Reader Comments: Photo Software for Photographers
Related: Lightroom, Martin D, Photoshop, reader comment, Roy P, software
Two ideas for photographers and photo software.
Roy P writes:
FYI, I just bought a license of ON1 Photo Raw (about $129 at B&H Photo), which could replace my LightRoom based workflow. They have a bit of a deal going on until tomorrow. If this works, I’ll likely bail out of the Lightroom bloatware. My LR catalog is 4+ GB in size, even after taking a lot of stuff off it, and it’s painfully slow.
I loved the elevator pitch on it:
First, it has no catalogs and imports, but just works off the computer’s folder system. So I can put things wherever I want, organize it however I want, etc., instead of getting the Adobe python to swallow every new import.
Second, they claim it uses the GPU in my Mac, and everything works much faster than LR. A senior technical guy at the company said it was fast enough that you could browse the images on your Mac with your iPad, do all your culling, grading, metadata management, etc. – not sure how it works, but just speed improvement on my Mac alone would be a huge benefit.
Third, it is a completely new generation, newly designed app, with no legacy issues, and feels very nimble, modern and intuitive.
Fourth, it seems to have all the typical functions you’d want for RAW conversion, image editing, file and database management, and output generation.
Fifth, it seems to have some new paradigms that are not in LR or clumsy to do in LR.
Sixth, it’s a software license model, not subscription, and they let you install the software on 2-3 machines (I thought I heard somebody said five, but I need to verify that). I hate that Adobe is forcing the CC model on its users.
That was enough to convince me to spend the $100 to try it out, before their special deal ended on Jan. 3. It’s relatively new software, and it could have some bugs or other idiosyncrasies, but this looks like a nimble company, and hopefully, problems will get resolved quickly.
DIGLLOYD: While Lightroom has features that are plus for some users (anyone who really needs metadata and/or anyone put off by the complexity of Photoshop, see next quote), for me at least it is a huge waste of time to have to import, and then not have direct layer support, which is critical for my work. So Ihave no use for Lightroom.
Reader James G points out:
The ON1 website has a direct online price of 99.99 for the Photo RAW app, which includes about $230 in bundled training and special effects in the 99.99 package, though good only through 1/3/2017.
Martin D writes:
Haven’t tried it. Might appeal to those who find Lightroom overwhelming?
DIGLLOYD: the “Lightroom overwhelming” issue is real; both it and Photoshop are intimidating to a first-time users, Photoshop particularly so.
