Software Recommendations

[Kayaker72]

Hi Everyone,

I just noticed that Amazon has Lightroom 3 for $150 again. I currently only use DPP to process my photos but have been planning on upgrading. Based on what I have heard people say, I have been leaning toward DXO Optic Pro 6 or Lightroom 3.

Any thoughts or recommendations?
Thanks,
Brant

[Daniel Browning]

Any thoughts or recommendations?

I like DxO Optics Pro, especially if it has profiles for all the lenses/bodies you use. I use LR3 because it's faster (for me). For some shots I use Raw Therapee 4, which is very flexible, high quality, but slow and still a bit buggy.

[Sheiky]

Hi Brant,

I have been using Lightroom for a few years now and I think it's absolutely great.
I personally love the library mode where you can easily access and manage all your photos and do very basic things.
And when you want to do more specific edits on a photo you go into the developer mode, which sounds like a big deal, but it's just clicking a button
I do pretty much everything in Lightroom exept for HDR and very demanding stuff. That's where I use CS5.
But since you have used DPP I'm pretty sure you'll love Lightroom. I had to switch back to DPP a few times and each time it felt as a pain in the butt
I would suggest downloading the trial and see if you like it.
As far as DXO concerns. I have no experience nor knowledge about it so I can't tell you anything about it. If it would be 100x better I probably would have heard that already and I didn't so...

Good luck,
Jan

[Sean Setters]

Am I the only person who likes DPP better than Lightroom 3? Don't get me wrong, Lightroom 3 is very capable--but I find its interface to be unfriendly and complicated. I've tried using it several times, but I simply can't do the simple tasks I want to do as easily as I can in DPP.

[HDNitehawk]

Am I the only person who likes DPP better than Lightroom 3? Don't get me wrong, Lightroom 3 is very capable--but I find its interface to be unfriendly and complicated. I've tried using it several times, but I simply can't do the simple tasks I want to do as easily as I can in DPP.

I just use DPP and sort with Adobe Bridge. I own Adobes Master Collection CS5. Every time I think I should buy LR I just open a few of the programs and mess with them. There a pain to learn, I guess that is why my son got an associates degree using them they aren't the easiest programs to learn. I keep thinking if LR is that big of a pain it wouldn't be worth it, I prefer DPP over Adobe Camera Raw and I just can't bring myself to believe LR would be any different. But I have looked at LR's options, for a while I had the kids wound up over making stop action animations, making those the best workflow was using bridge to sort and pull from. It just doesn't seem like I would get enough out of it to make it worth while.

I tried DXO 2 years ago, I might give it another look one day soon.

[neuroanatomist]

I use and really like DxO for RAW conversions. It's pretty bad at library management, I use Aperture 3 for that.

[bob williams]

Brant, I am a big fan of LR3 and use it almost exclusively when editing. Occasionally, I will go to CS5 or HDR EFX pro, if I need something really specific, but for normal editing, library management and output I really like LR3.

[andnowimbroke]

Huge LR3 fan. Still took an hour to process a couple hundred pics, but that was my fault. I tend to use a set WB and then tweak in LR. When I have one set, I sync the other pics that were shot in the same condition (iso,sharpening,ect).That takes seconds. It's because everything adjusts so quickly, I find myself screwing around with pictures that are already done just because.

[Kayaker72]

Thanks for the suggestions and comments everyone.

Jan...good tip....I just downloaded the trial version of Lightroom 3 and will download the trial version DXO Optics Pro soon to compare.

Thanks,
Brant

[Sheiky]

Jan...good tip....I just downloaded the trial version of Lightroom 3 and will download the trial version DXO Optics Pro soon to compare.

Brant, if you're having trouble getting started, please send me a message and I'll see if I can help. Pretty much everything is easy in LR, but sometimes you just need to know the tricks.
One action I use a lot is applying specific edits on one shots and copying those to a number of shots. For example white balance or lens corrections.
I also really like the metadata selection where you can select all photos with specific values like specific apertures or lenses used.
You should at least have tried these two actions I think before making any decisions

What's also easy is the crop tool and the basic editing tools like spot removal and gradient filters. Good luck and if you run into any problem, I might be able to help. (no promisis though )

Jan