Upgrading from Lightroom Classic Advice Please

E

Eddie1

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Name
Ed
Edit My Images
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I've been happily using LR classic to process my Canon EOS files but now that I've bought an R6 I've run into a problem.
LR classic doesn't support CR3 and using the DNG converter as a work around into LR classic is also unsatisfactory.

It looks like I need to move to Photoshop LR, creative cloud version, to get the quality that I need from the CR3 raw files.
(Which would also mean getting tied into the Adobe subscription system)

But then what happens to my old and extensive LR classic library ? I cant see a way to use it with LR 5.
So do I now need to work with Creative Cloud going forward with the R6 and keep LR classic for my older Eos images as a kind of legacy system?

I would really appreciate your thoughts/advice on this

What are other people doing in this situation ?

Thx in advance
Ed
 
Ah ok Thanks
I see that I have to upgrade my old version of LR classic ( v6) to be able to access these new features
But once I've upgraded my catalog theres no going back i assume ?
I will be forever locked into Adobe ?

( man this Adobe stuff has got complicated since I last looked at it, there are so many options/versions now !)
 
Eddie1 said:
Ah ok Thanks
I see that I have to upgrade my old version of LR classic ( v6) to be able to access these new features
But once I've upgraded my catalog theres no going back i assume ?
I will be forever locked into Adobe ?

( man this Adobe stuff has got complicated since I last looked at it, there are so many options/versions now !)
Click to expand...


Yes
yes, no going back
yes so this is the dilemma to now solve..
 
Eddie1 said:
But once I've upgraded my catalog theres no going back i assume ?
I will be forever locked into Adobe ?
Click to expand...

There are other options, you could explore, one of those being Onone Raw, a program you can buy outright, there is also a free program called Darktable, although I am not sure, how that handles RAW files, and their is another option, which you will have to PM me about.
 
Lightroom Classic CC will upgrade your catalogue to its newest version and you need to subscribe. All my files from 2006 ish onwards when I got a 350D are readable

Alternatively you could probably use the DNG converter to convert the CR3 files to DNG which your current version of Lightroom will probably read, although that’s an extra process.
 
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Eddie1 said:
Ah ok Thanks
I see that I have to upgrade my old version of LR classic ( v6) to be able to access these new features
But once I've upgraded my catalog theres no going back i assume ?
I will be forever locked into Adobe ?

( man this Adobe stuff has got complicated since I last looked at it, there are so many options/versions now !)
Click to expand...
Well, you can always keep a copy of your current LR6 catalog and application* and go back to using that if you ever feel the need. Then your only issue is maintaining an appropriate OS and hardware to continue to run LR6 as time goes on, but that’s nothing new for you.

In the meantime you can also take advantage of the new CC version features with your old photos and metadata in the upgraded catalog if that is your choice, which you probably can’t do with a completely different application (such as Capture One). It’s only (new) edits you make in LR CC that are tied to that.

As I understand it, if you ever cease paying Adobe for a LR subscription, you continue to be able to access your library with LR CC, but just in read only mode.

* on a macOS, at least, you can keep multiple versions of the same application installed at the same time. I don’t know if Windows users might be more limited in their choices.
 
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Musicman said:
Well, you can always keep a copy of your current LR6 catalog and application* and go back to using that if you ever feel the need. Then your only issue is maintaining an appropriate OS and hardware to continue to run LR6 as time goes on, but that’s nothing new for you.

In the meantime you can also take advantage of the new CC version features with your old photos and metadata in the upgraded catalog if that is your choice, which you probably can’t do with a completely different application (such as Capture One). It’s only (new) edits you make in LR CC that are tied to that.

As I understand it, if you ever cease paying Adobe for a LR subscription, you continue to be able to access your library with LR CC, but just in read only mode.

* on a macOS, at least, you can keep multiple versions of the same application installed at the same time. I don’t know if Windows users might be more limited in their choices.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure on Windows your LR6 catalog will be converted to LR CC2015 even if you only install the trial version.
 
tijuana taxi said:
Pretty sure on Windows your LR6 catalog will be converted to LR CC2015 even if you only install the trial version.
Click to expand...
The Mac version of LR upgrades a a copy of the Catalog and leaves the existing one in place

You can (indeed should!) have a separate backup of the old Catalog anyway
 
If you do decide to go down the LR / Photoshop subscription route, it's worth keeping an eye out for the 1 year bundles on Amazon.
The 20Gb LR Classic plan is ~£10/ month on subscription, Amazon sell 1 yr bundles on discount for between £70-£90 (price seems to vary).
If you buy a 1 yr bundle, you simply add the validation code in to your Adobe account, and it gives you 1 yr of credit - any subscription payments pause until the credit is used up, then auto resume.
You can then add another bundle for another 1 yr credit before the previous one has run out.
You also find part year credits sometimes bundles with other things - I bought a couple of portable HD's for backup, and they came with 3 months CC included - added teh codes, and my credit extended accordingly :)
 
Or do what I have had to do since purchasing the Sony A7R IV
Make a watch folder in your L/R, use the DNG converter to grab your images from your SD card with the output path to the watch folder, when you open L/R your images will auto import to watch folder, create a folder where you want images to go and drag them in from the watch folder once done the watch folder is empty ready to go again. Sounds a long winded road but once you have it setup it works quite fast. Russ.
 
Eddie1 said:
Ah ok Thanks
I see that I have to upgrade my old version of LR classic ( v6) to be able to access these new features
But once I've upgraded my catalog theres no going back i assume ?
I will be forever locked into Adobe ?

( man this Adobe stuff has got complicated since I last looked at it, there are so many options/versions now !)
Click to expand...

Rather than updating your existing catalog Lightroom will create a new one but your old catalog is still there.

You can set LR to create sidecar files which will create a separate file (.xmp) for each RAW file that you edit. I don't know for sure but I don't think it does that for .jpg files as adjustments are burnt in. xmp files are readable by several other applications so your edits will be visible in them too.

Even if you choose not to use sidecar files you're not locked into Adobe as you can always export your edited images to .tif, which is pretty well universally recognised.

Hope that helps :)
 
Eddie1 said:
I've been happily using LR classic to process my Canon EOS files but now that I've bought an R6 I've run into a problem.
LR classic doesn't support CR3 and using the DNG converter as a work around into LR classic is also unsatisfactory.
Click to expand...

Why?
 
As has been said you need to upgrade.
It'll be £10 a month for the Lightroom and Photoshop option.

I've found the latest updates to be very good (version 11), it processes my files from the R5 and R3 nearly as good as tests I did with DPP4, I used to have an R6 and also tested that before I sold it and it was just as good.

Also their new masking features are 100% better, the sky or subject detection seems very accurate to me, it means I can so a lot of minor edits directly in Lightroom without having to switch to Photoshop.

For me it's worth £10 a month but I appreciate we're all different and have different budgets and priorities. :)
 
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