Vladimir200 Loc: Beaumont, Ca.

I have the LR/Photoshop combo plan for $9.99 per month and love them both. I do, however, agree with all of you in that there is definitely a decent learning curve with LightRoom and most certainly, with Photoshop.

parmruss

I've been using Zoner Photo Studio X with good results for some time now. Worth a look! https://www.zoner.com/

billroach2717

Very helpful. Thank you.

FiddleMaker Loc: Merrimac, MA

I was totally confused but Laura Shoe's two DVD tutorials : (1) Fundamentals and Beyond and (2) Producing great Output for Lr5, Lr6, and Classic CC were a big help for me. The Fundamental and Beyond DVD was most helpful in learning how Lr handles files and images and the Catalog, etc. I haven't viewed "Producing Great Output" because I am still working on the first DVD. Huge amount of useful info.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

1. LR Classic is an image database with a non-destructive parametric editor. It’s part of a bundle that includes Photoshop. I don’t know of any direct replacements for that combo. However, Serif Affinity Photo is a decent choice at $50 (once). It’s more like Photoshop.

2.a Your photos are not “in” Lightroom Classic. They are wherever you told Lightroom to PUT them or FIND them. Lightroom saves a path to each image, along with an xml file of your changes. You actually edit the xml file, not the raw or JPEG original. You only THINK you’re editing the original, because you see a small proxy render from it.

2.b Lightroom CC uses Adobe Cloud to move images around all your phones, tablets, and computers. So you’ll need to download any files in the cloud if you switch apps. Classic can use the cloud, but I never do.

There are MANY YouTube videos on Lightroom and Photoshop. http://www.Lynda.com and http://www.jkost.com are good training sources, too. Scott Kelby is another trainer to look for.

Don’t give up. Whatever you use, beat on it until you understand it!

williejoha

I have used LR for eons. Yes, you do not learn it all in one day but there are plenty of online help sites at your service. Try google or YouTube, or maybe even buy a tutorial. I use may own file structure and it works fine FOR ME. JMHI
WJH

billroach2717

More nice help. Thank you much.

bobstein

Just joined the group. I've shot a lot of pictures and I'mm just getting back into photog. I looked at Lightroom, Photoshop, and some other freebies. I got turned onto Luminar, now 4.0, and was impressed with the capabilities, the price and the fact that you buy it and not rent it. I've been using it for awhile and I find it powerful and can do things much faster than Photoshop. There are a lot of tutorials on it also. I would give it a try because you won't lose much. It will also import all your pictures for you so you will not lose the originals or their location. The changes you make are also non-destructable meaning you can always go back to the orig pic.
Good luck.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Non-destructive editing has some subtle variations in meaning. Preservation of the source original is one of those meanings. Luminar is targeted at raw image processing and raw image data can't be overwritten by and editor so that's not really an issue for a raw file editor.

The other meaning we need to consider when talking about non-destructive editing is loss of your editing work and your ability to re-edit or adjust the work you've done. If you decide to return to an edited image and make a change in your original processing can you do that without being forced to unnecessarily re-do work already done. In this case Luminar is not fully non-destructive. In fact it's something of an offender.

Try this: Open a raw file in Luminar and do basic tone and color adjustments including setting the white balance values. Next access the retouch tools and use the eraser or clone tool to remove something in the photo. Next add a filter or some other adjustment. And then decide you think the white balance isn't exactly right so go back and add 850 degrees K to the temp value. If the editor is fully non-destructive that white balance change will update through all the other work you've already completed. With Luminar it won't and you're destructively screwed.

Joe

JD750 Loc: SoCal

First of all while Adobe makes good products it is most certainly not the only program that good photographers use. Many photographers using Capture One would find that idea amusing.

Once upon a time when there was only Photoshop, and some other scatterings like Gimp, that might have been true but that has all changed. Many new software players have entered the photo cataloging and retouching market.

Answer to Question 1:
You should try different programs and use the one you like. Don’t get hung up on what someone else is using.

Answer to Question 2:
Moving your images to a new program is non-trivial. Usually you will lose any adjustments you have made on originals. You will not usually be able to import the originals to a new program and see the prior adjustments from the old program. So you have to export the retouched photos as JPEGs or TIFFs, if you want to save the adjustments.

Once you have started with the new program you will probably want to use the new program for adjustments on new photos, and leave the exported versions from the old program alone for sharing or printing. If you want to retouch a photo from the past you have two choices: (1) retouch the original starting from scratch or (2) retouch the exported version (or a copy if the new retouching program is destructive). Option (1) is more work but it will yield a higher quality result.

Final thought.
Changing photo editing programs is not easy. But if you are not happy with the one you are using, it is worth the time to investigate others and choose one that you like.

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

Alas, most of them are competing for the professional studio pros, not enthusiasts like me. I use PhotoShop Elements, and have no clue how to do 90% of what it can do. Sometimes I use YouTube explanations to try something like improve the sky, and if I keep at it for a few hours I may or may not succeed. I even found a manual for my version, Elements 12, but I still have trouble with the "elements" of it.

On the positive side, I don't really want to do most of what the pros do--not because I disapprove of them, but because they are doing what their clients want. It has become the rage to do what I call graphics, such as a portrait of a child with whales or dinosaurs coming out of her head. This may attract people in advertising, or other commercial art (noble careers), but almost always I want a simple image, simply presented, which looks like a real photo of the real world. I could have taken LSD when they first came out with it, but I didn't want it then, and this is no time to call up questionable beings from beyond.

So mostly I adjust the contrast and brightness a bit, crop a bit, cover the spots and sometimes unwanted objects if it does not show. I may try special effects filters if there is something seriously wrong with the image and I still want it.

To be honest, my cameras will also do many things I don't know about. Does everybody here know when a flash should fire (early or late) in the exposure? I forget, but I hardly ever use flash anyway. Canon does not have what we used to call B exposure, but if you call them, they will tell you how (and of course it is not intuitive). There is no T exposure (I think).

Can I use flash bulbs with a Canon or Nikon? I bought a few cases of the large ones for the Speed Graphic (which has no X synch unless you use a lens that has it). I want to keep one 4x5 and that seemed like a good choice. Their flash bulbs are very powerful indeed for major light, and of course they are not made anymore except for certain ones made in Ireland for the motion picture industry (period films from the days of Speed Graphics). I found some on eBay and stocked up, just in case they come back. I think a case runs around $400. Kmart used to sell them for $2 or $3 a dozen. If I put the Canon on the back of the Speed Graphic (with adapter), and use the flash bulbs on that, with the Canon shutter open, I can use bulbs on Canon. I am not sure it is safe to use the flashbulb attachment directly with a Canon--it might electrocute the brains of it. You can wire lots of flashbulbs in series to freeze a long Amtrak train at night. That would give the passengers a shock, yes?

Fans of Star Wars use Graflex flash attachments as light sabers, without the reflector, so there is always that market.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

We don’t buy software. Any way we use it legally, we only license it. The End User License Agreement we have to agree to when we install it explains that.

Intellectual property remains the sole property of the creator of it. Subscribe to a continuously developed app, or license a static packaged version — either way, it’s just a license.

The packaged version will be obsolete at some point, forcing either abandonment or paid upgrade. Subscriptions are always up to date, but may require an occasional operating system upgrade (which may require a new computer).

Either way, money flows if you need to keep using it safely.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

That is not correct. There is plenty of competition for enthusiasts because the the professional studio pros are a small market and enthusiasts are a large market.

dornie

I had been using iPhoto for years and got use to it. Like most things, if it is working, fix it so it don't. I have tried almost every system there is available. Some vary and others are similar. The only item or system that I have found constant and easy to use is, as once suggested, a simple folder system because almost any or every app. on your computer or internet will be to easily refer to it. It is nothing more than creating a folder, for example Photos, and then followed by a number of sub-folders of your choosing, either by date, event, or whatever suits you...PHOTOS>JONES>Parents>Childrem>Grandchldren or Photos>Year>Events etc. Even if you moving your items around to different drives or backups, all you have to do is move the folder aka PHOTOs and all will follow. You can adapt a system to your likes and comfort, but it will be a system almost anyprogram or app. can use. LR and most of the other apps do not store, but just WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU STORE YOUR PHOTOS. The more in one place or folder, the easier and better, especially for you or any app. to fund. Simplicity is the best. Just like going back to elementary school and learning to organize your work, like in English paragraphs 1. a. etc. or what system or sequence your prefer.

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

Bob, would you say you don't buy a book (you only license it)? You buy the copy, with conditions attached. For some reason, the conditions for a book are just "not making copies," while for a video or audio copy (movie or album) your own playing of it is limited--home use only. If you want to lend them out, or play them in a business, the price is much higher. When you play a DVD, it reminds you at the beginning of each performance of it not to use it commercially. This is why, if you lost a movie from Blockbuster, the cost was high--their cost was high.

Does anybody use the software that comes with digital cameras? Some of them are rather good, if basic--people like Canon's panorama and stacking software. The software that comes with Hasselblad ("Phocus") is very good indeed, and it is apparently free to anybody, whatever camera you have. You may have to have a Hasselblad camera to get the free updates--not sure. My HD2 is old and secondhand, and the digital back is Phase One, not Hasselblad, yet Phocus works with it. Phocus works with raw images, but I can use it with Canon as well as Hasselblad images. I assume "Phocus" is a word conjured from "Focus," though the Greek god Poseidon had a son by that name. He did not do darkroom work, though.