ability in the future to use its organizational capabilities for old images.

I don't need or want the organization tool in Lightroom. I don't want to follow the rules required to use a database.

My objection to Lightroom is not the subscription price - I can understand the arguments in favour of it. But what really bugs me is that Adobe insists on installing various background processes whose purpose is obscure. Yes, I use Lightroom, but I do lots of other things on my computer (a Mac), and I do not want anything running in background unless it is necessary for my current task. I wish that Lightroom behaved: it can check for updates and licenses when I launch it, or periodically while it is running. There is really no need for it to be doing anything at all after I quit Lightroom.

Just as a reminder. Those using Macs will loose the capability to run legacy (32-bit) apps when High Sierra's replacement comes out (e.g., LINK). Windows has its own ways around the legacy problems....

 

So if you mean to keep updates coming in the future, you need to check before you leap.

 

Myself, I run too many older programs so I will just stay with High Sierra, where they mostly work fine, for the time being.

I've just been made aware of Luminar 2018 which is now available for Windows and with a DAM to follow.

 

 

This is not a recommendation I only whats in the youtube vid, link attached.

 

I decided to cancel my adobe subscription and have jumped into learning my workflow with Skylum. I'm actually quite impressed with Auroa.