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Author Topic: What are the benefits of upgrading from Lightroom v.5.7 to 6???  (Read 1698 times)

Philmar

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What are the benefits of upgrading from Lightroom v.5.7 to 6???
« on: December 17, 2017, 02:23:51 pm »

I currently use Lightroom 5.7 with a Canon 5D3. I am not a gearhead so I don't have plans to buy a new camera though I realize my 5 year old camera could use a refresh.  For me, photography is a passion. While I earn a few thousand dollars a year on Getty Images, my decisions about photography are based on it as a hobby, not a critical source of income. I have just returned from a trip to Myanmar and am only now reading about Adobe's decision to stop supporting the stand alone version of LR. I have zero interest in the subscription version as I fully expect Adobe to dramatically increase the monthly rate once they've enticed  enough people to subscribe and load their raw files on to their servers.
LR 5.7 seems to suit my needs but I see Adobe has one final upgrade available to me: LR 6. At the time of its release it didn't seem too tempting of an upgrade for me...I was thinking of waiting for LR 7 (which will never be). So i am wondering if I should do this last upgrade from LR 5.7 to LR 6 before Adobe takes that option away.
Are there any benefits to upgrading from 5.7 to 6.0? I've heard performance speeds up for some, slows down for others. So here is what my PC runs:
Windows 10 64 bit, Lightroom v. 5.7,  CPU: i7-3770K  with 32 GB of RAM and graphics card
Radeon RX 460 with OpenGL® Version 6.14.10.13497 and OpenCL™ Version 23
Are there any upgrade benefits and cons for me going from LR 5.7 to 6 ? Are there any upgrade pitfalls? Does LR 6 still use the Process 2012 engine conversion? Any new or improved tools that aren't in v.5.7?  I've read some people have been able to unlock the Dehaze tool in LR 6 using presets. Any other big picture things I need to consider like LR 6 not working on a future Windows version (like W 11)?

Mark D Segal

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Re: What are the benefits of upgrading from Lightroom v.5.7 to 6???
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2017, 03:38:03 pm »

Main reason to respond here is to mention that your photos are very, very good. Gorgeous compositions, good lighting, good subject matter.

As for LR upgrade - the main thing is that by now it's unlikely that you would experience new issues making the update, but as I don't use your operating environment, needless to say I couldn't assure you of that. DeHaze is definitely worth having - it can be used creatively for purposes other than "dehazing"; I don't remember whether Guided Upright was already available in 5.7, but if it first appeared in 6, you should have it - it's a godsend. As usual there are under the hood improvements. I believe (but better check) that by selecting an option in the Adobe Upgrade utility you can retain 5.7 and upgrade to 6, so if you find you prefer 5.7 for whatever reason you can revert.
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john beardsworth

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Re: What are the benefits of upgrading from Lightroom v.5.7 to 6???
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2017, 03:45:22 pm »

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic/features.html gives you a timeline. The radial adjustment, panorama and HDR merge were the big gains in 6. Dehaze and Guided Upright came later and only to subscribers.
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Philmar

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Re: What are the benefits of upgrading from Lightroom v.5.7 to 6???
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2017, 12:06:48 pm »

Main reason to respond here is to mention that your photos are very, very good. Gorgeous compositions, good lighting, good subject matter.
THANKS!
As for LR upgrade - the main thing is that by now it's unlikely that you would experience new issues making the update, but as I don't use your operating environment, needless to say I couldn't assure you of that. DeHaze is definitely worth having - it can be used creatively for purposes other than "dehazing"; I don't remember whether Guided Upright was already available in 5.7, but if it first appeared in 6, you should have it - it's a godsend. As usual there are under the hood improvements. I believe (but better check) that by selecting an option in the Adobe Upgrade utility you can retain 5.7 and upgrade to 6, so if you find you prefer 5.7 for whatever reason you can revert.
I was and still am underwhelmed buy the added features. As LR 6 is the last standalone version I was HOPING that there would be improvement to the processing times. That is probably what will sell it for me. I recall some people complaining that LR 6 slowed down their processing time. Final verdict seemed that it depended on their GPU and that a decent GPU would be needed and that it only benefited with a few of the tasks.

Philmar

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Re: What are the benefits of upgrading from Lightroom v.5.7 to 6???
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2017, 12:09:17 pm »

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic/features.html gives you a timeline. The radial adjustment, panorama and HDR merge were the big gains in 6. Dehaze and Guided Upright came later and only to subscribers.

I have HDR covered with Photomatix and shoot few panoramas. I'll look at this radial adjustment tool to see if I would use it. Any idea if LR 6 has faster processing (RAW rendering) than LR 5.7?
Thanks.

Philmar

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Re: What are the benefits of upgrading from Lightroom v.5.7 to 6???
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2018, 11:19:04 am »

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightroom-classic/features.html gives you a timeline. The radial adjustment, panorama and HDR merge were the big gains in 6. Dehaze and Guided Upright came later and only to subscribers.

The link was quite useful.
I made the decision that I was going to try to trial download version 6. But when I went to the Adobe site I decided I'd first trial the Classic version. I decided to continue with LR Classic though I despise the subscription model because I really like it's improved Auto Tone tool. It is a time saver for me when I apply it as an import preset. I also like what the dehaze tool does - but only when used in moderation and as a local adjustment. This is what prevented me from going back to LR. 6.14.  Dehaze as a tool implemented globally was of little value to me.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2018, 12:12:06 pm by Philmar »
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