I'll just ignore what everyone else has said and answer here.
There have been enough stories, even here, about Lightroom users wanting to for one reason or another wanting to find their original files but not knowing how, as Lightroom moved them somewhere, (imported them into it's database), and not being able to figure out how to get them back. Adobe want's to control your "photographic" life, they're the Microsoft of imaging, it they do it through creating superior products, well I can't fault them for that, however if it's done by making it as difficulty as possible to back out for other purely arbitrary "mechanical" reason, I'm not OK with that,
I'm still pissed at Adobe for buying Pixmantec, to get what at the time was one of the best RAW processing packages, RawShooter Essentials, (Free), and RawShooter Premium, (paid), killed those products and said in effect "We know what you need, you need Lightroom". Well no I didn't. What I needed was RSE, Lightroom wanted too much control over my work. RawShooter at the time was world class as far as output. It may be that Adobe didn't incorporate any Rawshooter Code into Lightroom, but I doubt it. RawShooter Premium looked even better, a Raw processor that allowed retouching an edits, it was on my buy it soon list when Adobe canned the project.
Since then I've been trying to find a product that lets me control where my files live, without having to use their interface that is as straight forward as RSE.
I've been using an ancient version of Photoshop with Bridge to process one off images, but if I need to batch process I've been using Pentax's Digital Camera Utility, it's output is surprisingly good, and the latest versions, (I'm still using 4, haven't tried 5), the user interface is no longer cringe inducing, (though the tools are no where near as intuitive as RSE), but the output is more than good enough for largeish prints.
Lightroom vs Photoshop is a false dichotomy, there are a number of RAW processors, some are quite good, that don't lock you into the Adobe ecosystem, and dictate how you work, none are as seamless as Lightroom has become but then again I've never ended up scratching my head wondering how to get my files back either.
On 12/5/2014 3:50 AM, Malcolm Smith wrote:
Photoshop or Lightroom? Lightroom or Photoshop? Or both? Or neither? For the last couple of years, photography has been a dormant hobby, the camera really only coming out to record events, usually in jpeg, so I can swiftly take them off the card and e-mail on if required. I now finally have some time to get back and do long overdue photo jobs, you know scan 3-4000 slides and about 1000 rather aged photos, that sort of thing, and I want to improve/repair them as well. Most of them are very old family pictures that, sadly, only I am left to reliably say who they were and when/where they were taken, so this can be passed down to the next generation. I also want to start shooting more RAW files, and in all the chaos of the last couple of years, I no longer have any reliable software. So, running a Windows PC, I looked at what seems the most popular software and then the reviews on YouTube. In either Lightroom or Photoshop videos (do people call them videos in 2014?), they would tell you why this was the best choice and in the final minute suggest that you'll probably need the other as well. A sitting on the fence special. Anyway, given the vast difference in price between the two (I'll come back to that in a moment), I will be getting a new copy of Lightroom and a 4TB external hard drive this weekend. Then we come to Photoshop. It appears that it is now no longer available to buy as usual software, but as a monthly subscription and use of 'the cloud'. Given that in real terms, external storage in the TB range is cheap - the 4TB drive I'm getting is far cheaper than the 500GB drive a bought a couple of years ago - why would you want to store your work where the provider can either go bust, be hacked or you may have intermittent access to the internet? I also strongly object to paying a monthly fee to something I may or may not use on a regular basis. Next I looked at getting the last software version, but copies of this range from almost free, to re-funding the Apollo missions. Is there an equivalent to Photoshop made by someone else who doesn't want to grip you firmly by the bank account, or have they gripped folk like this as there is no real alternative? In the old days, I'd shoot a roll of slide film with my LX, send the film off to Agfa or whoever, and job done. No doubt this subject has been kicked about to destruction - hence the subject title - but any advice welcomed. Malcolm PS - Used the K3 for the first time yesterday, absolutely love it. Deeper grip is fantastic.
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