So Lightroom 6/CC is out. More expensive than ever, less of a real upgrade that ever. I just wanted to share some things I've noticed recently with regards to photo editing and photography in relation to software.
1.
So the general consensus these days is that it's best to shoot RAW and then manage with Photo Mechanic (because, as I predicted some time ago, Lightroom still doesn't have network management functionality, and still sucks balls at rendering previews, and still is slow as fuck). Editing for fast stuff is then done with Lightroom, especially low value production stuff like generic portraits and things, and is done with Photoshop for high value productions. That's what everybody preaches, that's supposed to be the best way.
Well... I agree it was like that up until Lightroom 3, for people that didn't have access to dedicated raw converters, and given the technical limitations of camera sensors at that time, which is 4-5 years ago.
Right now, both Lightroom and Photoshop, both using ACR, have serious issues. Not only are the front-end products to ACR (Adobe Camera Raw, the RAW converter used by Bridge, Lightroom and Photoshop) pretty lame and slow, the RAW conversion was never as bad, especially on recent sensor technology output files.
I myself shoot with Nikon and Fuji. Nikon since recently (about since a year or so) offers the new free NX-D software for Windows and Mac. Yes it's slow and it has an old interface, but at least it takes advantage of the latest and greatest in sensor technology, Picture optimisation and noise reduction. There is simply no comparison between the quality of RAW files developed with NX-D (or Capture, which uses the same technology) and that of ACR... ACR has clearly made no noticeable improvements at all since LR4, and is even slower than Capture or NX-D these days. The results from ACR are just not as clean, do not offer the same colour rendition or dynamics, and do not offer the same quality of noise reduction as a free RAW converter offered by Nikon.
And that's just Nikon. For Fuji, it's even worse. ACR doesn't handle Fuji RAF files very well. It actually introduces moiré-like patterns when it develops RAF files, which is odd, because the Fuji X-Trans sensor doesn't have a Bayer array, it doesn't do moiré... when developed with other RAW converters, the Fuji files are clean as fuck, contrary to the dodgy results from ACR. What the hell has Adobe been doing all of those years? Even if you use the Adobe DNG converter to first convert the RAF's to DNG's, you have to manually set it to an old deprecated process (6.6 instead of 7.something) to avoid artifacts when converting the RAF's to DNG's. So there is no benefit at all to use LR6 or ACR or PS on RAF's. In fact, the Fuji's have excellent internal RAW conversion, and Fuji takes system updates very seriously (and is the only camera manufacturer at this time that does, grrrrr Nikon!!!), and the default jpegs directly from the camera, almost always look much better than any result from Lightroom based upon ACR-development of RAF's, so that's a hell of a negative added value for anything Adobe (ACR, Bridge, LR or PS).
LR6 still hasn't improved either the speed or the network functionality, so it's still necessary to do the photo management on commercial software console platforms with Photo Mechanic. That costs as much as a Lightroom license, effectively making LR twice as expensive to be functional, add a decent noise reduction plug-in, and LR6, in order to be functional, will cost as much as LR3 used to cost. The problem is, the quality is not there, the workflow is not optimal, it's just not worth it any more.
2.
I've never really followed the "industry standard" workflow myself, because, well, I'm on linux as everyone knows. But I have Adobe CC because sometimes there are Adobe software based meetings and cloud functionalities that may be required by some people or companies involved that get sick with stress at the thought of having to use anything but Adobe products... yeah, well, as long as they don't stress out over the bill, I'll gladly oblige lolz...
Now how does this work for me, as linux user? I use mainly Digikam, some Darktable also. I might use GIMP for some things, but pixel pushing is not my cup of tea to be honest, I'm with the school that preaches that it's better to take the picture with a camera than to simulate it in a bitmap processor in post. If DSLR manufacturers would be less ignorant and put all of their experience into making better next-gen cameras instead of bulky DSLR's, the world would be better place, because live view technology like it's implemented by Fuji clearly demonstrates that it's possible to get finished results in camera and save a lot of time. The new Sony A7II offers a similar experience, but doesn't really offer the same organic photography experience as Fuji, but it's clear that Olympus, Sony and Fuji have understood already what Nikon and Canon still need to learn... Anyway, both Digikam and Darktable offer the ability to do custom Raw processing, and offer multiple tools for the same functionality, so that it's possible to select the tool that works best for that given situation. Also, both Digikam and Darktable offer network support and acceleration technology. Digikam even offers search technology that works based of drawings, not just based on face recognition (and the face recognition works much better than the face recognition of LR6, which is a joke to be honest, it's not even as good as the face recognition of the old Picasa when that still existed lolz). I still need RAW processing for my NEF files, as Nikon is not on the same level as Fuji, Sony and Olympus yet in terms of the technical evolution of photographic tools, and I get the same results as with NX-D basically. For Fuji, there is also a free converter, either stand alone or through the free version of Silkypix for commercial software consoles, which as a program is a bit of a nightmare, but at least the RAF development doesn't suck like with ACR or the Adobe DNG converter. In my opinion though, for those that are experienced photographers, the Fuji, but - although a bit less - also the Sony and Olympus systems that are out now, don't require post-processing all that much any more. It's still necessary to use Nikon or Canon because of the auto focus systems of DSLR's (which perform well beyond the capabilities of mirrorless cameras, completely no discussion or comparison possible, in terms of autofocus, the best performing mirrorless cameras perform like DSLR's from the 1990's), and because of the compatibility with all kinds of lighting systems and other tools though, so RAW converters are still a necessity. However, ACR is definitely not worth anything in terms of quality in comparison to either free software for commercial software consoles, or to open source software for linux, and it's not worth it either in terms of performance (LR has been frustratingly slow since LR4) and functionality (come on, still no networking functionality...), and that makes everything quite difficult in terms of optimizing a workflow, because it's now not only necessary to use Photo Mechanic for management of pictures and libraries, it's now also necessary to first do RAW development with either NX-D or another free or free and open source RAW converter, and then pull the files in LR6 for editing out blemishes and other small things. So LR6 basically has become a JPEG-editor for very specific and limited editing tasks on commercial software consoles. In the linux world, Darktable now has better masking tools than LR6, that are also faster to use than PS, which has a full complement of masking tools. And Darktable is accelerated using OpenCL technology, and has network management functionality... where it used to be only a clone of LR3, Darktable has evolved to a program that offers more functionality, better workflow, and especially, much better RAW development quality, than LR6. Digikam is still the master of photo library management, offering the best management functionality and search options. The linux based open source world has effectively and convincingly overtaken commercial industry standard solutions, and that means that a lot of photographers are in for a rough time in the near future, because if they don't use linux-based open source solutions, they will be stuck in a much less efficient workflow and lesser quality level. For people like me, that only do assignments on special request, and don't have to depend upon photography to earn a living, that might be acceptable. For me personally, it's not acceptable because I do have other things to do and don't have time to do them and sleep every day, but then I don't really have the problem because I'm not tied to LR or PS or ACR. I still like the basic blemishes removing cloning tool from LR, and since I only use it on JPEG's as I do my RAW conversion elsewhere, I will still use LR for that, and will still use Adobe CC to do presentations over the cloud, but that's all to be honest, the rest of the Adobe software just sucks balls, and then I haven't even discussed the deficiencies of Photoshop CC in relation to the latest versions of the GIMP, because for people that think a bit, Photoshop is becoming a huge waste of time in terms of workflow in comparison to the GIMP, but the GIMP is more technical, the threshold is not as low as with Photoshop.
3.
I'm seeing an evolution in photography. With the newer camera systems, more production value can be added in camera, by using special glass, by seeing the result through live view cameras that don't suck, etc... not only is photographic equipment becoming less expensive as a whole, because you can use any glass on any camera, because the ISO sensitivity makes the most expensive lighting hardware superfluous, etc... photography is also becoming more technical again at the time of exposure, a photographer that is more than just a snapshooter, can actually make a difference right away, like it was in the old days of film.The RAW conversion and photo editing tools in the camera, will play an ever more important role in the near future. Sony cameras already have an online repository for supplementary in-camera apps that do certain tasks more efficiently and with better image quality than post-production software, and firmware update programs like Fuji's show the way forward, introducing new functionality on a regular basis, new functionality people can download, instead of having to buy it extra. Olympus and Fuji show what's in store for still photography, and Sony breaks marketing ground for everyone. Panasonic and Blackmagic do the same for the video/cinema world. Once the evolution breaks through, photo editing as it's known now, will be a thing of the past, and in-camera creation will be the new norm. For video, it will take longer than for stills, but a similar evolution will most certainly happen. After all, all that's needed is a browser to do video editing, with offerings like wevideo and other similar cloud-based editors, it's clear that the days of Premiere Pro and other commercial consumer-level editing programs are counted, but I'm not a video guy, I don't care too much about that. I like the evolution in photography, going to better and smaller and lighter gear that offers better results and better in-camera workflow, that moves away from post-production and exposes the added value of photographic skill, that reinvents itself as "the art to capture the moment" instead of "the business of faking moments".