Originally posted by gatorguy These are my thoughts on what my PP flow should be
Open the RAW's in DxO OpticsPro (11) and do the initial corrections there and save in linear DNG's.
Use Lightroom for organizing and corrective/enhancement work (currently Bridge and Photoshop and Nik)
Nik for any black and white work
But I've got a question you guys can help with. I'm not seeing the benefit of going with the Lightroom Photography CC bundle for $120 a year over a one-time buy of Lightroom 6 for approx. $120. With the third party programs I plan to use am I right that CC won't add much if anything over the older standalone LR?
I'll be a first-timer with Lightroom.
The CC bundle essentially gets updates with new features while LR 6's feature set was frozen at the same level as the LR CC was at the time LR 6 was first released (April 2015). Since then, the updates that CC have seen include a new dehaze function and some enhanced straightening tools. LR 6 has only seen bug fixes.
Whether that difference is enough to justify the fees is up to you. I personally only got the LR 6 (as an upgrade from LR 5). I don't miss the new functions, so if there is a LR 7 (which would supposedly have the LR CC features missing in 6), then I might buy it and at the current fee structures have saved a bit of money.
However, that savings depends also on whether one is to make use of Photoshop CC (also included in that $120/year bundle). That is probably where the value lies. I am not a photoshop user to any large extent and CS6 will likely hold me over indefinitely. As it is, I'm finding LR 6 to be so bloated that I will likely move to a different software in the future anyway. I've tried out a few recent RAW PP software, and they are all getting comparable once you get past the UI differences.