I currently see Luminar on sale for $59 and I would like some opinions as to whether it's worth buying given that I already have Lightroom (version 5) and Photoshop Elements 14. I am far from a post-processing expert, basically because I've never dedicated the necessary time to learning it properly. Some day maybe ... But, what would Luminar give me in terms of either new functionality or ease of use? Is there anything in Luminar that I can't get from LR or PSE, or is there something that's much easier/more enjoyable in Luminar?

I welcome the opinions of any Luminar users on the list,

Catherine

It's also possible to use a hybrid folder structure of descriptive names and then dates. I take most of my photos on trips so the top-level of my folder structure is by place (/Europe/Ireland/Dublin for example) and then I use LR to automatically (during the import process) sort the photos by date into subfolders (2011/2011-07-01 or 2015/09-15 for example) that are then placed underneath the /Europe/Ireland/Dublin.

I tend to recall photos by where I was at the time so this structure works very well for me. It's also easy to sort out photos taken in the same place from 2011 vs. 2015. I then keyword by subject matter such as churches, flowers, sunsets, beaches, etc. So I can very easily search for church photos from Dublin by filtering out all photos with the "church" keyword beneath the Dublin folder.

I also import directly into LR from my memory card as that saves a step. I haven't noticed any slowdowns using the method. If I have a card full of photos from different places, I simply select a subset of the photos on the card, import them to the desired folder and then go back to import, select a different subset and direct that to a second folder.

It's worth the extra money to me to get to work with the Apple OS. Great graphics, stable as all hell, and it's UNIX so I can write shell scripts and work from the command line. DOS is a mere shadow of what UNIX/Linux are. For example: can you start a program running, pipe the output to a log file, put it in the background and log out, and then come back the next day to check the results? That's baked into UNIX but I never found a way to do that on Windows/DOS. UNIX is a true multi-user system from the ground up. Sorry - my geek badge is showing :-)

And the integration between a Mac and iPhone is wonderful. I can send and receive texts from my desktop/laptop, make phone calls, etc.

If you're heading a bit further afield, i highly recommend Bisbee and the Chiricahuas: the former is a cool old mining town turned artist's colony and the latter have some incredible rock formations. And Karchner caverns - haven't been there myself yet, but they're supposed to be incredible. And then there's Organ Pipe National Monument a few hours to the southwest. Bring a sturdy car though - dirt roads throughout. If the desert is blooming while you're there, it's sheer heaven.

I go back and forth between LR 5.7 and PSE14 all the time, without any difficulties. This is how I set things up: in LR, open "Preferences" and then click on the "External Editing" tab. Go to "additional external editor" and click "choose" underneath the "Preset" pull-down menu. Navigate to the actual PSE *editor* rather than the *organizer*. Select "TIFF" as the file format and "sRGB" as the colourspace. Give this new setting a name, such as "Photoshop Elements 14".

I have about ten million external editing applications set up for LR (Nik, Topaz and MacPhun), and I added them all using the above sequence of steps.

Then once you have things set up, right-click on the picture you want to edit and select the "Photoshop Elements 14" option. This will convert the raw photo to TIFF, send it to Elements and open it up ready for editing. Then, when you're finished, "save" it from Elements back to the disk and LR will automatically add it to the catalogue.

Neither LR nor PS/PSE are complete by themselves, but when combined, they offer you all the functionality you want. They're different sides of the same coin. I shoot in RAW, do the global adjustments in LR and then send it to Photoshop Elements for the layering/spot adjustments. Then I save it from Elements and it automatically goes back into LR.

There was only one Canadian weather/climate satellite when I left (MOPITT), very meager compared to the vast array of US satellites. Hopefully they'll build more.

And I'm sorry for completely hijacking this thread!

I'm a former Torontonian myself: secondary school in Mississauga and graduate work at the UofT campus downtown. I'd love to move back! Maybe if Canada builds itself a space agency ...

Have you imported the photos yet (move, add, or copy?), or is that the step that you're stuck on? What import options are you using? Are you possibly trying to import duplicates? If you uncheck the "do not import suspected duplicates" box then what happens?

Are you using the Creative Cloud? If so, I believe that you're entitled to telephone support. I use the stand-alone LR so I can't be certain but perhaps others on this list who use CC could chime in.

To go off on a tangent, Pages isn't the industry standard unlike Microsoft Office. For those people using Macs, I recommend Microsoft Office 2016 as it's streets better than the previous 2008 and 2011 versions. I generally loathe Microsoft products (I will not go near Windows except at gunpoint), but they really got it right with Office 2016 for Macs. And if you know somebody who works at Microsoft, ask them to buy it at the company store for you at a 90% discount!

We now return to the regularly scheduled debates of Canon vs. Nikon, Aperture vs. Lightroom, etc ...

I would suggest looking at an older model Canon semi-pro DSLR such as the 7D. A quick hunt on Amazon turned one up for about $650 and even though it is old, it's a great camera with a ton of features and it's built like a tank and weather resistant to boot. I once drowned mine, let it dry overnight, and as good as new the next day.

And, like all the others, my condolences for your sudden loss. I recently lost my father (though not suddenly) and am very pleased to see that my mother is now picking up her old hobbies of music and painting. I need to get back into my photography after a year of family care-taking myself.

First thing to try is a complete shutdown, wait 10 minutes, and then restart. That will clear out any zombie processes that you may have. If the problem persists after that, take it to the Apple Store. I highly recommend their Genius Bar as they've sorted out some very nasty problems for me in the past.

I use a combination of a name-based and date-based filing system that works very well for me. I shoot most of my photos on trips so the top level of my folder structure is something like "/Europe/Ireland/Dublin" and then when I import (I import directly into LR from my card without going through an extra step, but I never erase my card until I know that all the pictures are in LR ok and that my automatic backup has completed after the import) I get LR to automatically create the yyyy/yyyy-mm-dd folder structure underneath the "/Europe/Ireland/Dublin" directory. That way I can very quickly find my Dublin pictures from 2011 vs. those from 2015.

And yes keywording and smart collections will allow you to do amazing feats in terms of searching! I never rename any of my photos, I just let the folder location plus keywords do all the organizing for me.

Lightroom is the way to go. I love the flexibility that I have in organizing my images: I can dream up literally *any* folder structure I want and LR just handles it. I find it far superior to Aperture in pretty much every way. My advice is to read the "Quick Start" guide to LR by Victoria Brampton (free on the internet) to get yourself going and then you can learn by doing. There are a few gotcha's but they're simple to learn and remember.

And I highly recommend getting the "Aperture Exporter" software from the App Store for about $15. That makes the task of moving all your files over to LR a lot easier and allows you to totally reorganize your file structure while you're doing it. From my understanding, the importer built into LR does not allow you any flexibility in how you structure your new folder system.

Another bonus is that pretty much every 3rd party piece of software out there works seamlessly with LR. Not just Photoshop, everything including Aurora, MacPhun, Topaz, Nik and even the Franzis stuff.

Two big oops: one with film and another for digital. But neither mistake has never been repeated so I guess that says something positive.

I had just gotten my first real camera (Praktica film) and was eager to go out and start shooting. Went out and about taking pictures merrily and then realized after I'd gotten the film back that it hadn't been loaded correctly so I had shot 36 images onto the same frame. Mercifully I hadn't been shooting anything of real importance, but still embarrassing.

And then, I'd just gotten my first digital (Canon Rebel XTi) and was off on a trip to the wilds of Ireland and Scotland. After I'd filled up my first CF card and taken it out, I inserted the second one the *wrong way* so it bent the pins. Result - one dead camera for a week until I could get to a big city and get it fixed. So I missed a lot of spectacular pictures and of course provided my traveling companion with endless amusement at my expense. To this day, I always triple-check the orientation of the card before inserting it.

So far no reformatted hard drives but there's always time!

You can buy Lightroom stand-alone, no need for the subscription. The subscription is only worth the money if you always want the latest/greatest version of the software.