Post-Processing for Dummies

First, let me thank Pierces, et. al. for their help back in April when I was trying to come up with an all-in-one lens to pair with the A6000/6300 for my wife's use on our September Vancouver to Hawaii cruise. I ended up going with the Sony 18-135 for her, but I like it so much that I'll probably acquire or rent another for my use!

Now I think it's time to further expand my skills and begin to understand the benefits of post-processing. Probably 99% of all my photos are used just the way the camera captured the image. Although I have in the past used Google's Picaasa, it was limited to simple cropping and using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option for corrections.

I dont need to be able to do professional level stuff but would like to do the basics. . .color correction, the ability to remove that tree branch growing out of Uncle Tony's left ear because I didn't pay attention when framing, removing the person who decided to photobomb my landscape. . .

So here in 2018 what should I be looking at? How are Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop different. Is Adobe's $10/month creative cloud subscription the way to go? How steep is the learning curve? Are there other non-Adobe options? I've probably got 50 other questions so you can see this is truly a "For Dummies" request.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

 

How are Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop different. Is Adobe's $10/month creative cloud subscription the way to go? How steep is the learning curve? Are there other non-Adobe options?

I've been using Lightroom and Photoshop from about day one.The learning curve (for me) has been steep - probably still is! And as the two programs are constantly upgrading, the $10/month is worth it BUT if you are just interested in the basic stuff, you might look into Luminar.

Dave is preparing a report on Luminar and Aurora if and when he gets away from woodworking!

First, let me thank Pierces, et. al. for their help back in April when I was trying to come up with an all-in-one lens to pair with the A6000/6300 for my wife's use on our September Vancouver to Hawaii cruise. I ended up going with the Sony 18-135 for her, but I like it so much that I'll probably acquire or rent another for my use!

 

Now I think it's time to further expand my skills and begin to understand the benefits of post-processing. Probably 99% of all my photos are used just the way the camera captured the image. Although I have in the past used Google's Picaasa, it was limited to simple cropping and using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option for corrections.

 

I dont need to be able to do professional level stuff but would like to do the basics. . .color correction, the ability to remove that tree branch growing out of Uncle Tony's left ear because I didn't pay attention when framing, removing the person who decided to photobomb my landscape. . .

 

So here in 2018 what should I be looking at? How are Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop different. Is Adobe's $10/month creative cloud subscription the way to go? How steep is the learning curve? Are there other non-Adobe options? I've probably got 50 other questions so you can see this is truly a "For Dummies" request.

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

The Lightroom/Photoshop bundle is an amazing deal for what you get. There are much easier programs to use but the sheer volume of tutorials on YouTube and user forums sort of turbocharges the learning curve. On of the pluses is that you can do about 99% of your basic corrections in Lightroom (even Tony's ear-tree issue if it's not too egregious) with Photoshop on the bench if you need to completely remove him if he divorces Aunt Ruth.

Skylum's Luminar is another option that is quite user-friendly for basic correction and even artsy conversions but doesn't yet have the pure editing power of Photoshop if you need to de-tree Tony's ear. Later this year, it is supposed to expand to include a Lightroom-like organizational component. It also has a try-before you buy trial version. I am using it more lately for review purposes and though I still use Lightroom for organization and correction and Photoshop for the intensive stuff, it would be used more if the Lightroom/Luminar transition process was smoother. This should change when Luminar has it's own organizer.

Dave

The $10 per month is a pretty good deal.

Lightroom has become a pretty powerful editor, though it started more as a cataloging software -- you organized your photos in lightroom, and went to photoshop for heavy editing. But they gradually pulled in more of the editing features into Lightroom.

For color corrections, cropping, even removal of small blemishes, spots, dust spots, etc.... Lightroom can do all that pretty well. In addition, Lightroom is fairly intuitive to use. Watch a few youtube videos and you get the hang of it.

Photoshop is NOT intuitive. Now, when you want to remove significant objects from photos -- light a photo bombing person, you probably want to do it in Photoshop instead of Lightroom. It can be easy at times -- like removing one person standing alone in the middle of a green field. It can be very very difficult -- when the object you want to remove has a complex background behind them.

Even if you almost never use Photoshop, I find the $10 per month worthwhile... to primarily use Lightroom, and occasionally go into photoshop when you need to do something more extensive.

Like Dave, I'm also working on a Luminar Review, but it will be several weeks before I get it out. It's definitely a much cheaper substitute. Some things about it as much easier -- more "automation." On the other hand, I find it a bit overcrowded in features, almost undoing the simplicity of the automation. And while powerful, doesn't seem as good as the combination of Lightroom and Photoshop.

First, let me thank Pierces, et. al. for their help back in April when I was trying to come up with an all-in-one lens to pair with the A6000/6300 for my wife's use on our September Vancouver to Hawaii cruise. I ended up going with the Sony 18-135 for her, but I like it so much that I'll probably acquire or rent another for my use!

 

Now I think it's time to further expand my skills and begin to understand the benefits of post-processing. Probably 99% of all my photos are used just the way the camera captured the image. Although I have in the past used Google's Picaasa, it was limited to simple cropping and using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option for corrections.

 

I dont need to be able to do professional level stuff but would like to do the basics. . .color correction, the ability to remove that tree branch growing out of Uncle Tony's left ear because I didn't pay attention when framing, removing the person who decided to photobomb my landscape. . .

 

So here in 2018 what should I be looking at? How are Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop different. Is Adobe's $10/month creative cloud subscription the way to go? How steep is the learning curve? Are there other non-Adobe options? I've probably got 50 other questions so you can see this is truly a "For Dummies" request.

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

There are a couple of complementary categories of software:

• Digital Asset Managers or "DAM"
  
• Photo Editors
  

Lightroom is a DAM, is is Apple Aperture, Phase One's Capture One, Corel Aftershot, and even the open source Darktable project. Google and Apple each have a 'photos' project that is a lightweight DAM system.

The DAM products usually have additional features, like raw file 'developers', image adjustments [crop, rotate, color correction] and can tag and track files by photo metadata [time and place, keywords]. Some can do spot editing [e.g. removing a troublesome tree or utility lines] without needing an external editor.

Mostly the DAM based workflows are 'non-destructive' storing the image adjustments and the source files separately, using the stored image adjustments to produce on screen views, exports and prints].

Photo editors [Photoshop, Pixelmator, Paintshop, Acorn [many choices, including the open source GIMP project]] concentrate on dot by dot editing of image files. Some [e.g. Photoshop] have some image & outline recognition and/or canned recipes for common photo fixes and transformation.

As someone who isn't constantly on Photoshop and never shoots raw, I think it is ridiculous to pay $10 a month for a program. I'm an advocate for Corel PaintShop Pro. It works much the same as photoshop but you can actually buy the program in several different configurations. And, once you buy it, they will give you great deals on upgrades when the next version comes out. If you look on Adorama for that lens, you may find a package that will give you PSP for free.

Vic

Since I had to scrape together $500-$600 for the old version of Photoshop and Lightroom in the past, I think the concept of subscription software is a deal. I works out to upgrading every four years or so price-wise and the version you are using never has spots of mold on it when you open it.

As another primary JPEG/occasional RAW shooter, I still use all of the Camera Raw editing power while correcting and cropping. All the sliders work on JPEGs just like they do on a RAW file.

I was a A CorelDraw wizard back in the '00s and used PSP as my primary editor. I can't really say I grew out of it since it really is an effective editor but rather I drifted away from is after trying out Photoshop Elements. I moved to Lightroom a while later and that led to investing in Photoshop. It's hard to beat that combo and as I mentioned before, the support network via forums and YouTube is unmatched.

For a price equivalent to a weekly cup of coffee in any well known coffee shop, I'm pretty happy with my subscription and what I get out of it. I know a lot of people can't wrap themselves around Software As a Service subscription models, but it's going to be hard to avoid as more and more companies get tired of riding the version-release peaks down into the R&D valley and realize the benefits of a stable cash flow.

Now I'm up to 4¢...

Dave

Another advantage of PaintShop Pro is that you can download the full version and use it for 30 days for free with no limitations. You can then make an informed decision as to whether or not it meets your needs.

Vic

Think of Lightroom as what you use for your vacation photos between taking them and sharing them: don't take 500 and share 500, take 500 and share 45 of the best and/or that tell a story. Use Lightroom as a "workflow tool" to get you from 500 originals to 45 shiny images. You can use a 5-star rating system to rank your images, and leverage that to get down to 45 without having to agonize over it. Not only can you edit the photos, but you can also copy the edits you did on one image and apply them to multiple others, so if you had some settings wrong (wrong white balance, accidental exposure shift, etc.), you can fix one and then copy/apply that to the others in that series. That said, expect Lightroom to have limited tools for getting rid of a tree branch or similar; it's more for cropping and enhancing than outright editing.

Think of Photoshop as a swiss army knife you call in when Lightroom isn't enough for your needs. Photoshop can really be a pixel-level tool if you desire, though it can do darn near everything you want, somehow.

I've heard it said that with Lightroom, you can turn a good picture into a great picture. With Photoshop, you can turn a good picture into a different picture. :)

 

 

I've heard it said that with Lightroom, you can turn a good picture into a great picture. With Photoshop, you can turn a good picture into a different picture. :)

This. I use LR 95 percent of the time to quickly sort through my images, do basic exposure cleanup, color correction, lens profile corrections and spot removal. Pick up a decent set of presets and its a very efficient tool for $10 per month which gets you every new feature as released, like the awesome new dehaze settings.

There are a ton of good videos and online classes, most free or cheap.

Luminar does have an erase feature (tools ... >erase) You paint the feature you don't want and "apply".

If you are not in a rush, you might want to wait for Dave and Adam's review of Luminar.

I suppose this really depends how much post processing you feel like doing, once you start you’ll probably want to do more. However, for editing I’m still using a really old copy of Photoshop Elements (Version 5). I’ve downloaded later trial versions but no real benefits for me as yet. For general organising and sifting through what I have taken, I have found FastStone Image Viewer to be exceptional value for money (free for personal use). FastStone can do basic image corrections and editing but not the tree/people removal stuff. It can also create slide shows, wallpapers, montages, batch edit, resize, rename, EXIF edit amongst many other features which take a while to discover but as its free its worth downloading and trying for photo file management.

Maybe start with a second hand retail CD version of an older Elements to try first and see how you go they’re very cheap on eBay.

Heres some examples of the sort of thing you may be after doing.

I'll also throw in a word on Paint Shop Pro as a good, cheaper alternative to the Photoshop suites, with about 99% of the exact same functionality. One nice thing about it for beginners is that it has several display settings you can use - one is a highly simplified version for those not familiar with post processing and advanced tools, with lots of one-click abilities and plug-ins...and then there's a fully advanced Photoshop-style display version with dozens of tools at your disposal, layers, masking, cloning, content-aware tools, etc. if you grow confident and want to take it to the next level. I actually would recommend you consider picking up an older version - they're not only cheaper, but often offer more advanced controls in their 'pro' mode than some of the newest versions. I've been using PSP Photo X3 version for 7 years now, and find no need to upgrade or change...before that, I had PSP 8 and used it for about 8 years. The advanced systems don't really get too 'outdated' as far as the crucial tools - more to do with compatibility with newer operating systems and some fancy special processing tools like content-aware fill and smart cloning/contracting.

We really only do relatively light editing on our vacation photos. As we don't go on a ton of vacations, we use Lightroom maybe a couple times a year? Not worth $10/mo for us.

Bought Luminar. It seems to do the same stuff as Lightroom. You can only edit one photo at a time. You can only view one photo at a time. When you've got a stack of vacation photos to sort through and stuff, it's kind of a hassle to work around Luminar's limitations. I think when the DAM function comes out, it'll perform basically like Lightroom. However, it's been "coming soon" for quite a while now.

Has RAW support for the Sony A7III even come out for Luminar yet? Last time I checked, it hadn't. I find it bizarre that it wouldn't be officially supported a couple weeks after release, let alone months. How much of a change in file format could there be from the A7RIII?

Has RAW support for the Sony A7III even come out for Luminar yet?

In a word. Yes.

Sorry it took a while for me to see your question and check it out.

Dave

You can batch load your photos on Luminar but like Lightroom, work on one photo at a time.

First, let me thank Pierces, et. al. for their help back in April when I was trying to come up with an all-in-one lens to pair with the A6000/6300 for my wife's use on our September Vancouver to Hawaii cruise. I ended up going with the Sony 18-135 for her, but I like it so much that I'll probably acquire or rent another for my use!

 

Now I think it's time to further expand my skills and begin to understand the benefits of post-processing. Probably 99% of all my photos are used just the way the camera captured the image. Although I have in the past used Google's Picaasa, it was limited to simple cropping and using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option for corrections.

 

I dont need to be able to do professional level stuff but would like to do the basics. . .color correction, the ability to remove that tree branch growing out of Uncle Tony's left ear because I didn't pay attention when framing, removing the person who decided to photobomb my landscape. . .

 

So here in 2018 what should I be looking at? How are Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop different. Is Adobe's $10/month creative cloud subscription the way to go? How steep is the learning curve? Are there other non-Adobe options? I've probably got 50 other questions so you can see this is truly a "For Dummies" request.

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

There are also the most learning resources out there for the software.

I was scared of lightroom and didn't think I needed it, but dove in about 3 years ago. If you shoot RAW especially, all of your images definitely need post processing to get them to pop. Now I can't even contemplate sharing or printing an image straight out of my camera! [emoji854]