PP software upgrade for film

[Asha]

Having used PSE 5.0 for quite some time now, I'm considering upgrading my software.

I realise that the digi crowd could offer a load of advice, however, they're not necessarily going to offer the best recommendations for fillum.

So, as most of you in f&c scan and PP negative and slide film , which software would you recommend?

 

[Carl Hall]

Personally I am a big fan of Lightroom. It's amazing for organising my photos and gives me all the editing capabilites I need, without being big and unwieldy like full on Photoshop can be. It's great for doing basic edits but is obviosuly much more limited than Photoshop

 

[Jao]

Personally I am a big fan of Lightroom. It's amazing for organising my photos and gives me all the editing capabilites I need, without being big and unwieldy like full on Photoshop can be. It's great for doing basic edits but is obviosuly much more limited than Photoshop

What Carl said!

 

[simon ess]

Agreed.

 

[abdoujaparov]

Another vote for Lightroom here. If you don't need layers and masks and whatnot, then it's brilliant.

 

[stevelmx5]

Yup, Lightroom for me too. I use Photoshop CS6 for individual shots sometimes but LR is the best all round.

 

[Cannyekerslike]

Lightroom here as well......

 

[ChrisR]

Nah, Aperture is MUCH better... oh, damn!

 

[Asha]

Well it appears that lightroom is very popular ...... I'm presuming version 5 as there looks to be a considerable difference in price between that and version 6

Is it possible for some kind person to post some screen shots to show say, scan importation, curves adjustment and sharpening tools...pretty much that's all i use anyway as I don't like to spend hours PP ing

I've googled a bit and got a billion results which drives me nuts when all i want is a simple glance at what it has to offer.

@ ChrisR What in your opinion makes Aperture much better?

 

[stevelmx5]

Here you go mate;

Importing images - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ggo6q51lkmxe5on/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.34.18.png?dl=0

Library View - https://www.dropbox.com/s/o55pocwd822mg77/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.34.54.png?dl=0

General Editing - https://www.dropbox.com/s/uypwge46t63j0rr/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.35.18.png?dl=0

Sharpening sliders - https://www.dropbox.com/s/p87bl9c1jg05ols/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.35.38.png?dl=0

 

[Asha]

Here you go mate;

Importing images - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ggo6q51lkmxe5on/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.34.18.png?dl=0

Library View - https://www.dropbox.com/s/o55pocwd822mg77/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.34.54.png?dl=0

General Editing - https://www.dropbox.com/s/uypwge46t63j0rr/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.35.18.png?dl=0

Sharpening sliders - https://www.dropbox.com/s/p87bl9c1jg05ols/Screenshot 2016-03-23 21.35.38.png?dl=0

Excellent ...Thanks!

I seem to recall these screens..... it's what you were using on your lappy at Arundel last year, was it not?

 

[stevelmx5]

Yup, I use Lightroom 95% of the time.

 

[ChrisR]

@ ChrisR What in your opinion makes Aperture much better?

Well, it was mostly a joke... I'm an Aperture user for historical reasons (easier to move to from iPhoto). Aperture is, or was, described by many as being more consistent and better organised than LR. However, Apple announced a year or so ago that they were stopping development in favour of a very crippled mass market Photos app. So, I can continue using Aperture 3 until I need to move to an OS version that no longer supports it.

Both LR and Aperture (A3) are digital asset management systems with added raw development and basic editing (but all the basic edits you'd use in a real darkroom, eg contrast adjustments, dodge and burn, spotting and cloning, many others...). Another thing both LR and A3 have in common compared with PS is non-destructive editing. The image in my files system never changes, unless I specifically ask it to create a new version. Instead, A3 stores the edit instructions along with the master. What I see on my screen (while the image is in Aperture) is the master modified by those edit instructions, which I can change or remove at any time. They only get fixed (in my workflow) when I export a version to upload for TP or elsewhere.

By comparison, PS is inherently destructive editing, which is why you have to do all your editing in layers that are copies of the original images (IIUC). Those layers are of course a strength as well as a weakness, allowing you to do things you couldn't in A3 (or, presumably LR). However, I have very rarely found a situation where I really needed to edit an image with PSE rather than Aperture (and it is very simple to do, simple menu item to call PSE, save on exit and the adjusted image appears back in A3).

One side effect of using PSE that I've noted is that image size balloons hugely. Aperture images stay small.

You may know all this, but seems worth saying...

EDIT: I have to decide some time if I'm going to change to LR, or an alternative like Capture One Pro, or maybe the DxO one, which doesn't have a DAM inbuilt...

 

[trevorbray]

I use only PhotoShop for processing and retouching. Pretty much all of my edits use masks. Can't stand the slider suck it and see approach..