[Topsy]

Hey guys,

I recently thought that I'd like to (finally) decide on software that I enjoy using.

I can't say that I've ever really enjoyed post processing my images half as much as I've enjoy shooting them and I'd actually like to develop 'style' (though I do believe in editing pictures how they feel right and not push some style just because it will make the image look like it's yours) that I can call mine, if I haven't got that already. Hard to judge myself to be honest.

My issue is that everywhere I turn I seem presented with trade offs.

LR / PS
pros: relatively easy to use, lots of tutorials online, familiar layout and tools.
cons: CPU usage (on my PC), CC-bloatware (not sure about non CC version of LR?), I'm really fed up with the latter really, that's why I'm looking for an alternative.


Capture One,
pros: lower CPU usage, possibly way more, I just haven't spent enough time with it yet..
troubles*: Can't find a comprehensive purple fringing slider like Camera Raw has, which is quite useful with my manual lenses. No 'whites' and 'blacks' adjustment sliders, which I have been using a lot, very confusing at first. Took me ages to figure out how to export to jpeg..

* can't call anything 'cons' yet after two hours of use, wouldn't be fair would it?




I'm absolutely sure that the above pro and con lists would be a lot longer if I'd actually be able to get myself to spend a bit more time in the programs..

I'm currently conducting a blind test. I've edited a few shots in Capture One and am now going for a walk. I'll edit the same with Camera raw and see how they'll compare.



Are there any more programs I should consider?

I tried Topaz Studio the other day but that ran extremely bad on my computer (which works fine for everything else by the way!)

[jatrax]

Are there any more programs I should consider?

My suggestion would be find what you like and learn it. The primary differences in all these programs are user interface, not end results. The biggest problem I see with people trying the new software of the month is that they cannot possibly have spent enough time with any one program to properly learn it before they are off to the next best thing. I see this all the time at my art guild and at camera club, everyone has a 'new' plugin or program that is "amazing". If you feel a lack in what you are using investing in training not new software might be a good idea. I have used Lightroom daily for almost 5 years now and still learn something new all the time.

That said, you are looking for options and I'm sure you will get a few. I agree the CC versions of LR/PS are now slow to the point of frustration. At least LR is, PS is not so bad. But for me there is no other alternative at this time that does what Lightroom does so I stick with it.

The Macphun software is interesting, though only Mac at this time I think. There is also Darktable which I think is Linux only. On1 has a new program that has just been released. If you do not need the catalog and you are fed up with Lightroom then perhaps try just Bridge and Photoshop, the camera RAW filter is essentially the same as Lightroom. The biggest question is: do you need / want Lightroom's cataloging and indexing functions? If not then you have a lot more options.

[clickclick]

Check out Corel Aftershot Pro 3. You can download a free trial. It often comes around at very good discounts - looks like they are running one now even:

RAW converter, RAW Photo Editing Software - Corel AfterShot Pro 3 - Formerly Bibble

Corel claims it is up to 4x faster than LR. On the above page, there is a comparison link between the two products as well as a download link. I must admit I'm new at playing around with post processing, but as I bounce between Lightroom and Aftershot Pro, I wonder why all the emphasis on LR other than Adobe managed to penetrate the market and grab the biggest share. I also personally am not thrilled the way LR forces you into their mode of libraries. Aftershot Pro is happy to either do libraries or let you browse your file system directly without "importing" anything into it. I organize my photos at the file and directory level when I unload them, so I prefer not to have to battle with importing something I've already organized just because I want to tweak it a little. I know this is a personal thing, and some will extol the virtues of the LR libraries for ogranization, but I'm just not feeling it at this point. Also agree that Adobe adds a lot of bloat. Think it's pretty annoying to have a program that loads parts of itself at boot whether you're using it or not.

[Tas]

G'day,

I have been using On1 for several years and have found the latest version, Photo RAW 2017, to be good enough to all but replace my reliance on LR & PS. There are plenty of how to videos at the On1 website and the learning curve is not too steep if you can do the basics in the Adobe products.

Good luck with the research, I hope you find something that works for you.

Tas

[stevebrot]

I have used Lightroom daily for almost 5 years now and still learn something new all the time.

I have used LR (standalone) since 2007 and don't see myself shifting away anytime soon. As with John, I continue to grow into the product, particularly in regards to leveraging the collection, soft-proofing, print, and "edit-in" features. I pair LR with Serif's Affinity Photo (Windows) and am quite happy with that product* as a pass-through raster editor. Note that I use local file storage exclusively.

In regards to speed and processor load, I have no complaints with the above combo with my setup,** though I must admit to seldom being in any kind of "production" mode.


Steve

(...greedily wipes the Adobe Kool-Aid from his chin...)

* My use of raster editing is fairly limited, but I am liking Affinity Photo. It uses Photoshop conventions for core functionality such that most tutorials require little translation. The terminologies (personas?) are a little strange, but I am still spinning up and may yet come to appreciate its full capabilities.

** Win 7 Pro 64, Intel i5-4670 @ 3.4 GHz, 8 GB memory

[boriscleto]

If my early-2009 Mac mini, with one leg in the grave, can run Lightroom CC acceptably*, I don't see why anyone would have trouble running it...

Mac OS 10.11.6, Intel Core-2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz, 8 GB memory

*Not trying to edit 36MP files

[f22]

Try downloading some trial versions of different products, using them for a week or two, and see which one's have the right balance of features to learning curve you feel are going to meet your needs. I landed on ACDSee myself because it has a Develop Mode for the majority of features needing less comprehensive tweaking for many of my shots like Exposure, cropping, rotation, save as JPG, etc. It also allows for Batch editing; applying changes to multiple images, and then developing them into JPG. And If I want to really get into it, the Edit Mode offers layers and many more creative choices to go crazy. One easy and highly useful feature is the Dehaze which adds contrast, saturation, and accentuates the highlights in the photo. The SMart Brush (Magic) does nice corrective blending to small/large areas of the photo, like usiing Dodge/Burn, Fill Light, etc to bring out details.

Cost is another factor in choosing what you really need. I looked at SilkyPix (language barriers with what they call certain features), Fotor, Pixlr, Photoshop and Lightroom. Personally I don't need the same high level of PP control that a professional needs, so LR seemed like overkill for my purposes; not knocking it,but not a learning curve I wanted to climb. Some of these features will quickly be forgotten if not used for periods of time. PS has similarity to the Edit Mode of ACDSee, layers, etc. Fotor had problems opening my DNG files in some past versions.

Lastly, some of these products have product tutorial videos, that explain not only the feature but how to make practical use of them. Knowing when and which tool to use is more helpful to me at quickly achieving results.

[Topsy]

Thanks guys, I'll give On1, Affinity and Aftershot a go too!

** Win 7 Pro 64, Intel i5-4670 @ 3.4 GHz, 8 GB memory

Now that's interesting!
same CPU here, stock clock speeds but with 16gb ram. Loading an image into Camera Raw and Topaz cuts music (stream or local) every time, mayor adjustments, ie non local ones like WB, exposure etc. will result in music cutting for a split second too..

Not having any such issues with anything else, like cpu heavy games, cpu rendering or such, though!


It does work fine with the 16mp files out of the K-50 though, so I'm 100% sure it's got something to do with the filesize.

[clickclick]

[snip]


It does work fine with the 16mp files out of the K-50 though, so I'm 100% sure it's got something to do with the filesize.

What's the state of the drive you're working on e.g. how full/last time defragmented etc.? Also, if you have multiple disks, separate the OS/swap/data as much as you can. If you can have it on three different spindles, that should help with any I/O bottle necks too.

[Topsy]

What's the state of the drive you're working on e.g. how full/last time defragmented etc.? Also, if you have multiple disks, separate the OS/swap/data as much as you can. If you can have it on three different spindles, that should help with any I/O bottle necks too.

Tried all that, it does it on all my drives and SSDs.

So far Capture One is lagless and On1 is the worst I've tried

[Tas]

On1 is the worst I've tried

Gee mate, I'm sorry to hear this, and humbly apologise for any grief the program has caused.

If you haven't done so already you can check the tech specs on this page for the program's recommended minimum requirements: https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/

To give you a bit of history, I've been using On1 for several years and thought that with the release of this program they finally had a product good enough to be a standalone program not just a really capable plug-in for LR/PS. But I and many others were disappointed when we had problems with RAW late last year and into early this year. In my case, it chewed up RAM until it shut the computer down. To the credit of the On1 team there were updates to the program and tthis problem stopped occurring. I've not had that sort of issue since January though even now I find it leans on my 4 year old CPU quite heavily. This just slows up some processes and for basic editing it doesn't impact me at all.

Other than that I thought the bugs were sorted, alas that appears not to be the case. As On1 RAW is a really capable program, if you're prepared to open it in Browse and let it sit for say 10-30 mins the lag might disappear and you can get a better appreciation of how good the program is. I found that the initial search for photo files slowed things down but then it sped up once it recognised all the files.

If it doesn't improve then you could try contacting the On1 support team for advice as I've found them helpful once they get to your query. There's plenty of other options too so I expect there's something that will suit your needs and computer specs.

Again, good luck with sorting it all out.

Tas

[The Squirrel Mafia]

Out of all the paid programs, I like DxO the most. Capture One is my second pick.

I can't stand the Lightroom subscription model & bloatware that comes with it.

As far as open-source goes, RawTherapee is my pick. It's pretty much the software I use to process my RAW files most of the time. I'll use DxO occasionally.

[Topsy]

Gee mate, I'm sorry to hear this, and humbly apologise for any grief the program has caused.

If you haven't done so already you can check the tech specs on this page for the program's recommended minimum requirements: https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/

To give you a bit of history, I've been using On1 for several years and thought that with the release of this program they finally had a product good enough to be a standalone program not just a really capable plug-in for LR/PS. But I and many others were disappointed when we had problems with RAW late last year and into early this year. In my case, it chewed up RAM until it shut the computer down. To the credit of the On1 team there were updates to the program and tthis problem stopped occurring. I've not had that sort of issue since January though even now I find it leans on my 4 year old CPU quite heavily. This just slows up some processes and for basic editing it doesn't impact me at all.

Other than that I thought the bugs were sorted, alas that appears not to be the case. As On1 RAW is a really capable program, if you're prepared to open it in Browse and let it sit for say 10-30 mins the lag might disappear and you can get a better appreciation of how good the program is. I found that the initial search for photo files slowed things down but then it sped up once it recognised all the files.

If it doesn't improve then you could try contacting the On1 support team for advice as I've found them helpful once they get to your query. There's plenty of other options too so I expect there's something that will suit your needs and computer specs.

Again, good luck with sorting it all out.

Tas

Don't worry!
I think my PC is just as picky as I am with some things, if not more so!

I'll make sure to give it a try again, I know that not everything can work flawlessly the first time someone opens it. Of course I didn't mean that it's the worst I've ever tried, it just, with it's standard configuration, worked the worst out of the batch, though now I've tried Affinity too and that might have taken that spot.

I'm sure something isn't 100% with my PC, but I do find it interesting how differently some programs approach loading the images.
I feel line On1 and Affinity might be loading the full res at all times, where as Capture One renders it depending on zoom level (and only renders the crop you're viewing) making it more fluid. I don't know if the others can be configured differently though.

One thing I know for sure, I don't want to have to develop any demanding software for PC with the millions of hardware configs available!

[richard_b]

Capture One,
pros: lower CPU usage, possibly way more, I just haven't spent enough time with it yet..
troubles*: Can't find a comprehensive purple fringing slider like Camera Raw has, which is quite useful with my manual lenses. No 'whites' and 'blacks' adjustment sliders, which I have been using a lot, very confusing at first. Took me ages to figure out how to export to jpeg..

I have been using CO for a couple of years and have been pretty happy. With regard your questions:

The CO Purple Fringing slide is under the lens correction tool tab.

I am not aware of sliders in CO for black and white points, but these can be easily adjusted by moving the pointers at the bottom of the Levels histogram. You can find the Levels histogram on the Exposure tool tab.

BTW, you can customize any of the tool tabs to include or exclude the tools you want.

Good Luck!

[clickclick]

Tried all that, it does it on all my drives and SSDs.

So far Capture One is lagless and On1 is the worst I've tried

You probably know this already, but on the chance not or for someone new to SSDs following this thread, and given I recommended running defrag, never run defrag on an SSD - I should have said that in my earlier response. They don't need it, and it just introduces unnecessary wear - they are designed to "scatter" the information across cells to maximize life.