Mark C wrote: > Malcolm - > > 1- If you are not invested in one piece of software or another, or one > workflow vs another, then the question is simply "Which is better for > me > - LR or PS?" If you are invested in a particular workflow then the > question becomes "Do the advantages of LR over PS (or vice versa) > justify the effort it would take to switch software?" Those are two > distinctly different questions. > > I've been using PS seriously since 2001 and have developed a workflow > and various enhancement processes that work for me and rely on features > found in PS. In particular, I learned Photoshop from someone who taught > it as a layer based photographic manipulation tool. I can't think of > the last time that I made a serious photo and did not have some editing > involving layers. For me, changing over to Lightroom would require that > I relearn many processes that I can do in seconds in PS using layers. > That is not to say that those processes cannot be done in LR - I am > pretty sure most or all can be, but LIghtroom offers no advantages to > me that would offset the investment I would have to make to learn how > to use it. > > But - if I was not invested in PS, then LR would probably be the way to > go. I would simply learn to do things in the LR environment vs PS and > reap some of the benefits that LR offers specifically for > photographers. > > 2 - From my trial of Lightroom some time ago it seemed to offer some > workflow advantages to photographers who shoot products, portraits, > weddings, etc. It nicely integrates features for making portfolios, > uploading them to the web, etc. If I did that kind of work then using > LR, or adding LR to PS would probably make sense. I am sure that there > are other photography specific workflow enhancements that LR has that > PS does not that are beneficial to commercial photographers. Those are > not too important to me since I only shoot for my own amusement, but > could be a significant reason to select LR over PS. > > 3. LR has established itself as a core tool for photographers and will > probably continue to dominate Photographic processing. For someone > starting out, learning LR would probably help you plug into a greater > knowledge base now and in the future. > > On a related note, both LR and PS are core photographic / graphic > tools. Most third party tools, as capable as they may be, simply do not > have the support community behind them that you will find with Adobe > products. I used Corel Photopaint in the 1990's before switching to PS. > It was a great tool but I have never regretted switching to PS - there > is just so much more nfo about how to do things in PS that alone made > the switch worthwhile. Again - if you are working just for yourself > there are many options out there that could be fine. > > Personally, I use PS and Thumbsplus v7 (a very simple thumbnail and > cataloging system) to manage my collection of images. In addition to > PS, I use Photomatix, Zerene Stacker and several other tools on a > regular basis. One of the advantages of PS is that it allows me to take > output files from different tools and unify them through blending of > layers. When LR supports layers I might consider adding it as a tool > and ultimately migrating to it, but for now the only advantages I see > in LR are in how it better supports a professional workflow (irrelevant > to my amateur workflow) and not in how it supports image adjustment. > > Mark
Well, for good or bad, I'm now in with LR and PSE. Given all the comments and advice here, it's the right move for me. This year, my K7 has been used to record things going on here (last of the renovation of the house, and a landscaping project which I thought would mean moving 2 or 3 tons of soil and rock, but was out by a factor of ten), other than that, I've taken the camera out very little this year. I have no intention of ever earning money by photography in any way, and photography for me is a stress reducing hobby that gets me out (mainly) in the countryside. My objectives for 2015 are to start getting through the huge number of slides and photos that need to be scanned, finally have my own passable website and shoot more RAW files, if not fully convert to them. I will be looking at photos taken in the coming weeks using the software to see what improvements could have been more easily made at the time it was taken. Where it will come into its own for me, is removing things that the camera can't. I took some photos of a few friends last week, but the clothing on a couple had corporate/clothing logos which I would have removed on the finished image. No doubt I will start to form a pattern of how I process things, which at some point will be rigid enough to term as a workflow, but the one thing I have is time and no deadline to meet with any of my photos or image processing. I think LR and PSE will be as much as I'll need. For professional photographers (as you say) it's a very different question. Once I've got through the backlog of images, I'll be down to what I shoot on a weekly basis. I took 72 photos on my K3 in the last week, and that (for this year) has been unusually high, although I hope I get out a bit more next year. Malcolm -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
