There's more. So much more. I mean, there are some really, really basic things Lightroom can't do, like
- apply any preset--including any adjustment the editor is capable of making--on a new layer, and determine that preset's overall blend opacity with the original.
Imagine how much more versatile presets would be if you could simply adjust "how much" or "how little" of a given look you wanted, in one slider? That's the world people using "garbage" like Capture One have been living in since 2014.
I suppose Lightroom's recent enhanced "profiling" tech was a stab at this capability, but it's problematic. You can't adjust the profiles or even make new ones, yourself, with Lightroom! That requires something like
3D Lut Creator. (Which might be why nobody but Adobe's original handful of launch partners ever made any!) And once applied, "enhanced" profiles put weird, arbitrary floors and ceilings on sliders. You can push the highlights or shadows sliders all you like, but depending on the profile, nothing happens.
I don't mean to talk-up Capture One, only. I could do the same sort of comparison DxO. Where to begin how you'd do anything like a U-point adjustment's blend in Lightroom? And that's just table-stakes in DxO.
Even Adobe is over the idea of Lightroom ruling local, system-camera raw workflowing. They don't care. That's why they swept it toward the "classic" dustbin three years ago. Give Josh Haftel--Lightroom's product manager--an interview and he will talk about how much he loves shooting smartphones into the Lightroom cloud. That's where they are, now. That's where the energy and the money is. The future of Lightroom is cloud convenience and Smartphone AI fizzbang, not advanced color adjustment or RAW proofing flexibility.
Which you and everyone already knows. I'm just suggesting some alternatives to consider before Adobe forces your hand.
When Capture One adds Enhance Details, Panorama, HDR, a usable database, a decent interface, a much lower price, etc. etc,, you might have a leg to stand on.
That is some classic deadpan humor!
I mean, you can't honestly be suggesting that janky slow beta "Enhance details" is a "deal-breaker" feature for which you're willing to forego basic color correction tools or opacity on your presets?
Also, I vastly prefer Capture One's idea of a "usable database" to Adobe's--namely, that the software doesn't require you to use its asset management scheme if you don't want to!
And tethering, anywone? Getting that to work in "classic" is always a fun de-bugging exercise.
DXO is nowhere near Lightroom/ACR for handling highlights and shadows. DXO's highlight reduction turns to yellow sludge a long way before Lightroom's and that is simply a fact.
Huh. You know, as you get older your eyes' lenses tend to skew a little yellow.
Blechh. Hate clunky U point. Lightroom's umpteen brushes are far better.
But come on! You "hating" U-point might just mean you were a little clumsy with it. "I hated that" is not exactly an objective or specific data point.
You hate it. I like it. So . . . ? Does that even-out to "meh"?
Again, they're so greedy for your dollars that they offer a perpetual-license / one-time-purchase product for
$149:
https://www.dxo.com/dxo-photolab/pricing/
I wouldn't take DXO for free. No catalog, no AI Auto worth spit, no Enhance Details that doesn't introduce additional artifacts,
Oh, there you go again with that "enhance details" nonsense. Come on!
You talk like it's straight out of
Blade Runner!
Oh, but neither of these include photoshop! What will you do without photoshop?
I'd be up schmidt's creek without Photoshop :^)
In part because you don't have access to all of those features I bullet-pointed above, without it!
I have no need or desire to twiddle color endlessly with little rotating wheels. I hate rotating wheels. I pick a profile (Camera Standard usually) and maybe make a tiny adjustment or two, end of story.
Ya know, maybe this workflow preference means you aren't the best spokesperson for matters like breadth of feature set or depth of edit possibility with RAW conversion software.
"I use two clicks and three features from my software, end of story!" Great, but a world exists beyond that, too, right?
Also, color wheels might hate you! Somewhere right now, on some forgotten backwater of the lost anonymous internet, a perfectly reasonable color wheel is probably bitching about being fat-fingered!
Lightroom's output is flat out gorgeous for each and every Nikon DSLR I've owned. Isn't life great when you get great image quality right out of the chute with no extra work?
Sounds great, but who says you have good taste?
I mean, you think "Enhanced Details" is a feature worth crowing about! I'm just saying, it doesn't bode well.
available on those blended layers, you may not need it?)
I need Photoshop for Content Aware Fill, six or eight actions, Transform Warp/Scale/Perspective/Skew. None of which are on offer with Capture One.
(a) lens transformations are available in Capture One
(b) What happened to "I need a Camera Standard profile, an AI click, and I'm done and it's BEAUTIFUL! No twiddling for me!"
I'm set for life with LR/PS. I simply have no desire to collect software and endlessly test it out against other contenders. The software battle is over and Adobe won, and most likely will continue to lead if history (or sales) are any guide.
I think you hung the "mission accomplished" banner little early, here. The story continues:
the RAW workflow battle is over and Adobe won. And Adobe wept for there were no worlds left to conquer. So it lost interest and called its conquest "classic," then launched a new fight for the hearts-and-minds of selfie-snapping tweens and #novababes everywhere.
(No offense, #novababes! Keep that influence game #fresh!)
It coulda been worse. Take a look at Josh Haftel & co and tell me you honestly don't believe "Lightroom Jitterbug Edition" hit the whiteboard at some point. Sometimes youth is wasted on the young.
Bonus, the mobile / iPad version of affinity isn't even gimped!
Lightroom mobile works just fine for me to couple of times I've ever used it.
It sure does.
But how's PS for mobile treating you? I hear that's just fantastic. No complaints at all. "Real," even!
Ah, I'm just messing with you, dude. Busting your chops, fellow adult, in the service of getting some of the comparative points out under the examining spotlight. I like Lightroom "classic," too. Part of my angst, here, is over Adobe sweeping it to the dustbin without really addressing capabilities they'd lose.
The most important thing in getting what you want out of any of this software is liking it and feeling it. Which you obviously do. Which means it's working, well.
I hope they keep it rolling for you. And me!
www.lightroomqueen.com
