Migration from Lightroom to DxOPhotolab 4

[Bristolian]

Hi guys,

After almost a year of experimenting with On1Raw I have decided it's not the right editing software for me. On1's ability to apply LR edits during migration was what initially attracted me to the program but after several months of enjoying the fairly novel On1 experience it has gradually worn me down to the point I hardly ever use it now and have relied on LR again.

I have been trying DxO PhotoLab 4 for the past few weeks and really like the results I am getting from it, the workflow I have developed and the customisation that can be made to the interface. In fact, today is the last day of my trial and I'm seriously thinking of pulling the trigger on the Elite version but have just one question - is there a way to migrate across all of the edits that I have applied in Lightroom Classic. So far I haven't been able to find anything that says yes there is What I am trying to avoid is having to re-edit 50-odd thousand RAW files

I shoot RAW and export finished images to a shared drive as JPG. The original RAW files remain in my LR catalogue and stay on my hard drive along with their associated sidecar files.

Cheers for any suggestions

 

[ancient_mariner]

AFAIK there is no migration process. Do you have a perpetual license copy of LR you can use for the images processed to date?

Out of interest what turned you off of On1? I'm planning to switch within the next few weeks.

 

[droj]

No, there's no migration path!

I've used LR from v3 to v6 and keep all my raws as a source I can re-visit - but my secondary resource is exported full-res 16-bit tifs in Adobe rgb, so if LR becomes unavailable to me the world won't totally end - the odd image if wanted can be reprocessed from scratch again elsewhere. But the same scenario will appear in future with any other change of raw processor!

I'm currently running LR6 and PL4 in parallel, with a view to having PL4 as my default going forward - I'm getting good results from it, so may more or less stop using LR. I'm using PL4's database function (which can be backed up) to record my edits, because I can't stand having a litter of sidecars everywhere. I don't seriously need all LR's cataloguing functions so there's no loss there.

I like the fact that PL4 is a very capable and quite slick processor, but also a dignified one - there are no irritating gimmicks that a lot of modern apps seem to be loaded with!

 

[droj]

Do you have a perpetual license copy of LR you can use for the images processed to date?

I'm not sure that saved adjustments will translate back to a prior version of LR ....ie that an earlier version will ingest the catalogue from a later version? Anyone done that?

 

[ancient_mariner]

I'm not sure that saved adjustments will translate back to a prior version of LR ....ie that an earlier version will ingest the catalogue from a later version? Anyone done that?

Probably not, but many of us still use 6.

You have reminded me that even 'perputual' versions won't last forever, and if I don't migrate my pictures to photoraw then at some stage the edits will be lost.

 

[boyfalldown]

I'm not sure that saved adjustments will translate back to a prior version of LR ....ie that an earlier version will ingest the catalogue from a later version? Anyone done that?

No, there's no backward compatibility which I think is what you mean

 

[SFTPhotography]

No, there's no migration path!

I've used LR from v3 to v6 and keep all my raws as a source I can re-visit - but my secondary resource is exported full-res 16-bit tifs in Adobe rgb, so if LR becomes unavailable to me the world won't totally end - the odd image if wanted can be reprocessed from scratch again elsewhere. But the same scenario will appear in future with any other change of raw processor!

I'm currently running LR6 and PL4 in parallel, with a view to having PL4 as my default going forward - I'm getting good results from it, so may more or less stop using LR. I'm using PL4's database function (which can be backed up) to record my edits, because I can't stand having a litter of sidecars everywhere. I don't seriously need all LR's cataloguing functions so there's no loss there.

I like the fact that PL4 is a very capable and quite slick processor, but also a dignified one - there are no irritating gimmicks that a lot of modern apps seem to be loaded with!

I agree with all this except the side cars. They don't bother me in the slightest.

As a tool for what I do it is utterly unsurpassed. I'd also add it is a very stable program and rarely, if ever freezes. The lens/body profiles are very good at fixing distortion issues and the layout is simple, logical and gimmick free - which was what ultimately put me off On1. On1 is very capable but there's for me too much focus on presets, pre defined filters and tools that I use were relegated down the table (namely curves).

One bug with DXO is you have a blacks, shadows, mid and highlights slider but no whites, but using the curves tool you can set very accurate white point.

 

[Bristolian]

Hi all,

Thanks for confirming there is no migration path. I was pretty sure that is the case as I can't find any reference to one anywhere, but it's good to have the confirmation. Despite that, I have pulled the trigger and purchased PL4 Elite

@toni: My dislike of On1 is much the same as Steve (STFPhotography) - it's just too damned gimmicky - although the migration feature worked pretty well but I guess you can't have everything, eh?

Like droj, my LR library is full of raw files, but each of mine has an associated sidecar. Some, that have been passed from LR to other applications for specific treatments (e.g. noise reduction in Topaz, etc.) are saved as tif files and the raw file is deleted. Images I have exported are saved elsewhere as jpg files. I keep a master set of raw files on an external hard drive (backed-up to another external drive, the cloud and my NAS) so I can always start again from scratch with an image if I need/choose to.

Fortunately I have plenty of time to decide what to do with my LR library as my subscription doesn't run out until the end of November and who knows, maybe DxO will have come up with a solution by then

 

[nandbytes]

there isn't one I'm afraid
I tried ON1 and left it for similar reasons. Also they seem to bring out yearly new versions and you have to pay to upgrade any way.
I have tried to move away from LR a few times now and I have basically given up. There isn't anything that does everything LR does quite as well... LR does everything you need a software to do just well enough. It certainly doesn't give the best results and there are more powerful tools - HDR, Panos, noise reduction, sharpening etc etc but I don't need the specialist tools for every single photo and LR catalogues and non-desctrive editing along with soft proofing, virtual copies etc is very valuable.
Basically want I am getting at is, I really despise Adobe's subscription model and LR but there isn't anything that could replace it.

Also I have recently started doing astro photography and using PS (which is part of subscription anyway) is easier and nicer than alternatives for processing those images.

Good luck on your journey to swap from LR, I wish all the best

 

[Mintchocs]

I recall Adobe saying at the time of the switch to the monthly fee that you would always be able to access your files and edits but the develop module would be frozen. Has this changed?

 

[droj]

Has this changed?

From recent discussions on here an issue seems to be that dear old Adobe may cripple the server facilities that validate older apps on loading. So for instance if you load your ageing but paid-for app into a new computer, it might be impossible to activate it. So 'perpetual' (not my term!) means fk-all.

Regarding the subscription model - in similar circumstances - you have to wonder ...

 

[droj]

And about gimmicks, I did find some in Photolab - to do with applying naff borders to images - but the facility is somewhat tucked away & not in your face all the time so can be easily ignored w/o impacting on the user experience. Let's hope they leave it there & keep it clean, & concentrate on the serious stuff.

 

[ancient_mariner]

I don't see the gimmicks as an issue. Silver Efex is always trying to add fake borders or artificial film effects, yet it's still the go-to for mono work. For On1 I just created a couple of presets that contained the tools I used in normal editing (tone etc) and applied them to imported images just like a lightroom import preset. No gimmicks, silly stuff, just tools I need.