At a Crossroads/thinking about Lightroom CC/Classic

I've been steadfast in continuing to use LR 6 and PS CS 6 for cataloging/image processing. In particular, the $80 I spent in 2015 on a perpetual license for Lightroom, and the edu price for CS6 back a number of years ago has well paid for itself. 99.9% of my digital originals never see PS-basically I only use it when I'm prepping something for a large print and find some of the touch up(spot healing, etc) and other odds and ends better in Photoshop. Most of my film scans still go through Photoshop, but even CS4 fills my needs fine. At this point, my newest camera is still supported by Lightroom 6, My next likely major purchase(still a few years down the road probably) is a Nikon D850, which is also supported in 6.14.

 

First of all, I basically have zero interest in editing on my iPhone, and also use an iPad so rarely that I see myself being happy with only "Classic."

 

One of the thing SOMEWHAT swaying this is that Apple is going to make older programs somewhat more difficult to use. Catalina, which I'm only running on a secondary, seldom used MacBook air that is specced down enough that I don't want to use it for photo duty. WIth that said, I understand that it won't necessarily be possible to reinstall LR6 under Catalina since part of the installer is still 32 bit.

 

With my .edu email address, I can get the whole CC package for $15 for a month, but I'm more tempted by the $10(non edu) "photographers only" package with LR Classic, Photoshop, and if I understand correctly maybe Lightroom CC also. There's also some cloud storage that I likely wouldn't use(I prefer my own triplicate back-up system locally).

 

Having not necessarily kept up with what Adobe is doing, I'm wondering first of all if I'd see any appreciable upgrade between 6.14 and the current desktop CC version. One of my biggest complaints now is that the spot healing brush in Lightroom is terrible, and hence I need to move over to Photoshop if I want to make serious use of that. If it now works in Lightroom like it does in Photoshop, I'm sold.

 

Are there any other considerations?

You could time travel back to when your old software had that 'WOW' factor, or get the subscription to the new software ;).

I bet there are things in both PS 2020 and Lightroom Classic that will excite you. Lightroom (non-classic) has no redeeming attributes for me and would probably lead to me having to buy more storage. I just don't have the internet bandwidth to make it even practical.

Watch videos from Julieanne Kost Julieanne Kost's Blog if you are wondering about features.

And, FWIW, I recommend that you don't upgrade an Apple operating system without expecting some major incompatibility with software and, worse, drivers of older hardware. I wish I never went from Sierra to High Sierra. Goodbye scanner, goodbye .....

When, if ever, I buy new hardware, I will upgrade to whatever OS comes with it.

 

But in the meantime, I am stopping at High Sierra which mostly runs my old Adobe and other legacy software.

 

In the past, I was one of the last to upgrade from System 9, for what it's worth.

I wasn't thrilled when Adobe went to the subscription model but I have been happy enough with Photo CC for $10./month. The healing brush tool has improved dramatically in Photoshop over older versions; I can't say much about Lightroom since I almost never use it, due to its confusing (for me) cataloging system that I loathe. I have also been wondering about Catalina since I don't want to lose any other older software or the use of my now 11 year old Wacom tablet that still works perfectly in 10.14. I expect to wait until I absolutely have to upgrade for those reasons.

Dust removal is essentially the same in Lightroom CC as in Photoshop, except that it is non-destructive. You can modify or reverse any editing at any time. Furthermore, you can synchronize (copy) any edits, including dust spotting, to other selected images. This is especially useful if you have several similar images together. Lightroom has advanced a lot since version CC6, and pretty much stands alone. I use Photoshop only for the hard cases, like precision cropping and resizing.

 

While I have the complete Adobe CC in my iMac and 15" MBP, I elected to only add the photographers option, LR + PS, to the 13" MBP I use mostly for audio/video recording. Except during travel, all of my photo/audio/video editing is done on the iMac. The Photographer's package is a real bargain unless you need other programs in the suite, like Premiere Pro, InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat.

Well, I did the deal with the devil. I'll try it and see what happens!

 

The last time I looked into it, I though Adobe gave a discount for buying a year at a time-I remember it being something like $9.99/month or $9.99 a year. When I signed up a little while ago, it was $119.88 for a year, so I just elected to do a month at a time.

AFAIK, always been $9.99 or $119.88 for the year. Still is. But there's this 'special' with more storage?

Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan with 20GB Cloud Storage (12-Month Subscription, Download Card)

A late response since you already 'did the devil'. I wonder whether you'll see much improvement in the Lightroom spot healing brush. To me, it doesn't seem to have changed in years (though it might have). I find it still a bit clunky. I'm quite happy using Adobe's integrated photography package of Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom covers all my bases on organizing and tweaking whole (series of) images. The ability to set up, edit and apply custom adjustment 'presets' is wonderful!

 

Adjusting whole images (95%) I do in Lightroom. Some simple spot removals too. But for tweaking individual details in one image (including spot removal) I find Photoshop far easier to use and much more powerful. Lightroom doesn't yet IMHO have the 'context aware' editing capabilities of Photoshop. But editing the details of photo's (5%) in Photoshop directly from Lightroom is no great chore. I do the stuff that Photoshop excels in and get the results back in Lightroom. Just like any any other Lightroom-external plug-in.

 

Mike.

There are pairwise comparisons of LR versions (one version compared with the one immediately previous or later) and a few that compare several of the older versions, but I wasn't able to find a chart showing all of the additions and changes to the newer versions.

 

Like Mike, I do what I can in LR before moving to Photoshop. Sometimes, LR alone is sufficient--if the lighting is fine, and the image doesn't need anything but very simple local edits. I agree that cloning and healing tools are more powerful in Photoshop, but I have found that the spot removal tool is now quite effective in many cases, particularly when the area to be fixed is small. I do a lot of candids of young kids, and young kids often have all sorts of crud on their faces. I find that I can remove most of it seamlessly in LR, as long as the spots aren't too large. The problem with large areas is that the tool will look for an identically sized and shaped area to copy from, and that rarely works well.

I wonder whether you'll see much improvement in the Lightroom spot healing brush. To me, it doesn't seem to have changed in years (though it might have). I find it still a bit clunky. I'm quite happy using Adobe's integrated photography package of Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom covers all my bases on organizing and tweaking whole (series of) images. The ability to set up, edit and apply custom adjustment 'presets' is wonderful!

 

Yes, I am finding that. The spot healing brush is still as bad/clunky as it is in Lightroom 6.

 

It doesn't have the smooth, one click, "just works" feel of Photoshop. I don't need it that often on digital originals, but when I do I think I'm still going to be heading over to Photoshop for it.

 

Honestly, at this point I'm only committed for a month, and I'm seriously doubting whether or not I am going to keep doing it. I elected NOT to convert my LR6 libraries, so I can go back, and I don't see enough differences/new features to really justify the improvement.

 

It may be a different story if/when I get a camera that LR6 doesn't support. My next major upgrade will likely be a Nikon D850, though, so it may be a while before I find myself up a creek in LR6.

FWIW, I'm in the process of switching to Capture One + Affinity. Both are perpetual license. I found good skin tones better or easier to achieve in C1P than LR or PS. I'm actually quite poor at editing so not a good person to rely on but so far for myself I'm much happier. I'm still paying the $10/mo but hope to be comfortable enough in my new world to cancel it in Jan or Feb.