Editing software (Page 4): As you can see, there are a lot of opinions on this subject, and many decent options. There are two points I'd like to stress again: One, the major...

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

As you can see, there are a lot of opinions on this subject, and many decent options. There are two points I'd like to stress again:

One, the major investment you will make in any editing software is your time. It's a long-term commitment, especially if you really want to develop your editing skills to the maximum. Switching back and forth is a waste of time, and if you have to go back and re-edit shots that you've already "perfected" you'll be starting over. Don't invest in software that doesn't have a good prospect of continuing in business.

Two, the subscription model is becoming the new normal. While many people hate the idea of "renting" software, it's the only sustainable business model for software companies, which is why it's being adopted in so many areas far beyond photo editing software. Providing ongoing support in a world where hardware and software evolve at light speed makes it very difficult to keep up with changes and user needs. You've always only bought a limited license to use the software, you've never really "owned" it and any ongoing support is provided completely free by the companies. That's why it's unsustainable.

My personal choice is the Adobe suite, as it functions well for me and is affordable within my budget. I'm open to other software, but this works the best. I try to avoid software zealots who insist that their decision is the only reasonable one. Like most zealots, their thinking may be more emotional than rational.

Andy

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

I use DXO Photolab 3 to process RAW and Photoshop Elements to refine the image. Works well for me. No subscription fees.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

AndyH wrote:

As you can see, there are a lot of opinions on thi... (show quote)

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

lorvey wrote:

I use DXO Photolab 3 to process RAW and Photoshop Elements to refine the image. Works well for me. No subscription fees.

I find that Lightroom affords me more control of keywording than most other editors. I have built an extensive hierarchical keyword list in Lightroom that makes it point & click easy to add many many keywords easily and quickly. The built in list also assures proper capitalization & spelling of course...

Zaydewise Loc: Nashville TN

ON1 2020 is a program that combines the best of LR and PS together in one package. It's easy to learn and you purchase the program - no subscriptions and it's about half the cost of Adobe products. ON1's education programs are great and for the most part free.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Late to the party, but I'll give my opinion anyway.

I started by using trial versions of several programs. I settled on Lightroom back when it was a standalone program. I found it intuitive and easy to use. I also used GIMP for a few years.

Eventually I decided that GIMP wasn't as capable as Photoshop so I bought a PS license back when it was a standalone program. Lightroom is a fairly capable editor but Photoshop was the best program I found (although it is designed for many different applications so photography is only a part of it).

Probably 80-90% of my editing is done in Lightroom. There are other programs out there that do one thing or another better than LR, but for me having PS takes care of the things that LR doesn't do. LR and PS talk to each other so it's easy to send an image from LR to PS and back.

I could work with a lot of other editors, but I stick with LR because not only does it edit my images (or at least gets the editing started) it does my photo organization as well. When my photopile got larger than about 10K images I started having trouble finding things. (My meat memory is aging, so that adds to the problem). By adding keywords to my images, LR enables me to find images I even forgot that I had taken. Other software is starting to use this capability also, but I think Adobe has led the pack for many years. Also, having established a workflow using LR/PS I don't feel the need to change things around.

LR/PS is only available as a subscription now. This marketing method is the future of software so even the programs that you can "buy" now will probably eventually go that way. (Note that you never buy the program. You buy a license to use the program). $9.99/month (plus sales tax) is fairly painless, and for me, it's significantly less than my monthly impulse purchases. My impulse purchases rarely give me the value I get from the LR/PS subscription.

So I recommend the Photography Package (LR/PS subscription). Recognizing that my solution will not fit everyone, I will temper my recommendation with caveats: (1) that you need (or will soon need) a photo organization method to address your growing photopile; (2) you are comfortable with a modest monthly expenditure (an annual version is also available); (3) you have the time to add keywords to ALL your images in order to keep track of things.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

sorry, fat fingered duplicate post. Ignore.

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Dngallagher wrote:

Basically, ON1 BUILDS a catalog, a DATABASE by browsing the folders containing images - basically IMPORTING them as does Lightroom... All the import function in LIghtroom does is move or copy images to where you want them, add them to its image database or add the current location of them into the image database... same as ON1...

Dngallagher wrote:

What happens with an ON1 catalog if you move or delete images outside of ON1?

Actually building a catalog (or an album) in ON1 is optional, and completely unnecessary to enjoy full functionality.

ON1 will work with your images wherever they are, without creating a catalog. My images are saved to a folder entitled "Pictures" which has subfolders by date. ON1 will browse this folder and display its contents just like Finder in MacOs or File Explorer in Windows, without having to move, copy or create any new files, folders or thumbnails, and without having to do anything else that might use up disk space. Without creating a catalog, from within ON1's browse mode, I can rate photos, indicate favorites or images to delete, color code, add keywords, add metadata, then sort and display images accord to any of these criteria, and delete images if so desired. All without having to import anything, or create a catalog or an album. And since ON1 simply reads what's in a folder, if you're not using a catalog, deleting an image or adding an image using another program, will have no adverse effect whatsoever.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

burkphoto wrote:

The Adobe Photography Bundle comes in several flavors. It includes two very different versions of Lightroom, Lightroom CC and Lightroom CLASSIC, plus Photoshop and Bridge. It is a $9.99 per month subscription service. You can stop and restart the subscription without losing your work.

The old disk version of Lightroom 6.14 is no longer available and no longer supported, and it won't run properly on certain modern operating systems.

Photoshop is a BITMAP editor. Lightroom CLASSIC is a PARAMETRIC editor and an image asset management database with a print engine and more. They complement each other.

You need both, ultimately. The intended workflow is to import into Lightroom, cull edit, rate, develop, crop, and do minor touchup work. IF you want more/need more tools, LrC sends the file to Photoshop, where you can use masks, layers, and tons of filters and bitmap editing tools, plus text (and much more). The whole suite is a professional level set of tools designed to do most of the routine tasks in Lightroom Classic, and refinements in Photoshop. Many working pros do about 80% of the work in Lightroom, and the 20% of the work that takes 80% of the time in Photoshop.

Lightroom CC is nicknamed "Cloudy" because it is designed to bounce your images from Mac to Windows PCs to iPads and Android tablets, to iPhones and Android phones... using Adobe Cloud, a subscription online storage environment. I have exactly zero need for that, but many folks love it.

Photoshop Elements is still a standalone program costing around $100. It is capable, but not like the Photography Bundle.

Many enthusiasts find that the $50 Serif Affinity Photo is a great tool that does much of what Photoshop can do. Mac users can use it with Apple Photos and the RAW Power plug-in for Photos to form a suite of functions similar (but less powerful) than the Adobe Photography Bundle.

Of course, there are many other tools out there, especially for Windows. Various shareware and donation ware applications are also available. Some apps are written for Macs and Windows and even Linux.

The Adobe Photography Bundle comes in several flav... (show quote)

I use Adobe's Lightroom/Photoshop subscription as well as Affinity Photo and Luminar 4. All great for postprocessing work!

bwa

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

David Martin wrote:

Actually building a catalog (or an album) in ON1 i... (show quote)

True, it is optional, but the use of a catalog greatly speeds up keyword or metadata searches. With almost 70,000 images, filters by keyword or other metadata are instant in Lightroom, not so with an app that browses folders. An index filter/search beats a folder search anyday.

I also have found that not much comes close to Lightroom for keywording images, and I keyword till the cows come home!

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

Dngallagher wrote:

True, it is optional, but the use of a catalog greatly speeds up keyword or metadata searches. With almost 70,000 images, filters by keyword or other metadata are instant in Lightroom, not so with an app that browses folders. An index filter/search beats a folder search anyday.

I also have found that not much comes close to Lightroom for keywording images, and I keyword till the cows come home!

DigiKam and darktable uses slightly better database technology designed to scale from small to very large catalogs. Darktable is just as fast, and has the ability to use keywords (tagged in images) along with more complicated regular expressions for more granular searches if needed.

There are always options, and there are great programs out there that do the same, if not better is areas of interest by the consumer. Like I mentioned in an earlier response, the the strengths vs. weaknesses of one program over another are really coming down to very minor characteristics ("I like the way the icons look") in their respective programs.

As long as the program does what you need it to do, all the other banter is just white noise.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Dngallagher wrote:

True, it is optional, but the use of a catalog greatly speeds up keyword or metadata searches. With almost 70,000 images, filters by keyword or other metadata are instant in Lightroom, not so with an app that browses folders. An index filter/search beats a folder search anyday.

I also have found that not much comes close to Lightroom for keywording images, and I keyword till the cows come home!

+1 to this.

Whatever cataloging software you use, I suggest you invest time in developing a keywording system for your personal photography needs. Cross cataloging really helps as well - especially between different categories entirely - events, people, places, dates for example. Once your digital library gets to a certain size, it becomes impossible to find a particular image you may recall but not recall in complete context. More of a problem the older I get!

Andy

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

Lawmanb2 wrote:

I keep reading a lot of comments and reviews on editing programs. I don't mind paying for it, but I want one with a reasonable price. I have tried a couple that I didn't like with their trial offer, realizing of course that the full version would have yielded better results. That is where I am at now. I am looking at Adobe Photoshop elements, and Lightroom. I was told by a fellow photographer that If I chose Lightroom I would have to purchase Photoshop also. Thank you

Bill

My favs are Capture One and Luminar 4. One is far more robust than I need and the other allows for lightening quick post work. Happy hunting!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Dngallagher wrote:

... I keyword till the cows come home!

Always wondered about that phrase.
I never kept cows but have some friends who do. Aside from the fact that the cows rarely leave home (in the larger sense of being restricted to the farm) they return to the barn once the evening approaches. So it could be said that the cows come home every day.

runakid Loc: Shelbyville, TN

But with any of these software you have to learn it on your own. Where do I get the classes or instruction?