Have just cancelled adobe lightroom .....

[Thomas Kyhn]

23 minutes ago, Russell Watkins said:

Phase One bolted on catalogs to Capture One as an afterthought after they bought Media Pro (which was Microsoft's Expression Media DAM software) and saw which way the wind was blowing. AFAICT, in spite of that, for some reason, Capture One have paid scant attention to the catalog side of the code but concentrated on the raw development aspect. 

 

That's right. As far as I remember, there were minor improvements a few years back, but nothing that came anywhere near solving Capture One's fundamental issues with handling of catalogues. I've been in contact with their support department for a long time because of issues with unresponsiveness caused by Capture One's poor performance with larger catalogues, and there's no indication that anything will be done about it any time soon. Currently they appear to be focusing mostly on Capture One Live and integration with phones and tablets.

 

I bought Photo Mechanic Plus hoping to be able to use it for cataloguing as a supplement to Capture One, but that didn't work very well, so I ended up using it solely for ingesting photos and editing GPS metadata. Peakto works much better with Capture One as it also shows edits and variants/virtual copies, and it has a much less clunky interface.

[Russell Watkins]

13 minutes ago, Thomas Kyhn said:

 

That's right. As far as I remember, there were minor improvements a few years back, but nothing that came anywhere near solving Capture One's fundamental issues with handling of catalogues. I've been in contact with their support department for a long time because of issues with unresponsiveness caused by Capture One's poor performance with larger catalogues, and there's no indication that anything will be done about it any time soon. Currently they appear to be focusing mostly on Capture One Live and integration with phones and tablets.

 

I bought Photo Mechanic Plus hoping to be able to use it for cataloguing as a supplement to Capture One, but that didn't work very well, so I ended up using it solely for ingesting photos and editing GPS metadata. Peakto works much better with Capture One as it also shows edits and variants/virtual copies, and it has a much less clunky interface.

 

I'm using an unsatisfactory patchwork of Neofinder and Affinity/Pixelmator/Fuji image processing apps at the moment. I fear I am fast reaching the stage where I just have to suck it up and go back to LR and PS as, in spite of everything, they are probably the best overall if you want an efficient and effective DAM and image processing solution. 

[Jansos]

On 14/09/2023 at 17:23, Rebecca Ore said:

 

Are you planning to travel with the Mini?   You can synchronize your LR Classic with the Adobe servers, either some or all of your files, and use an iPad, iPhone, or laptop in the field and LR Classic at home on the Mini.   Lightroom in the cloud may not have all LR Classic's features, but check.   You can set LR (cloud) put to make local copies, too.   If you're doing news, having instant transmission matters.   If not, just take plenty of memory cards or a portable storage drive, and do the editing back on the machine at home with perhaps a better monitor setup.

 

I took hundred of shots in Mexico and didn't process them until I came back home.  Didn't have a good connection at the hotel for uploading anyway.  Friend who was traveling in Chile and Nicaragua said he didn't have a good connection at a Chilean resort hotel.   Mine and a local Jinotega hotel's were better.  So, where you travel is another consideration for working from the cloud. Another possible consideration is how happy will other people you might be traveling with be if you spend the day focused on taking pictures and then the evenings on processing them.   The iPads are useful for doing sorts.   I use mine for photos I've taken with phones and tablets.  They can be had cheap if you don't go for the pro versions.

 

Whole different set of considerations for news, but copying to a phone or tablet can be set up, and would be easier than traveling with a monitor, Mini, keyboard, and mouse.  If you did new a lot, a small laptop would  be useful. 

Hi Rebecca, Many thanks for your detailed reply.
Don't think my spine is strong enough to cope with a MacMini and a 24" screen in my backpack but wouldn't it be great if you could just take the MacMini and plug it into a decent screen on arrival? Hotels could have dedicated jazzed-up rooms all set-up photographers (or perhaps there are already?). For storage, Amazon Prime gives me unlimited photo upload and backup capabilities but don't tell them that I am using it for profit! My thinking is that I won't be spending any of my holiday time keywording and processing images; I'll leave that for those cold and dismal nights back in Blighty. I was kicked out of Alamy 'news' some years ago and now have to rely on 'reportage' so again not going to spend any of my holiday downtime trying to upload things in a hurry. Life is too short and remuneration is too inadequate. Hope all is well in Nicaragua!

[Jansos]

On 14/09/2023 at 22:20, Marianne said:

@Jansos

I don't think you can beat the combo of LR Classic and Photoshop for ease of organization & speed of processing. And it processes RAW files nearly as well (or better in the case of Olympus) than any of the other admittedly excellent but much more time consuming software out there (IMHO).

 

I used to use the Nikon Nik software when I started and it was better at processing RAW files, but a much slower workflow, so I eventually decided to do everything in the Adobe software. These days I still use the Nik filter plugins for certain images, but that base software is long gone. 

 

I also tried Capture One when I got my first Sony A7rii (I also have the A7riv) and it was slightly better at processing RAW files, but so much slower and it seemed to make additional copies of my images, plus its organization wasn't good at all.

 

The best thing about Lightroom, besides its speed, the new masks, and its easy integration with Photoshop and myriad plugins from other companies, is that you can search for photos that aren't even on your computer nor on a connected disk but if they are in your catalog, you can locate what disk they are on and see your entire library - even if it's over 150,000 images - in one place without the need to be connected to a huge backup drive. My 2TB Mackbook Pro hard drive can't even hold all of my new images given their size, so for me, the organizational capacity of LR Classic is essential. And making virtual copies when I'm playing with colors and filters in my fine art work or looking at different crops for art and/or stock is another big advantage. 

 

I have found that LR is slower with my 62MP Sony RAW files and I may need to upgrade my computer, despite a fast processor and 32GB RAM, to one with the new M2 chip, but you won't have that issue. 

 

Are they raising the price? I've gotten LR/PS free for the past 4 or so years due to making the target # of sales on their stock site, but I don't think they're continuing with that program, so I'll have to pay for it sometime next year, but I guess it's like paying for cell phone service or other utilities - it's essential to my work and an incredibly robust program. 

Hi Marianne, Another fabulous reply, thanks so very much. The Alamy community are so generous with their responses and time 🙂
Like you I think I'm now wedded to Lightroom and a bit of Photoshop, when absolutely essential. To be honest, I don't have any inclination to try and get my head around a new program at this stage in my life. As it is there are lots of LR features that I'm still not using. I occasionally pick up a new skill but it is very easy to get set in one's ways.

Looks as if I am going to have to pay the monthly fee but a % of that should be tax deductible, I would have thought. The fee is equivalent to a couple of pints in the pub each month so it will do wonders for my waistline! 🙂

[Andreas]

I'm fine with LR, they add new features on a regular basis (extended masking), and search/admin functions are usefull. I buy it when on sale, in Germany often for 75-80 Eur. You can buy and extend the duration of your existing period. Not sure how many years in advance you can buy, but buying twice a year worked well.

[Simon]

Got to say I find Lightroom a great piece of software, rarely need to go into Photoshop other than for more complicated object removal.  The new features with subject detection etc are really good, and the AI de-noise is amazing.   It makes for a quick workflow especially on weddings.

[Gervais Montacute]

I've been using DXO Photolab 6 in conjunction with DXO Pure Raw 3 for about a week now and it's better than Lightroom imo.