Photoshop moving to cloud/subscription service only.

[graynomad]

Probably 90% of what I do is create adjustment layers (sometimes 5-6 or even more) and selectively change their opacity by painting them. Can LR do that?

 

[grogie]

I've been using Photoshop since v2.5 and I consider myself a near pro user. I'm also not pleased with the Adobe Creative Suite and it's pricing structure. It's certainly harder for the casual user (I'll never subscribe for home use... and my most recent personal Mac is the first in a long time not to have Adobe software on it).

For work, I manage a communications department and we're running CS6 on all of our Macs. Most of our Macs are up for replacement in about two years, and even though it's not my money and I have the funds to do so in my budget, I still won't go to the Creative Suite until we get new Macs. CS6 is awesome, and I have no reason to upgraded until I'm forced to. We heavily use InDesign for magazine publishing for one along with some vendors we exchange file with, so I'm pretty much forced to stay with Adobe at least at work.

 

[Lost Canadian]

Probably 90% of what I do is create adjustment layers (sometimes 5-6 or even more) and selectively change their opacity by painting them. Can LR do that?

In a word, yes. The beauty of LR is you don't need to create layer after layer, you can make all your adjustments selectively, if you wish, without creating multiple layers, it's non destructive, and you can adjust the strength or opacity as you see fit. Is LR as powerful as photoshop? Of course not, but as I said, unless you need to create new pixels there's not much LR can't do as an editor. LR was designed for the professional photographer as a complete editor and DAM, Photoshop has morphed into a tool targeted at graphic designers, architects, animators, publishers, more so than photographers. Both have their place, but if you're not a heavy handed pixel generator type photographer then LR is typically more than enough.

 

[DiploStrat]

Probably 90% of what I do is create adjustment layers (sometimes 5-6 or even more) and selectively change their opacity by painting them. Can LR do that?

Permit me to offer some comments:

-- Neither Lightroom (nor Aperture, which I prefer) can do layers - at all. When I need layers which is rare, and only for composition, not exposure/color/etc., I use Elements. N.B. Elements is 8-bit only.

-- As Trevor noted, Lightroom (and Aperture) are extremely powerful for the most common tasks - crop/expose/saturate/contrast/spot remove/etc. and 99% of the time, there is no need for anything else.

All this and a non-destructive workflow, which eliminates most chances of altering your original file.

There is no question but that you can do wonderful things with adjustment layers, the point is that there are now some very viable alternatives. Worth it to you to change? Only you can tell.

For me, the big issue is that my image library is growing, and Aperture has the most powerful image database management tools around - far more than being an image browser. So powerful, in fact, that I barely touch the capacity. (But 1500 images that I took in Oz last month are causing me to rethink this a bit! :Wow1

Can't address the subscription model, but you might well find it worth your while to give Lightroom the once over. (Especially as you take such lovely pictures.)

G'day to ya.

 

[graynomad]

Thanks for that info

Neither Lightroom (nor Aperture, which I prefer) can do layers - at all.

OK, that's a deal-breaker for me, I use layers for just about every photo that gets to the "that's not bad" stage.

But 1500 images that I took in Oz last month are causing me to rethink this a bit!

I see DAM and image editing as two separate things, mostly I guess because the DAM programs aren't great at editing and the editing programs aren't good at asset management.

I have about 20,000 pics in my DIY management program, trouble is it's written in VB6 and that will become harder and harder to use as Windows moves on.

Life wasn't meant to be easy eh?

 

[BretEdge]

It has already been noted but no, Lightroom can't do layers. There is a plug-in called Perfect Layers by On One Software that supposedly does layers within LR but it hasn't received the best reviews. I've never used it and can't comment on it with any authority.

I use Lightroom and Nik Software plug-ins within LR for 90% of my workflow. I still resort to Photoshop for more difficult cloning jobs (exceedingly rare) and manual exposure blending (fairly frequent). Still, 100% of my images end up in Lightroom simply because of the DAM features it offers. By far the best way I've found to manage a large collection of images.

Probably 90% of what I do is create adjustment layers (sometimes 5-6 or even more) and selectively change their opacity by painting them. Can LR do that?

 

[Lost Canadian]

Thanks for that info


OK, that's a deal-breaker for me, I use layers for just about every photo that gets to the "that's not bad" stage.

Lightroom doesn't do "layers" per say but masks, which, having looked at your work, very nice by the way, is probably sufficient for a majority of your work.

Lightroom's gradient, radial, and brush tools are very powerful and you can selectively "paint" in changes to exposure, white balance, highlight, shadow, clarity, sharpness, noise, colour, etc.

Just as an example, and keep in mind this is a very rough example and took me literally all of 2 minutes to do, but you can go from this out of camera....

To this with a custom colour profile and curve adjustment...

to this with some selective editing using the radial and brush tools....

and finally to this...

or this by selectively painting in some colour...

or or or..

 

[DiploStrat]

OK, that's a deal-breaker for me, I use layers for just about every photo that gets to the "that's not bad" stage.

Snark! You should cruise over to DPReview where a gentleman is repeating, ad infinitum, that Lightroom is the ONLY image processor to use - it is SOOOOOOO much better than Aperture and no one REALLY needs Photoshop. (Sigh!) http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3583771

But please permit me two additional comments:

-- I would argue, along with Trevor, that with modern processors the need for adjustment layers is much reduced. You can get the same or better results with other tools.

-- That said, Aperture actually does have a very slick implementation of adjustment layers in its brush; each brush can be applied (pressure sensitive), removed, and feathered. And then each "layer" (called an Adjustment Brick) can have all of its parameters changed. You can apply almost any tool as a brush (to localize effect) and any tool can be applied multiple times, effectively giving you adjustment layers. When I mention layers I tend to think of compositing and cutting out Aunt Mary.

So, should you switch? Probably not, especially as you have developed techniques that produce splendid results. But rest assured that should you choose to use Lightroom or Aperture you will find a powerful suite of tools.

As for my Oz photos, they are great. Salable? I doubt it, but I had a wonderful trip and it was a great way to start learning a new camera.

 

[nwoods]

Gray, your Vista addiction is inexplicable. Windows 7 is SO MUCH BETTER! and, it's a prerequisite for Lightroom 5. As for LR itself, there is a 30 day free trail, and THOUSANDS of tutorials.
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom

Update to a 2009 operating system, and then play with LR5. You might like it. Nearly everyone does... and it's $40 off through December 7th.

 

[graynomad]

Yeah what can I say, I'm a creature of habit. We do have 2 W7 machines in the house and I put LR5 on one of them the other day. Trouble is it's not a very good machine so it was hard to enjoy using it.

I don't so much have an addiction to Vista, it's more a mortal fear of changing because I just know it will be a week of pain getting everything to work, only to find out that 2 of my all-time useful progs don't run at all or something like that. I just can't afford the down time, if I have a client need a mod to a PCB design and that CAD program is not working I'm in trouble. OK unlikely I suppose but when it comes to computers I'm a real pessimist. Honestly I would rather buy a new computer than swap the OS on one I've been using for years (I should have a hot standby anyway). At least then I can spend as long as I like getting the W7 system working and when it's OK I transfer the flag to it

With regard to LR, my main problem is getting the meta data from 20,000 photos into it, there is a plugin to do that (at least for LR4.3) but I haven't been able to get it working. I admit I haven't tried real hard though. The meta data is in a proprietary format, but as I wrote the DAM program it's in I can write something to export it in another format and I believe the plug in can import CSV files and apply the data to existing catalogue photos.

My wife uses W7 all day, frankly I don't see why it's any better than Vista. Seems to do all the same stuff.

Another reason for my inertia is that I'm not much into my photography at present, I'm spending all my time designing electronic gizmos. But OTOH that means it's a good time to swap because it gives me time to get it sorted before I start creating a lot of new images. Also the "designing electronic gizmo" thing does give me the cash to buy a new laptop.

Decisions decisions.

I read that DPReview thread, the usual bun fight that resolved nothing I don't hang out on DPR much these days, mostly I guess because as I said I'm more into my electronics right now.

should you choose to use Lightroom or Aperture you will find a powerful suite of tools.

Yeah I'm sure LR5 would do most of what I need, after all it does for most everyone else in the world and I'm no different.

I'm happy to just use LR for DAM and maybe 80% of image editing, and shell out to PS for the harder stuff. But what about my existing and any new PSD files, can LR edit them? I assume not if they have layers. Can it at least view them?

Lightroom's gradient, radial, and brush tools are very powerful and you can selectively "paint" in changes to exposure, white balance, highlight, shadow, clarity, sharpness, noise, colour, etc.

I think that mostly covers what I do with layers really, except for photos like this

Where there is obviously a lot of tom foolery going on

 

[nwoods]

I don't so much have an addiction to Vista, it's more a mortal fear of changing because I just know it will be a week of pain getting everything to work, only to find out that 2 of my all-time useful progs don't run at all or something like that.

So...load those programs on the Win7 machine that isn't business critical and see what it does. Or run it in VMware or something and play safe.

My wife uses W7 all day, frankly I don't see why it's any better than Vista. Seems to do all the same stuff.

Okay, I am writing this response on a Mac, but I run Win7 frequently (using Parrallels), however, it's been forever since I ran Vista, but here's what I remember of my initial impressions between the two:
1. Speed: Win7 boots significantly faster
2. Speed: You can plug in a cheap 8GB USB memory stick and use it as a dedicated RAM drive, Win7 prompts you do this if I recall.
3. Speed: The Search function in Win7 is SIGNIFICANTLY improved over anything prior to it. It is incredibly fast, and filters your search results by program, file, contacts, etc...It is faster to type "Calc" in the search bar than it is to pick Start, and scroll the mouse over to the Calculator app. The Search bar just brings it all to your fingertips immediately.
4. Speed: With the ability to Pin darn near anything to the task bar, accessing whatever you want, rapidly, is super easy
5. Speed: It has a built in meta aggregator function. If you have your documents spread out over a dozen different places on your home network, you can simple point to those places, and they will all appear in the Documents folder. They aren't moved, they are just cached in Meta. THis is also why Search works so well.
6. Screen control. The ability to "dock" various windows and dialogue boxes to the left, right, top and bottom is HUGLEY useful on a bigger monitor. It is super easy to compartmentalize your screen with a number of open windows into various things, allowing you to work the system much faster and more directly. I guess this would be SPEED again, eh? Docking the windows is SO ADDICTING, that I installed Hyperdock on my Mac so that it can do the same thing. Yes, Win7 has much better windows management than Mac OSX. it's true.

Another reason for my inertia is that I'm not much into my photography at present, I'm spending all my time designing electronic gizmos. But OTOH that means it's a good time to swap because it gives me time to get it sorted before I start creating a lot of new images. Also the "designing electronic gizmo" thing does give me the cash to buy a new laptop.

I can relate to this. A few years ago the economy swatted me aside like a discarded coffee cup, and I had to sell all my toys, including my off road rigs. For me, the world kinda went colorless and gray as a result. I just have not had any joy. There is no great hope for the next adventure, because I have no means with which to bring that adventure to fruition. As a result, its been VERY difficult to work up any enthusiasm to go out and shoot photos. The style of photography that I enjoy is outdoors based adventure stuff. If I can't go out and do it, shooting it on camera just doesn't happen.

However, I did have to get a new laptop for work, and I am really enjoying my MacBookPro Retina! It's a really nicely done piece of gear, and running Parrallels, the OS is transparent. It doesn't matter what OS any given program runs in, it just opens in it's own window, they all run simultaneously.

 

[graynomad]

Just reading between the lines here, but I think you're saying W7 is fast, correct?

I had to sell all my toys, including my off road rigs.

Ooo that sucks.

The style of photography that I enjoy is outdoors based adventure stuff. If I can't go out and do it, shooting it on camera just doesn't happen.

It's not the same but one thing I love about macro photography is that you don't have to go very far, even the back yard or local park has plenty of subjects. And it gives you a good excuse to lurk in the bushes

I have an iPad with the Retina display, fantastic, you can't even see the pixels. The laptop I mention before with W7 has big fat pixels, I can seem them from across the room and hate it.

I think I'll be buying a decent backup computer soon, that will have W8 I assume so I'll get LR5 then.

 

[nwoods]

None of the appreciable factors I mentioned about Win7 apply to Win8. I think Win8 is a kludge. It does have a handsome mail app though. Everything else seems to suffer jarring discontinuity of design or extreme counter intuitiveness

 

[graynomad]

So I'll be skipping the good generation , one bad one straight over the good one to another bad one. You can still buy W7 online though, I could retro fit that.

 

[DiploStrat]

Is it time to chime in with the obligatory, "Consider a Mac"?