I have a small Wacom tablet that did take some getting used to. I found the best way to do this was just disconnecting the mouse and forcing myself to only use the tablet. Like any touch device it sometimes seems to have a mind of it's own even with adjustments but I have gotten pretty well accustomed to relying on it for Lightroom and elements. Make sure to keep it clean!
I have two Passport ultras, one is the main drive for photos, the other the off site back up. I also back up on a WD My book at home. So far so good, but backing up is the key given how much external hard drives have come down in price.
Oh I agree there has a wonderful technical evolution and that is my point with LR. It has constantly morphed as editor and processor. Aesthetics I am not so sure about, given the proliferation of pictures on the Internet and less being printed. I am sure we agree the proof is in the print.
Finished???Nothing is ever finished is ever finished in LR or much of the digital world. LOL My methods have constantly evolved over the past 7 year as well as my criteria for what constitutes a finished product. I have also tried to improve older images as I have learned a new technique. I used to edit much more in PSE but I found needed to less and less with each new version of LR. Portraits can still be a problem but again less and less. I still do lots of prints and when I no longer am satisfied with results I will evolve to the next step :)
Nice changes, which I could have done these in LR as well. But they are subjective based on our criteria. Now you being a professional, and me being an amateur our criteria are quite different. Ultimately you have to abide by the clients wishes, I do not. Now I do have my own standards and I will not hesitate to get the best out of what I think is a decent capture. I used to do fixes in Photoshop alot,but with each successive version of LR I do this less and less. You obviously have mastered Photoshop but others accomplish great results in Lightroom as well. If a photographer, who was a household name, brought a LR only print to a gallery do really think they would be rejected?
I like to explain to LR-only users that LR is great at creating a decent proof, but finishing must be completed in a pixel editor. I also challenge them to present the best of their efforts so I can show them how you can improve the image in PS. Sometimes it is subtle, other times less so - but I have yet to see an image out of a raw converter that could not be improved upon with careful and thoughtful post processing in Photoshop.[/quote]
Rather a subjective comment isn't it? If any photographer can achieve the look they desire in LR why must they pixel peep in PS or PSE? One persons proof is another's finished product. I'll admit when LR first came out I did not see a reason for it. But each successive version has made it a very powerful editor good for 95% of what I do. Of course if the picture needs too much work, perhaps I screwed up in the capture. Of course you could download a picture from my website, Vanderpix.smugmug.com, and edit it in Photoshop, but then it would be your version of what is better, not mine.
To take down the tension, I offer this. A computer, like your camera, is a tool. What you use depends on what is most comfortable for you and your budget. If what ever system you use gives you the results you seek, that is the right system for you. Mac or PC, Canon or Nikon all give great results if you know how to use them and they make your job fun and not a chore. :-D
marcomarks wrote:
Is this a Mac Owners Association club site or what? All of this is typical cliche Mac loyalist jabbering.
A PC laptop with broken hinges, delaminating screen, and broken connectors? Come on... what does she do with it, use it for Frisbee throwing contests with the cord still connected? Any computer with that many problems is simply being abused.
My H-P laptop with Vista 64-bit is 6 going on 7 years old and works perfectly today like it always has. My brother has and daily uses my former Dell laptop with Windows XP that is headed toward 9 years old. My wife has a small 3-year-old Acer notebook with Windows 7 64-bit that she and my 4 year old use about 12 hours a day and it's running perfectly despite having been dropped once and part of a cup of milk being poured on the chicklet keyboard. The worst breakdown I have ever encountered on a PC laptop is a key that stopped working and a USB port that quit.
Every laptop, including Apples, are made in China (even my old Apple IIc in the mid-1980s was Chinese) so you can't say Mac is better built than PC - or PC is better built than Mac. They're all made out of the same crappy materials that are spit out of the same crappy materials plants. Motherboards made in the same factories, CPU chips from the same Intel factories, RAM memory made in the same place, hard drives are bought from the same manufacturers, etc.
Love an Apple Retina display? Try a current Samsung monitor and notice it's just as good or better for less. Love your iPad? Check out an Android Samsung tablet that blows it away in every thing it does, is a larger screen, and costs less. Love your overpriced Apple iPhone 6? Try a Samsung and see how the job gets done right with better sound for far less money.
In reality, if you've spent years on PCs and Windows, it makes sense to continue with what you know because you are experienced. Two button mouse functions alone are worth keeping. Both brands use Intel CPUs. Mac's are simply too expensive with little or no gain other than the "prestige factor" of joining this underground Mac Owners Association existing within 10% of the personal computer market while PCs are 90% of the market. You can buy two nicely equipped PC laptops for the price of one Mac.
I have nothing against Mac computers and would even consider buying one of the Air laptops because it's so thin and they look nice but give me a break. I'm always appalled to see high school computer labs full of Mac computers which means the students who learn on them must start over as soon as they graduate because almost every job they could get requires experience on a PC instead. The reason? Because teachers are Apple snobs and the school receives one free one from Apple for every 10 purchased - that the teaching and administrative staff get to keep for themselves.
Is this a Mac Owners Association club site or what... (
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I concur! I would rather spend my money on my camera and lenses then overpaying for an Apple whose advantages, for me, are marginal
And the ultimate irony was that Mencken suffered a stroke sometime in the 1940s which robbed him of his ability to read!
that is a pretty good deal. A good SLR for the price of a point and shoot. Again many swear by the sensor in this camera
The 500 actually has a Kodak sensor which many swear by for color and image quality. It does not have live view of built in image stabilization and paying any more then $250 American is not worth it.
For the record I find it confusing. Why can't I open a single file directly from a folder? I have to open a library (three steps), wait for it to load (takes forever since it doesn't seem to cache thumbs like Bridge), uncheck every other file but the one I want to work on, which makes them all go funny (faux vignetting) so that it is hard to view which one I want (also no large preview), then import for "developing". Once there I find the controls too small, with no option to detach pallets or resize them, no easy way to resize the image for detail work.
For working on single images easily, I have always found Photoshop ideal. YMMV[/quote]
Other then that Mrs Lincoln, what do you think of Lightroom? I get it now. you just don't like it. But some of us do. As my great grandmother used to say everyone to their own taste said the old lady who kissed the cow. But I think LR became popular with many was because full blown PS was just too expensive for us poor amateurs. Elements is good but does not organize as well for my work flow. And with each version LR's processing became better and better to the point were many rarely go elsewhere. However given the inexpensive current subscription pricing many might decide to use PS only. The options are now there which give any photographer a good deal of relatively expensive choices on what best suits their workflow. It always has been quite subjective.
With the brush feature and the filters, I would never say LR is "lite" processing. As an amateur I do 95% of processing in LR and have been quite pleased with the results. Professionals might want more options and often need them to get exactly what they need. But to each his own
Catfish wrote:
I love the freedom of speech that this site allows us to express, but this is a pretty cool way to end the week. Think I'll go outside and take some photos.
What a great idea Catfish! I am off to the Bronx Zoo to do the same.
Jwenz,The best non photographic post on this site. I agree and three cheers for you, Jwenz! :D