Lightroom or not to lightroom?

[BCcanuck]

I have, and only ocasionally use, the last standalone Lightroom 6. Almost all of my pp is done in Photolab 6 and I am reasonably content with the results. However, I find myself more and more thinking I could perhaps. do better, go further with Lightroom. I still prefer Lightroom's layout to Photolab though I am very comfortable with the latter. I have not yet compared prices but I suspect they work out similar on an annual basis. I'm thinking that I should try Lightroom for a year to see if it improves shots and thus my contentment level. So questions----

Is this a good idea?
Is it true that you have to store your files on the cloud?
What version/package should I rent?
To Canadian users, what does the annual cost amount to in Canadian Dollars including taxes?

This last question results from being informed by"somebody" that Canadian taxes are levied in US Dollars which, to me, seems wrong.

All thoughts and opinions welcome.

 

[bleirer]

The Photography plan is $10 per month US. This gives Lightroom Classic for the desktop computer, Lightroom for the cloud, Photoshop, and some other programs. With Photolab I can definitely live without lightroom. But I couldn't live without Photoshop and It comes as a package. Lightroom Classic is the more powerful desktop version, and you don't store your images in the cloud. With the cloud based lightroom you do store in the cloud, but you can sync back and forth between them.

The lightroom library is a very capable organizer and that is my main use for it as I haven't delved into the organizer in Photolab. Photolab is as capable a flat file editor as Lightroom in my opinion, but there is no substitute for Photoshop with the flexibility that layers offers. I often import into Lightroom (for the organizer/library), jump into Photolab, jump to Photoshop, and save the layered photoshop file back to Lightroom to keep my Photoshop results organized in case I want to make a change later. I usually just save jpegs on an as needed basis, and do output sharpening and sizing from the saved photoshop file.

You could also do without Photolab, the workflow would then be to import into Lightroom, edit the flat file there, send the image as a smart object to photoshop (to allow for continued editing of the raw if needed), edit in layers in photoshop, output any jpegs from photoshop, and save the layered file back to lighroom for organization. You can also output jpegs from lightroom if needed.

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

If you are using Lightroom "Classic" (the program is on your computer) you are not storing you images in the cloud...unless you expressly set up a cloud service like Dropbox.

Go with the Photography Plan which includes Lightroom and Photoshop (which you may actually decided to use someday!!!). You can't (at least I don't think so) buy Lightroom and "own it". It is subscription only, which at first you may recoil from, but you get every new feature as it is developed and they have developed some really cool new features!

Be prepared to take a LOT of classes/videos on Lightroom to get the hang of it. Steve's Lightroom Class was a significant "I get it!" moment for me and highly recommended.

I'm glad I took the time to learn Lightroom ....and still learning! Photoshop takes a LOT of effort also, and I have a definite Love/Hate relationship with it!

Is there something "better" than Lightroom??? I'm sure you will hear some opinions. But I don't think Adobe is going to let anyone take over their #1 spot!

 

[Viseguy]

I was a long time user of Lightroom 6, and I resisted the monthly payments for a long time, but I'm glad I finally switched over to LR Classic. Files not on cloud, both PS and LR updated regularly, I think you would be best served by the Photography plan as previously mentioned.

 

[Butlerkid]

Download the LR Classic trial and see how you like it................ Also, there are a lot of videos on LR Classic. Watch some and see if there is anything that you want that you can't do now.

 

[raptor photo]

I think you will be just fine with Photolab. The only real benefit Lightroom has over it is the better tone control, but this is minor compared to noise reduction and the comfort level you already have with PL.

 

[BCcanuck]

Thank you for your suggestions and advice. I have done some (limited) research and that, together with your input leans me towards LRC and the Photography Plan.

I only process on my desktop and have an instinctive aversion to the Cloud so it appears to fit my needs best. I have some limited experience with earlier versions of LR and PS which may help overcome the initial "What HAVE I done" feeling.

Bottom line, I just wanna be like Steve!!!

 

[MartyD]

The Adobe photography plan comes with Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, Photoshop, Photoshop iPad, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Mobile, and some other things plus some cloud storage. You can actually use LrC and LR both and have some of your collections on your desktop computer synced to the cloud so you can edit them on mobile devices. I do think it is a great value. At one time if you were a Microsoft Office 365 subscriber you could get 3 months free of the photography plan, I also purchased a backup drive that had a coupon for 3 free months, so be on the lookout.

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

Steve’s class changed my view on LR. It’s hard to find the 9.95 plan but it’s still there. They want you to buy the $20 month plan. With Steve’s class and Julianne Kost’s free videos you will be very far along.

Now with their Denoise AI if your computer can handle it you might be very content to be in that ecosystem. Also as the post below points out there are many incredible masking tools now.

It’s only two Charbucks a month. Well worth it.

 

[jhallettbc]

The cost in Canada with conversion and taxes comes to just about $15 a month. Considering all you get it's definitely worth it in my opinion. LR Classic (which is what I use) now has a lot of AI features such as auto selection of the subject, sky, or the background. It makes for incredibly fast edits and is the feature I use the most. For example, you want your subject to stand out more, just select the background and reduce the exposure. I hardly ever have to resort to Photoshop. The other application for the monthly fee I use a lot is Portfolio. It is your own website and shows off your photos in a very professional way. Completely synchronized with both LR and LR Classic.

 

[Anjin San]

And at least the last time I looked the cloud version of LR was significantly less advanced in capabilities than the Classic version. Plus…if you're on travel then LR cloud is gonna be slower because you're not going to have either the bandwidth or the speed to move and edit large files that aren't local…so at least for me using something like an iPad and the cloud version of LR isn't really an option. The newer versions of the iPad app may allow local storage…but then you need a bunch of storage on your iPad or connect an external drive…and again, at least the last time I looked at it…the cloud and Classic versions don't share catalogs…you can send a Classic folder or collection to the cloud and IIRC it then becomes editable/viewable on the cloud LR…but whether any changes there reflect back down to the original local Classic catalog I dunno. I think Patrick uses an iPad for most of his travel work…perhaps he can illuminate things for us.

Personally…I use Classic and a separate catalog on the road as Steve does. Hudson Henry keeps his catalog on an external SSD along with the current trip photos and the rest of the originals out on several RAIDs at home…and moves the SSD between his Mac Studio at home and his Windows laptop on travel seamlessly. There are pros and cons to both approaches. But neither of them uses the cloud LR version probably due to the lower feature set and it doesn't use plugins if you want them. I never seriously considered Photolab…I was on Apple's Aperture for years and moved to LR when it was abandoned. If I had known about Photolab and if it did back then (2015 or so) what Aperture and the then current LR did I might have gone that way…same with Capture One…didn't know it existed to compare and evaluate because at the time I think LR and Aperture were pretty much the majority of the market.

 

[BCcanuck]

Thank you for all the input, suggestions and ideas. As I only PP on a desktop I decided to splurge on a year of LRC in the Photo package. I am impressed with how much more there
is than my old version 6. First impressions, very favourable, I'm already digging deeper than I ever did with Photolab. The attraction with PL was the Deep Prime XD noise reduction. Comparing it with the LRC output using the same ISO 3200 file, they both look equally as good to me.

 

[DRwyoming]

Thank you for all the input, suggestions and ideas. As I only PP on a desktop I decided to splurge on a year of LRC in the Photo package. I am impressed with how much more there
is than my old version 6. First impressions, very favourable, I'm already digging deeper than I ever did with Photolab. The attraction with PL was the Deep Prime XD noise reduction. Comparing it with the LRC output using the same ISO 3200 file, they both look equally as good to me.

I'd also recommend exploring the new masking features including the historic brush type masks but also things like subject or background detection. These can be very handy for things like selectively warming the subject or selectively pulling up shadows on only the subject and leaving the background alone. It's much more powerful than what I had in my older LR standalone versions. And yeah, the new Denoise feature is very handy.

I use LR Classic and don't store any images in the cloud. You do need periodic internet connections both for the free software updates including new feature additions but also to periodically check the license but you can edit all you want without an internet connection between those periodic checks and store all images and your catalog locally.