Lightroom purchase

[Doc]

2 hours ago, MDM said:

 

Kumar - see this page for info about transferring Adobe licenses. It is pretty current so I presume it applies to Lightroom.

Thanks Mick - very helpful as always!

 

Kumar

[MDM]

2 hours ago, Bear said:

 

I'm in the same boat Sultanpepa!  Getting ready to purchase a new laptop and been using Lightroom 5.7.  I've too, been resisting the subscription route with Adobe, mainly out of not liking the idea of being forced to it so to speak, I like the stand alone version and not having to go online.  Going to be in this quandary soon.  Keep us posted on the outcome.....

 

I think the question you need to ask yourself is can you afford to be without the numerous new features and enhancements that have been added to Lightroom since 5.7. I understand the objection to subscription but it is here to stay like it or not. The benefits are substantial in my work so I am happy to pay for an excellent package.  I used to upgrade Photoshop and Lightroom on an 18 month cycle anyway which was probably more expensive than the subscription. 

[Bryan]

9 hours ago, Sultanpepa said:

Does Lightroom 6 stand alone still operate ok with all the recent Nikon cameras?

 

Douglas, if you can send me a Nikon raw file from your most recent camera I'll try to open in in LR6 . It works with my Sony a6500 introduced late 2016.

[Betty LaRue]

Bear, I think you might be a bit misguided.  The Adobe CC is installed on your computer. The only thing you need the Internet for is the download/installation, then you need to be online some time each month so Adobe can check it.  You actually aren't working online while using it.  If you fail to pay your monthly dues, then Adobe will make CC inoperable.  (and you ARE online every time you get on this forum, or upload, or buy something online, or...or...) It's something that goes on behind the scenes you aren't even aware of.

It's automatically charged to my credit card each month.

 

When I open Photoshop or LR, I am not on the internet. Ever.  I open it just exactly like I did when I had a stand alone.

MDM, if I'm wrong, please tell it like it is.  

Betty

[MizBrown]

39 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

 

When I open Photoshop or LR, I am not on the internet. Ever.  I open it just exactly like I did when I had a stand alone.

MDM, if I'm wrong, please tell it like it is.  

Betty

 

I believe this is true of LR Classic and Photoshop, but less true of the new Lightroom which keeps your photos locally only if you choose that option and which always uploads them to Adobe servers (if I understand correctly).

 

I'm fine with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, and hope LR Classic doesn't go away.  New Lightroom would make sense if I was editing on both a laptop or larger iPad and on a desktop. 

[MDM]

5 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Bear, I think you might be a bit misguided.  The Adobe CC is installed on your computer. The only thing you need the Internet for is the download/installation, then you need to be online some time each month so Adobe can check it.  You actually aren't working online while using it.  If you fail to pay your monthly dues, then Adobe will make CC inoperable.  (and you ARE online every time you get on this forum, or upload, or buy something online, or...or...) It's something that goes on behind the scenes you aren't even aware of.

It's automatically charged to my credit card each month.

 

When I open Photoshop or LR, I am not on the internet. Ever.  I open it just exactly like I did when I had a stand alone.

MDM, if I'm wrong, please tell it like it is.  

Betty

 

Yes you are correct Betty in relation to LR Classic and Photoshop as MizBrown also says. I have not installed the new cloud-based LRCC at all and am not currently interested in it. I don't understand why Adobe went this route with naming as it is very confusing on top of the general confusion about AdobeCC in the first place.

[domf]

6 hours ago, MizBrown said:

 

I believe this is true of LR Classic and Photoshop, but less true of the new Lightroom which keeps your photos locally only if you choose that option and which always uploads them to Adobe servers (if I understand correctly).

 

I'm fine with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, and hope LR Classic doesn't go away.  New Lightroom would make sense if I was editing on both a laptop or larger iPad and on a desktop. 

I have monthly subscription with LR Classic and PS but if New LR is on the cloud then wouldn't the monthly subscription be substantially greater because you are then using their storage space?

[Starsphinx]

19 minutes ago, domf said:

I have monthly subscription with LR Classic and PS but if New LR is on the cloud then wouldn't the monthly subscription be substantially greater because you are then using their storage space?

I don't use the lightroom CC that comes with the subscription but the subscription does include a small amount of cloud storage, although like you say if you increase the amount of storage you are using the price of the subscription does go up.

[aphperspective]

I think this is the eternal which is the better software/camera/lense/screen debate. We all have our personal choices because of familiarity, financial constraints etc, and that providing an individual is happy with the end result perhaps that's all that matters. IMHO.

[Michael_Jacobs]

On 8/16/2018 at 20:36, aphperspective said:

You could go the subscription route Just over 12 Euro a month gets you the latest editions of PS, LR, plus LR classic, Bridge, all with constant updates. 

Just a thought.

Andy.

 

Indeed, and you can install it on two separate computers...

 

and with older versions your ACR won`t be updated...

[Starsphinx]

3 hours ago, Bear said:

 

Thanks Betty!  I did assume it was all online, hence the subscriber fee.  So, then it would come down to money then, at $9.99 a month for the photography plan, it would be almost $600 in five years.  Lightroom 6 is $149 at Amazon.  Is the Photoshop CC the full blown photoshop?  I see they have the Lightroom CC which may be why I thought it was all online.  I assume this is the one that they thought photographers would like to be able to edit anywhere, thereby being attached to their servers?

 

So, I am re-thinking this now with all ya'lls help.....looks like the one I would be interested in is the Photography Plan at $9.99 a month (USA).  The comparison shows it has;

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC

Lightroom Classic CC

Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe Spark with premium features Portfolio

Cloud photo storage

 

With the exception of Cloud photo storage, all of this would be sitting on your desktop, to be able and edit, access and use at anytime?  None of your photos would then reside on an Adobe server?

Yes, it is absolutely the full-blown Photoshop - and the full-blown lightroom classic as well as the new Lightroom CC and the other bits.  They are full blown all of the time - because they update constantly rather than having to go out every year or 2 to buy a whole new version if that makes sense.  It is a bit difficult to compare but I suspect over time the subscription route may actually be slightly cheaper because you are getting multiple full up to date programs the whole time.

I am absolutely a convert - I never bought photoshop when it was standalone because I could never justify that much lump sum in one go - but a tenner a month with all the programs included not just one is easy.

[Betty LaRue]

8 hours ago, Bear said:

 

 

With the exception of Cloud photo storage, all of this would be sitting on your desktop, to be able and edit, access and use at anytime?  None of your photos would then reside on an Adobe server?

When I have a shoot, I upload the RAW files to a dated and named folder I create on my computer desktop. Then I import to LR. Adjust an image in LR, and then open it in photoshop where I spot and crop if I want. The finished Tiffs are saved in the same folder with the RAWs. I keyword the Tiffs in Bridge, then save a jpeg copy to another folder titled ALAMY ###. I then delete the tiff, while saving a second jpeg next to the RAWs. MDM catalogues his in LR, but the original images are still his, he just uses LR to find them on his own computer and hard drives easily. I don’t use LR for that, but many do. LR used to catalog will point to a set of images you have on your own devices.

 

Those finished-with folders are mine. When done with all images in a folder, I save two copies to desktop HDs, then delete the folder from my desktop. Those images are mine even if I decide to drop CC. Adobe never has them.

All the Adobe CC is is a rental program. You are renting CC. Same as if you rent a house, put your own furniture in it. If you decide to move, you give up the house, but the furniture is still yours.

Betty

[DDoug]

On 8/19/2018 at 00:21, Betty LaRue said:

 I don’t use LR for that, but many do.

My use is similar to yours, Betty. What I would like is to have a version of Lightroom that dispenses with all the import-export, file-management stuff and lets me simply open a file, work on it, then close it the way I do with Silkypix, Photoshop, and everything else. None of this "Sorry, you're out of luck, that file was opened once before and you're jolly well going to have to hunt for it if you want to open it again." Then if I can't locate it I resort to changing the name of the file in order to fool Lightroom into opening it.

[Betty LaRue]

9 minutes ago, DDoug said:

My use is similar to yours, Betty. What I would like is to have a version of Lightroom that dispenses with all the import-export, file-management stuff and lets me simply open a file, work on it, then close it the way I do with Silkypix, Photoshop, and everything else. None of this "Sorry, you're out of luck, that file was opened once before and you're jolly well going to have to hunt for it if you want to open it again." Then if I can't locate it I resort to changing the name of the file in order to fool Lightroom into opening it.

Boy, wouldn’t that be heaven!  There could be two options. As is, and the second option that could be chosen is what you outlined.

[Starsphinx]

I work with photo mechanic alongside Lightroom - I was using photo mechanic long before I got the adobe stuff.  My process is take photos (I shoot high volume its just me) stick memory card in computer, open photo mechanic import whole card,  go through pictures tagging the ones I want to work with, select tagged to import into Lightroom, work on photos using stars/colours/flags to note what is to be done with each then I export in various configurations (generally jpg with different dpi and ratio settings)  to folders inside the original upload.  Finally, I use mechanic to take all the untagged photos and remove them leaving on my computer only the images I have worked with all theoretically nicely linked to Lightroom so I can find them and use them at a moments notice.  I keep photoshop itself on a different machine (my desktop) - if I need to do some serious manipulation I transfer the image and work there.  Lightroom is on my laptop so if I get informed of something newsy I can take a camera and laptop take pictures, import, choose, check and polish,  and upload to Alamy (and whoever else asked for them) as fast as possible.

 

[Jansos]

If you are a student, lecturer or teacher then you can get educational pricing in the IK

https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/buy/students.html

 

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, Bear said:

 

Wow Betty, you have quite a workflow process.  I assume you converting raw to tiff is the loss of quality and compression of going to jpeg, which is a whole other topic.  I pretty much do all in LR and don't go to photoshop elements usually.

 

I have been in online chat with Adobe and one question I forgot to ask is this background when online process they are using, in fact I can't find anything about it to read.  I'll be getting with them later anyway.  So far all that has been shared is in agreement with them as well.

 

I am getting close to pulling the trigger on a new laptop soon.......

I save a 16 bit tiff into PS from LR for just as you say. Sometimes I want to use layers for manipulation, or do other things to the image. I make these changes on the tiff. You don’t want to do that on a jpeg and lose quality.

For instance...I take a picture of a flower. The background is soft and good except for a fairly large distracting bright spot. I use tools in PS to eliminate that bright spot, leaving the flower to shine without distracting elements. All best done on a tiff. I also do my tagging in Bridge on the tiff. Once the tiff is polished, and a jpeg is saved into my upload folder and a copy next to my RAW, I delete the tiff. Those who are very proficient with the Lightroom tools do a lot there, and feel no need for the most part to do much in Photoshop. 

I was a late adopter of Lightroom and was already very comfortable in Photoshop, so I just continued with what I was used to. 

 

My Lightroom use is white balance, use of the sliders and perspective control, noise reduction and some CA work beyond the auto control if needed. Sometimes if noise is really not obvious on the subject, but is in the BG, I select the background in PS and apply noise reduction. It’s way faster than using a brush in LR.

Betty

 

[Starsphinx]

4 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I save a 16 bit tiff into PS from LR for just as you say. Sometimes I want to use layers for manipulation, or do other things to the image. I make these changes on the tiff. You don’t want to do that on a jpeg and lose quality.

For instance...I take a picture of a flower. The background is soft and good except for a fairly large distracting bright spot. I use tools in PS to eliminate that bright spot, leaving the flower to shine without distracting elements. All best done on a tiff. I also do my tagging in Bridge on the tiff. Once the tiff is polished, and a jpeg is saved into my upload folder and a copy next to my RAW, I delete the tiff. Those who are very proficient with the Lightroom tools do a lot there, and feel no need for the most part to do much in Photoshop. 

I was a late adopter of Lightroom and was already very comfortable in Photoshop, so I just continued with what I was used to. 

 

My Lightroom use is white balance, use of the sliders and perspective control, noise reduction and some CA work beyond the auto control if needed. Sometimes if noise is really not obvious on the subject, but is in the BG, I select the background in PS and apply noise reduction. It’s way faster than using a brush in LR.

Betty

 

Wow - I think I need to come and get lessons in what photoshop can do lol.  I tend to just reject images that cannot be sorted in Lightroom

[MircoV]

Hello folks,

 

Just to add my part. I have adobe subscription for the new Lightroom CC with 1 TB cloud space. 

 

I am very pleased with the ability of this setup. Edit your images from anywhere on any device. Best comfort i ever had. But i am running behind two children in my daily life so this could be the reason of my enthusiasm.

 

 

Mirco

[Colblimp]

On 8/18/2018 at 14:46, Bear said:

 

Thanks Betty!  I did assume it was all online, hence the subscriber fee.  So, then it would come down to money then, at $9.99 a month for the photography plan, it would be almost $600 in five years.  Lightroom 6 is $149 at Amazon.  Is the Photoshop CC the full blown photoshop?  I see they have the Lightroom CC which may be why I thought it was all online.  I assume this is the one that they thought photographers would like to be able to edit anywhere, thereby being attached to their servers?

 

So, I am re-thinking this now with all ya'lls help.....looks like the one I would be interested in is the Photography Plan at $9.99 a month (USA).  The comparison shows it has;

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC

Lightroom Classic CC

Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe Spark with premium features Portfolio

Cloud photo storage

 

With the exception of Cloud photo storage, all of this would be sitting on your desktop, to be able and edit, access and use at anytime?  None of your photos would then reside on an Adobe server?

 

To be fair, a tenner a month isn't a lot of money! 

[Betty LaRue]

4 hours ago, Starsphinx said:

Wow - I think I need to come and get lessons in what photoshop can do lol.  I tend to just reject images that cannot be sorted in Lightroom

It’s just that I cut my teeth in Photoshop and Bridge. Had I started in Lightroom, I’d probably be better at it. Right now, even with video help, most of the brush use in LR just gets me in trouble. I can open in Photoshop and do what I need to do immediately...if I make a mistake I just go back in the history panel to before the mistake was made.  There are adjustments with the sliders I love in LR. I just prefer to do what I do best in each program.  I think some of the interface in LR isn’t nearly as straightforward as it is in Photoshop, and I just might be too dense to “get” it. I watch videos and I think, “Good God, that’s amazing!” Then I can’t duplicate it. 

Betty

[DDoug]

6 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

It’s just that I cut my teeth in Photoshop and Bridge. Had I started in Lightroom, I’d probably be better at it. Right now, even with video help, most of the brush use in LR just gets me in trouble. I can open in Photoshop and do what I need to do immediately...if I make a mistake I just go back in the history panel to before the mistake was made.  There are adjustments with the sliders I love in LR. I just prefer to do what I do best in each program.  I think some of the interface in LR isn’t nearly as straightforward as it is in Photoshop, and I just might be too dense to “get” it. I watch videos and I think, “Good God, that’s amazing!” Then I can’t duplicate it. 

Betty

Ditto once again. I've been involved with Photoshop since version one and a daily user since 2.5 which, if I recall correctly, is when they introduced layers. Back then each new version was a major step forward. Now it's become a kind of dance where a lot of the steps seem to be sideways. (I'm not crazy about the current clone tool, though I'm slowly getting used to it.) If ACR in PS had all the image modification features of LR, I'd have no need for the latter.

[Starsphinx]

I think one of the things I like about Lightroom - and I am new to both programs other than occasional dabbles in PS on other peoples machines - is that it does not change the original.  I know from doing design work that with photoshop it is quite easy to make a change to the original that is very hard to undo - when I do use photoshop I do so on copies because of this.

[MDM]

1 hour ago, DDoug said:

Ditto once again. I've been involved with Photoshop since version one and a daily user since 2.5 which, if I recall correctly, is when they introduced layers. Back then each new version was a major step forward. Now it's become a kind of dance where a lot of the steps seem to be sideways. (I'm not crazy about the current clone tool, though I'm slowly getting used to it.) If ACR in PS had all the image modification features of LR, I'd have no need for the latter.

 

I've been using Photoshop a long time as well. I have no doubt that what has happened is that Photoshop began to plateau out around CS6. The big advances between CS4 and CS6 were under the bonnet so to speak (hood on the far side of the Atlantic). There were very signifcant speed boosts - ability to use large amounts of RAM, rewritten graphics engine and so on. But what do you give the app that has almost everything. Adobe realised that they couldn't keep enticing users to upgrade and hence the subscription model. However, there have been some very neat features added since CC arrived - my favourites are the ability to select focus area and more recently select a subject. Quite magical and very fast.

 

As for the clone tool, I'm not too clear about what you mean there. The introduction of the healing brush and related tools has made the clone tool redundant for a lot of tasks as they do a much better job for a lot of cloning. Well worth tackling if you are not using them. 

 

My approach nowadays is to use Lightroom to go as far as possible on the raw images. I don't use the freehand brush tools in Lightroom as I find that the grad and radial filters do an excellent job for most images. If I need to do detailed work I tend to use Photoshop as the selection, cloning and healing tools are stlll way ahead of Lightroom. I never use ACR any more as I think the Lightroom Develop interface is very good and the database is excellent. But life without Photoshop is unimaginable still and probably always will be.

 

In Photoshop I use adjustment layers and alpha channels so that all work besides spotting is non-destructive on the original image. I save files that  I work on in Photoshop in PSD format and keep them. I don't understand the reasoning behind doing work in Photoshop and not keeping the images as I more often than not want to go back and change something. Disk space these days is very cheap and time is precious.

 

 

[MDM]

18 minutes ago, Starsphinx said:

I think one of the things I like about Lightroom - and I am new to both programs other than occasional dabbles in PS on other peoples machines - is that it does not change the original.  I know from doing design work that with photoshop it is quite easy to make a change to the original that is very hard to undo - when I do use photoshop I do so on copies because of this.

 

You can do most things non-destructively in Photoshop with adjustment layers. In fact you can do everything non-destructively if you use smart objects but I don't bother with that myself as I don't need it - adjustment layers and a rare extra background layer are more than sufficient.