Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: BJL on May 10, 2013, 03:15:36 pm
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A big question lately is how well LightRoom can substitute for PhotoShop now that Adobe has effectively acknowledged that with its new subscription-only model PhotoShop is now a poor fit for many photographers. At least, this is my reading of the words of Adobe VP of Creative Solutions, Winston Hendrickson that "We expected a higher degree of this type of reaction from the hobbyist photographic community because currently there's not a lot of photography-specific value in our subscription products." and "Lightroom is for photographers. And the Lightroom team is very aware of the reaction by photographers to Photoshop CC. We don't have plans to make Lightroom a subscription-only option but we do envision added functionality for CC members using Lightroom."
Aside: In controversial debates, I think one should always quote entire sentences to avoid "out of context" issues!
I know little about PhotoShop, but the difference I hear mentioned most often is layers, so I wonder how much it helps for LightRoom users to have access to layers via software like Perfect Layers from OnOne Software:
http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/perfect-layers/
http://www.ononesoftware.com/support/1695/
Or does this end up dependent on PSD format, pushing you to needing to enter the Adobe Creative Cloud?
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See http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=53577.0 eg : some were not fully convinced. ::)
For photographers owning CS6, it seems that keeping CS6, and upgrading LR5 and ACR 7.x, would be a good way to go, having the new features of LR/ACR in LR5, and the hinted ACR7.x updates to keep the stuff up to date in PS (it should read the new adjustments, but not provide interface for it - the only thing that blocks "open as smart layer").
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Perfect Layers supports jpg, tiff, dng and a large variety of proprietary Raw formats as well as psd. It will write jpg, tiff or png as well as psd and psb.
Perfect Layers 4 is available as a free "light" version or the full sized purchased edition, so you can install the free version, watch the tutorial videos on the onOne site and decide for yourself what layers will add to your workflow.
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Hello,
my concerns about Perfect layer is, and please, correct me if I'm wrong, that the result of the plugin is a file like TIF or JPG, so you cannot put it back into the plugin to change something. That means, if you want to change any parameter, you will have to start again with the origin files and do the complete work again.
But, I'm not really sure if I understood everything right....
Best wishes
Robert
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Tiffs are flattened and psds are saved layered unless you have merged the layers prior to saving. A layered psd can be opened in the application in the future and any layer can be altered or a new layer can be added. The downside, of course, is that layered files can become very big.
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Tiffs are flattened and psds are saved layered unless you have merged the layers prior to saving. A layered psd can be opened in the application in the future and any layer can be altered or a new layer can be added. The downside, of course, is that layered files can become very big.
Hello,
thanks for the info - then I was wrong.
So, to make it clear for me, I can take a CR2, send it to perfect layers, add layers, save it back to Lr as PSD and can see the resulting image in Lr. Then, I can send the psd back to perfect layers, change it, ....
That sounds absiolutely great !
Thanks for the info !
Robert
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I have the onOne suite. It has layers but its behavior is strange.
If I add an effect, it is saved as new layer. I can save it as a PSD. When I reopen the PSD in onOne suite, it shows two layers, but I can not disable/delete/edit the layer where I had added the effect. On the other hand if I open the same PSD in Photoshop, both layers are present (original and effects layer) and I can edit them as I want.
One thing is that when I open the Raw file from LR, I have the LR convert it to PSD. Maybe it is a version of PSD that PerfectSuite does not work very well with.
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my concerns about Perfect layer is, and please, correct me if I'm wrong, that the result of the plugin is a file like TIF or JPG, so you cannot put it back into the plugin to change something. That means, if you want to change any parameter, you will have to start again with the origin files and do the complete work again.
Correct the product has to render the raw data to RGB pixels just to start working. If you owned Elements or Photoshop, this product would be of no use. Questionable if you don't and use use it too early in the parametric editing workflow.
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I have not once had a desire for layers in LR. My take on layers in PS is that their main function is to provide a means for non-destructive edits to the image. LR has this at the core of its processing paradigm, so layers are not needed.
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I have not once had a desire for layers in LR. My take on layers in PS is that their main function is to provide a means for non-destructive edits to the image. LR has this at the core of its processing paradigm, so layers are not needed.
I need layers about everytime i use Photoshop... Not every change can be written with vectors... (or you need as many vectors as pixels...)
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If Lightroom allowed the gradient to have an option of being "opaque" vs the Adjustment-like transparent effect it has now, I think layers maybe less needed. Maybe a list of the gradients and brush effects below the other settings to select through them easier(al a Nik plugins to enable disable them in a list). This would be nice. But still, a enhancement on what is available now....Until you can Mask as a "cutout" (as you would in the darkroom), and then have different effects apply to both positive and negative space individually. No layers needed, just a key cutout. They would need to upgrade the handling tools on the brush and grads.