Adobe at it again

[ButchM]

And yet another thread of Adobe bashing. Must be a slow photo day or people just tired of kicking their dog. SIGH.

Yet you felt compelled to not only read the thread ... but also post in a thread that you indicate is of little consequence to you.

So it must really be a slow photo day for you as well.  SIGH.

[chez]

Yet you felt compelled to not only read the thread ... but also post in a thread that you indicate is of little consequence to you.

So it must really be a slow photo day for you as well.  SIGH.

Butch, I know you would wake up from your nap to continue the bashing. What's a day for Butch without whining about Adobe...

Not really slow...doing some printing of images processed in that worthless LR / PS system. Lots of time while prints are churning out....how about you...just cruising the LR boards ready to pounce?

[stingray]

To kirkt.

CC is the last version of PS to support panels that you can make with Configurator (Flash-based panels)

Version 4 of Configurator appears to be very useful and easy to use. No need to code or command skills with Java, Html and is CC compatible.  Adobe appear to have made the transition from Flash to Html with this release.  I will report back when I have the opportunity to try it out for real. I am hopeful this will work and if so, grateful to Adobe for this feature.  I can see the potential for this to massively improve my personal productivity. I am not interested in developing panels for sale, but can appreciate others may be.

My big gripes with Lightroom remain...
1. Unusable, constrained and poorly implemented Book module.
2. Slideshow not good enough (personally not worried about this as I use Powerpoint, Keynote and Proshow Gold and Proshow Producer) but a lost opportunity for Adobe.
3. Edit metadata in Lr mobile.

I wish Adobe had a better awareness of workflow and the value of metadata, but I can survive these gaps as I have plenty of non Adobe solutions to use.

I do wish Adobe would create a direct pipeline between Lightroom and InDesign, so I would not have to create and manage intermediate files and create books within InDesign in a more efficient manner, if Adobe are determined to keep the book module so crippled.

[kirkt]

Configurator is very straightforward to use and pairs nicely with Actions, allowing you to have a large collection of related actions easily accessible in a panel, instead of the Actions "Button Mode" interface.  A tabbed panels is particularly nice for a compact Action repository. 

kirk

To kirkt.

Version 4 of Configurator appears to be very useful and easy to use. ...

[ButchM]

Butch, I know you would wake up from your nap to continue the bashing. What's a day for Butch without whining about Adobe...

Not really slow...doing some printing of images processed in that worthless LR / PS system. Lots of time while prints are churning out....how about you...just cruising the LR boards ready to pounce?

I also used Lightroom yesterday to process 400-500 images for proofing and further culling then exporting several dozen images for immediate use and archive use, to create online and print reports on a municipal press conference, college baseball, high school softball as well as the local school board monthly public meeting.

For two of those assignments I was also tasked with creating slideshows for the online packages that also included select video clips and interviews. I was forced to use other means to get the job done which took much longer to complete than would be necessary if Adobe could ever finish what they started. It's too bad that Lightroom can't offer a more robust solution to such jobs. I'm sure if the Slideshow module offered more, it would be a much more popular asset for many Lightroom users. Then we wouldn't have to resort to options from other developers and spend time 'mastering' those other options as well as the additional expense ... as I recall, all of which you are opposed to.

I'm not bashing Adobe, I have as much vested interest in Adobe software as you do. I have well over 300,000 of my images in several Lr catalogs ... I just have higher expectations and more confidence in their ability to further enhance Lightroom to bring it up to speed to be a more viable tool. Why should that bother you? How are you inconvenienced if Adobe made some improvements in this respect? Would't you benefit as well?

[stingray]

I was forced to use other means to get the job done

To get around this problem, I have created a script for Powerpoint. 

I have a custom button configured in Powerpoint.  When I click the button, a Powerpoint script asks me to select a folder of images.  My script then loads a prepared Powerpoint template, with a professional cover and final slide and inserts an image per slide in between.  I have preprepared titles, footers, logos, etc on each of these automatically generated slides. In a few seconds I have a professional presentation, with the full power of Powerpoint, which I can then run on a Mac or Windows machine. I also have the ability to edit this slide anyway I want, manage transitions, music, other slides, etc.

Unfortunately, Office 2016 does not support VB scripts so  my script will not (currently) work with Powerpoint 2016 for Mac.  However Powerpoint 2016 on Mac will run the slideshow I have created (say on an earlier Mac version or all Windows versions).

Something similar could be done for Keynote.  I stick to Powerpoint, because I have less hassle dealing with font conflicts between Microsoft and Apple software.

[stingray]

Configurator is very straightforward to use and pairs nicely with Actions, allowing you to have a large collection of related actions easily accessible in a panel, instead of the Actions "Button Mode" interface.

Exactly.  I was using "Button Mode" as an amateur version of a proper Panel.

I am trying to get "Configurator" to work right now, and having all the usual start up issues associated with Adobe installation folders, admin rights, inability to add my new panel via Window / Extensions etc.  Very frustrating. I assume I will eventually get my first test panel working when I bang my head off the wall often enough. Another example of poor software deployment by Adobe ..... but I hope I get it to work eventually, when the effort will be repaid plus some.

[ButchM]

To get around this problem, I have created a script for Powerpoint. 

I have a custom button configured in Powerpoint.  When I click the button, a Powerpoint script asks me to select a folder of images.  My script then loads a prepared Powerpoint template, with a professional cover and final slide and inserts an image per slide in between.  I have preprepared titles, footers, logos, etc on each of these automatically generated slides. In a few seconds I have a professional presentation, with the full power of Powerpoint, which I can then run on a Mac or Windows machine. I also have the ability to edit this slide anyway I want, manage transitions, music, other slides, etc.

Unfortunately, Office 2016 does not support VB scripts so  my script will not (currently) work with Powerpoint 2016 for Mac.  However Powerpoint 2016 on Mac will run the slideshow I have created (say on an earlier Mac version or all Windows versions).

Something similar could be done for Keynote.  I stick to Powerpoint, because I have less hassle dealing with font conflicts between Microsoft and Apple software.

Thanks for the idea ... but your method really doesn't save any effort for me as I am a Mac user and do not use any Microsoft software ... not that I have issues with MS per se, I just have never had the need to buy Office apps when I could get the iWorks apps either at a much lower cost or free. I do use Keynote (the Apple version of Powerpoint) to create some motion title graphics and/or motion pie/bar charts to incorporate with video. Though folks do tell me they love my 'Powerpoint' presentations ... I never have the heart to tell them I've never used Powerpoint

I have a workflow for slideshows that incorporates publishing jpegs from Lr where the exported folder can be viewed directly in Final Cut Pro X to just drag-n-drop the images to the timeline. This works fine but it creates many extra steps (even if they were controlled by scripting) that are totally unnecessary. Especially if you wish to change the processing the image, you have to switch back to Lr, re-publish the result, replace the image in the FCP X timeline. If we were working in Lr Slideshow module, there would be fewer steps, fewer hoops to jump through.

While I absolutely love FCP X for advanced video production ... it's kind of overkill for what should be possible in Lr to put together a decent slideshow.

I'm basing that assertion upon how easy it was to put together a kick @$$ slideshow in Aperture 3 working directly with RAW image files. I would like to see similar capabilities in Lr ... Which I had fully expected to see at least some movement in that direction long before now.

In the end, workarounds are just more work. I would really prefer that Adobe could see their way to offering a more acceptable solution within Lightroom.

[stevebri]

Chez,

Why not bash Adobe... They are cr@p...!  Would you treat your clients like they treat us...?

I am hardly on here these days yet felt compelled to write the post as this is large and important forum, it has a errrrr 'healthy' mix of pro and am photographers and is probably the forum Adobe should consider most.

Slack day in the office or not, we pay Adobes wages and their shareholders their dividends, if your utility company, or your bank, or you camera or computer maker treated us like this, we'd be up in arms....

Come on Adobe.... Pull your weight

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... Would you treat your clients like they treat us...?

You should try it...it works. Obviously.

[kencameron]

Why not bash Adobe... They are cr@p...!  Would you treat your clients like they treat us...?

I am clearly not one of us, because how Adobe treats me is to sell me good software at a fair price, and I am genuinely puzzled by the emotional tone of what I would call the "jilted sweetheart" response manifested by the OP and a number of others on this and other similar threads. In the old days, everything was roses, but the former love object has been seduced away by unworthy rivals for her/his attention. Translating, is it simply that "professional" and "enthusiast" photographers aren't as important to the company as they used to be? That seems plausible, given what is happening to photography, but I am not inclined to treat it as a reason for either surprise or indignation. Adobe's first responsibility is to survive and prosper as a company and as Slobodan has pointed out, it seems to be doing OK at that. But does that mean it is treating long term customers inappropriately? I don't see it. I haven't been around Adobe software that long, compared to many here, maybe 20 years, but over that time, I have happily benefited from massive improvements in the software and relative reductions in the price, and when I have had problems there has been, overall, had no more than the average level of difficulty in getting help from the company to solve them. They certainly haven't been perfect and they certainly haven't been cr@p. But then, I don't recall ever being in love with them.

[chez]

Chez,

Why not bash Adobe... They are cr@p...!  Would you treat your clients like they treat us...?

I am hardly on here these days yet felt compelled to write the post as this is large and important forum, it has a errrrr 'healthy' mix of pro and am photographers and is probably the forum Adobe should consider most.

Slack day in the office or not, we pay Adobes wages and their shareholders their dividends, if your utility company, or your bank, or you camera or computer maker treated us like this, we'd be up in arms....

Come on Adobe.... Pull your weight

If I thought a product was crap I'd be long gone. Sounds like you are still hanging onto Adobe products...why...aren't they crap?

Personally I have not found...in fact had very little reason to look at alternatives, another product which allows me to be as efficient and effective in producing prints as LR / PS. That's the bottom line.

Tell me...if Adobe is crap, who is smelling like roses?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Some users sound like my teenage daughter's friend, yelling at her mom, after being presented with a brand new, white Mercedes: "I hate you, you know I can't stand white."

[ButchM]

Some users sound like my teenage daughter's friend, yelling at her mom, after being presented with a brand new, white Mercedes: "I hate you, you know I can't stand white."

If only it was something as trivial as a product color that was the issue. I'll bet a Mercedes, of any body color, is more fully featured throughout than many Adobe apps seem to be. Mercedes does not have a history of half measures or cutting corners. They seem to invoke a higher level of attention to detail. For example, they would never install a radio that could only tune into one station.

It's great you take pleasure in making light of other users concerns.

While Ps and Lr may be both popular and considerably good applications ... they and the company who offers them are far, far from being perfect.

It should never be accepted that if a company is profitable ... that everything they do or offer should be universally accepted without question.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Ah, you misunderstood my metaphor: it is not about Mercedes, or its color, or its radio... it is about spoiled brats.

Concerns are one thing, bitching, whining and moaning completely different.

[chez]

If Adobe is not perfect...what's the alternative? Personally I don't think I ever used a perfect product in my life...in fact I know it. However it's a long distance from a product that is very capable and allows me to be productive to one that is perfect...if such a thing even exists. Adobe products might not be perfect...and being perfect is different for everyone, but they are sure very productive products and that fits fine with me.

[ButchM]

Ah, you misunderstood my metaphor: it is not about Mercedes, or its color, or its radio... it is about spoiled brats.

Concerns are one thing, bitching, whining and moaning completely different.

Yes ... and whining is a two-way street it seems.

[chez]

Yes ... and whining is a two-way street it seems.

Well why don't we just put a red light in both directions and stop all this consistent whining. It's getting a bit tiring.

[ButchM]

If Adobe is not perfect...what's the alternative?

Why must everything be a zero sum game with you? Why is your view a constant all or nothing attitude?

Why is it you seem to think that EVERY user of Adobe products must march in lockstep with your opinion or hit the bricks?

Are other users not allowed to have views that don't align exactly with your own?

[ButchM]

It's getting a bit tiring.

Any fatigue or discomfort you are experiencing is purely self inflicted.