RAW

[Alex Ramsay]

Dehaze is certainly useful - I have the free LR6 version available from Prolost - Prolost Dehaze for Lightroom 6.1

 

I don't know whether the Adobe version does a better job, but this one seems to work pretty well as a universal or gradient filter

 

Alex

[Bryan]

Been resisting for a while but do now feel the need to join the subscription debate.

 

I guess it's horses for courses. If you are a full time photographer making your living that way, the subscription route is probably a no brainer. 

 

However if, like me, this is very much a part time retirement activity, it's not so clear. I try to restrict my photo expenditure to be sensibly in line with my photo related income, and that means doing things on a budget. So most of my lenses are second hand, and I don't have the latest of anything. 

 

I also feel that  there is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to software upgrade. No software at all is below base level and useless. Your camera manufacturer's free raw converter plus an aged version of PS or PS elements makes everything possible. There may be speed disadvantages (pretty meaningless in my situation) and minor tweaks and gimmicks in the latest software but there is nothing there which is genuinely  essential in the processing of photos for stock or personal use.

 

My older photos sell just as well as the more recent ones, despite being processed on neanderthal software. There's no practical advantage ( to me) in paying a monthly subscription, the annual total of which exceeds what I paid for my standalone copy of LR. In business terms it would be madness!

 

Each to their own....

 

 

Edited June 8, 2019 by Bryan
Stupidity

[Allan Bell]

4 hours ago, Alex Ramsay said:

 

It wouldn't recognise files from any recent camera introduction, I think - my most up-to-date camera is an X-T2 which it can't recognise, but in any case for that I do the DNG conversion using X-Transformer

 

Alex

 

Thank you.

 

Allan

 

 

[Allan Bell]

3 hours ago, MDM said:

 

There have been so many enhancements and it is so long now since I used LR6 that it is getting difficulty to compare but here are a few:

 

1 LR Classic is much faster in the Develop module and in generating initial previews for examining and culling images than LR6. Depends on RAM and may not be significant if less than 12GB of RAM. 

 

2 The universal and local Dehaze controls - can be very useful if shooting into the light. I certainly use this at times and it is very useful. I have rescued picturees at a single touch that would have required a lot of messing about otherwise.

 

3. The new texture control. This is brand new and I suspect it will be overused and abused as it gives this really sharp textured look withot looking too overhsharpened. I would say it is not advisable to overuse but it is interesting as it is also a softener when used negatively and could be great for softening skin. It was orignally developed for this purpose in fact. Not had time to try it properly yet.

 

4. Local luminance and colour masking controis - really useful. For example,  it allows one to darken blue skies very easily withlout affecting clouds.

 

5. Local control of whites and blacks, not just highlights and shadows/

 

6. Enhancements to photo merging

 

7. Much enhanced perspective correction tools.

 

8. New Process 5 raw converter - supposedly better renedering for high ISO images.

 

9. Full Photoshop frequently updated - some seriously good enhancements there too.

 

 

 

 

Dehaze is in PSE 14 which I have.

 

Allan

 

 

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

Been resisting for a while but do now feel the need to join the subscription debate.

 

I guess it's horses for courses. If you are a full time photographer making your living that way, the subscription route is probably a no brainer. 

 

However if, like me, this is very much a part time retirement activity, it's not so clear. I try to restrict my photo expenditure to be sensibly in line with my photo related income, and that means doing things on a budget. So most of my lenses are second hand, and I don't have the latest of anything. 

 

I also feel that  there is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to software upgrade. No software at all is below base level and useless. Your camera manufacturer's free raw converter plus an aged version of PS or PS elements makes everything possible. There may be speed disadvantages (pretty meaningless in my situation) and minor tweaks and gimmicks in the latest software but there is nothing there which is genuinely  essential in the processing of photos for stock or personal use.

 

My older photos sell just as well as the more recent ones, despite being processed on neanderthal software. There's no practical advantage ( to me) in paying a monthly subscription, the annual total of which exceeds what I paid for my standalone copy of LR. In business terms it would be madness!

 

Each to their own....

 

 

 

Succinctly put. You explained better than I did.

 

Allan