rcalt wrote:
I want to go to the next level of photo editing. I have been using Picassa and Google Photos. With Picassa, photos are stored on my computer and accessed and edited through Picassa. With Google photos, pictures are stored in the cloud and accessed and edited with Google photos. How are photos transfered from camera, accessed, stored and edited using Lightroom or GIMP?
I can only talk about LrC as that is my main processing software and has been for over 10 years.
• How transferred from camera: using a card reader, directly from camera...your choice (I use a card reader).
• Accessed/Stored: Photos are stored on your computer in whatever system you choose or external drive and when you "import" images into LrC you are only linking the image to the software, the images are kept separately where you have stored them. (I use external drives).
• Edited: You access an image folder from within LrC and perform edits of your choice. All edits are kept as metadata that is stored within the program. The program also contains a database that allows you to use keywords and other text to locate images quickly and easily. The original image is not changed as the metadata simply "layers" over the image in the preview you see. The metadata is only fixed onto the image upon exporting the image.
Other things to consider...
- You actually get seven programs within one software package: Library Module, Develop Module, Print Module, Web Module, Map Module, Book Module, Slideshow Module. I often use these various modules and always print from LrC. In addition the Adobe package allows you to access hundreds of fonts to download for free and provides additional software programs like Photoshop and Adobe Express.
- The database contained within the application is excellent for finding images quickly via key word, file name, type of equipment, shooting data, and on and on.
- It's easy to use other software plug-ins while keeping all images in one application, LrC, when completed.
And so on...many good reasons to use LrC. I do think that all current software does a pretty good job with providing processing choices but LrC goes beyond that.