jmizera Loc: Austin Texas

cthahn

You really do not know what you want. You have no idea what the difference is between LR and PS and you want nothing complicated. You don't like the $9.99 per month and don't understand what you get for the money. Most of the photographers that whine about the $9.99 per month probably throw away that amount of money or more every month on something stupid. Cigarettes, booze, new car every year, or something stupid. Probably don't even take any pictures. Quit your complaining, buy what you want , but don't back here whining that you don't like what you bought because who cares.

Mundj Loc: Richmond TX

Since you have a Mac and don't yet want to do involved post processing you might want to look at the "Photos'App" that comes with the Mac operating system. It works well and has a filing system. It is not as comprehensive at the LR system though. As the family photographer I use LR/PS and export my better images to Photos to allow my wife to see them on her Mac Book and IPad. I prefer to use LR for me but for the price (free) Photos is a good alternative.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

You don't have to get around the destructive nature of Photoshop by constantly saving different variations. You do it by doing everything on layers, which can be changed or eliminated any time.

blackest Loc: Ireland

There is a significant difference between a paid upgrade or free update and the subscription model now used by adobe.

E.g I paid for lightroom 5 and was updated to 5.7. I can upgrade to Lightroom 6 if I pay adobe some more money, if as currently is the case I don't buy that upgrade to 6 I still have all the features and capability of lightroom 5.7.

If I was on the subscription route I have to pay every month, even if there are zero upgrades and if I stop paying I don't just not get any further upgrades, adobe removes functionality that I had up to that point and I lose the utility of the program.

That is a significant difference and very much not the same thing.

It's the problem with renting you are very much limited to the terms and conditions and whims of the landlord.

By renting you give the landlord power over you, that they just wouldn't have otherwise. I understand adobes reasoning, Lightroom and Photoshop are both pretty mature products that do pretty much what you want them to do. They have no major shortcomings as they are. If you were not forced to pay every month, why would you?

blackest Loc: Ireland

What is the fatal flaw in Luminar that you have found?

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

Do the simple thing. Buy Photoshop Elements and start learning. At some point you may then decide to move on the Photoshop and LR. $60 at B&H.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

I second this comment. Photoshop can be intimidating.

jackpinoh Loc: Kettering, OH 45419

Also look at Picktorial 3.

Bob Boner

I agree with Gene51. Renting both of them is a good bit cheaper than it used to be to buy upgrades for both, and you get any new features automatically. Also, as new cameras are introduced, the older PS and LR may not be able to use the raw files, so they have to be converted to a format that can be used. I prefer not to convert the raw files. Not sure what is being lost.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

True, but I was afraid that was going to be beyond explanation in this case.

zooljwt

You might want to try the free, online program called pixlr to do some simple editing such as cropping, correcting exposure, increasing contrast, resizing, etc. When you get comfortable with pixlr, you can move up to one of the more complex programs. That is what I did a few years ago and it worked for me.

blackest Loc: Ireland

upgrade to lightroom $72 minimum rental period for lightroom cc 1 year @ a minimum of $120 a year Outside of the USA the price is significantly higher. How is that cheaper? if I use lightroom for 2 years its $72 cc for you is $240 minimum 3 years still $72 and yours is costing $360.

Yes you get photoshop as well for your $360 me I bought Affinity Photo for $40 so $112... It is in no way cheaper to rent. Even taking advancing age into account there are members on this site actively taking photo's at 96 if your 66 now you might be renting for the next 30 years, if you're lucky.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I would have to say go with the monthly subscription. It's only $9.99/mo It doesn't get any better than that. If you go with PSE (Photoshop Elements version 15) you'll want to upgrade with 16 or 17 comes out. Trust me. If you get Photoshop CC, you'll never notice the $9.99 come out of your checking account, you'll never need to worry about upgrading again, you'll have the latest and greatest, and if you buy a new camera that has just been released, you'll be in business within 2 weeks or sooner. I bout the Canon 5D IV the first day it was released and only had to wait for Adobe to update LR and ACR about a week so that I could start editing raw images in Photoshop. In the mean time I edited them in the software that comes with the camera. No problem. When that camera first came out, people with other apps had to wait for a new vision of software was being sold to edit files and that took months. There are more youtube videos teaching Photoshop and Lightroom than any other software so learning is easier than ever.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

So just go ahead and mislead people.