Macbook Pro and Lightroom, Thoughts ~Please.......

Bluebird 65

Bluebird 65

Messages
14
Name
Paul
Edit My Images
Yes
I've just bought a 15.4 Macbook pro,having invested so much (nearly £1900) in a laptop, is it worth me also paying the monthly subscription for lightroom. I'm a novice and currently using a free version of photo editor, but having spent so much on a computer really need to 'up my interest' in its best use.

Thoughts, please.....................
 
GTG said:
Yes if you can afford near £2K laptops then why not.
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LOL, I went in for a £700 laptop and came home with the mac. As for affording it................I have a magic card that will have me paying for it interest free for the next 2 years !! So money aside what is your view on whether is it worth me making the additional investment ?
 
I guess the advantage of Software as a Service subscriptions a la Photoshop, is that you can drop it if you find you're not using it, as opposed to investing hundreds up front for software you don't use. (That was my mistake when I first bought my iMac). So long as you're not tied in to a minimum 12 months or something, go with the subscription and use the many free tutorial resources to learn how to use it. If you then find you don't do as much post-processing as you expected, etc, you've still got a cracking laptop!
 
Bluebird 65 said:
LOL, I went in for a £700 laptop and came home with the mac. As for affording it................I have a magic card that will have me paying for it interest free for the next 2 years !! So money aside what is your view on whether is it worth me making the additional investment ?
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Yes lightroom is great although I much preferred when there was no monthly subscription.

You just bought the disc when it was on sale price and could sell it on again after
 
If you go with Lightroom, which I use on a MBP. you will have to sign up for a minimum of 12 months with Adobe. You can get out during the 12 month period but Adobe will charge you about 50% cancellation fee for what ever period is left on your deal. The monthly LR software costs are about £10 or less if you claim VAT at all. Considering you have paid £1900 for your MBP, probably invested as much camera/lens wise, the cost of Lightroom is minimal.

There are alternatives out there and I also use ON1 RAW 2018 (buggy but slowly getting much better) and Capture One Pro (expensive). Another one you may want to look at with some elements of editing that have a very similar feel to LR is Alien Skin Exposure 3 which I am trialling at the moment. I use a Fuji camera and ASK3 has good support for all the Fuji film simulations but then so does LR. Another reason I mainly use LR though is the sheer amount of books, Youtube support, etc compared to other software packages. Magazines like Amateur Photographer invariably use LR when demonstrating how to process photos etc. I just find that a big plus.
 
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I use lightroom classic cc on my 2017 MBP,
Runs perfectly for me,
It’s all I use for editing my photos,
Not what you asked in the question but I’ll add it anyway,
Also use Final Cut Pro X for video editing,
It seems to run better than Adobe Premiere Pro on macOS.
You’ll also get Photoshop included with Lightroom should you choose the correct subscription.
 
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A decent photo editor and cataloging system is one of the most important elements in getting good, consistent final output.

It seems daft to me that people will spend thousands of pounds on camera gear and computing gear yet suddenly get twitchy about spending a few hundred on something that will have as big an effect on the final image as anything else.

I'm not saying you need Lightroom, although that is pretty much the standard there are other options. And, since you bought a Mac, Apple's photos is actually pretty decent nowadays and can do most things you would want for general editing and Affinity Photo (cheap but excellent) will do everything else.
 
It depends on what camera you have.
I own canon and use DPP almost all the time.
I use Apples photos and the dxo plug in for dehaze.

Lightroom is vastly overrated IMO.
 
I love LR and PS and wouldn’t be without them. A couple of people I know have revolted against a monthly subscription. However, shooting in RAW you absolutely need something. I agree with Nawty’s idea - we spend so much on kit and PP is also crucial.
 
holty said:
try affinity its only £49 and its brilliant
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I bought Affinity and have tried so hard to like it, with little success. But then I don’t use Photoshop much. I find I can do (almost) everything in Lightroom, and the subscription is worth it just for that. Especially considering how much we spend on a) camera kit and b) computer hardware.
 
Since you're not committed to any image processing package yet, I'd suggest trying the current best of breeds on free evaluation - they all do a 1 month free trial. Don't mix up pixel editors (like Photoshop, Affinity, GIMP) with image development & cataloging software like Lightroom. My suggestions (from having tried each of these) are:

Lightroom (currently still using 5.7, it's my main image processor)

PhotoRaw 2018 from On1 (I currently use this for deeper editing & more extreme effects than LR can achieve, crosses into Photoshop territory)

DXO Photolab (I occasionally use the previous version DXO Optics Pro - quite automated, can work well)

Alien Skin Exposure 3 (very pre-set based, didn't add anything to what I already have).

Capture One (very effective RAW editor, I had a version for Sony only, but no advantage over Lightroom, very expensive)

I've done some comparisons between some of these packages on the same image, and each brings something different to the party, but no one was distinctly better than the other *in terms of the results they produced*. Which ever you buy, invest time and effort learning to get the best from it.
 
Why not just have a play with apple photos,a lot of people think it’s crap but I’ve edited photos in lightroom and in apple photos and for general
Online viewing it’s hard to see any difference,you can do a bit more in lightroom if you want to explore the more advanced features but unless your really wanting to get into serious editing I would stick to what comes with your Mac for now.
 
Here is my take if you just want to do a little editing then look at photoshop elements. If you want to do more than basic editing then look at photoshop and Lightroom subscription. There are other editors on the market that you may want to try and most give a trial period. So look around and try. For myself after Apple to supporting aperture I looked around and my choice was photoshop and Lightroom
 
you can get a free trial of Affinity for 10 days
just look online
 
i use the photography subscription with Adobe for Lightroom and Photoshop, its great! Really recommend. I have as much fun with post processing as i do going out taking the pictures :)
 
I'm pretty new to all this myself, but did try out a few different options before settling on Lightroom (even though I don't like the monthly fee). I found Lightroom CC to be pretty user friendly, but ended up mostly using Classic.

Another thing to think about is mobile editing - with Lightroom CC, you can edit photos on your phone or tablet too. I find this a nice way to pass the time on long train journeys. I don't believe any of the alternatives offer anything like this.
 
Much as I loathe what feels like a bit of 'captivity' with regards to Adobe subscription, I do think the £10 a month or whatever it is for full blown Photoshop and Lightroom does represent reasonable value. I'm pretty happy with it but I need to be as I couldn't face the prospect of moving to an alternative cataloging program now. If you're not as committed, I'd take a little time to try out some of the competition first. On1 and Capture One both seem nice from the brief exposure I've had to them.
 
I’ve just cancelled my subscription. After trying for a few years I just didn’t like Lightroom and didn’t think it was worth the monthly subscription price. The good news is the pay do good discounts for new subscriptions so you can give it a go fairly easily. For me I’ve just not found anything as good as aperture yet!
 
meduk1 said:
I’ve just cancelled my subscription. After trying for a few years I just didn’t like Lightroom and didn’t think it was worth the monthly subscription price. The good news is the pay do good discounts for new subscriptions so you can give it a go fairly easily. For me I’ve just not found anything as good as aperture yet!
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Have you tried Affinity photo,also Apple photos is ok for basic editing and a bit more
 
No I haven’t yet, will give it a go.

I have just shifted to Apple photos and agree it’s very good for the basic editing, which I find I’m doing more of these days. It also integrates perfectly with the rest of my Apple setup. Capture one is another I’ve heard good things about that I’d like to have a go with.
 
From photos you can edit in affinity without exiting so to speak photos,if that makes sense,they work together well ,10 day free trial
 
meduk1 said:
I’ve just cancelled my subscription. After trying for a few years I just didn’t like Lightroom and didn’t think it was worth the monthly subscription price. The good news is the pay do good discounts for new subscriptions so you can give it a go fairly easily. For me I’ve just not found anything as good as aperture yet!
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After many years with Aperture myself I know exactly how you feel! It’s even got to the point that I’m sometimes shooting JPEG with the D850 as Aperture won’t support the raw files!
 
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