Best PP software?

[Fgcm]

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45 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Not really, the software has a designer-taste preset profile. The user is supposed to install a profile of his/her choice (or be happy with the given one). A bit like leaving the seat of you car in the position it was  in when you bought it.

True. One can make his own profile either with a dedicated software or tuning colors and saving the selection as a color profile. 

https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002862017-How-to-create-a-Custom-Camera-Profile-

Nonetheless, the profile embedded into Apple software is quite good. I have no insight, but I suspect someone at Apple was a Leica geek. He or she put quite e bit of effort into making a profile for himself and then saved it into the application as a default. Fiction? Reality?

Profiles embedded into all softwares always seem to be something unfinished, or, as you wrote, a car's seat left in a random position.

Apple profiles, other than that of the M9, are just average. The M9 profile is fine. This is why I think someone took care of it. 

[marchyman]

On 3/21/2021 at 2:28 AM, costa43 said:

The alternatives are I either move to Capture One, they do offer a perpetual license. Or I stay put with the old version.

A Capture One perpetual license is for one version.   If you get a perpetual license for the current version (21.x) you will not get access to future major versions (22.x) without buying another license.   You can keep using the version you have as long as you have a computer that will run the software.  You will not get new features or support for new cameras.  For many people that is fine.

As for switching... I agree with Jaap -- The software that works best is the one that you are most comfortable with.

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[Michael-IIIf]

On 3/21/2021 at 9:28 AM, costa43 said:

The latest version requires a subscription which is a little annoying but it's the way things seem to be going nowadays.

Yup, I hate subscription models too and have held onto using LightRoom 6 for as long as I could but the upgrade to Big Sur and my new M1 Mac Mini means the LR installer will no longer run.

I'm in the same boat as you and have reviewed dozens of alternatives, kindly suggested by many on this forum.

 

On 3/22/2021 at 1:15 AM, jaapv said:

The software that works best is the one that you are most comfortable with.

In the end that is the conclusion I came to as well, and having spent years with LR in its various versions I know how to use the bits of it I need and have found all the other packages to be frustrating.

I understand the frustration of a subscription service but I think most of the frustration comes from being railroaded into it. Looked at objectively a tenner a month is nothing, it's a few fancy coffees, in annual terms it is less than one filter for one lens, it is less than a fill of petrol in my car. It's nothing to what I used to spend on film and chemicals. It hurts that Adobe have you over a barrel but the cost isn't bad for a product which is constantly improved.

 

On 4/10/2021 at 6:41 PM, Fgcm said:

Apple Photo, (Foto in the Italian release) despite being a consumer software, seems to have the same camera profile as Aperture 3, so it's really good at PP M9 files. 

I've avoided Photos as I assumed it was too lightweight and consumer focussed but in my searches for a LR alternative I've been giving it a spin. I agree it has massively improved and does make a viable alternative now. I really love the way it just works across devices with no faffing. Showing photos on our 4k TV, via Apple TV, works effortlessly and is very useful. I'm tempted to subscribe to LR for a limited period and export my entire catalogue into events, or projects, which will work with Photos app's file structure. Especially as iCloud costs have become more reasonable recently, it tempting to move the whole lot to Photos app.

[zeitz]

2 hours ago, Michael-IIIf said:

Photos app's file structure

I much prefer the forced Adobe price structure to the forced Apple file structure.  I want drives/folders/files, not libraries/events/projects/albums/whatevers.

[Michael-IIIf]

8 minutes ago, zeitz said:

not libraries/events/projects/albums/whatevers.

Yes, valid point and it's why I stayed away from iPhoto at the beginning, and why I wish I had stayed away from iMovie.

With LightRoom you know where your files are. I know with Photos/iMovie it is only a question of right-clicking and selecting Show Package Contents but it is still a bit scary that the app is moving your stuff around.

[frame-it]

helpful

 

[RoySmith]

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My animosity to the subscription model reduced when:

1) I learned that one of the chief reasons the software companies have migrated to it is to battle software piracy.
2) It’s not costing me any more than the upgrades I was buying every few years.

[Simone_DF]

13 minutes ago, RoySmith said:

My animosity to the subscription model reduced when:

1) I learned that one of the chief reasons the software companies have migrated to it is to battle software piracy.
2) It’s not costing me any more than the upgrades I was buying every few years.

well point 1 didn't really work

[jaapv]

On 4/15/2021 at 4:43 PM, Michael-IIIf said:

Yup, I hate subscription models too and have held onto using LightRoom 6 for as long as I could but the upgrade to Big Sur and my new M1 Mac Mini means the LR installer will no longer run.

I'm in the same boat as you and have reviewed dozens of alternatives, kindly suggested by many on this forum.

 

In the end that is the conclusion I came to as well, and having spent years with LR in its various versions I know how to use the bits of it I need and have found all the other packages to be frustrating.

I understand the frustration of a subscription service but I think most of the frustration comes from being railroaded into it. Looked at objectively a tenner a month is nothing, it's a few fancy coffees, in annual terms it is less than one filter for one lens, it is less than a fill of petrol in my car. It's nothing to what I used to spend on film and chemicals. It hurts that Adobe have you over a barrel but the cost isn't bad for a product which is constantly improved.

 

I've avoided Photos as I assumed it was too lightweight and consumer focussed but in my searches for a LR alternative I've been giving it a spin. I agree it has massively improved and does make a viable alternative now. I really love the way it just works across devices with no faffing. Showing photos on our 4k TV, via Apple TV, works effortlessly and is very useful. I'm tempted to subscribe to LR for a limited period and export my entire catalogue into events, or projects, which will work with Photos app's file structure. Especially as iCloud costs have become more reasonable recently, it tempting to move the whole lot to Photos app.

???  I can access my files from all my devices in Adobe as well. In my own file structure. Just define the folders you want to  be stored in iCloud.

[Sumeriggy]

Check this :  https://www.xp-pen.com/forum-1790.html

For raw processing, some of the open source raw processors are great. I like DarkTable. RawTherapee is also supposedly good, but I've never tried it.

[ianman]

I've been using Iridient Developer for a very long time, since Aperture was discontinued. For me it's perfect as my M9 RAWs need little or no manipulation. I use it mainly as a converter and occasional crop and straighten. No subscriptions, no bloated file storage and cheap.

 

[roydonian]

During last year's lockdown I tried Lightroom 6, and the latest versions of Capture One, RawTherapee, and PhotoNinja.

(I did look briefly at several other programs, but rejected these either because they not available for Windows, did not support all the cameras that I use, or were only available on a subscription basis.)

Lightroom 6 was satisfactory, but I didn't like the user interface, and the way that it required the user to switch in and out of 'Develop' mode.

I felt more comfortable with Capture One. With its automatic settings activated, it gave the best initial rendering of my DNGs, and its ability to fix moire was impressive. Shadow recovery also seemed superior to that of the other programs.

RawTherapee gave good results, and was better at highlight-recovery than any of the other programmes, but I found it complex, and sometimes slow to response as controls were adjusted.

PhotoNinja was easy to use, and had an impressive ability to deal with overexposed highlights, but in some cases this could be too aggressive even at minimal setting. Also the program had difficulty in coping with an SD card containing 100+ images.

As a final exercise I opened the a series of photos in C1 and RawTherapee, zoomed in to 100%, then slowly explored each image, observing how skin tones were rendered, examining how the software coped with areas of high contrast, looking to see how much detail was visible in the shadows, and judging how colours were rendered in the overall image. One interesting test subject was an airliner whose lower fuselage was unpainted metal and offered a range of brightness and shadow. (RawTherapee had difficulty in coping with this one.)

Given greater user skill, my conclusions might well have been different, but in most cases I felt happiest with the results from Capture One. But although I bought Capture One 20, I prefer the less-cluttered interface of version 12, so that's the version I now use. But I do wish Capture One was better documented - there are few books on the subject.

I still keep RawTherapee installed – when I get back from a shoot, it's useful tool that gives me a quick look at my pics without having to b****r about with catalogs or sessions.

 

[Bobitybob]

If you are in the UK and are a current Lightroom user or are thinking about signing up for a new subscription plan then this might be of interest https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adobe-Creative-Cloud-Photography-plan/dp/B00LSU8PYO.

No delivery charge either so can't be bad.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Bobitybob