Nixed Lightroom
So, I’ve decided against getting Adobe Lightroom. I used the 30-day trial quite thoroughly, and while I liked a lot of the features, I decided that there are many other ways to edit, organize and tag photos without spending $199. Now that the trial price has ended, the $299 retail price is totally out of the question considering that I already have and use Photoshop. There are so many free programs out there for photo manipulation, such as Gimp, there’s really no reason to spend a lot of money on fancy programs unless you’re a professional photographer. Amy, over at Shooting the Kids, uses Gimp with fabulous results. I still haven’t found a great photo cataloguing program or system, but if anyone has some suggestions, I’m all ears!
Responses and Conversations
You KNOW that I have to suggest it… again and again…
F-Spot is fantastic and works great with Gimp. The obvious issue is the whole “it’s only for Linux” thing, but it’s really an incredible piece of software.
Speaking of free paint programs, have you tried Paint.NET yet?
Comment by Christopher Frazier on May 3rd, 2007 at 9:05 am
I know, F-Spot sounds really awesome, but I just can’t see changing my whole operating system for one program. Oh the humanity! I haven’t tried paint.net yet, sounds interesting…!
Comment by Stephanie Simpson on May 3rd, 2007 at 11:28 am
You could consider Breezebrowser. It’s not free but is a cataloguing, raw conversion, and proofing program all in one…
Comment by Sean Phillips on May 3rd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Yeah, I’m getting Lightroom, but I have to agree, if you’re not doing a lot of RAW photos, it’s not a must-have.
As a long-time user of i-view media pro I really have to recommend it (unless Microsoft’s gone and buggered it all up).
Comment by JimmyD on May 3rd, 2007 at 1:08 pm
iPhoto catalogs and edits (non-destructively) images and comes with a Mac for free. Macs can run Windows too. There’s also Shoebox that looks pretty interesting too (haven’t used it though). I can understand not switching platforms for one application, but how about for many?
Comment by sparkrobot on May 3rd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
“I can understand not switching platforms for one application, but how about for many?”
That’s exactly why I use Ubuntu. F-Spot, Inkscape, Gimp, Open Office… all of the applications that I used on OS X or Windows but that work much better on Ubuntu. Imagine not having to pay for RAW support!
Comment by Christopher Frazier on May 3rd, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I took Ubuntu for a test run on my Powerbook a while back and I liked it quite a bit. Maybe I’ll give it another shot Chris, though I’m not really unhappy with my current platform… at all. With the added bonus of having some really nice built-in tools with the iLife suite of media tools that ships free with all Macs, I’ll likely stay put.
Comment by sparkrobot on May 3rd, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Did your version of PS come with Bridge? It’s not super sexy, but it gets the job done (for sorting and tagging) and is pretty quick in the process. I use it almost daily.
Comment by John Koontz on May 4th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Hmmm, interesting, John. I’ll have to investigate. Thanks!
Comment by Stephanie Simpson on May 4th, 2007 at 2:21 pm